Border Economies In The Greater Mekong Sub Region

A group of internationally recognised experts examine the recent trends of cross-border movements of people, goods and economic activity at fifteen major borders in the Greater Mekong Sub-region with the aim of predicting the long terms future for this region.

The East–West Economic Corridor (EWEC) was launched in 1998 as a flagship initiative of the Greater Mekong Subregion. EWEC has since achieved many of its infrastructure targets and must now be transformed from a transport corridor into an economic corridor. This report reviews and updates the Pre-Investment Study for EWEC conducted in 2001. It consolidates the interests and concerns of stakeholders into a revised and updated strategy and action plan to provide a vision and framework, improve coordination, and assist in mobilizing resources for EWEC development. Preparation of this revised and updated strategy and action plan for EWEC involved a series of consultations with government officials of EWEC countries and representatives of the private sector, nongovernment organizations, and development partners. These consultations culminated in a regional workshop held on 24 April 2009 in Khon Kaen, Thailand. The revised and updated strategy and action plan for EWEC was endorsed at the 15th GMS Ministerial Conference held in Cha-am, Petchburi Province, Thailand on 17–19 June 2009.

The large market size and abundant resources of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), including a large, motivated and cheap workforce, a rich agricultural base, extensive timber and fisheries resources, considerable potential mineral resources, and vast energy resources have seen the subregion increasingly recognized as a new frontier of Southeast Asian economic strength. This book aims to assess the recent economic, social and political developments in the GMS and identify emerging opportunities and challenges facing the successful transition towards a market-driven economy. The countries of the GMS are at a critical juncture where subregional efforts and cooperation must be made to fully address the rapidly evolving issues that are vital to appropriate policy formation, yet which remain widely debatable. The deliberations here shed light on the development stages and offer policy recommendations for pushing forward subregional cooperation.

Since the 1990s, regional organizations of the United Nations and international financial institutions have adopted a new dynamic of transnational integration, within the framework of the regionalization process of globalization. In place of the growth triangles of the 1970s, a strategy based on transnational economic corridors has changed the scale of regionalization.

This study looks into the role of special economic zones in strengthening the competitiveness of economic corridors in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). It examines factors behind the success of special economic zones and the role they can play in GMS economic corridor development. The analysis is based on a company-level survey in the Mae Sot special economic zone and interviews with clients operating in other zones throughout the GMS. The report offers policy recommendations for GMS ministers on how the zones can contribute toward improving competitiveness of economic corridors and thereby promote economic development.

The economic corridor approach was adopted by the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries in 1998 to help accelerate subregional development. The development of economic corridors links production, trade, and infrastructure within a specific geographic area. The review of these corridors was conducted to take into account the opening up of Myanmar and ensure that there is a close match between corridor routes and trade flows; GMS capitals and major urban centers are connected to each other; and the corridors are linked with maritime gateways. The review came up with recommendations for possible extension and/or realignment of the corridors, and adoption of a classification system for corridor development. The GMS Ministers endorsed the recommendations of the study at the 21st GMS Ministerial Conference in Thailand in 2016.

Myanmar, the second biggest country in terms of area in mainland South East Asia, borders five neighboring countries: China, Thailand, India, Bangladesh, and Lao PDR. Myanmar's longest borders are with China (approximately 1,357 miles) and Thailand (approximately 1,314 miles), and it shares coastal waters with Malaysia and Singapore. Informal activities and informal moment of goods and people have been quite significant due to many factors. Although various policy measures have been developed to mitigate these informal activities, there has not been any study regarding the sources of these informal activities, their costs and benefits, impacts and consequences of the existence and non-existence of these activities, or how these activities could be mitigated without having significant negative economic and social impacts on the local people and the economy as the whole. This paper attempts to identify factors behind causes and effects of informal flows in goods and persons across the borders between Myanmar and its neighboring countries, especially China and Thailand, and to address related issues and possible policy implications. This paper is a result of various surveys and studies in many places in Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, and China from 2005 to 2009 under several research projects.