Malaysia has called for a clear timetable for the completion of the rail network that will link Kunming with Singapore, a project that has been ongoing since 1994.

Yesterday Malaysian Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat told the rail network's 10th Special Working Group Meeting in Putrajaya, according to Malaysian media reports.

The 5,382 kilometer (3,344 mile) rail network will connect Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam with Kunming and other cities in Yunnan. The main obstacle to getting the network up and running is the existence of around 550 kilometers of gaps between rail lines around the region. According to Ong:


Ong said that despite concerns about rising costs of construction materials, Malaysia was not going to pressure poorer countries in the region – ie Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar – to meet the generally hoped-for completion target of 2015, although Malaysia's last gaps will be filled before then.


Once completed, the rail network is expected to greatly boost regional trade and tourism as well as contributing to poverty reduction in poorer areas throughout the region. It will also bolster Kunming's position as the primary Chinese logistics hub for trade with Southeast Asian countries.

Tags: Cambodia, Laos, logistics, Malaysia, Myanmar, Ong Tee Keat, Putrajaya, Singapore, Southeast Asia, Thailand, tourism, trade, trains, transportation, Vietnam

In recent years much attention has been paid to the rising prices of oil and commodities, much of it driven by the increasingly voracious consumption of the Chinese economy as it continues down its path toward becoming the world's largest economy.

In March and April however, rice climbed to the front of global consciousness as major rice-producing countries including India, Vietnam, Brazil and Egypt announced that they would limit rice exports in order to ensure sufficient domestic supply. Over the past few months the price of benchmark variety Thai B-grade has tripled to around US$1,000 per ton.

The decrease in supply and increase in price for imported rice has also raised concerns in Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines, all of which are major rice importers. The fallout has not been limited to Asia – rising rice prices have led to some North American wholesale chains limiting rice purchases as shipments of rice from Asia to North America have decreased. The jump in price also sparked riots in Haiti on April 4 that left six dead.

With rice's value to the planet increasingly visible – it is the most important crop in Asia and is the second most-grown cereal grain in the world after maize (corn) – major rice exporters are considering new ways to leverage their critical role in global food production.

On Wednesday the prime minister of Thailand, Samak Sundaravej, floated the idea of creating a cartel of rice-producing countries that could operate similarly to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The proposed cartel would include Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

"We don't aspire to be like OPEC, but we hope to be just a group of five to help each other in trading rice on the world market," Bangkok-based newspaper The Nation quoted Samak as saying. Samak also told reporters that Myanmar leader General Thein Sein approved of the idea when he raised it at a meeting between the two leaders in Bangkok earlier this week. Thailand's foreign minister Noppadon Pattama said the cartel was likely to be formed during Samak's tenure as prime minister.

Successful organization of a Southeast Asian rice cartel, which is tentatively being called the Organization of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC), would have a major impact on the global rice market. Thailand is the world's biggest exporter of rice, sending around 10 million tons to international markets yearly. Vietnam – the world's second-largest rice exporter – exports roughly half that amount.

According to the Chinese government, the country's rice reserves are enough to last half a year at current consumption levels, yet fears of hoarding and further price rises in the short term are growing. Rice prices in south China have increased 10 percent in recent weeks despite frequent releases from China's state reserves to keep prices low.


Rice production is also facing a serious problem in the form of diminishing global water supplies. Conventional rice production requires large amounts of water – a fact not lost on increasingly thirsty China, which last year announced that it aims to expand its use of aerobic rice, a strain of rice that like wheat is capable of growing on dry soil. China hopes to increase its aerobic rice acreage to 30 percent of national rice acreage from its current level of one percent.

Should OREC's influence on global rice prices eventually parallel OPEC's influence on global oil prices, it is likely that the cartel will need to cultivate a friendly relationship with China, which controls the headwaters of the region's most important rivers including the Mekong and Salween rivers.

Top image: Wikipedia

Tags: aerobic rice, agriculture, Cambodia, food crisis, Laos, Mekong River, Myanmar, OPEC, OREC, rice, Salween River, Samak Sundaravej, Thailand, Vietnam

Today the prime ministers of China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and the head of the Asian Development Bank formally inaugurated the final link of the so-called "north-south economic corridor", a 1,800-kilometer (1,100-mile) road network connecting Kunming with Bangkok.

