In the Greater Mekong Subregion, official and unofficial exchanges of people, goods, capital, and information are increasing at border areas. An understanding of the political, economic, and social dynamics of these border areas is important to the promotion of stable development in East Asia.
To this end, this project centers on Thailand's Chulalongkorn University and is conducted in collaboration with Yunnan Academy of Social Science, the National Economic Research Institute of Laos, and other supporting institutions of the countries concerned. Joint research is being conducted through the project to understand the realities of trade that is conducted in border areas of the five countries (Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, and China's Yunnan Province) of the Greater Mekong Subregion.
In fiscal 2007 interviews and other on-site surveys were conducted in eight locations, including Chiang Ray on the Thai, Myanmar, and Laotian border, and in Ruili, on the border of Yunnan Province and Myanmar. Survey results, which have been compiled into a report, show the region's capital flows (such as shifts in direct investment, business clusters, and industrial structures); trade-related activities, including smuggling (such as product portfolios and distribution channels); and human migrations (among tourists, itinerant laborers, immigrant shifts, etc.); as well as the societal changes and influences that accompany these phenomena.