Myanmar to partly reserve border trade system in course of heading towards normal trade system

Myanmar will partly reserve border trade system while it is in the course of changing the border trade system at all trade points into normal one, a local weekly reported Thursday.

In the transformation, 30 percent of the trading system will be re-kept with border trade system to facilitate the livelihood of the border inhabitants, while 70 percent will be adopted by normal trade system, an official of the Directorate of Border Trade under the Ministry of Commerce was quoted by the Khit Myanmar as saying.

In Myanmar's course of transforming border trade system into normal trade one, the Muse 105th Mile Border Trade Zone bordering China's Ruili in Yunnan province was established in April this year as the first and largest zone of its kind.

Another similar border trade zone in Myawaddy, a border town in southeastern Kayin state bordering Thailand's Maesot, is following suit as the second largest one to push the move.

Myanmar stressed five objectives of undertaking the border trade which include improvement of bilateral relations with neighboring countries, progress of border trade, transformation of border to normal trade and full collection of taxes.

Myanmar has a total of 13 main border trade points with four neighboring countries -- China, Thailand, India and Bangladesh.

According to Myanmar Commerce Ministry's statistics, the foreign trade of Myanmar in the fiscal year of 2005-06 which ended in March totaled 5.5 billion U.S. dollars, of which the border trade accounted for over 30 percent.

Source: Xinhua