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Saturday August 26, 2006

ASEAN hopes Singapore-China rail link will be ready by 2015, says official

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP): Southeast Asian nations hope a proposed US$15 billion (euro12.5 billion) major railway project linking Singapore to southern China will be ready by 2015 to facilitate the flow of goods and people across the region, officials said Saturday.

The Asian Development Bank recently provided Cambodia soft loans of US$40 million (euro33 million) to build missing links and another US$5.4 million (euro4.5 million) has been secured as grants for the project, said Ong Keng Yong, secretary-general of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

China, which last month launched a rail track from Beijing to Tibet, has also shown renewed interest in ASEAN's plan for a rail line spanning 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) from Singapore to the Chinese city of Kunming, he told The Associated Press.

However, overall progress of the project has been hindered by a lack of funds and other technical issues in connecting the rail to major towns across the region, he said.

"We want to revitalize the railway project which will be good for the region. With the rah-rah after the opening of the Tibetan line, I believe we can move faster,'' Ong said after a meeting of the ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development Cooperation. "

"Work is being done on a national level to join up with the rail link but we need more funding.''

A rail line already runs from Singapore to Bangkok. From Bangkok, Ong said there are plans for two separate rail lines to Kunming. One rail track will snake across Cambodia and Vietnam, with a connecting track to Laos, while the other line will cut west through Myanmar.

Officials previously said it would cost at least US$1.8 billion (euro1.5 billion). Ong said that was the cost of constructing certain links.

The entire project, including building railway stations and related infrastructure, is estimated to cost US$15 billion with about a-third of the funds to be focused on work in southern China, he said.

Senior officials will meet in November in Kunming to review the project and identify new sources of funds, he said. The group did not set any target date for completion but "we must have some connection'' by the time the bloc fuse into an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, he said.

Officials said construction has also been hindered by difficult terrain in some countries, clearing land mines in Cambodia and Laos, and harmonizing customs and immigration.

The railway project is expected to better bind the economies of the region and provide China with easier access to ASEAN markets.

ASEAN trade ministers earlier this week agreed to bring forward plans to turn the region into a single market and production base by 2015, five years earlier than originally planned. The bloc also aims to create a free trade zone with China by 2010.

Apart from the rail project, the group also needs funds worth US$44 million (euro37 million) for 15 projects involving capacity building, training and other projects to develop the Mekong Basin, said Myanmar Minister for National Planning and Economic Development, U Soe Tha.

To woo new funds, he said membership of the ASEAN-Mekong Basin Development Cooperation _ currently involving only ASEAN and China _ will be opened to interested parties such as the Asian Development Bank and the region's trading partners.

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