2005 Progress Report

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Navigation Programme

The Navigation Programme (NAP) aims at promoting freedom of navigation and increasing the international trade opportunities for the MRC member countries' mutual benefit. It also assists in coordination and cooperation in developing effective and safe waterborne transport in a sustainable and protective manner for the waterway environment.

The programme has five components:

• Socio-economic Analysis and Regional Transport Planning
• Legal Framework for Cross Border Navigation
• Traffic Safety and Environmental Sustainability
• Information Promotion and Coordination
• Insitutional Development

The NAP implemented a preparatory phase in the past year and continued to establish the navigation working group. The programme has since achieved a number of key preliminary objectives in 2005, laying the foundation for its coming work.

• Following preparation of a detailed design for installing navigation aids between Phnom Penh and the Cambodia-Viet Nam border, work on the preparatory phases of the project began in September 2005. This 154km stretch of the Mekong is crucial for the improvement of maritime shipping between the two countries and their overseas partners. The project will increase safety, enable night navigation and increase international trade.
• Recommendations for cooperation between China/Myanmar and MRC on Mekong Navigation Development have been formulated, based on the Chinese navigation strategy and MRC policy on improving waterborne transport on the Mekong River System. The proposal involves activities on navigation, research and training.
• The Navigation Programme produced an Integrated Water Resources Management and Development Strategy. The document was prepared by NAP to guide the BDP team on how to integrate waterborne transportation as a sector into its Strategic Directions for Integrated Water Resources Management in the Lower Mekong Basin.

In late 2005 the the Navigation Programme received funding support from the Belgian Government, so 2006 will be the first year for large-scale implementation of the programme.

The Navigation Programme has selected five outputs covering activities related to navigation safety and efficiency, a legal framework for cross border transport (trade facilitation), and environmental sustainability on which to use this funding.

The five outputs which come under the umbrella of components 2,3,4 and 5, are:

• Installation of the aids to navigation on the Mekong River between Phnom Penh Port and the Cambodia-Viet Nam border. This will include a hydrographic survey, detailed design of the aids to navigation, international tendering for international companies to supply the material, a fully operational aids to navigation system and training of national counterparts.
• An updated and harmonised legal regime to guarantee freedom of navigation, consisting of legal and operational navigation agreements.
• Risk Analysis and Contingency Plans.
• Coordination, Institutional Building and Training. MRC will continue to develop its relationship with China and Myanmar and hopes to work more closely with its upstream neighbours on increased cooperation on Mekong navigation issues.
• Pilot projects on morphology and bank erosion in Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam and on hydrodynamic and morphological impact of dredging the Tonle Sap.