Thailand, Myanmar aim to double trade turnover

A border gate between Thailand and Myanmar. Bilateral trade via border gates constitute a major proportion of the total volume. (Source: channelnewsasia.com)

Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand and Myanmar have agreed to double bilateral trade turnover from the current 10 billion USD to 20 billion USD in 2017.

The information came during Thai Deputy Prime Minister Pravit Wongsuwan’s visit to Myanmar from June 29-30 to discuss ways effectively implement collaboration relationships.

The Deputy Minister met with Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw and State Counselor San Suu Kyi to discuss about the Special Economic Zone(SEZ) Dawei project, which is co-invested by Thailand and Japan.

The SEZ was originally designed to be one-quarter the size of Singapore , and exported to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and generate up to five percent of Myanmar ’s Gross Domestic Product, but was hit with obstacles in implementation.

The pairs also talked about restarting contentious demarcations of the shared border. Earlier, during Suu Kyi’s trip to Thailand , the two sides agreed to form a joint committee with members from both countries to sort out remaining border disputes.

On the occasion, the Thai Deputy PM, who is also Defence Minister, met with Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar army Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.-VNA