The project would complete the north-south road system through the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), a growth area promoted by Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, and the Manila-based Asian Development Bank. The new bridge, which would be completed by 2011, would be financed by the Chinese and Thai governments, the ADB said in a statement.

Supachai Panitchpakdi, secretary general of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development and one of the pioneers of the GMS group, told reporters that the countries in the region now needed to revamp border and customs rules to reap the benefit of the physical links.

Exports of the countries in the greater Mekong region have quadrupled to US$182 billion in 2006 from US$37 billion in 1992 when regional integration was launched.

Annual tourist arrivals more than doubled to more than 22 million in 2006 from 10 million in 1995.

"What we've done is to replace the tanks and troops with trade and tourism," C. Lawrence Greenwood, ADB vice president told reporters referring to the Mekong region.