India-Myanmar deals to benefit Kingdom
India and Myanmar recently signed 12 memorandums of understanding (MoUs), including an aviation-services agreement, a US$500-million (Bt15.7 billion) credit line and a deal on border-area development.
According to the Thai Department of International Trade Promotion, the India-Myanmar MoUs also cover main-road development and improvement of a Tripartite Highway connecting India, Myanmar and Thailand. The agreements are part of India’s “Look East Policy”, which stresses trade, investment and tourism ties to Southeast Asia, Poom Sarapol, deputy minister of commerce, said yesterday.
If the Tripartite Highway is finished in 2016, Thailand will become a regional centre and India’s main target in trade and investment terms. India will use Thailand as a base for expanding trade and investment ties to Southeast Asia, and Thailand will use the highway to transport goods though Myanmar into India.
“Thai trade can expand more in Southeast Asia. The Tripartite Highway is a way to support logistics-system development to reduce Thai entrepreneurs’ costs,” he said.
In the last three years, trade between Thailand and other members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, or BIMSTEC, has expanded from $10.4 billion to $13.01 billion to $16.23 billion. In the first four months of 2012, total trade value was $5.30 billion – $3.28 billion of exports and $2.02 billion of imports. Thai-India trade had total value of $2.80 billion in the first four months of 2012; exports from Thailand were $1.78 billion and imports from India were $1.02 billion, said Poom.
