Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said China will accelerate construction of the Chinese section of the Kunming-Singapore Rail Link, also known as the Pan-Asian railway network.

Premier Wen Jiabao was speaking at the 10th ASEAN-China Summit in Cebu, the Philippines. He said China proposes that a strategic plan on China-ASEAN transport cooperation in the next 10 to 15 years be formulated to facilitate coordinated development of regional transport, improve integrated transport networks, and facilitate communication and transport in the region.

China and 17 other countries, many of them members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, signed an inter-governmental pact last November to build a Pan-Asian railway network, which would include an 81,000 kilometer-long network that would link four key railways in different parts of Asia.

One of the railways is the China-ASEAN link with three separate lines linking Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos with China. The rail will go on to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, and will be 5,500 kilometers long in total.

With its expected completion by 2015, the rail link will play a key role in pushing forward regional economic cooperation and integration.