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THAI Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra wants to help Burma develop its snow-capped mountains in Kachin state as international ski slopes.

"The Thai premier asked me to relay a message to the Burmese leaders that both countries should cooperate in developing the area in Kachin state once relations return to a normal situation," said Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, who made a one-day trip to Rangoon to try and defuse border tension between the two neighbours in early August.

Thaksin earlier said that the proposed ski resort in Kachin state would attract international tourists and earn income for cash-strapped Burma.

Kachin state is a mountainous area that borders Tibet, China, and India. The northern peaks surrounding the city of Putao are continuously covered in snow. The weather in the majority of the state is cool and temperate.

However, critics doubt whether the ski slopes would be economically viable since it takes 10 days on foot to reach the area from Kachin's state capital of Myitkyina. The state has been the site of skirmishes and intense fighting until the recent cease-fire agreement between the military junta and the Kachin Independence Organisation. (The Nation)


No Reef Blasting until Thai-Lao Border Issue is Resolved

THAILAND will not clear reefs and shoals in its navigable section of the Mekong River until border demarcation with Laos is resolved, amid concerns that the destruction could alter the borderline, a senior official said.

The Defence Ministry was reviewing a plan to blast the Mekong's reefs and shoals in the Kon Pi Luang area of Chiang Rai's Chiang Khong district, said Preecha Phetwong, of the Transport Ministry's Harbour Department.

The Thai-Lao Joint Border Committee is scheduled to complete the 976 kilometre-boundary demarcation of the Mekong by the end of next year.

The plan to clear the river is a part of an agreement among Burma, China, Laos and Thailand, signed in April 2000, to facilitate commercial navigation and improve trade links by enabling passage of larger cargo ships.

In an effort to allow 100 tonne to 150 tonne vessels to travel along the Mekong River between China and Luang Prabang in Laos for at least 11 months a year, the four nations need to deepen 11 sections of the river.

With a 5 million U.S. dollar outlay from China, two out of 11 sections along the river had been cleared in a Burma-Laos section, said Preecha. The last portion between Thailand and Laos would not be blasted until 2004, a year after the boundary demarcation between the two had been settled, he said.

Apart from the impact on national boundaries, conservationists and local communities have raised concerns that the river clearance will destroy native flora and fauna and affect traditional ways of life.

Blasting the reefs could jeopardise the survival of rare species such as the Mekong giant catfish, which spawns in the rapids, say environment activists. The Mekong river is home to around 1,200 fish species, including the critically endangered giant catfish. Around 200 fish species inhabit the reefs in Chiang Rai province, many of which are marked for blasting. (The Nation, Bangkok Post)