Foreign trade to increase to US$35 billion this year

Myanmar aims to raise its foreign trade volume by US$10 billion during the current 2014-15 fiscal year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Myanmar’s foreign trade volume gone has from US$15 billion to US$25 billion in three years.

“We intend to increase it to US$35 billion this fiscal year,” said Minister of Commerce Win Myint.

“National Planning approved this year’s trade volume to be US$25.7 billion. But we say that the amount is too small. This year is expected to be more because last year’s foreign direct investment brought much income. Exports to the EU market sill also be up more than last year,” he added.

Illegal trade continue to grow too, taking a chunk out of the total foreign trade volume, according to documents from the Ministry of Commerce.

From April 1 2013 to the end of March 2014, Myanmar’s export volume totalled at US$10.8 billion, US$ 8.1 billion coming from sea exports and US$2.6 billion from land border exports.

During the same period imports totalled at US$13.6 billion, with US$11.8 billion from overseas trade and US$1.7 billion coming in across borders.

source: Eleven Myanmar

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