Sponsors have welcomed ASEAN member nations’ collaboration in transport,and pledged to maintain their support to the development of theregion’s transport infrastructure.

The commitmentwas heard at a meeting between ASEAN transport ministers and sponsors inPakse, Champassak province, Laos on December 20.

Attending the event were representatives from the Asian DevelopmentBank (ADB), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), theExport-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank), and the KoreaInternational Cooperation (KOICA).

Lao Minister ofPublic Works and Transport Sommad Pholsena presented the Brunei actionprogramme and transport projects that ASEAN members have worked ontogether in order to boost the grouping’s transport connectivity,heading towards the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015.

He also updated delegates on the difficulties the region is facing inthe field, and called on the sponsors to further their assistance ininfrastructure building so as to better link ASEAN with its partners,namely the Republic of Korea, China and Japan.

At the meeting, ASEAN’s sponsors also shared their coordinationexperience in helping the regional countries improve their transportsystems.

Over the past two decades, the sponsorshave actively aided ASEAN nations. Particularly, ADB has provided themwith 66 billion USD.-VNA