Fifth bridge to Laos to be proposed at Udon meeting
A fifth bridge between Thailand and Laos will be proposed at the mobile cabinet meeting in Udon Thani this Wednesday.
Businesses in Bung Kan province have suggested the building of a 1.5-kilometre, 1.5-billion-baht bridge to link Bung Kan with Pak San in Laos.
The proposal will first be brought before a regional meeting of the Joint Public-Private Consultative Committee tomorrow and will later be presented at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) secretary-general Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said that if the cabinet endorses the plan in principle, a feasibility study will be conducted to assess whether there is sufficient traffic and trade volume to justify the project.
At the mobile cabinet meeting, the government will be focusing on strategies to facilitate trade and investment with neighbouring countries, particularly Laos and Vietnam.
The NESDB reports that border trade between Thailand and Laos accounts for about 10% of the country's total border trade and is growing 25%-30% a year.
In the third quarter of last year, border trade between two countries totalled 27.87 billion baht.
Border trade with Laos is expected to soar this year because of the completion of the third bridge, connecting Nakhon Panom and Tha Khaek.
The fourth bridge, linking Chiang Khong in Chiang Rai to Huai Sai in Laos, is under construction.
During its meeting this week, the cabinet is scheduled to consider plans for 12 provinces in the northeastern region. A total of 31 proposals will be tabled, including the upgrading of a highway and tourism sites, as well as the development of water-management projects.
Prasert Adulsuthanon, chairman of the Bung Kan Chamber of Commerce, said the proposed fifth bridge across Mekong River will boost border trade for the area. A road link from the province to central Vietnam via the bridge and through Laos would be quite short, at only 320 km, and would help save transportation costs.
The chamber has also proposed expanding the 135-km two-lane highway from Bung Kan to Nong Khai to four lanes in order to facilitate transportation.
