This year's Myanmar-China Border Trade Fair is set to be held next week in the largest city in Northern Myanmar. According to an announcement made by the Ministry of Commerce on Monday, the four-day event will be showcasing various products and services from both sides to bolster trade relations between both nations.
The border trade fair, which will start on November 21 and end on November 24, was jointly organized by China's Lincang city government and Myanmar's commerce ministry. The event will feature a varied selection of products from both China and Myanmar, which will be displayed across 132 stalls during the four-day event.
Dozens of companies from China's Lincang city will be present during the event, showcasing products such as electrical appliances, household items, and other consumer products. Meanwhile, companies from Myanmar are expected to showcase various forestry, agricultural, and food products during the event.
According to the trade fair's organizers, the goal of the event is to further enhance trade relations between China and Myanmar, particularly between the cities of Lincang in China's Yunnan province and Lashio in Myanmar's northern Shan state.
Apart from trade, the event is also meant to foster interactions between traders from both sides, with the hopes of creating tourism and job opportunities for residents. Partnerships between companies from both sides are expected to generate possible new joint venture projects that will hopefully benefit all that are involved. Interactions between institutions are also expected to happen during the event, hopefully resulting in further collaboration.
Organizers are hoping that the event will become an annual tradition given the success of last year's fair. The 2018 Myanmar-China Border Trade Fair was held in the city of Muse in Myanmar last December. Apart from being a yearly tradition, organizers are expecting each succeeding year's border trade fair to be much larger in scale, attracting more participants from both sides.
Border trading between China and Myanmar has seen continued growth over the past couple of years. According to the Myanmar Ministry of Commerce, the last eight months saw border trade between the two nations reach over $4.3 billion.
As of June, official figures peg Myanmar's total export through Chinese border checkpoints to be around $3 billion. Meanwhile, its imports through the same borders from China have reached around $1.3 billion. Majority of the trade was done through the various Chinese borders located in the Myanmar cities of Muse, Chinshwehaw, Kengtung, Lweje, and Kanpikete.
