Myanmar's exports in the first four months (April-July) of this fiscal year 2005-06 totaled 1.2 billion US dollars and the figure will probably attain at least 4 billion US dollars for the entire fiscal year, a local press reported Monday.

In the last fiscal year of 2004-05, the country's exports were valued at 2.9 billion US dollars, while its imports stood 1.9 billion US dollars out of its total foreign trade volume of 4.9 billion US dollars, up 10 percent over 2003-04. During 2004-05, it gained a trade surplus of 954 million US dollars.

The Myanmar Times quoted some commerce officials as estimating that the exports of the entire 2005-06 could even hit 5 billion US dollars, based on a trade liberalization measure taken recently.

As a move to boost foreign trade, Myanmar has recently authorized the Trade Council, the highest commerce authorities, to directly issue all export and import licenses for businessmen doing foreign trade in the country from now on to substitute the previous complicated steps of approving the permit by three commerce authorities, thus delaying the export process.

Estimating that, under the new system which allows resumption of account transfer and the lifting of restriction on import items, the projected export earnings could be possible, said the commerce officials.

Besides, other facts that contribute to the possibility would be that Myanmar plans to export 500 million US dollars worth of marine products and another 500 million US in forest products during the present fiscal year, according to the officials.

Myanmar has set a target of 1.5 billion US dollars of bilateral trade with China, 1 billion with India and 50 million with Vietnam.

Source: Xinhua