Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Sunday China will accelerate construction of Chinese section of the Kunming-Singapore Rail Link, also known as Pan-Asian railway network, to help complete its construction in an early time.

When addressing the leaders of 10 ASEAN member countries here at the 10th ASEAN-China Summit, Wen said China proposes that a strategic plan on China-ASEAN transport cooperation in the next 10 to 15 years be formulated to facilitate coordinated development of regional transportation, improve integrated transport network, and facilitate communication and transportation in the region.

China and 17 other countries, many of them ASEAN countries, signed last November an inter-governmental agreement to build a Pan-Asian railway network, which would include a 81,000 km-long network which also links four key railways in different parts of Asia.

One of the railways is the China-ASEAN rail link with three separate lines linking Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos with China. The rail link will further go to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, and will be altogether 5,500 km-long. With its expected completion by 2015, the rail link will play a key role in pushing forward regional economic cooperation and integration.

China has already stated construction of the eastern line of rail link from Kunming to the Vietnamese border and it is investing 50 billion yuan (6.25 billion U.S. dollars) to build a total of three lines in Yunnan province to link them with Laos and Myanmar besides Vietnam.

Leaders of China and ASEAN countries jointly pledged to build the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link when they attended the China-ASEAN Commemorative summit celebrating the 15th anniversary of China- ASEAN dialogue relations in Nanning last October.

Besides the rail link, China is also going to finance a bridge crossing the Mekong River on the Kunming-Bangkok Highway and finance half of the costs for building bridges in Laos. China is also going to finance the modernization project of a key rail line in Vietnam which is part of the China-ASEAN Rail Link.

Source: Xinhua