Mizzima: Trade link between China a

[mizzima@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Trade link between China and India via Burma

New Delhi, June 6, 2000
Mizzima News Group (www.mizzima.com)

China has proposed to build a passage through Burma to India to
facilitate trade and tourism in the region.

Speaking at a news conference in New Delhi on Monday, Indian Heavy
Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Mr. Manohar Joshi said that
China wanted to sign an agreement for the construction of a highway
running through China, Burma and India.

Mr. Joshi was in China last week as part of President K. R. Narayanan's
six-day State Visit to China.

At present, large volumes of unreported exchange of goods between China
and India (via Burma) is going on within or without the normal border
trade routes.

As economic interaction between Burma and China's Yunan province has
deepened rapidly, Chinese goods free-flow from Yunan into the India's
North East states such as Manipur and Mizoram.

China-made goods like electronic items, clothes, bags, and cigarettes
are easily available in Indian north eastern states and they reached up
to Guwahati with cheaper prize than India-made ones.

"Burma Bazar" in Manipur's capital Imphal is full with colourful Thai
and Chinese goods, which come via Moreh trade route.

Yunan, China's landlocked southwestern province, wants to revive the old
"Southern Silk Route" which linked all these regions.

It is also actively supporting for the economic integration among
countries of China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, which
are bordering the Mekong River.

"Stillwell Road" that connects Yunan province in China, Myitkyina in
Northern Burma and India's North East is being looked into for revival
with the aim to promote regional integration.