Mekong Delta plans go adrift

04 Jun 2013  2040 | World Travel News

KIEN GIANG, 3 June 2013: Plans to create a tourist circuit linking coastal areas of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand have a hit a major snag due a lack of infrastructure and investor interest.

Tourism policy makers mainly at government level had set out a plan for a sea route linking the Mekong River Delta province of Kien Giang to Sihanoukville in Cambodia and Trat province in Thailand.

The Asian Development Bank funded an extensive study of the coastal route that surveyed attractions and outlined a plan to build infrastructure such as roads and encourage private sector investment in hotels and resorts.

But the ambitious project  failed to attract investors according to a three-country meeting held late last month.

The sea tour, a core feature of the plan, was first mooted in 2006, but has failed to  move forward mainly due to a reluctance on the part of shipping companies to take a risk.

Thailand’s Chanthaburi deputy governor, Pongrat Phiromrat, said the province has built a US$1 million seaport that could become the home port for leisure and cargo vessels serving the coastal region. No private companies have shown interest in managing the port and there are lacks of shipping firms with the right kind of vessels to offer commercial services linking the coastal towns of three countries.

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s Kien Giang deputy chairman, Mai Van Huynh, reported the port at the Vietnamese end of the route  was also ready, but there was only one ship available to offer a service that could meet international tourism standards.

“The province would need to solicit investment from shipping firms…the sea tour  can only start when all facilities are in place and the route and attractions have been tested,” he said.

Kien Giang province is keen to establish the route as it would eventually allow tourists to travel east through southern Cambodia and then to Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region completing the trip in Ho Chi Minh City.

He told Vietnam local media that all paperwork and agreements to start a sea tour of Ha Tien, Rach Gia, and Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam, Sihanoukville in Cambodia, and Trat and Chanthaburi in Thailand were in place.

“The only thing left are the investors,” he concluded.

By sea, it takes about two-and-a-half hours to go from Phu Quoc to Sihanoukville and two more hours to reach Trat, according to rough estimates by the authorities. By land from mainland Vietnam the trip covers  350 km of roads to reach the Thai border.

Tourism Authority of Thailand’s Ho Chi Minh City office director, Chutathip Chareonlarp, said a project of this magnitude could not be completed in a short time.

“Tourism discussions are reasonably good, with tourism operators from Trat, Chanthaburi, and Rayong visiting Ho Chi Minh City to look at the potential opportunities,” the director added.

But progress is limited to talks and studies. Many of the projects in the Mekong Region face the same fate. Governments create ambitious concepts, ADB funds the plans, but there is a lack of co-ordination with the private sector to bring in investors and sell them on the ideas presented in ambitious ADB master plans.

In some instances, the routes are impractical, but government officials are not going to admit they have wasted valuable financial resources and  agreed to take loans from ADB that are unlikely to bring any tangible benefits to the economy or develop meaningful community-based tourism opportunities.

Even such failure has an up-side for government officials involved in tourism planning and development. They usually convince ADB to fund a seminar or workshop, all expenses paid by the bank to carry out a postmortem.

 

Sourced: ttrweekly

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