The former opium smuggling route which now links the Greater Mekong Subregion (Yunnan, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia) - or GMS - will dramatically improve road connectivity in one of Asia's most pristine and poorest regions. China is expected to send more tourists to the area while also bringing in natural resources and other commodities from Southeast Asia to feed its ravenous economic boom.

While speaking at the GMS summit, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (温家宝) called on GMS members to work together to improve the region's transport infrastructure, streamline transport and trade and increase rural development.

The road network is expected to increase Chinese investment in the region – especially in Laos, where the government has given a Chinese company a 50-year lease for a major tract of real estate near the Laotian capital of Vientiane in exchange for the building of an athletic stadium. Another Chinese company has been given 30-year rights to construct and run a large casino compound.


According to a Xinhua report, trade in 2007 between Yunnan province and the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reached US$3.03 billion, up nearly 40 percent over 2006.

Recent rapid growth of trade with ASEAN has made the region Yunnan's largest trading partner. According to Kunming customs statistics cited in the report. Yunnan's exports to the region were up 32.9 percent, reaching US$2.17 billion.

Yunnan is preparing to serve as China's gateway to ASEAN as the two emerging economic regions prepare for the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA), the first phase of which will launch in 2010. CAFTA will reduce and eliminate tariffs on goods moving between the two regions, creating the world's largest free trade area in terms of population.

GMS summit image: Xinhua

Laos highway image: International Herald Tribune

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Tags: Asian Development Bank, CAFTA, Cambodia, Greater Mekong Subregion, Laos, Myanmar, North-south corridor, Thailand, Vietnam, Wen Jiabao

In addition to sharing a border – and the Mekong River – with Laos, Yunnan province also shares China's last herd of Asian elephants, which in recent years has dwindled to only 400 elephants. The herd lives in nature reserves near the border between China and Laos.

This week the Yunnan Provincial Forestry Department met with their counterparts from Laos in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture to discuss ways to protect the endangered Asian elephant, which falls under China's grade-one protection for endangered animal species.

The representatives from China and Laos reached four major agreements:

1. To educate villagers about how to protect elephants
2. To tighten hunting gun controls
3. To draft a plan for cross-border elephant protection and apply for international funds, and
4. To plan next year's annual meeting in Laos

There are roughly 30,000 Asian elephants left in South and Southeast Asia. Asian elephants average 3.2 meters in height and more than five tons. The animals spend most of their days looking for food, understandable considering that they require around 300 kilograms of it each day.

Although it is less populated than other parts of China, Xishuangbanna is still feeling the impact of China's rapid economic development. Elephants, normally docile creatures, are known to attack when feeling encroached upon by humans. In the last few weeks, there have been two elephant attacks upon humans in Xishuangbanna.

In January, American tourist Jeremy Allen McGill was seriously injured by an elephant attack which left him with eight broken bones and injuries to his lungs, stomach and intestines. Weeks later another elephant attack ended in fatality when on the night of Chinese New Year an elephant in Xishuangbanna attacked and killed Zeng Shaoping as he returned from holiday festivities.

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Tags: elephants, endangered species, environment, Laos, Xishuangbanna

Trade in 2007 between Yunnan province and the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reached US$3.03 billion, up nearly 40 percent over 2006, with Vietnam replacing Myanmar as the province's top trading partner, according to a Xinhua report.

Recent rapid growth of trade with ASEAN has made the region Yunnan's largest trading partner. According to Kunming customs statistics cited in the report. Yunnan's exports to the region were up 32.9 percent, reaching US$2.17 billion.

Yunnan – bordered by Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam – is being groomed by the Chinese government to serve as China's gateway to ASEAN as the two emerging economic regions prepare for the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA), the first phase of which will launch in 2010. CAFTA will reduce and eliminate tariffs on goods moving between the two regions, with analysts expecting raw materials and natural resources to flow into China and finished products to flow out.

Major road, rail and air transport infrastructure projects in Yunnan and its Southeast Asia are currently underway to further facilitate trade with ASEAN. Some of the more notable projects include a highway linking Kunming with Singapore, a rail network linking Kunming and Singapore via three trunk lines passing through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia, a new international airport in Kunming and a road/rail transport corridor linking Kunming with Haiphong, Vietnam – the closest seaport to Kunming.

