A Myanmar-China border trade fair will be held in Myanmar’s border trade zone of Muse in December this year involving four other neighboring countries, the local Weekly Eleven reported Monday.

The three-day 8th border trade fair of the two countries, which will take place in the second week of December with unspecified date, will comprise 224 booths -- 107 from host Myanmar and 108 from China as well as 9 from Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Laos, the report said.

Displayed at the Myanmar booths will be products from the state sector represented by Livestock Breeding and Fishery Department, Ministries of Industry, Hotels and Tourism, and Agriculture and Irrigation as well as the private sector represented by the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Cooperatives and Muse-Nanhkam Border Trade Association, it said.

Myanmar products mostly cover agricultural produces such as various beans and pulses, maize and sesame, marine products, rubber, furniture and gem items.

Seminars on investment participated by entrepreneurs from neighboring countries will also be attached, it said.

Since 2001, Myanmar-China border trade exhibitions have been held annually and alternately in respective border towns and the last event was in December 2007 in Jiegao, Ruili, a Chinese border town in Southwestern Yunnan province linking Myanmar’s Muse, which is also known as the Muse 105th Mile Border Trade Zone.

The Muse border trade zone covers an area of 150 hectares and stands the first largest of its kind in Myanmar and the transformation of its border trade with China into normal trade has been underway since early 2005.

Meanwhile, Ruili also remains a main border trade point of China with its border trade volume alone accounting for 70 percent of Yunnan province’s border trade with neighboring countries.

China’s Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar, has more trade relations with the country than any other province of China and Myanmar-China border trade accounted for larger proportion of the two countries’ bilateral trade. The trend of rising border trade was apparently up year after year especially the Myanmar-Yunnan bilateral trade.

It is anticipated that in the future development, transit trade to the third countries would be launched through the two countries’ border points to effectively implement the normal trade.

Main items that Yunnan imports from Myanmar are agricultural products, aquatic products, minerals, rubber and its products, while main items that Yunnan exports to Myanmar are electric and machinery, textile, chemicals, steel, daily-used products, pharmaceuticals and so on.

Myanmar has a total of 13 main border trade points with its four neighbors, namely Muse, Lwejei, Laizar, Chinshwehaw and Kambaiti established with China since 1998, Tachilek, Kawthoung, Myawaddy and Myeik with Thailand since 1996, Tamu and Reedkhawdhar with India since 1995 and Maungtaw and Sittway with Bangladesh also since 1995.

According to Chinese official figures, in 2007, China-Myanmar bilateral trade hit 2.057 billion U.S. dollars, up 40.9 percent compared with 2006. Of the total, China’s exports to Myanmar took 1.686 billion dollars, up 39.6 percent, while its import from Myanmar stood 371 million dollars, up 46.9 percent. China enjoyed a trade surplus of 1.315 billion dollars. (news resource: xinhua)