The Union Parliament approved a USD 483.8 million loan from the Asian Development Bank last week to construct a highway that will eventually connect Yangon with the east coast of Vietnam.
The financing will help build the Bago-Kyaik Hto Expressway, a 62-kilometer stretch of highway connecting Bago Region and Mon State, according to the Irrawaddy. However, that stretch will fit within the East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC), which spans Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, ending at the latter’s Da Nang Port. The project has been in the works since 1998, and its first sections became officially operational in 2006. However, fighting along the eastern border stalled progress, with skirmishes breaking out along the highway and some ethnic groups setting up their own toll stations. Development began to gain momentum in 2015 following the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement and the completion of a new road over the Kawkareik Pass—a notorious chokepoint for freight crossing the Thai border.
As for the financing itself: In some ways, the massive ADB loan is a return to the status quo. Although Myanmar’s debt from international development loans has swelled during the COVID-19 pandemic, that money has mainly gone towards carrying out its sweeping COVID-19 Economic Relief Measures (estimated to cost USD 2.5 billion) rather than new infrastructure.
