Thais call for ASEAN driver’s licence

[geovalin]

Chan Muyhong

Thailand’s Association of Domestic Travel (ADT) is pushing for an ASEAN driver’s licence in a bid to boost regional tourism ahead of ASEAN economic integration at the end of this year.

ADT Chairman Yutthachai Sunthornrattanavej revealed the plan to the Bangkok Post on Tuesday, saying he would soon submit a letter to that country’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

“[Now] the tourism atmosphere in provinces bordering Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia are lively and these new tourist groups have purchasing power,” Yutthachai said.

Travelling abroad using private cars has already become popular in the region, and allowing such licences would “encourage more Cambodians to travel abroad by car”, said Thoun Sinan, managing director of travel company B2B Cambodia

Ho Vandy, co-chair of the Tourism Working Group, said discussions about such a licence have been ongoing since 2005 between Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, but that little progress had been made.

“We are still discussing a single administrative application for travellers,” he said.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/thais-call-asean-drivers-licence

[Tomtomtom69]

This is a great plan, but I'm confused. Wasn't it just the other day when the director of the Thai Land Transport Department or LTD stated that Thai driver's licences are valid throughout ASEAN? So what's the difference between this "Asean" licence and the exiting Thai one, which apparently should already be valid in all 10 ASEAN countries?

I think Mr. Yuttachai needn't focus his attention on driver's licences as they don't have any meaning and hold no weight in determining whether you can bring a vehicle into a neighboring country for the purposes of tourism. That is a customs issue. Cambodian customs need to overhaul their system and implement an official system, which allows Thai cars to enter the country through ALL Thai and Lao border checkpoints, while also allowing Cambodian cars to officially exit the country at all of these checkpoints. A separate agreement with Vietnam would also help. Vietnam is a bit more delicate when it comes to the Thais though because they apparently don't want to budge and allow the Thais in, so most likely will only allow the Cambodians (as previously) and maybe the Laotians through their shared border crossings between Cambodia and Vietnam.

It would also be great if the Burmese opened up their country to individual car driving tourists and not just near the borders on a day pass but proper, independent car based travel to all open parts of the country.

If even just Myanmar and Cambodia could come on board this could be the start of something successful. Apart from that, the rules with China need to become more consistent and fair, however, to be fair China isn't even part of ASEAN so they have no obligation to be part of any ASEAN rules and regulations, even though they have expressed much interest in the economic block's integration.

Edited January 11, 2015 by Tomtomtom69