International Law

China looks to Southeast Asia, but roads continue to hinder development

By Andy Scott

By Andy Scott

VIENTIANE, Laos, Jan. 17 - Trade between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has boomed in the past 15 years, growing more than 20 percent a year, reaching US$160 billion last year. The two sides are each other?s fourth-largest trading partners. When completed, the China-ASEAN FTA will be the world?s largest, encompassing around 1.7 billion consumers and with total trade estimated at US$1.2 trillion.

Much of that trade is dependent on a modern highway system throughout the region, but so far, the dream of a connected Southeast Asia is still just that. The infrastructure has yet to catch up with hard economic reality.

To see the challenge set out, one only needs to board a bus in Kunming, bound for the border. At the first gas station south of Kunming, trucks and busses wait to fill their tanks for the journey. The road, four divided lanes of limited-access black asphalt, cuts through mountains and across valleys, at one moment soaring almost above the clouds, the next in a deep ravine. The Kunming-Jinghong Highway is as much a testament to China?s rise as the Three Gorges Damn or the city of Shenzhen. (more…)

Full post as published by China Briefing Blog on January 17, 2008 (boomark / email).