Myanmar to open one more border trade point with Thailand

YANGON, March 12 (Xinhua) — Myanmar will open one more border trade point with Thailand, aimed at promoting border trade with the neighboring country in the southeast, a local media reported Monday.
The Mawhtaung border trade point in southern Tanintharyi region will become the fifth with Thailand, according to the Global News.
Myanmar’s border trade with Thailand amounted to 274 million U. S. dollars in fiscal year 2009-10, according to official figures.
Before the opening of the new trade point, Myanmar has a total of 12 border trade points, of which four link with China, four with Thailand, two with India and two with Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, a highway linking Bangkok and Dawei of the Tanintharyi region to promote trade is under implementation and it is targeted to complete within one and a half years.
According to official statistics, Myanmar’s border trade amounted to over 3.046 billion U.S. dollars in fiscal year 2011-12, up about 60 percent from more than 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2010-11.
The increase of border trade volume was due to the rise of nearly 1 billion U.S. dollars’ export.
Myanmar’s border trade was dominated by that with China, followed by Thailand, India and Bangladesh.