India, Myanmar set $1 bn trade target in 2006-07

KOLKATA: India and Myanmar have set a $1 bn bilateral trade target in 2006-07, up from $557 million in 2004-05. To shore up bilateral trade, both countries are looking at cooperation in a host of areas, including agriculture, IT, automobiles, textiles, telecommunications and oil & gas.

"There's been a flurry of activity in the field of infrastructure development between India and Myanmar. India has offered $35 million as financial assistance to Myanmar for various development projects which includes multi-modal transport system, road, railways and telephone network," said Mr Sanjay Budhia, vice-president, ICC. He was speaking at a seminar on India-Myanmar Trade and Commerce organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ICC).

"Another economic area to explore in India-Myanmar relations is tourism. We can also find ways and means in services areas such as education and technology training," said Mr U Soe Paing, consul general, consulate general of Union of Myanmar, Kolkata.

According to a report released by ICC, India is ranked as the second-most important market for Myanmar exports and the seventh-most important source of its imports. Principal exports from Myanmar to India are rice, maize, pulses, beans, sesame seeds, fish and prawns, timber, plywood and veneer, raw rubber, base metals and castor seed. India's main exports to Myanmar are machinery and apparatus, dairy products, textile yarn, pharmaceutical products, rubber manufacturers and base metals.

But the full potential of bilateral trade has yet to be reached. Among ICC's recommendations to improve Indo-Myanmar trade and commerce, is the need to remove obstacles relating to transport, banking or other infrastructure. There's also a recommendation to expand cooperation into areas of culture, education, public health, small and medium-scale enterprise, among others.