CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Feb 10 (IPS) - In the town of Bo Ten in Laos, near the border with China, local people are training to be card dealers so they can get jobs at a soon-to-rise casino owned by a Chinese company.
In January, Burma and Laos formally opened their first border checkpoint just north of the ‘Golden Triangle'. This falls between Banpong in Burma, on the west bank of the Mekong river, and Ban Mom on the Lao side.
Earlier on Dec. 20, 2006, the second cross-border bridge spanning the Mekong, connecting Savannakhet in Laos and Mukdahan in Thailand, was inaugurated. There are plans for a third, linking northern Chiang Rai in Thailand with Houey Sai in Laos.
These snapshots reflect the buzz of activity that shows how borders -- territorial, economic and social -- continue to be torn down in the Mekong region where, until two decades ago, government officials of adjacent countries were not even on talking terms with each other.
Once divided by war and conflict stoked by foreign intervention, the Mekong region -- comprising China's western provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi, Thailand, Laos, Burma, Cambodia and Vietnam -- is becoming better connected by roads and airways. Investments across borders, infrastructure projects in one country that affect another, competing tariffs and increasingly mobile populations are all part of the churn.
In many ways, former Thai prime minister Chatichai Choonhavan's call in the eighties for "battlefields to be turned into marketplaces" is turning into reality now. But, while the region is now more interconnected, development and its economic benefits have also been uneven -- and raise questions about gainers and losers.
Some trends also indicate the onset of increased competition and possible tensions in the region, given the emerging roles of China and Thailand in the Mekong region, and concern about exploitation facilitated by improving transport.
At a conference on the ‘Critical Transitions in the Mekong Region' in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai in late January, no expert --from Asian Development Bank (AsDB) officials to activists -- disputed that economic changes do affect different sectors differently. For instance, the casino project in Bo Ten was given economic logic by its access to road connecting these countries -- but then this may have undesirable social effects.
"Open borders are an opportunity, but there is also that downside to development," Pattana Sitthisombat, president of the Chiang Rai Chamber of Commerce, said, calling the casino far from his definition of desirable investments. Similar concerns have been raised about other casinos at the Thai-Burmese border and the Cambodia-Vietnam border, among others.
The challenge in the region -- where the AsDB in 1992 pushed a set of infrastructure projects that contributed to regional integration of the Greater Mekong Sub- Region (GMS) -- is how to manage the ill effects of change. .
Today, after more than 20 years of the GMS scheme, Bank officials say they recognise this. "Connecting markets (by itself) doesn't always work," Jean-Pierre Verbiest, AsDB country director for Thailand, told the Chiang Mai meeting.
Bridges can link countries but their full utility depends on the ease of movement across borders, he explains. Yet having open borders raises other worries. ‘'There are good things" such as allowing movement of goods, "but you can also reverse everything" and realise that borders also ease the mobility of problem issues, he added.
For a project like the second Mekong international bridge, "whether it leads to a reduction of poverty or whether poverty is just repeated" is a key issue as well, Verbiest pointed out.
There are also fears that cross-country roads -- central to the Bank's and the governments' recipe of interconnecting the region -- may grow into highways leading to environmental risk and degradation.
For instance, as the East-West corridor connecting Burma, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam gets completed, there are reports of a gold mine in Laos near the border with Vietnam that elicits concerns about the exploitation of natural resources. Verbiest concedes that in parts of the North-South corridor, running from Kunming down to Bangkok, one sees truckloads of logs and mined material going in and out of Laos. "These raise a lot of questions," he said.
"At the end of the day, the success or failure of this programme (GMS) is really how it addresses the environmental issue," Verbiest explained.
What was once a sketch of a plan to link the region through roads is today a network of transboundary roads, with more to come. The AsDB says the East-West corridor is completed, except for a stretch inside Burma. Work on the North-South corridor is expected to finish in 2008, and the road from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Bangkok is almost done.
Where roads get built -- or do not get built -- are also an issue when states weigh the benefits they get from regional linkages.
For instance, Burmese officials are concerned about losing economic opportunities if cross-country roads connect China by passing through Laos, rather than through Burma.
One could ask how much Laos can gain from the East-West Corridor, which merely passes through it and facilitates transport for goods and people outside the country.
The Mekong region is an ‘'emerging economic area" and "a new frontier for development", but the focus on social concerns has lagged behind, says Rosalia Sciortino, a professor at Mahidol University and Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "While there is general growth, when you look at the distribution of growth, you see a different picture."
