Myanmar to build railroad linking China's border town

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-20 21:26

YANGON: Myanmar will construct a new railroad to link Myanmar's border town of Muse with China's Jie Guo, Yunnan province to facilitate commodity flow in bilateral border trade, sources with the Rail Transportation Department said on Friday.

Rail track tracing work has been carried out and the railway station is planned to lie at Sone Kwe village near Lashio-Muse Union Road, the sources said.

Since decades ago, trading goods were transported by motor cars and trucks and once the railroad is completed, transportation would become rapid and help boost bilateral border trade, it said.

Meanwhile, commercial banks from Myanmar and its counterparts from Ruili and Jie Guo will establish a direct banking system starting next year for prompt trade transaction in bilateral payments which were settled in cash before, an earlier report said.

Myanmar has five border trade points with China, namely Muse, Lwejei, Laizar, Chinshwehaw and Kambaiti established since 1998.

Moreover, the country will add one more border trade zone in Yan Lone Chai township of Kokang region, the country's northern Shan State, the other report said.

The Myanmar-China border trade fair has been held annually and alternately in the two countries' border town of Muse (Myanmar) and Ruili (China) since 2001 and the last event was in Muse in December 2008. This year, the two countries' border trade fair is set for December 2-6 in Jie Guo (China).

Myanmar exports to China through Muse border trade zone agricultural produce such as rice, beans and pulses, corn and sesame, fruits such as mango, watermelon and muskmelon, and marine products such as fish, prawn and eel, minerals such as lead and jade, and timber and forest products, while importing from China in return iron, steel, construction materials, machine and machine tools, computer an accessories, farm implements, fertilizer, raw materials and household utensils.