A truck travels on the upgraded Momauk-Lweje road. Pic: Aye Lei Tun

MERCHANTS in Bhamo in Kachin State said last month that border trade with China has tripled in the region since the completion of construction work on a road linking the nearby town of Momauk with Lweje on the Chinese border.

The project to upgrade a 76-kilometre (47-mile) stretch of dirt road between Momauk and Lweje into a 4.6-metre-wide (15-foot-wide) gravel road was started in December 2005 by Chinese construction experts and completed last December.

Local traders said an average of about 150 trips by motorbike and 50 trips by lorry were made on the road every day in the first few months following the completion of the project.

“The trip from Bhamo to Lweje used to take nearly 10 hours but now we can get to the border in about three hours if weather conditions are good,” said U Phe Tin, a merchant who lives in Bhamo.

“Now commodities can be transported much faster, so most Chinese traders prefer the new road to other border roads,” he said.

He said transporting Chinese goods through Bhamo was less expensive than bringing them by road from the border town of Muse in northern Shan State.
“It is less expensive to import goods by road through Lweje to Bhamo and then carry them down to Mandalay on the Ayeyarwady River,” U Phe Tin said.

Border trader U Win Zaw said the flow of goods from China to Bhamo has tripled since the road project was completed.

“We get foodstuffs, electronic devices and textiles imported from China and we export seasonal fruits, beans, rice and onions from Myanmar,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that the Momauk-Lweje road was more popular for importing Chinese goods than exporting Myanmar products.

“About 75 percent of the products exported from Myanmar to China still go through the Muse-Ruili checkpoint,” he said.

U Win Zaw said that even with the upgrade the road was still difficult for lorries during the rainy season.

“When the weather is good we can use lorries but when it is raining we rely on couriers carrying goods on motorbikes,” he said.

One motorbike courier named U Sein Lawe said he can make at least two trips a day on the upgraded road if the weather cooperates.

“I mostly carry foodstuffs from China and I take as much as I can on each trip. I can make a profit of about K10,000 to K20,000 on each trip. If the merchants pay the money in advance, I can carry a lot more and make a profit of at least K40,000 per trip,” he said.

He said the number of motorcycle couriers working on the Momauk-Lweje road has doubled to more than 100 since the upgrade project was finished.