China Casts Increasingly Large Investment Shadow Over Southeast Asian Neighbors

Thinking of opening a textile mill in Kampuchea?

A shrimp farm in Vietnam?

Anything at all in Laos or Myanmar?

Then think fast and act, as China is increasingly dominating is Southeast Asian neighbors' economies.

Doubting Thomases should have a look at the document released last month by China's National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Blandly entitled, "Country Report on China' s Participation in Greater Mekong Subregion Cooperation I," the study delineates in detail Beijing's interest in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) nations of Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, lying along the Mekong River, the world's tenth longest river, which originates from the Tanggula Mountain Range on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China and runs 3,050 miles southwards through six nations before debouching into the South China Sea.

Beneath the leaden prose however is information that all potential southeast Asian investors should take cognizance of.

The report's Section Two begins, "Since the third GMS summit in 2008 and especially since the establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, bilateral trade between China and the other GMS countries has demonstrated a momentum of greater development with a further improved trade structure and fast increase in bilateral investment. China has also participated, in the form of joint ventures or…