China-Southeast Asia trade to benefit from improved infrastructure, transport

Global Business

The first Lancang-Mekong river cooperation leader’s meeting kicks off today. CCTV’S Guan Yang reports from Xishuangbanna in the southern part of Southwest China’s Yunnan province.

It costs about $3 million to $5 million to build a one kilometer (0.63 mile) of expressway in the flatter regions across China. But in the mountainous and forested Xishuangbanna, that number quadruples.

Without connectivity, economic development in the Lancang-Mekong river cooperation framework will be just a pipedream.

The 168-kilometer-long (42.3 miles) expansion project between Jinghong to Mohan aims to ease the last bottleneck in the Kunming-Bangkok expressway. Upon completion, transportation via land will be more efficient.

In addition to building an expressway, other improvements in transport are also underway such as the railway linking Kunming to Bangkok, and the dredging of the Lancang-Mekong river.


Professor Sung Won Sohn of Cal State on China-Southeast Asia ties

For more on the regional economy in this area, CCTV America’s Michelle Makori interviewed Sung Won Sohn, a professor of economics at California State University, Channel Islands.