The concept was agreed upon in 1998 at the Ministerial Conference of the Greater Mekong Subregion, organized in Manila, the Philippines.
By using the East–West Economic Corridor, the travel time between Bangkok and Yangon is three days, compared with the two to three weeks needed for conventional marine transportation via the Straits of Malacca.
[3] Tariffs for Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam will be abolished by 2018, all of have the cross-border transport agreement to simplify logistics and customs procedures.
[5] All the border crossings from India, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia to Vietnam already have the integrated immigration and customs checkpost that also allow foreign tourists with evisas.
Vietnam and Cambodia signed a MoU to upgrade the 195 km long Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh highway.