MYANMA Five Star Line (MFSL) plans to buy additional container vessels to service new destinations within Asia in the next few months as part of a push to secure a bigger slice of Myanmar’s international shipping trade, an official with the state-run enterprise said.

“We hope Myanmar’s regional trade will increase after the expansion of services,” MFSL assistant general manager U Soe Maung said.

He declined to say how many ships the company would buy or specify which new ports it aimed to visit, but mentioned China and India as potential new destinations.

“We currently have four container vessels which run to Singapore and Malaysian ports” about 10 times a month, he said.

The enterprise also has cargo ships running between Yangon and Bangladesh, Thailand, Pakistan, Japan and South Korea.

U Soe Maung added that MFSL aimed to start cargo shipping services to Sri Lanka “very soon” in accordance with an agreement reached during a high-ranking government visit to Colombo in August.

MFSL managing director U Maung Maung Nyein told The Myanmar Times earlier this year that there was a lot of potential for domestic enterprises to expand their role in Myanmar’s shipping trade.

About 75 percent of the 650-800 foreign-going vessels visiting Myanmar ports each year belonged to foreign companies, he said in July, shortly after the government announced the private-sector would be allowed to start international shipping operations for the first time.

Myanma Five Star Line operates a fleet of 16 foreign-going vessels, five domestic coastal ships, two passenger ships and three mixed cargo-passenger vessels.