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INDIA RAISES OPENING OF ANOTHER BORDER POINT WITH MYANMAR
India has raised the issue of opening another border point with Myanmar besides increasing the commodities basket as part of increasing bilateral trade between the two countries.
Asia Pulse: 15 May, 2006
India has raised the issue of opening another border point with Myanmar besides increasing the commodities basket as part of increasing bilateral trade between the two countries.
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath flagged this issue with his Myanmarese counterpart Brig Gen Tin Naing Thein during a meeting of India-Myanmar Joint Trade Committee here, an official release said.
"Our Bilateral Border Trade Agreement inked in 1994 provides framework facilities by which trade is being carried out through the designated border points of Moreh-Tamu and now Zowkhathar-Rhi since January 2004. We now hope to add another border trading point at Pangsau Pass," Nath said.
He also favoured increasing the border trade commodities basket from the present limited list of 22 commodities but said the two countries needed to study the obstacles that stand in the way of bilateral trade, whether they relate to banking, transport or other infrastructure related problems.
Nath said though trade has risen to more than US $500 million in 2004-05, this was still short of the target set by the two sides at the first JTC meeting in Yangon in 2003.
Both Nath and Brig Gen. Thein emphasised the natural complementarities of the two economies and noted that after Myanmar's entry into ASEAN and Bay of Bengal Initiative for MultiSectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), new avenues had opened for greater cooperation on a bilateral and regional basis.