A proposed transport network stretching from the south China city of Nanning to Singapore that would help create a southeast Asian economic community has stalled largely due to unresolved funding and administrative issues, experts said Friday.

The Nanning-Singapore (N-S) Economic Corridor, a system of highways and railways connecting major southeast Asian cities, is a focal point at the fifth Pan-Beibu Gulf (PBG) Economic Cooperation Forum in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The project, which would include Hanoi, Vientiane, Phnom Penh, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, would help bring about a comprehensive development zone, said Professor John Wong, of the East Asian Institute of Singapore, at the two-day forum, which opened Thursday.

Progress

Last month, 20 government officials and experts from China's National Development and Reform Commission, and the foreign, commerce and railways ministries and local think tanks made a 10-day study tour of the proposed N-S Corridor.

After holding five seminars with think tanks from Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, the study team concluded the plan was both feasible and meaningful.

The integrated transport infrastructure already largely existed in the China-ASEAN region, said Gu Xiaosong, the study team leader and deputy head of the Academy of Social Sciences of Guangxi.

A highway network had been proved feasible to some extent by the China-ASEAN International Car Rally Race, which was successfully held in 2006, 2007 and 2009.

In the race, which was jointly sponsored by China's central government and Guangxi regional government, drivers largely followed the routes of the N-S corridor.

The railway from Nanning is connected to Vietnam's North-South railway. From southern Vietnam, the railway link can be extended to Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and eventually Singapore. The sections from Nanning to the Vietnam-Cambodia border and from the Cambodia-Thailand border to Singapore have been completed and are in operation.

Railways between neighboring cities are already in place, except for the 300-kilometer stretch from Phnom Penh to Hanoi. The tracks from Nanning to Hanoi have been standardized. To make the N-S connection operational, the tracks in other sections must be standardized to make them compatible with the Nanning-Hanoi rail tracks.

Challenges ahead

However, experts say various political, economic and social challenges lie ahead, and no timetable has been made public for building and revamping the necessary sections of the corridor.

Since the project was first proposed, governments of ASEAN nations have voiced support for the project, but little substantial progress has been made.

Gu Xiaosong said poorer countries like Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia most needed funding to revamp domestic roads, as Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia already had good transport infrastructure.

"The project will have to clear its first hurdle of funding," said Wong. Aside from a 10-billion-U.S.-dollar ASEAN Investment Fund set up by the Chinese government, the project could also be funded by Japan and the Republic of Korea, and multilateral sources like the Asian Development Bank, he said.

Wong said, in the final analysis, the pace of development was not independent of ASEAN's own progress towards regional cooperation. He suggested the project be brought under the wider China-ASEAN cooperation framework.

Klaus Gerhaeusser, director general of the East Asia Department at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), said at the Forum that improving transport infrastructure within the China-ASEAN region was one of the priorities of ADB, and it was willing to provide funding for the N-S Corridor.

But Gu Xiaosong said the ADB would not issue loans for the project until a concrete and substantial plan is reached among China and the ASEAN nations.

Yeoh, of the Malaysian Strategy & Leadership Institute, said China and ASEAN should encourage more private sector participation in the project, which would boost the efficiency of the construction and the operation of the corridor.

Beyond the "hardware" was the need to tackle the many "software" issues, such as administrative co-ordination among regions and localities, said Wong.

"This includes negotiation among the relevant regions or localities to simplify and streamline the CIQ (customs, immigration and quarantine) procedures in order to facilitate travel and logistics," he said.

"There are also long-term challenges of coping with the social aspect of development in connection with community building and human development efforts, particularly in terms of people-to-people contacts," Wong said.

Great significance

The N-S economic corridor was proposed by experts and political leaders at the first PBG Economic Cooperation Forum in 2006 as the "axis" in the "One Axis, Two Wings" plan for economic integration between China and ASEAN in which the PBG Economic Zone and the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) are the two wings.

Transport ministers of China and ASEAN nations agreed in 2007 that the two sides should make joint efforts to build an efficient, secure and environment-friendly regional transport system and a strategic transport system development plan was signed.

Since then, the project has won support from China's central government.

When the project is completed, it would take only two days to travel overland between Singapore and Nanning. "China and the six ASEAN members would gain from the improved transportation and communications network, which will enhance trade, investment and tourism," said Wong.

At the forum, Thailand's Deputy Minister of Commerce, Alongkorn Ponlaboot, said the transport cost for Thailand exporters could cut costs by a third when the N-S Corridor was completed.

Tram Ivtek, Minister of Public Works and Transport of Cambodia, said the Cambodian government had made great progress in improving the domestic transport system with help from development partners, including China.

"We will continue to seek help from development partners and give high priority to the reconstruction of the transport network connecting all parts of the country as well as the rail networks of neighboring countries," Ivtek said.` The N-S Corridor would also bring obvious economic benefits, including better division of labor, increased tourism and demand for services, said Michael Yeoh, chief executive officer of the Malaysian Strategy & Leadership Institute.

Li Xinghua, deputy head of planning at China's Ministry of Transport, said transport infrastructure was one of the key aspects of China-ASEAN cooperation, and the N-S corridor would reinforce the cooperation.

It would lay a solid foundation for deeper and wider economic relations between China and ASEAN countries, said Ma Biao, head of the Guangxi autonomous regional government, at the forum.