Statistics do point to increased trade among Mekong countries. About half of Laos' trade is with Mekong countries. There has been an explosion in border trade, including in areas that only two decades were closed -- China only opened its borders to the South-east Asian neighbours in the eighties. Sciortino says the Thai-Burma border trade is about thrice the value of formal trade.
But the bulk of this economic activity appears to be between the bigger actors like China and Thailand, also the bigger investors in the region.
At the Chiang Mai conference, Jim Glassman of the University of British Columbia cited figures from the Bank of Thailand indicating that Thai exports to the Mekong region have increased sharply, rising from about three percent of total exports in 1995 to about nine percent now.
China has investments in Cambodia, and sends assistance and investment to Laos.
The navigation agreement that opened up transport on the Mekong river by bigger vessels has led to more ports sprouting up along the way. Pattana says some 3,000 Chinese trucks go to or pass through Chiang Khong each day, highlighting how northern Thailand has become the country's trade conduit with China.
Asked if China and Thailand were the winners at this stage of Mekong development, Glassman said the two were clearly major players in the region.
Yet Chinese presence is not without controversy -- Thai media reports now and then about complaints that cheap products like Chinese garlic threaten to drive locals out of business.
Regional integration and open borders also continue to give shape to the economic map of the Mekong region. For instance, rubber plantations can be found across swathes of land on the China-Laos border. Often, they hire Lao workers to work in Jinghong and Mengla in China.
Economics is also the driving factor behind what Roy Rickson of Griffiths University in Australia calls "contracts without borders", explaining how Thai companies are sourcing raw materials and using cheaper farm labour from neighbouring countries.
But, Pattana says, competition is part of the game. "Heavyweight or lightweight, we all have to deal with one another on the same level. We have to deal with China -- how to cooperate with them, and not against them."
(*Newsmekong.org is a venue for Mekong-related news and issues, and the website of the Imaging Our Mekong media fellowship programme, coordinated by IPS Asia-Pacific.)
In January, Burma and Laos formally opened their first border checkpoint just north of the ‘Golden Triangle'. This falls between Banpong in Burma, on the west bank of the Mekong river, and Ban Mom on the Lao side.
Earlier on Dec. 20, 2006, the second cross-border bridge spanning the Mekong, connecting Savannakhet in Laos and Mukdahan in Thailand, was inaugurated. There are plans for a third, linking northern Chiang Rai in Thailand with Houey Sai in Laos.
These snapshots reflect the buzz of activity that shows how borders -- territorial, economic and social -- continue to be torn down in the Mekong region where, until two decades ago, government officials of adjacent countries were not even on talking terms with each other.
Once divided by war and conflict stoked by foreign intervention, the Mekong region -- comprising China's western provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi, Thailand, Laos, Burma, Cambodia and Vietnam -- is becoming better connected by roads and airways. Investments across borders, infrastructure projects in one country that affect another, competing tariffs and increasingly mobile populations are all part of the churn.
In many ways, former Thai prime minister Chatichai Choonhavan's call in the eighties for "battlefields to be turned into marketplaces" is turning into reality now. But, while the region is now more interconnected, development and its economic benefits have also been uneven -- and raise questions about gainers and losers.
Some trends also indicate the onset of increased competition and possible tensions in the region, given the emerging roles of China and Thailand in the Mekong region, and concern about exploitation facilitated by improving transport.
At a conference on the ‘Critical Transitions in the Mekong Region' in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai in late January, no expert --from Asian Development Bank (AsDB) officials to activists -- disputed that economic changes do affect different sectors differently. For instance, the casino project in Bo Ten was given economic logic by its access to road connecting these countries -- but then this may have undesirable social effects.
"Open borders are an opportunity, but there is also that downside to development," Pattana Sitthisombat, president of the Chiang Rai Chamber of Commerce, said, calling the casino far from his definition of desirable investments. Similar concerns have been raised about other casinos at the Thai-Burmese border and the Cambodia-Vietnam border, among others.
The challenge in the region -- where the AsDB in 1992 pushed a set of infrastructure projects that contributed to regional integration of the Greater Mekong Sub- Region (GMS) -- is how to manage the ill effects of change. .
Today, after more than 20 years of the GMS scheme, Bank officials say they recognise this. "Connecting markets (by itself) doesn't always work," Jean-Pierre Verbiest, AsDB country director for Thailand, told the Chiang Mai meeting.
