Border Barriers Eased
By Truman Becker
Consultant, GMS Unit
BETTER FLOW Thai officials discussing planned improvements in border crossings
Smooth border crossings must be an integral component of transforming transport corridors into economic corridors in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). Experience shows that investments in cross-border transport infrastructure projects are necessary—but not sufficient—to ensure closer economic cooperation between countries.
To maximize the economic benefits of subregional transport projects, nonphysical constraints must be relaxed to improve efficiency in cross-border access and reduce waiting times at borders.
“Transparency and reliable procedures in the areas of customs, rights of cross-border passage for vehicles and drivers, vehicle and load specification, insurance provisions, and transit and user fees all serve to stimulate trade and private sector activity, improve trade finance and foreign investment, and generate revenues for governments,” says Robert Boumphrey, Director, Governance, Finance, and Trade Division, ADB’s Mekong Department.
Under the GMS Program, work on addressing nonphysical barriers to free movement of people and goods between the six GMS countries started in 1996. ADB has supported these efforts, providing three technical assistance grants amounting to $1.7 million. A framework agreement on facilitating the cross-border movement of people and goods was prepared in consultation with the six countries.
In November 1999 in Vientiane, the transport ministers of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Thailand, and Viet Nam signed the “Agreement Between and Among the Governments of Lao PDR, Kingdom of Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam for Facilitation of Cross-Border Transport of Goods and People,” a landmark pact based on the framework agreement.
The Ninth GMS Ministerial Conference in Manila in January 2000 took the process of opening borders a step further by agreeing to implement the Agreement on a subregional basis by 2005. The document’s 16 annexes and 3 protocols, which will operationalize key aspects of the Agreement, are being negotiated with ADB assistance.
Cambodia became the fourth party to the Agreement in November 2001. The People’s Republic of China acceded to the Agreement in November 2002.
To complement and accelerate efforts at moving goods across GMS borders, the GMS governments agreed at the 10th Ministerial Conference held in Yangon in November 2001 to pilot-test single-stop customs facilities at selected border crossings. This will allow joint control by neighboring countries’ customs authorities through shared facilities or mutual recognition of harmonized customs inspection procedures
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