A MYANMAR Fisheries Federation official said it will be a challenge to meet a December target for completing a trading zone for fisheries products at Myawaddy in Kayin State.

Speaking after a visit to the project site on November 10, U Han Tun, the vice chairman of the federation and chairman of the committee overseeing the fisheries zone project, said much remained to be done.

“We went there to survey the 4-acre site allotted to the fisheries sector in Myawaddy and to review the construction plan,” he said.

“Export and import inspection checkpoints for the whole site are under construction and set to be completed at the end of December. The Directorate of Trade under the Minister of Commerce aims to complete the construction and run the whole zone at that time,” he said.

The 4-acre plot designated for the zone is about 640 metres from the nearest main road, said U Han Tun.

He said the route for the access road to the fisheries zone had been decided but was yet to be built.

“We still have to level the ground at the site and build the access road,” U Han Tun said.

“Shops are being built on both sides of the main road near the fisheries zone but work on facilities such as restaurants, hotels and guest houses has not yet begun,” he said.

“It is better if we start the work at the same time as neighbouring plots.”
The plots still lack water and electricity and one member of the federation said this alone could cost millions of kyats.

U Han Tun said electricity will be bought from Thailand and tube-wells have to be sunk for water.

Both the federation and the Department of Fisheries are still seeking contractors to build facilities in the zone.

The Minister for Livestock and Fisheries, Brigadier General Maung Maung Thein, has urged the federation to finish the work as soon as possible. The total project cost is not yet known.

“We doubt that the zone can be opened at the end of December even if we start the construction work now,” U Han Tun said, adding that the federation will do its best.

The Myawaddy Trade Zone, which adjoins Mae Sot in Thailand, was established as part of plans to transform some checkpoints from border trade to normal trade.

It is Myanmar’s most important border trade zone after the Muse Border Trade Zone with Ruili in China’s Yunnan province, which opened in April last year.

With the trade zone on the Myanmar side of the border, Thai traders will have to travel to Myawaddy to buy goods and arrange for them to be shipped back to Thailand, rather than being delivered there by Myanmar traders.

Department of Fisheries figures show that about 11 fisheries products are exported to Thailand through Myawaddy, mainly fish, crabs and eels.

The exports earned about US$18 million from April to mid-November. The fiscal 2007-08 target for fisheries exports through Myawaddy is $60 million.

Border trade between Thailand and Myanmar in fiscal 2006-07 was about $248 million, show official figures, or about 10 percent of total bilateral trade. Thailand is Myanmar’s top trading partner and the $2.66 billion total that year, dominated by gas exports, constituted about 30pc of total foreign trade.