The Asian Development Bank (ADB) to give a USD 100 million loan to improve a 66.4-kilometer section of road in Kayin State, connecting Eindu with Kawkareik which is the missing link of the East-West Economic Corridor

After decades of sectarian conflict and isolation, landlocked Kayin State in southern Myanmar is changing. Many of the resources that sustained years of conflict have been used up, forests cut down and roads built.

The Thai government has long-since abandoned its buffer state policy and companies from the bordering country have joined local firms in logging and transforming land for agriculture, chiefly rubber and coffee.

The state’s chief minister told The Myanmar Times earlier this year he is ready to move on from conflict and isolation, with his hopes resting on the delayed East-West Economic Corridor, a project backed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The 1450-kilometre (900-mile) highway will link Vietnam with Laos and Thailand, passing through Kayin State to the port of Mawlamyine.

Yesterday the ADB approved a US$100 million loan to improve a 66.4-kilometre section of road in Kayin, connecting Eindu with Kawkareik – the East-West Corridor’s missing link.

Twenty-five percent of Myanmar’s border trade passes along the existing road through Kayin State to Thailand, said James Leather, the ADB’s principal transport specialist for Southeast Asia, in a statement.

The new road will bring greater economic opportunities for the state, he said. It will be upgraded over three years, with sections in flood-prone areas raised and drainage improved.

Once the road is complete, Da Naing in Vietnam will link with Mawlamyine and Yangon. The Thai government is upgrading the road between Kawkareik and Myawaddy, on the border with Thailand and Myanmar’s government is rebuilding the section between Eindu and the Yangon-Mawlamyine highway.

​