Skip to main content

Japan agrees to help Thailand on East-West Economic corridor work

Japan has agreed in principle to provide financial assistance to Thailand for road construction and upgrades in connection with the East-West Economic Corridor. The corridor is based on 1,450km of highway running across four Southeast Asian countries. The idea of investing in the corridor was originally proposed during a multi-national ministerial conference in Manila, Philippines, in 1998. Much of the route had been completed by 2010, according to review document by Asian Development Bank. It also noted t
November 17, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Japan has agreed in principle to provide financial assistance to Thailand for road construction and upgrades in connection with the East-West Economic Corridor.

The corridor is based on 1,450km of highway running across four Southeast Asian countries. The idea of investing in the corridor was originally proposed during a multi-national ministerial conference in Manila, Philippines, in 1998. Much of the route had been completed by 2010, according to review document by 943 Asian Development Bank. It also noted that the government of Japan and ADB had helped finance key components of the corridor in Laos and Viet Nam.

The designated linking roads run east from Mawlamyine, port in Myanmar -- formerly called Burma – through Tak province in Thailand, on through Savannakhet province in Laos and end in Vietnam’s south-central coastal port of Danang.

Laos, Vietnam and Thailand signed memorandums of understanding in May last year to streamline red tape at border crossing to speed up freight traffic, including by rail, under the East-West Economic Corridor strategy.

The participants also set up the Transport Association of the Mekong Sub-region, with a main office to be in the Laotian capital Vientiane.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Chinese firms to work on Serbia’s Corridor 11 project
    November 30, 2015
    Serbia and China have signed a memorandum of understanding for construction of two sections of Serbia’s Corridor 11. The MoU was inked in during Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s visit to the Chinese capital Beijing last week. Serbia’s Tanjug news agency reported that Vucic said the deal was worth around €209 million and included construction of the 18km Surcin-Obrenovac bridge. Corridor 11 runs from the Serbian capital Belgrade southwest to the border with Montenegro, another member state of
  • Ethiopia races on with projects
    June 13, 2012
    Ethiopia is pursuing a 10-year $2.4 billion development plan, part of which are ambitious road developments. Shem Oirere reports Ethiopia is hastening its pace towards accessing a share of the East Africa commodity market and opening itself up for foreign investment through the implementation of an ambitious road development strategy, the Road Sector Development Programme (RSDP). The landlocked nation has convinced a number of international lenders of the viability of RSDP, with some of them now loosening
  • Vietnam's road improvements
    March 2, 2012
    The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing funding worth a total of US$210 million to the Vietnamese Government for infrastructure improvements.
  • Construction of Vietnam’s Da Nang-Quang Ngai expressway begins
    November 25, 2013
    Construction of Vietnam’s US$1.4 billion Da Nang-Quang Ngai expressway is now underway. The near 140km-long expressway will have four lanes and a speed limit of 120km/hour. It will link economic hubs like Dung Quat (Quang Ngai), Da Nang-Chu Lai (Quang Nam) and Nhon Hoi (Binh Dinh). The expressway will also have a monitoring centre, a maintenance centre and a service centre. The Vietnamese government, the World Bank and the Japan International Co-operation Agency have provided official development assistan