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Myanmar takes measures to boost trade

Xinhua, August 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

Myanmar's new government has taken measures to enhance trade by lifting some restrictions since it took office in April .

The ministry of commerce announced on Wednesday to lift such restricted export items as sesame oil, mustard seeds and mustard oil, sunflower seeds and sunflower oil, residues of edible oil extraction, residues of shrimp extraction.

" All liftings are intended to be part of measures to boost export. At present, there remains only about 10 items in the restricted list of export," U Aung Soe, director general of the ministry, told Xinhua.

The ministry has also planned to allow gold and other value added jewelries to be exported and revision of regulations are underway, U Aung Soe added.

Early this month, the ministry also allowed importing of 267 items without licenses starting September this year. Moreover, a working group for international trade, International Trade Supply Chain (ITSC), has been formed comprising government officials and local entrepreneurs with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in order to focus such areas as trade finance and trade policies required to be reformed.

The ministry has also liberalized such restriction in early June by granting export/import licenses to foreign joint ventures on construction materials in order to meet the international trade regulations of the World Trade Organization(WTO) and to boost the country's construction sector.

The government announced to start Myanmar Automated Cargo Clearance System (MACCS) in November this year to improve the delayed customs clearance process and promote trade flow.

The new government has announced economic policies in late July which cover enhancing agriculture, livestock and industrial sectors to boost not only the export but also food security.

U Than Myint, minister for commerce, pledged in April that the ministry targeted to triple the export, saying that improving export and enhancing productivity are the best solutions to solve the current economic problems in the country.

The new government also pledged to continue implementing former U Thein Sein government's National Export Strategy (from 2015-2016 to 2019-2020) which was announced in March last year, U Than Myint added.

Myanmar expected the country's trade value to reach 31 billion U.S. dollars in this fiscal year 2016-17. The country's trade value reached about 27 billion U.S. dollars in the previous fiscal year 2015-16, down by about 2 billion U.S. dollars from 2014-15.

The trade deficit for the fiscal year 2015-16 stood at 5.4 billion U.S. dollars while that of the fiscal year 2014-2015 was 4. 04 billion U.S. dollars. Myanmar's export value stood by over 11. 04 billion U.S. dollars in the fiscal year 2015-2016. Endit