VietNamNet Bridge – The East West Economic Corridor (EWEC) has
been compared as the Silk Road in South East Asia. Da Nang, the city at the end
of the corridor, has every reason to expect the golden opportunity to develop
its economy.
The EWEC has the total length of
1450 kilometers, running across 13 provinces of four countries including
Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
Since its establishment 14 years
ago, with the great efforts made by the governments and the donors, the
transport infrastructure of EWEC has been upgraded significantly.
In Vietnam, the EWEC begins at
the Lao Bao international border gate and ends at the Tien Sa port in Da Nang
City. Three big projects have been implemented on the route, including the one
on upgrading the Highway No. 9, the interministerial check-point stations at
the Lao Bao (Vietnam) – Dansavanh (Laos). The project, which had the total
investment capital of 25 million dollars with the loans from ADB, completed in
2006.
The project on upgrading Tien Sa Port
with the capacity of 4 million tons per annum, and the Tuyen Son bridge for
container vehicles crossing over the Han River was put into traffic in February
2004.
In Myanmar, with the support from
Thailand, the road from the Mawlamvie port, the starting point of EWEC to the
Myanmar – Thailand border has been upgraded.
In Laos, Savanakhet airport has
been upgraded to operate as an international airport. Especially, the bridge
connecting Mukdahan in Thailand with Dansavanh in Laos, crossing over the Mekong
River, was completed in 2006, thus putting the whole EWEC route through.
The Tien Sa port in Da Nang City,
the last point of the corridor is expected to operate as the jumping off place
for Da Nang economy to take off.
To date, some 2000 commercial
vehicles bearing different nationalities have been licensed to use EWEC.
All the EWEC-area countries,
except Myanmar, wish to see the “three countries, one destination” program to
turn realistic. However, only Thailand has got modern infrastructure system and
road network.
The infrastructure systems in
Vietnam and Laos have been upgraded gradually. However, it takes more time to
travel with the systems because of a lot of barriers. It takes 4-5 hours, for
example, to travel from Da Nang to Lao Bao which has the distance of 260
kilometers. It would also take 2-3 hours more to show documents at check-point
stations and one hour more to follow procedures at the Lao Bao - Dasavanh
border gate.
Therefore, economists have
suggested that the barriers need to be removed in order to take full advantage
of the backbone economic corridor.
The great opportunity for Da Nang
Being the gateway to the sea, the
three provinces of the central region in Vietnam (Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, Da
Nang), together with Quang Nam and Quang Ngai can serve as both the input and
outlet for Thai, Myanmar, Lao, Chinese and Cambodian goods to go in or out.
Economists believe that Da Nang
would be the motive force and the economic center in the region, the major
transit point for goods, serving the import-export activities of the central
region, a part of Laos, the north east of Thailand, Myanmar, or even reaching
out to Yun Nan province in China.
According to ERIA, an economic
forum for ASEAN and East Asian countries, if the customs procedures are simple
and favorable, the impacts of the EWEC on Da Nang’s economy would increase by
one more percent by 2015.
Vu Trung
Business & Investment Opportunities
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