Thailand’s cross-border trade rose by 26.7 percent in the first four months of this year, raising its government’s confidence that such trade will grow by 3-6 percent in 2021 after declining 1.7 percent last year.
However, cross border trade with Cambodia dropped by 4.5 percent during the same period, due largely to border closures.
Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit revealed on June 1 that the country’s overall cross-border trade, including transit trade, totaled 526 billion baht (16.86 billion USD) between Jan-April, 295 billion baht of which belonged to border trade, up by 17 percent year-on-year, and 231 billion baht from transit trade, a rise of 41.9 percent.
For border trade, Malaysia remained the biggest partner of Thailand by value. Two-way trade between Thailand and Malaysia hit 107 billion baht in the period (up 52.9 percent), followed by Laos at 71.2 billion baht (up 13.5 percent) and Myanmar at 60.2 billion baht (down 0.002 percent).
Meanwhile, transit trade of the Southeast Asian nation increased to all markets in the period, with trade to southern China posting a 54.3 percent rise to 102 billion baht, Singapore 34.6 percent to 36.2 billion baht, Vietnam 22.5 percent to 22.4 billion baht.
The strong growth in cross-border trade is attributed to close cooperation between the ministry, related state agencies and the private sector through the Joint Public and Private Sector Consultative Committee on Commerce to eliminate export obstacles and speed up reopening of border checkpoints, Jurin said. VNA
This article was first published in Khmer Times. All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.
