New Highway Grid to Transform Mekong Region

Critics say an Asian Development Bank (ADB) project to construct a major highway system in the Greater Mekong Subregion will accelerate the spread of HIV/AIDS, rainforest logging, wildlife poaching, and human trafficking.

The multi-billion-dollar ADB initiative will soon reduce travel times between centers like Kunming in Yunnan and Bangkok, and connect ports in Myanmar's Bay of Bengal to those along the South China Sea in Vietnam. The plan to multiply existing major roads into a dense regional grid, combined with streamlined borders, customs and traffic rules, aims to enhance the flow of goods and people throughout the region, say ADB officials.

"Our vision is turning basic pieces of economic infrastructure, the roads and the power links, into economic corridors that become the sinews of an economic grouping," said John Cooney, ADB's regional infrastructure chief.

But some experts question whether all new roads are beneficial to communities. Chris Lyttleton of Australia's Macquarie University and colleagues studied a World Bank-financed road that has connected China with the Lao Mekong river port of Xiengkok since 2000. While an influx of Chinese and Thai traders brought new consumer goods and jobs, the authors found "dramatic increases" in drug abuse and a rise in illegal wildlife trading.

The new road, the researchers said, is a potential "tinderbox that could allow rapid spread of HIV/AIDS or other [STDs]."

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