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dam-l LS: Waterways Pact to be Signed Soon
BANGKOK POST: WATERWAYS PACT TO BE SIGNED SOON
April 9, 2000
Transport ministers to meet in Tachilek
Saritdet Marukatat
A landmark agreement on commercial navigation on the Mekong river
will be signed within
weeks, a senior Burmese foreign ministry official said.
Kyaw Tint Swe, director-general of the International Organisations
and Economic Department,
said the transport ministers of Burma, Thailand, Laos and China would
meet in Tachilek-the
Burmese border town opposite Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai-in late
April or early May to sign the
agreement.
After years of negotiations, senior officials meeting in Rangoon last
month agreed on the draft
agreement, which aims to promote trade in the Mekong region.
The pact is part of the Greater Mekong Sub-region plan to open water,
land and air links within
the Mekong region, which also comprises Cambodia and Vietnam.
The Burmese official said the agreement would benefit cargo and
passenger transportation
between Burma, China, Laos and Thailand.
The agreement was time-consuming because the four countries needed to
produce regulations to
ensure safety standards for water navigation, he added.
Burma was assigned by the four countries to follow up progress of the
draft agreement on
commercial navigation on the Lancang/Mekong river.
The Mekong river is called Lancang in Chinese.
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Aviva Imhof
South-East Asia Campaigner
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley CA 94703 USA
Tel: + 1 510 848 1155 (ext. 312), Fax: + 1 510 848 1008
Email: aviva@irn.org, Web: http://www.irn.org
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