|
|
GMS breaks down transport barriers
The six nations in the Greater Mekong Subregion will continue to streamline systems that delay the cross-border movement of goods between member countries.
Customs officials and officials from the ministries of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) from the six nations will meet this week in Nanning, China, for detailed discussions about implementing the trade facilitation plans agreed to at the Third GMS Summit in Vientiane on Monday.
“The detailed implementation to address barriers of cross-border trade will await the result of the meeting in Nanning,” Mat Sounmala, Director General of MPWT Planning and Cooperation Department told Vientiane Times yesterday.
Businesses in GMS countries – Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand - have restricted access to trade finance and are less skilled in trade, a disadvantage when compared to businesses in advanced world markets such as other ASEAN nations and the EU.
The aim of the agreement is to promote the development of trade logistics by harmonising border-crossing formalities including customs, immigration and quarantine.
Economic cooperation between GMS countries has been growing over the past 15 years, and officials say annual exports from these countries grew five-fold between 1992 and 2006, but the trade between them has remained low.
Intra-GMS exports in 2004 and 2006 accounted for only 5.4 percent of the subregion's exports due to the difficulties of border crossing.
A one-stop customs service is now being implemented along the East-West Economic Corridor to lessen waiting times and complications when vehicles cross the border, including regulations that cause delays in cross-border freight transport.
The implementation of this service with Thailand has seen little progress as Thai law prohibits its customs officials from working in other countries and does not allow customs officials from other countries to work in Thailand.
During the summit in Vientiane, Thai officials said they had placed the adjustment of the customs law on their government's list of priorities, but did not give a time frame for when the law would be adjusted.
Laos has planned to initiate the one-stop service with China along the North-South Economic Corridor which opened for use during the summit on Monday and links Kunming, China, to Bangkok, Thailand.
But officials said more discussion about the issue was needed as China was focused on starting a one-stop service with Vietnam along the Nanning-Hanoi corridor.
The one-stop service can speed up the cross-border movement of goods and bring about considerable benefits to trade in GMS nations.
As part of the summit, entrepreneurs from both the GMS and outside the subregion met at the GMS Business and Investment Dialogue on March 30 in Vientiane and agreed that public and private sectors should focus their collective efforts on pressing concerns where tangible and immediate results could be achieved.
The integration of GMS economies would benefit from public and private cooperation in trade and investment.