Myanmar’s border trade with Thailand severely disrupted by landslide on key road

By Admin 10 Aug 2023

DMG Newsroom
10 August 2023, Sittwe

The Trade Department announced on Tuesday that exporters and importers are allowed to use other routes after a road section on the Asian Highway crucial for Myanmar’s border trade with Thailand collapsed due to heavy rain.

The road section linking Myawaddy and Kawkareik townships in Kayin (Karen) State was blocked after heavy rains triggered landslides on Monday morning.

Merchants complain that other routes are not convenient for the transport of goods.

“If we have no other choices, we will have to use other routes. The problem is that many vehicles are still trapped on the highway. I have around 20 vehicles trapped there. They can’t proceed to Thailand because of the landslide, and they can’t also return to Thailand because of the floods in [Mon State’s] Bilin,” corn exporter Dr. Phyo Ko Ko Naing told DMG.

The junta-controlled state broadcaster MRTV announced that a Bailey bridge would be built over the collapsed section of the highway within one month.

The Thai border crossings are at Kayin State’s Myawaddy, Shan State’s Tachilek, Kawthoung, Htee Khee, Myeik and Mawtaung in Tanintharyi Region, and Mese in Kayah (Karenni) State but the Htee Khee and Maw Taung border crossings have been closed due to security concerns, and Myawaddy accounts for the majority of Myanmar’s trade with Thailand.

“We only have buyers in Myawaddy and Mae Sot, so it is not convenient for us to make exports through other border crossings. The buyer will only receive goods at the place that is convenient for him,” said corn exporter Ko Toe Htet Naing.

Transportation costs will increase if the other routes are to be used for imports, said merchants.

The old road linking Myawaddy and Kawkareik has been put back in use, but it is not convenient for cargo trucks and passenger buses to use the old road.

The driver of a Yangon-Myawaddy express bus line said: “Only small vehicles can use the old road, which is an earthen facility.”