Abstract
The Economic Quadrangle has become a popular motif in discussions of Southeast Asia’s northern borderlands. For its proponents in international development organizations, national governments, and regional chambers of commerce, the Quadrangle is an ambitious vision of liberalized economic integration across national borders and rugged terrain. Creation of transport linkages between the expanding economies of northern Thailand and southern China via the hinterlands of Myanmar and Laos is promoted as a sure path to regional development and prosperity. In the tawdry tourist stalls where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos meet on the Upper Mekong, Economic Quadrangle tee-shirts (four flags and a river of blue) are now sold alongside the opium memorabilia and Golden Triangle kitsch (three flags and a poppy) of an earlier socio-geometric era. A new frontier, we are told, is opening up: a deregulated Upper Mekong corridor, a new era for the borderlands.
“The Economic Quadrangle” is now the focus of Asia … as the economic place for consumers who demand more choices for shopping and excursion. Also investors, businessmen and manufacturers who are intent to expand their trading, and investment can aim at increasing their benefits…. We are ready for those investors, who are aiming for success, and profits, by cooperating with the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. This is a golden opportunity in doing business, in the area full of natural resources and labour with lower wages. Therefore we can assure you of stability and achievement in business. (The Economic Quadrangle Joint Development Corporation, promotional brochure, 1996)
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© 2000 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
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Walker, A. (2000). Regional Trade in Northwestern Laos: An Initial Assessment of the Economic Quadrangle. In: Evans, G., Hutton, C., Eng, K.K. (eds) Where China Meets Southeast Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-11123-4_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-11123-4_7
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