Last month the Asian Development Bank announced its largest-ever financing project, a US$1.1 billion highway project that will connect Vietnamese capital Hanoi with Yunnan.

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Tags: ASEAN, Asian Development Bank, business, CAFTA, foreign trade, Haiphong, Hanoi, Laos, logistics, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam

Lao Airlines launched a new route connecting Kunming with UNESCO World Heritage site Luang Prabang on Saturday with an eye on the outbound Chinese tourism market, according to Chinese media reports.

Last year Luang Prabang province was visited by nearly 200,000 international visitors who contributed roughly US$80 million to the local economy, according to reports citing a Luang Prabang tourism official. The province and its ancient capital are expecting half a million tourists per year by 2010. Lao Airlines currently also operates four flights each week between the country's capital Vientiane and Kunming.

Although tourists are a primary reason for the new Kunming-Luang Prabang route, the growing importance of economic ties between Laos and China – especially Yunnan – should not be overlooked.

An example of this growing relationship is the announcement last week that Yunnan Copper Mining, Yunnan's second-'strongest' company according to recent rankings by the Yunnan Provincial Enterprise Association, will invest US$5 million in the construction of a five-star hotel in Luang Prabang province. Construction is scheduled to commence in August of this year.

Update: According to the Kunming office of Lao Airlines, the new Kunming-Luang Prabang route operates on Mondays and Fridays: The Kunming - Luang Prabang flight departs at 20:10 Beijing time and arrives in Luang Prabang at 20:40 local time. The Luang Prabang - Kunming flight leaves at 17:00 local time in Laos and arrives in Kunming at 19:30 Beijing time. The flight takes approximately 90 minutes.

Tags: Lao Airlines, Laos, Luang Prabang, travel, UNESCO, World Heritage site

The 2007 China-ASEAN Television Cooperation Summit (2007 中国-东盟电视合作峰会) held its closing ceremony yesterday at the Expo Garden Hotel. The main theme of the summit was increasing television cooperation among Asian countries and creating an Eastern counterweight to Western media.

The two-day summit began on Wednesday with speeches by government officials and television industry leaders, including Zhang Changming, Vice President of China Central Television (CCTV). Zhang's speech, "Sending the voices of the East to the world", focused on the need for Eastern media to catch up with Western media in terms of impact and influence.

"One thing that cannot be denied is the imbalance between the East and West in global information flow," Zhang said before approximately 200 television professionals and government officials from China and the member states from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Zhang proposed more sharing between China and Southeast Asian countries in the fields of news reporting, documentary filmmaking and television programming and production.

"We can work together to grow and become stronger," he said, "and by way of the shared platform created by Asian media, we can let the voices from the East be heard on a global stage."

Other speakers included Mr Pratap Parameswaran of the ASEAN Secretariat, as well as television officials from Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar. Several representatives of mainland television stations and production companies also delivered keynote addresses.

Shialey Tan of Singapore-based MediaCorp's high-definition documentary production company Caldecott Productions reiterated Zhang's message of Asians producing programs about Asia for non-Asian audiences. Tan was at the summit to promote "The Asian Pitch", a contest for independent Asian filmmakers organized by Caldecott, Japanese broadcaster NHK and South Korean broadcaster KBS.

"The face that Asia presents to the world should be one made by Asian media, not Western media," Tan said.

This year's China-ASEAN Television Cooperation Summit is the first meeting of its kind between China and ASEAN. The summit is scheduled to be held again in 2009.

Tags: ASEAN, business, Caldecott Productions, CCTV, China-ASEAN Television Cooperation Summit, KBS, Laos, Malaysia, MediaCorp, Myanmar, NHK, Pratap Parameswaran, Shialey Tan, Singapore, Vietnam, Zhang Changming

Financial backers are being sought for the estimated US$15 billion regional rail network connecting Kunming with Singapore, according to Malaysian media reports.

China and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are both being eyed as potential financiers for the project, according to statements made by Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz today during a visit to China.

Mrs Rafidah said the ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development Cooperation Council was currently working out the financial side of the 5,000-kilometer regional rail network which will link Kunming and other cities in Yunnan with Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Malaysia is acting as project coordinator for a feasibility study of the rail network, which has a target completion date of 2015, although it is still unclear whether this is an attainable goal.

Tags: business, Cambodia, Laos, logistics, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, trains, transportation, Vietnam