Wen: China to speed up Pan-Asian rail link
15/1/2007 11:26
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday China will accelerate
construction of the Chinese section of the Kunming-Singapore Rail Link, also
known as the Pan-Asian railway network.
Addressing the 10th ASEAN-China
Summit in Cebu, the Philippines, Wen said China proposes that a strategic plan
on China-ASEAN transport cooperation in the next 10 to 15 years be formulated to
facilitate coordinated development of regional transport, improve integrated
transport networks, and facilitate communication and transport in the
region.
China and 17 other countries, many of them members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, signed an inter-governmental pact last
November to build a Pan-Asian railway network, which would include an
81,000-kilometer-long network that would link four key railways in different
parts of Asia.
One of the railways is the China-ASEAN link with three
separate lines linking Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos with China. The rail will go on
to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, and will be 5,500 kilometers long in total.
With its expected completion by 2015, the rail link will play a key role
in pushing forward regional economic cooperation and integration.
China
has already started construction of the eastern line of the rail link from
Kunming to the Vietnamese border and it is investing 50 billion yuan (US$6.25
billion) to build a total of three lines in Yunnan Province to link them with
Laos and Myanmar besides Vietnam.
Leaders of China and the 10 ASEAN
countries pledged to build the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link when they attended
the China-ASEAN Commemorative Summit celebrating the 15th anniversary of
China-ASEAN dialogue relations in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in
October.
Xinhua news
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