Title: "Infrastructure Development and Human Security in the Greater
Mekong Sub-Region : a Case Study of Northeastern Thailand"
Speaker: Thanyathip Sripana, Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for
Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University
Date: July 7th（Thurs.), 2011, 12:00 - 13:30
Place: Tonan-tei (Room No. 201) on the 2nd floor of Inamori Foundation
Memorial Building, Kyoto University
Thanyathip Sripana is a senior researcher and lecturer at the
Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University. She is also
guest lecturer in various institutions in Thailand, and occasionally
gives lecture in Vietnam and Malaysia. Receiving a scholarship from
the French government, she earned her doctorate degree from Faculte de
Droit et de Science Politique, Universite d’Aix-Marseille III, in
France. Vietnamese Studies has taken up much of her time since 1988,
with her experience doing research in France, Canada, Japan, and
countries in the Mekong Sub-Region : Laos and Cambodia. She has been
conducting in-depth research in Vietnam in particular.
Abstract:
Infrastructure development is a key element of the GMS approach to
overall development in Mekong Sub-region. The transport corridors
development are the chief means of achieving connectivity, which is
included in three Cs strategy : connectivity, competitiveness and
community. The objective of infrastructure development is to transform
these transport corridors into fully fledged economic corridors
highlighting trade, investment, tourism, etc. In addition, the
benefits of improved transport linkages will reach to remote and
landlocked areas in the GMS.
The major transport corridors are the North-South corridor, the
East-West Corridor, and the Southern Corridor. The North-South
corridor connects Kunming and Bangkok, through alternative routes– one
via Lao PDR and the other via Myanmar .
The East-West Corridor is running from Da Nang at the coast of Viet
Nam west to Lao PDR and through Thailand to Mawlamyine at the coast of
Myanmar on the Andaman Sea . The Southern Corridor runs from Dawei on
the Myanmar coast, then through Bangkok , then through the
Thailand-Cambodia border at Aranyaprathet-Poipet. From this point, it
seperates into two routes. The first one goes eastward through Siem
Reap, Stung Treng and then through the border with Viet Nam and onward
to Quy Nhon. The second route is from Aranyaprathet-Poipet to Phnom
Penh , to Ho Chi Minh City , and extends to Vung Tau. The Southern
Coastal Corridor runs along the Gulf of Thailand on the coasts of
Thailand , Cambodia and Viet Nam – from Bangkok through Trat, then Koh
Kong, Sre Ambel, Sihanoukville, and Kampot in Cambodia , before
reaching Ha Tien in Kien Giang , Vietnam , and continuing to Ca Mau
and Nam Can, the southmost of Vietnam . The corridors create broad
networks with many intersecting points that cover the entire
sub-region.
Transport corridors facilitate economic development through the
mobility of goods and people across borders, and also between remote
and disadvantaged areas, and more prosperous areas in the Mekong
Sub-region. This movement; however, can have a negative impact on
human security as well. Connectivity and infrastructure development
can facilitate illicit activities such as smuggling of goods, drug
trafficking, casinos in border towns, human trafficking (through labor
migration), prostitution, and even human communicable diseases
including viruses from animal sources. Thailand is confronted by all
of these health and social issues and must be prepared to face
increasing pressure to respond as the region develops.
Mukdahan and Nakhon Phanom in northeastern Thailand is a passage and
an area of concern on human security issues related to drug
trafficking, and labor migration from Vietnam and Laos exacerbated by
infrastructure development. Due to the construction of the Mekong
bridge between Sawannakhet and Mukdahan, it has facilitated drug
trafficking and labor migration, and the establishment of a Casino in
Sawannakhet. The Casino attracts Thais, and Vietnamese from the
central Vietnam. A new casino is expected to be set up after a new
Mekong bridge connects Thakhek and Nakhon Phanom. Other routes in the
sub-region, such as, Routes 8, 9, 12 and 13 have facilitated these
changes and issues of security as well.