India to build seaport in Myanmar

Yangon: Myanmar and India have agreed to work for the multi-model project in Sittwe port in the Myanmar western Rakhine coast with Indian investment of 4.5 billion rupees (100 million US dollars), a local weekly journal reported today.

To connect with East Asia, the Sittwe port project, which is 160 kilometres from Indian northeastern Mizoram, would start in January next year and it would be completed within the next three years, the Khit Myanmar quoted Indian sources as saying.

Implementation of the Sittwe port project mainly aimed at promoting trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries without using the Bangladeshi territory, and the India's public sector organisation (RITES) is to rebuild the port, it added.

Relations between Myanmar and India have been growing during the past few years with cooperation in all sectors, particularly in those of trade and economy, setting a target for their bilateral trade to attain 1 billion US dollars by 2006.

According to official statistics, Myanmar-India bilateral trade, including the border trade, amounted to 557.68 million dollars in the fiscal year 2005-06 which ended in March, up 24 per cent from 2004-05. Of the total, the border trade accounted for 15.76 million dollars.

The Myanmar-India border trade for the first quarter of 2006-07 (April-June) amounted to 2.91 million dollars.
Myanmar-India border trade started in 1994 and so far there are two border trade points set up on the Myanmar side-Tamu (opposite to India's Moreh) and Reedkhandhar ( linking India's Zokhawthar).

It is expected that a border trade zone in Tamu will be established in the future as part of Myanmar's plan of setting up such zones with neighboring countries in the process of transformation of its border trade system at all trade points into normal one following the emergence of such zones in Muse with China in April this year and Myawaddy with Thailand being established.

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.

Figures also show that India's investment in Myanmar had reached 35.08 million dollars in three projects as of January this year out of Myanmar's total foreign investment of 7.985 billion dollars since late 1988.

India's latest and main involvement in Myanmar includes the building of the 133-million-US-dollar Reed-Falam road, optic fibre link project between India's Moreh and Myanmar's Mandalay, and natural gas exploration and production at block A-1 and A-3 in Myanmar's Rakhine offshore areas being carried out under a consortium led by South Korea's Daewoo International Corporation, in which the ONGC Videsh Ltd of India holds 20 per cent of stake and the Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) 10 per cent.

India has been seeking to buy gas produced from the two Myanmar blocks and ways of laying the pipelines from Myanmar to India are also being sought.