Part of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) scheme, the project aims to develop a land link between Thailand's Northeast and central Vietnam via Laos.

Laos has finished its Route No 9 through its Savannakhet province, connecting Thailand with Vietnam. A second bridge across the Mekong River linking Thailand's Mukdahan with Savannakhet is scheduled to be complete by December this year.

Vietnam's portion of the road is due to be complete around the same time, allowing vehicles to reach Danang.

However, transport costs along the route and at Danang Port are much higher than those at other Vietnamese ports such as Ho Chi Minh City, said Pirapol Triyakasem, president of Thailand's October 14 Foundation.

Pirapol recently led a group of Thai journalists to Vietnam to mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the countries.

Hanoi has held talks with local authorities in Danang on finding ways of cutting costs and encouraging transport operators to use the central region's roads and its port, said Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Phu Binh.

"As an incentive, local authorities plan to subsidise freight operators at the port," Binh said at a meeting with members of the October 14 Foundation and the Thai journalists, who visited Vietnam between August 3 and yesterday.

The East-West Corridor project aims to boost economic integration among countries in the Mekong basin sub-region. Vietnam and other GMS members including Burma, Cambodia and Laos hope the plan will bridge the development gap between themselves and richer countries in the neighbourhood, Binh said.

"We don't want to compete and defeat Thailand in the area of global competition.

"We need cooperation to narrow the development gap between the poor nations and the more developed Thai economy," he said.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

Hanoi