From October 1 to 18 of this fiscal year, the total external trade value hit 1.597 billion US dollars, down 284.233 million US dollars compared with the same period last year, according to the figures from the Commerce Ministry.

Currently, Myanmar mainly exports farm, animal, marine, forest, mining, CMP and other products and imports capital goods, industrial raw materials, personal goods and raw materials for CMP industries.

As the external trade sector sees great prospects, the total trade value is expected to exceed last year’s target of over 31 billion US dollars in 2019-20 fiscal year, said Aung Soe, Permanent Secretary of the Commerce Ministry, at The Global Value Chain and Economic Development, ADB-Asian Think Tank Development Forum 2019, at Park Royal Hotel in Yangon on October 22.

“Now we are making necessary preparations for it. The annual trade value is over 30 billion US dollars. Last year, the total trade value hit around 34.9 billion US dollars. The ministry is trying to increase the total trade value,” he added.

In 2018-19 FY, the total trade value was expected to hit 31.1 billion US dollars—15.3 billion US dollars for exports and 15.8 billion US dollars for imports.

In 2018-19 FY, the total trade value hit 34.979 billion US dollars, up over 3.8 billion US dollars. The export increased by 1.7 billion USD and the import, over 2.2 billion USD, according to the Commerce Ministry.