A Myanmar-China border trade exhibition, with participation of India, Bangladesh and Thailand, will be held in Myanmar's border trade zone of Muse in December, the local weekly Voice reported in this week's issue.

It will be the first time for Myanmar to hold Myanmar-China border trade fair with other neighbors in the newly-established Muse 105th Mile Border Trade Zone linking China's Ruili.

The three-day five-nation trade exhibition, which will run from Dec. 21 to 23, comprises 336 booths set up on a 1.2-hectare land plot.

Since 2001, Myanmar-China border trade exhibitions were held alternately in Muse and Ruili and the last event was in Muse in December 2004.

The Muse 105th Mile Border Trade Zone was established in April this year as the first and largest zone of its kind in Myanmar's course of transforming border trade system at all trade points into normal one.

A similar border trade zone in Myawaddy, a border town in southeastern Kayin state bordering Thailand's Maesot, is also being set up as the second largest one. More will follow suit including Tamu with India and Maungtaw with Bangladesh.

Myanmar has a total of 13 main border trade points with its four neighboring countries. With the participation of all of the four neighbors, the exhibition indicates that Myanmar is desired to boost its trade with the neighbors to transform border trade into normal trade, merchants said.

According to Myanmar statistics, the border trade volume at the Muse point in the first half of 2006 amounted to 311.068 million U. S. dollars, up correspondingly from 257.092 million dollars in 2005, while that at the Myawaddy point stood 48.927 million dollars in the first half of 2006, down slightly and correspondingly from 50.373 million dollars in 2005.

Statistics also showed that Myanmar-India border trade accounted for 15.76 million dollars in 2005-06 and 2.91 million dollars in the first quarter of 2006-07 (April-June), while Myanmar-Bangladesh border trade took 21.1 million dollars in 2005- 06.

Source: Xinhua