Thailand’s cross-border trade up 26.7 percent in four months. - Illustrative image (Bangkokpost file photo) Bangkok (VNA) - Thailand’s cross-border trade rose by 26.7 percent in the first fourmonths of this year, raising itsgovernment's confidence that such trade will grow by 3-6 percent in 2021 afterdeclining 1.7 percent last year.
Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit revealed on June 1that the country's overall cross-border trade, including transit trade, totaled526 billion baht (16.86 billion USD) between Jan-April, 295 billion baht ofwhich belonged to border trade, up by 17 percent year-on-year, and 231 billionbaht from transit trade, a rise of 41.9 percent.
For border trade, Malaysia remained the biggestpartner of Thailand by value. Two-way trade between Thailand and Malaysia hit107 billion baht in the period (up 52.9 percent), followed by Laos at 71.2billion baht (up 13.5 percent), Myanmar at 60.2 billion baht (down 0.002percent) and Cambodia at 56.9 billion baht (down by 4.5 percent).
Meanwhile, transit trade of the Southeast Asian nation increased to all marketsin the period, with trade to southern China posting a 54.3 percent rise to 102billion baht, Singapore 34.6 percent to 36.2 billion baht, Vietnam 22.5 percentto 22.4 billion baht.
The strong growth in cross-border trade is attributed to close cooperationbetween the ministry, related state agencies and the private sector through theJoint Public and Private Sector Consultative Committee on Commerce to eliminateexport obstacles and speed up reopening of border checkpoints, Jurin said./.