Businessmen in Myawaddy, Karen State, opposite Mae Sot in western
Thailand, will soon be issued with border trade permission cards to conduct
work legally even if they do not have a company license, according to a Burmese
government official.
Yan Naing Tun, the director of
Border Trade Department in Myawaddy, made the announcement after a meeting with
the Thai Ministry of Commerce in Tak Province regarding boosting bilateral
trade.
“We are going to produce
permission cards for those who cannot set up company licenses to let them trade
freely,” he told journalists on Thursday.
The cards will be shown at
checkpoint gates to allow local businessmen to import Thai goods and distribute
them to other parts of Burma. Until now, those without a company license would
have to bribe an unscrupulous customs official.
Many border traders in Myawaddy
who usually have to pay extra “tea money” to earn a living have welcomed the
move. “Border traders will not have to stay under control of big companies
anymore,” said local entrepreneur Yan Naing Tun.
Border traders say that the cards
will boost trade and make prices more competitive. In the past, those working
outside a company would often have goods confiscated at checkpoints if they
could not afford a bribe or the official was unwilling to accept one. Sometimes
registered companies would secretly transport goods on behalf of casual traders
in exchange for a fee.
“We will only pay taxes to the
Border Trade Department and then nothing goes to anyone else,” Myawaddy
businesswoman Sein Aye told The Irrawaddy. “We do not have to be afraid about
the authorities seizing our belongings. Let those who made this decision have a
long life!”
Burma has been undergoing
tentative political reforms over the course of the last year yet local people
in Myawaddy say that this is the first time that they have felt any benefits.
Border authorities in India produce similar permission cards which allow casual
traders to conduct business freely across in Burma’s Tamu Township in Chin
State.
Myawaddy Town is the second
largest border trading zone in Burma after Muse by the Chinese border in Shan
State. Burmese border traders in Myawaddy import three billion baht (US $3.5
million) worth of goods every month, according to the Thai Ministry of Commerce
in Tak Province.
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