Regime seeks alternative routes to trade with neighbours

By Admin 05 Sep 2024

DMG Newsroom
5 September 2024, Sittwe

The military regime is using alternative routes to trade with bordering countries after most of its official trade camps across the country have seen commerce ground to a halt due to armed conflicts, according to a recent report of the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar (ISP Myanmar).

Anti-regime groups have seized five of 17 border trade stations across the country, and most of the border trade stations still under the junta’s control have also ceased operations, said the report.

“The regime is trying to find new routes after the existing border trade was halted,” said the report.

Since the launch of Operation 1027 in late October, anti-regime groups have seized the Muse, Chin Shwe Haw and Lwel Gel border crossings with China, the Maese border crossing with Thailand, and the Rikhawda border crossing with India.

Armed conflicts and anti-regime groups’ control of vital trade routes mean most trade camps that are still under the junta’s control are not operating either.

The regime has been working to resume the Thai-Myanmar border trade via the sea route from Yangon to Ranong via Kawthaung in Tanintharyi Region. Previously, the regime traded with Bangladesh via Maungdaw and Sittwe in Arakan State. It is now shipping goods from Yangon.

It is also using a border crossing in Mongla, Shan State, via the Taunggyi-Kengtung road to trade with China. The regime might build a new route using the Wan Pong jetty east of Tachilek, the ISP-Myanmar’s report said.

Illegal trade has surged in the meantime, according to ISP-Myanmar.

Said one merchant from Arakan State: “Since the launch of Operation 1027, the regime has cut off the areas where anti-regime groups were fighting it. Clashes also took place in border trade towns. So, merchants have sought alternatives to official trade.”

Trade through the Kanyin Chaung border trade camp in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township, and the Shwe Mingan border trade camp in Sittwe Township, has halted since the fighting broke out in November.

Illegal trade has increased at the Kanpiketi crossing with China in Kachin State, the Maw Taung crossing with Thailand in Tanintharyi Region and the Paya Thonezu crossing with Thailand in Kayin (Karen) State, according to ISP-Myanmar.