DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “ASEAN needs to double efforts to realize a community in 2015: experts” plus 1 more

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) needs to double its efforts on its way to build a community by 2015 and the participation from private sector is indispensable to fulfill this goal, officials and experts said Friday.

Prof. Hidetoshi Nishimura, executive director of the Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), said ASEAN is aiming to establish a single market and production base in 2015. To achieve this, improving connectivity is one of the key elements and the bloc should accelerate internal consolidation.

Addressing the symposium, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said they have only more than two years to realize the ASEAN Community by 2015, and that ASEAN's physical, institutional and people-to-people connectivity should be given priority in guiding regional integration process.

"Ensuring the smooth free flow of goods, services and people by that timeline will be a real challenge," he said.

ASEAN needs to work more closely with its dialogue partners to secure additional resources besides the last year's ASEAN infrastructure Fund of 500 million U.S. dollars for ASEAN Connectivity, he said.

"The success of ASEAN Community can't rely only on the endeavors of the ASEAN governments, but also on the active participation of the private sector as well as that of our dialogue partners," he said. "ASEAN must be more integrated, more relevant, both politically and economically, where the private sector acts as an important engine of growth and development."

Hor Namhong said that to realize the ASEAN Connectivity, Cambodia is currently developing its physical and institutional connectivity and enhancing various economic corridors.

"We should make a strong effort to have an efficient land transport system, for instance, the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link," he said.

In term of soft infrastructure, more actions need to be pushed, such as accelerating the development of ICT infrastructure through ASEAN Broadband Corridor and reducing transaction costs across the border through Transport Facilitation Agreements, he added.

Speaking on behalf of ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan, who failed to attend the forum, Lim Chze Cheen, head of ASEAN Connectivity Division of ASEAN Secretariat, said there is still a lot of work to be done to move integration and cooperation forward.

He said with enhanced connectivity, ASEAN with its market of more than 600 million people will become more attractive to foreign investors and lay strong foundation for future economic growth.

"Infrastructure development will open up less-developed areas to trade, investment, and tourism, and further narrowing our development gap," he said.

While there is strong commitment to ASEAN Connectivity by the bloc's leaders, resource mobilization poses a daunting challenge, he said, adding that the Asian Development Bank estimated that ASEAN will require infrastructure investment of about 600 billion U.S. dollars over the next 10 years, translating into about 60 billion U.S. dollars a year.

"ASEAN connectivity will never be fully achieved if we rely on government efforts alone. Private sector can assume an immense role in this task," he said.

The two-day symposium was organized by the ERIA and was attended by officials from ASEAN member states, ASEAN dialogue partners, international organizations and private sectors.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

PU'ER, Yunnan, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The largest hydropower station on Lancang River in southwest China's Yunnan Province -- known as the Mekong River in southeast Asia -- went into operation Thursday with its first power generating unit up and running.

The Nuozhadu hydroelectric station, located in the city of Pu'er, is China's 4th largest of its kind. It will be installed with nine same-size generating units with a total capacity of 5.85 gigawatts.

All the units will be put into operation by 2014, thus enabling the station to generate 23.9 billion kwh of electricity on average each year.

By churning out clean energy, the station will help save 9.6 million tonnes of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 18.8 million tonnes each year.

The dam of the Nuozhadu station is 261.5 meters high, the highest in Asia and the world's third highest.

As one of the seven planned hydropower projects on Lancang River inside China, the station will increase the electricity supply and optimize the energy mix and also help flood control and water use downstream, said Yunnan governor Li Jiheng.

The Lancang River, or Mekong River, rises on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before spilling into the South China Sea.

The river's China section has an estimated 32 gigawatts of exploitable water power resources as it flows through high mountains and valleys, with a huge drop in height at some points.

During the hydropower development, China has paid great attention to the protection of the river valley ecosystem and environment as well as water allocation along the river valley.

In recent years, many contractors and research institutes have conducted investigations with overseas counterparts on the impacts of hydropower development on downstream regions.

The research results showed that the water flow in the river's China section accounted for only 13.5 percent of the river's total, making the country's hydropower development have little impact downstream.

"First, the water flow inside China has a small share of the whole river valley; Secondly, hydropower generation doesn't consume water," said Ma Hongqi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. "So the hydropower development on the upper reaches has very limited impact on the water flow downstream."

Meanwhile, the dam stores water during the flood season and releases it during the dry season, which could help ease both flooding and drought in the countries downstream, Ma said.

Huaneng Lancang River Hydropower Co., Ltd., which runs the hydropower station, has also made efforts to protect the ecosystem and the fish in the river.

Wang Yongxiang, chairman of Huaneng Lancang River Hydropower, said the company has set up botanical gardens of rare plants and animal saving stations and also has taken measures to ensure zero emissions at the hydropower project.