The Thai government is mulling the guidelines and standards for the vital infrastructure that will link the country with Myanmar’s Dawei Special Economic Zone.

Thailand’s National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) has requested the Thai Council of Ministers to follow its formal guidelines for planned roads and railways that will link the city of Dawei, in Myanmar’s southern peninsula, with the Thai border, the Bangkok Post reported. These projects aim to be key trade routes between the two countries and adopt the Dawei SEZ into Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor.

The negotiations are largely out of Myanmar’s hands, but they are the latest development in Thailand’s ongoing effort to develop new trade routes and partnerships with Myanmar. One key infrastructure project will be a new highway linking Dawei with Kanchanaburi, Thailand. The three-year project will be financed by a MMK 220.6 billion, 0.1 percent interest loan from Thailand.

If completed as planned, the Dawei SEZ would be one of the largest SEZs in Southeast Asia. But Myanmar’s partnership with Thailand has been mired in disputes since the project’s 2008 launch, and progress has been slow. Both countries agreed to speed up development of the Dawei SEZ in an August meeting in Nay Pyi Taw.

Meanwhile, the bulk of Myanmar’s land trade with Thailand passes through the border town of Myawaddy, on the Moei River. The two countries recently completed a second bridge linking Myawaddy with its Thai counterpart Mae Sot, and in October Thai and Myanmar officials inked an MOU to support the use of both Thai baht and Myanmar kyat for border commerce.