China-Myanmar pipeline still under discussion
10/3/2008 17:10
Construction of the oil pipeline from Myanmar to southwest China's Yunnan
Province is still under discussion, a top provincial official has
said.
"Whether, when and how to build it are yet to be decided," said Bai
Enpei, secretary of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of
China.
"Currently, we are still studying the plan and discussing it with
Myanmar," said Bai, who is attending the ongoing annual session of the National
People's Congress, China's parliament, in Beijing.
The plan of the oil
pipeline, linking Myanmar's deep-water port of Sittwe with Yunnan provincial
capital Kunming, was approved by China's National Development and Reform
Commission last April.
"But many technical problems remain to be solved,
which requires time," Bai said.
The long-awaited pipeline is expected to
provide an alternative route for China's crude imports from the Middle East and
Africa and ease the country's worries of its over-dependence on energy
transportation through the Strait of Malacca.
In addition to Yunnan,
Chongqing Municipality, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Sichuan Province and
Guizhou Province in southwest China will also benefit from the pipeline.
"It
will be a good thing to both China and Myanmar, if the project is carried out,"
Bai said. "We will actively push for it."
Xinhua
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