Myanmar: Border issues delay Myanmar-Laos friendship bridge trade

Myanmar: Border issues delay Myanmar-Laos friendship bridge trade

Thursday, 07 July 2016 – A newly built Myanmar-Lao friendship bridge will boost commerce between the two nations and will also allow more direct trade with Thailand, Vietnam and China, but the bridge remains closed while authorities on both sides struggle to agree on where the border demarcation should lie.
The presidents of Myanmar and Laos opened the bridge, which connects Eastern Shan State’s Tachileik district to Long district in the Lao province of Luang Namtha, in May last year.

The bridge is symbolic because it will be the first time in recent years that the two countries have been connected by an official border trading point and U Myint Oo, chair of Tachileik Border Trade Chamber of Commerce, told The Myanmar Times that Myanmar officials are eagerly awaiting the start of trade. Read More?