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• Thailand, Cambodia Mend Fences
  

• SARS Check for Chinese at the Border

A THAI Cabinet screening committee decided in early April to postpone indefinitely the blasting of the Khon Phi Luang reefs in Chiang Rai province, as planned under the Mekong Navigation Improvement project to avoid further complications in the Thai-Lao border demarcation.

The blasting, aimed at expanding the waterway to improve commercial shipping, is part of an agreement with China, Laos and Burma. The Thai Defence Ministry opposed the plan, saying this could affect the natural border between Thailand and Laos and complicate current demarcation efforts.

The panel agreed that blasting be put on hold until the two countries settle their differences on the water boundary. This, despite fears expressed that Vientiane might misconstrue any halt to the blasting as a deliberate threat to commercial river traffic. (The Nation, Bangkok Post)


Special Economic Zones Planned

THE Thai government is eyeing special economic zones along border towns nationwide to boost trade with neighbouring countries, and spur investments and tourism, media reports said in late March.

Cross-border trade nationwide is valued at about 200 billion baht (4.66 billion dollars) a year.

The proposed zone in Chiang Rai could increase border trade with Burma, Laos and southern China as basic infrastructure in the northern province is already in place. The airport in Chiang Rai is able to receive international traffic connecting to Rangoon, Kunming, Luang Prabang and Vientiane. Piers are being built to facilitate water transport along the Mekong river.

Under the planned zoning system, factories will be promoted in the border communities in Thailand and will use raw materials from the region, especially certain crops from neighbouring countries, said the National Economic and Social Development Board. (Bangkok Post)


Salween is Home to New Dam Row

THREE hydropower dams are planned for the Salween River in Burma. Two of them, the Upper and Lower Salween dams, will be supported by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) at an estimated cost of 200 billion baht (4.66 billion U.S. dollars) while MDX Plc, a Thai construction outfit, has begun work on a 3,600-megawatt dam near Ta Sang in Burma's Shan state.

When finished, the Ta Sang dam would be the largest hydropower dam in South-east Asia, and the first dam built on the 2,800 km Salween river.

Despite concerns by environmentalists, human rights activists and advocates of ethnic groups based in Thailand and Burma about the environmental and social impacts of these dams, EGAT is poised to proceed with the projects. It expects construction of the dams to begin in 2007 and electricity generation to start in 2012. The EGAT governor said an agreement with Burma on the project would probably come later this year.

Burma's opposition National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and 69 Thai and Burmese NGOs submitted a letter in December to Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, demanding that the government scrap the project.

Salween Watch, a Chiang Mai-based non-governmental organisation, reported recently that over 300,000 Shan and other ethnic people had been forced to relocate from central Shan state to make way for MDX's Ta Sang dam.

The Salween river originates high in the Tibetan mountains, flows through China's Yunnan province into Burma, and then forms the border between Thailand and Burma before emptying into the Andaman Sea. It is South-east Asia's second largest river, after the Mekong, and the world's 26th longest. (Bangkok Post)