Myanmar, India to cement economic, trade ties

---

YANGON, Nov 24 (Xinhua): Myanmar and India held its 9th round of consultations between foreign offices of the two countries here yesterday, agreeing to cooperate in a wide range of areas of mutual interest and promptly implement the bilateral agreements inked during the April visit to India by Myanmar leader Vice Senior-General Maung Aye.
The Myanmar-India foreign office consultations took place between delegations respectively represented by deputy minister or foreign secretary of the two countries U Kyaw Thu and Shivshankar Menon, according to Monday's official newspaper New Light of Myanmar.
Shivshankar arrived here Saturday for the meeting over seven months after the visit to New Delhi by Maung Aye, vice chairman of the State Peace and Development Council.
During Maung Aye's trip, three key documents were signed-a framework agreement on the construction and operation of a multi-modal transit and transport facility on the Kaladan River connecting the Sittway Port in Myanmar with the Indian state of Mizoram; a memorandum of understanding on intelligence exchange to combat transitional crime including terrorism; and an agreement on avoidance of double taxation for investors from the two countries and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.
The framework agreement includes upgrading of Sittway Port of Myanmar, improvement tasks for running of vessels along the route of Kaladan from Sittway Port to Sitpyitpyin and construction of roads from Sitpyitpyin to the border region.
Later in June this year, Myanmar and India reached four more economic cooperation agreements during a visit to Myanmar by Indian Minister of State for Commerce and Power Shri Jairam Ramesh.
These agreements, signed in Nay Pyi Taw, are on bilateral investment promotion, a 20-million-US-dollar credit line between the Exim Bank of India and the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) for financing the establishment of an aluminum conductor steel reinforced wire manufacturing facility, another 64-million-dollar credit line between the two banks for financing three 230-kilovolt transmission lines in Myanmar and the one for providing banking arrangement between the MFTB, Myanmar Investment and Trade Bank and the United Bank of India.
Ramesh made a study trip to Sittway, coastal city of western Rakhine state, and looked into a project site of a planned multi-purpose transport on the Kaladan River.
Relations between Myanmar and India, which share a border of over 1,600 kilometres, have been growing during the past few years with cooperation in all sectors, particularly in those of trade and economy.
Myanmar official statistics show that Myanmar-India bilateral trade reached 995 million US dollars in the fiscal year 2007-08 with Myanmar's exports to India accounting for 810 million US dollars and its imports from India 185 million dollars.
India stands as Myanmar's 4th largest trading partner after Thailand, China and Singapore and also Myanmar's second largest export market after Thailand, absorbing 25 per cent of its total exports.
The Myanmar compiled figures also show that India's contracted investment in Myanmar reached 219.57 million US dollars as of January 2008, of which 137 million were drawn into the oil and gas sector in September last year.
In the latest development, Myanmar and India are deliberating to upgrade its border trade carried out at Reedkhoda (India) and Tamu-Moye (Myanmar) to normal trade.
It was touched upon at the 3rd meeting of Myanmar-India Joint Trade Committee held in Myanmar's second largest city of Mandalay during Indian Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh's second visit to Myanmar in October this year.