Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations approved a plan to build a US$2.5 billion railway linking seven member countries and China, Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said yesterday.
The 5,500km railway will move passengers and freight between Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the city of Kunming in southwest China. There will also be branch routes to Vientiane in Laos, the port of Bung Anh in Vietnam and Myanmar.
"The leaders endorsed the broad thrust of the feasibility study of the Singapore-Kunming Railway Link project and directed that the project should be moved forward," said Goh, chairman of this year's ASEAN Informal Summit, in a statement.
The project reflects renewed efforts by ASEAN to forge a single market amid criticism it has dragged its feet on creating a free trade area. With the rail link, the region is also pushing to form closer ties with northeast Asian nations, whose economies dwarf those of ASEAN.
"For this project, we will need aid, grants, subsidized loans from countries like Japan and China," Goh said. "The countries will be much more integrated than before." Trade discussions have dominated the four-day summit, which ended yesterday, and included plans to study a free trade zone between Southeast Asia and China, and also a larger one between the two regions with Japan and South Korea added in.
China will consider forming a study group with ASEAN to examine setting up a free trade area for the two markets, China's Premier Zhu Rongji told a regional summit.
The ASEAN leaders held talks with officials from China, which has special observer status, along with South Korea and Japan at the meeting. Besides trade, Chinese and ASEAN officials also discussed joint transportation projects and information technology issues.
Goh also said he proposed to Zhu that China allow Southeast Asian airlines to fly directly to the western provinces of China instead of having to go through Shanghai. At present, China's west is also accessible through other eastern cities, such as Beijing and Guangzhou.
Zhu "was agreeable" to the suggestion and said he would consider implementing it, Goh said.
China and ASEAN nations are home to almost two billion people and include some of the world's fastest-growing economies. The Chinese government has been trying to defuse concerns that it will use its rising power to threaten smaller neighbors over disputed territories.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
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