Laos highway opening completes all-weather Southeast Asia to China land route

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BANGKOK, Thailand - The landlocked country of Laos has inaugurated a new highway that will allow a north-south land route connecting Southeast Asia and China to operate year-round, the Asian Development Bank said.

The opening of Route 3 fills in the last stretch of road for what is supposed to be an all-weather route that at its full length connects Singapore to Beijing, the bank said in a news release.

The highway links China's Yunnan province with northern Thailand via Laos.

The project to modernize the road network from the Thai capital Bangkok to Kunming, in Yunnan, was under development for more than a decade, the bank said.

© The Canadian Press, 2008