In the most recent effort to bolster connectivity, six countries along the Mekong River in December pledged to spend an additional $30 billion on related infrastructure projects over the next 10 years.
Despite the progress, experts are worried that a lack of safeguards at the borders and the overly expeditious nature of new projects stemming from ASEAN connectivity mandates could further enable growing trafficking and transnational crime operations.
“We all know it is already occurring – the transnational crime economy is quite big in the region and it goes through a lot of legitimate border crossings,” said Jeremy Douglas, regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC).
Douglas said that with human and drug trafficking already a major problem at existing borders throughout the region, new cross-border projects being proposed by financial institutions and ASEAN itself will likely only make the problem worse
“If things are stopped or slowed down at the borders [for more thorough security checks], businesses won’t like that. There is already a lack of a system in place – then you say you want to double the number of crossings,” he said.
“There are a lot of great ASEAN economic initiatives out there. The problem is that they are not adequate,” he said.
(Diplomat)
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