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The Tourism Authority of Thailand has welcomed the signing of an agreement to complete and link up a critical section of the Asian Highway from Thailand across Myanmar to India.
The agreement was signed in Yangon early this month by Thai Foreign Minister Dr Surakiart Sathirathai, Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and Myanmar Foreign Minister U Win
Aung.
The road will run from the border town of Mae Sot in Thailand, turn north to Pagan in Myanmar and join up with Moreh, a small border town in the east Indian state of Manipur, a distance of roughly 1,500 kilometres. The agreement will require several stretches of the highway to be upgraded within two years.
The agreement was welcomed by TAT Acting Governor and Deputy Governor for Marketing Mrs Juthamas
Siriwan.
“This will give a major boost to tourism and trade between south and southeast Asia and further cement Thailand’s status as the tourism hub of the GMS region, with road, rail and air linkages throughout the length and breadth of the country and links beyond to South Asia,” she said.
Thai Foreign Minister Dr Surakiart said the trilateral meeting, the first of its kind, “marks a historic milestone.” He said it was “a crucial step towards the realisation of our shared vision to fill the missing linkages in the western segment of the East West Economic Corridor (EWEC), and extending the route further to the Indian subcontinent.”
The EWEC presently stretches eastward from Thailand through Laos on to Route 9 to Vietnam and the deep-sea port of Da Nang on the South China sea. Route 9 is soon to be completed with the construction of the second Thai-Lao Bridge across the Mekong between Mukdaharn and
Sawannakhet.
Dr Surakiart said Thailand has committed to help Myanmar improve the Mae Sot - Myawaddy - Pagan road. Last month, a Thai survey team visited Myanmar to assess the route and identified a need to fix a vital bottleneck between Myawaddy and
Kawkareik.
The agreement will bolster the critical transportation linkages required under several inter-regional economic development frameworks as the ASEAN- India Dialogue, BIMST-EC and Mekong- Ganga cooperation. Two task forces have been set up to follow-up details of the pact, one on financing to be chaired by Thailand and the other on technical matters, chaired by India.
Another element of the trilateral agreement involves “promotion” of a highway from the Thai border province of Kanchanaburi to the deep-sea port of Dawei in Myanmar. This will also open up the area to cruise-ship traffic and reduce shipping distances between India and Thailand.
Kanchanaburi is one of Thailand’s most famous World War II tourist spots, home of the original Bridge over the River Kwai as well as the Death Railway. |