Bridges can link countries but their full utility depends on the ease of movement across borders, he explains. Yet having open borders raises other worries. ‘'There are good things" such as allowing movement of goods, "but you can also reverse everything" and realise that borders also ease the mobility of problem issues, he added.
For a project like the second Mekong international bridge, "whether it leads to a reduction of poverty or whether poverty is just repeated" is a key issue as well, Verbiest pointed out.
There are also fears that cross-country roads -- central to the Bank's and the governments' recipe of interconnecting the region -- may grow into highways leading to environmental risk and degradation.
For instance, as the East-West corridor connecting Burma, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam gets completed, there are reports of a gold mine in Laos near the border with Vietnam that elicits concerns about the exploitation of natural resources. Verbiest concedes that in parts of the North-South corridor, running from Kunming down to Bangkok, one sees truckloads of logs and mined material going in and out of Laos. "These raise a lot of questions," he said.
"At the end of the day, the success or failure of this programme (GMS) is really how it addresses the environmental issue," Verbiest explained.
What was once a sketch of a plan to link the region through roads is today a network of transboundary roads, with more to come. The AsDB says the East-West corridor is completed, except for a stretch inside Burma. Work on the North-South corridor is expected to finish in 2008, and the road from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Bangkok is almost done.
Where roads get built -- or do not get built -- are also an issue when states weigh the benefits they get from regional linkages.
For instance, Burmese officials are concerned about losing economic opportunities if cross-country roads connect China by passing through Laos, rather than through Burma.
One could ask how much Laos can gain from the East-West Corridor, which merely passes through it and facilitates transport for goods and people outside the country.
The Mekong region is an ‘'emerging economic area" and "a new frontier for development", but the focus on social concerns has lagged behind, says Rosalia Sciortino, a professor at Mahidol University and Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "While there is general growth, when you look at the distribution of growth, you see a different picture."
Statistics do point to increased trade among Mekong countries. About half of Laos' trade is with Mekong countries. There has been an explosion in border trade, including in areas that only two decades were closed -- China only opened its borders to the South-east Asian neighbours in the eighties. Sciortino says the Thai-Burma border trade is about thrice the value of formal trade.
But the bulk of this economic activity appears to be between the bigger actors like China and Thailand, also the bigger investors in the region.
At the Chiang Mai conference, Jim Glassman of the University of British Columbia cited figures from the Bank of Thailand indicating that Thai exports to the Mekong region have increased sharply, rising from about three percent of total exports in 1995 to about nine percent now.
China has investments in Cambodia, and sends assistance and investment to Laos.
The navigation agreement that opened up transport on the Mekong river by bigger vessels has led to more ports sprouting up along the way. Pattana says some 3,000 Chinese trucks go to or pass through Chiang Khong each day, highlighting how northern Thailand has become the country's trade conduit with China.
Asked if China and Thailand were the winners at this stage of Mekong development, Glassman said the two were clearly major players in the region.
Yet Chinese presence is not without controversy -- Thai media reports now and then about complaints that cheap products like Chinese garlic threaten to drive locals out of business.
Regional integration and open borders also continue to give shape to the economic map of the Mekong region. For instance, rubber plantations can be found across swathes of land on the China-Laos border. Often, they hire Lao workers to work in Jinghong and Mengla in China.
Economics is also the driving factor behind what Roy Rickson of Griffiths University in Australia calls "contracts without borders", explaining how Thai companies are sourcing raw materials and using cheaper farm labour from neighbouring countries.
But, Pattana says, competition is part of the game. "Heavyweight or lightweight, we all have to deal with one another on the same level. We have to deal with China -- how to cooperate with them, and not against them."
(*Newsmekong.org is a venue for Mekong-related news and issues, and the website of the Imaging Our Mekong media fellowship programme, coordinated by IPS Asia-Pacific.)
2 comments:
China is being overpopulated. This is nut -only the communist leaders are getting richer whereas the poor are poorer. The luckiest guy is Kim Jung Il. The richest and the powerful can afford the Casino.
Enjoy as you all can, a largest piece of asteroid may hit this earth.
I love open borders. I hope we will
have it soon among our neighbors. I
am tired of the bureaucracy at the
borders. We're all indochinese, and
many have the same khmer blood, so
why can't we travel freely in the
entire IndoChina? It does not make
sense.
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