Myanmar's border trade tops USD 2.4 billion at the end of August: Myanmar's Ministry of Commerce

3 Sep 2015 Trade between Myanmar and its four neighbouring countries has reached US$2.48 billion this financial year to date, a Ministry of Commerce official told The Myanmar Times.

Myanmar shares borders with Bangladesh, China, India and Thailand. Exports to these four countries from the start of April until the end of August generated $1.597 billion in income, said U Win Myint, director general of the International Trade Promotion Department under the Ministry of Commerce.
Over the same period, Myanmar imported $884 million worth of goods, he said. Imports from China were worth $618 million in the first five months of this financial year, according to official figures, while the value of exports to China was $1.48 billion.
Trading between Myanmar and Thailand was worth $349 million in total over the same period, $259
million of which was spent by Myanmar on imports. Myanmar has exported $16 million worth of goods to India and spent $6 million on imports from Asia’s third-largest economy so far this year, said U Win Myint.
Total trade between Myanmar and Bangladesh is over $3 million, comprising  $3.3 million of exports and just $30,000 of imports, he added.
Trade with China accounts for 87 percent of Myanmar’s border trade, while trade with Thailand is 12pc, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Official statistics suggest border trade with India accounts for just 0.8pc of the total and trade with Bangladesh a mere 0.2pc, said U Win Myint.
Official figures show border trade worth $407 million in financial year 2002. By 2007 this had reached more than $1 billion, increasing to $6.8 billion last fiscal year – with $4.2 billion in exports and $2.4 billion in imports, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
“Border trading is gradually increasing, but there are some challenges,” U Win Myint said.
Last year officials told The Myanmar Times that poor law enforcement at the borders and a lack of resolve in tackling illicit industries has led to wide-scale smuggling that could account for annual losses of up to half a trillion dollars, the equivalent of 20 times Myanmar’s estimated total trade volume.
They claimed that the government lacks the capacity to monitor border trade, and customs officials are in short supply and vulnerable to bribery and corruption.
A number of goods, including alcohol and agricultural products are traded illegally across the country’s porous borders, but the largest losses come from timber, gems and minerals exports, they said.


Source: http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/business/16294-border-trade-tops-2-4-billion-official.html