Myanmar To Serve As Gateway To South Asia, Says Thai Official

BANGKOK, Nov 28 (Bernama) - Thailand's neighbouring Myanmar will serve as a gateway to South Asia in the near future once physical connectivity within mainland Southeast Asia is fully available, Thai News Agency (TNA) reported.

During an economic seminar here, Akkasiri Buranasiri, director of Neighbouring Countries Economic Development Cooperation Agency stressed the importance of Myanmar as a gateway to the South Asian market comprising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives.

"South Asia has a population of 1.6 billion people, two times larger than the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)," said Akkasiri.

The idea of developing physical connectivity in mainland Southeast Asia was first raised in 1993 as part of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) development initiative.

Under this initiatvie, networks of land links are to be created and further developed into economic corridors connecting Southeast Asia with China and India and now expanding to cover Myanmar.

Olarn Chaiprawat, president of Thailand Trade Representatives and advisor to Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, said at the seminar that Myanmar also appears to be ready to serve as "garden" to Thailand's Kitchen to the World policy, thanks to the country's abundant resources such as seafood, rice, palm and rubber products.

Thailand could also expand investment projects into Myanmar in the food processing industry to ship processed food products to both West and South Asia, said Olarn.

The Thai government has focused on enhancing cooperation with Myanmar and South Asian countries through government-level exchanges of business visits.

source: Bernama
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v6/newsindex.php?id=712241