The Export-Import Bank of Thailand will open its first overseas representative office in Yangon, Myanmar, by April. The office will provide mainly overseas investment financing, trade financing, investment insurance, and export credit insurance.
EXIM Bank has been given a license to open an office in the former capital city by the Central Bank of Myanmar. The next step is to seek a permit to trade and register its representative office with Myanmar’s Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development. Pisit Serewiwattana, President of EXIM, said: “(our bank) is ready to support Thai entrepreneurs wishing to expand their export markets or in relocating their factories to Myanmar with a view to lowering their production and transportation costs and better serving their consumers, both the Myanmar and foreign investors whose business operations in Myanmar have been on the rise. This is also a move in response to Myanmar’s burgeoning urbanization, infrastructure and manufacturing development, while nurturing social and economic development of ASEAN as a whole.
Thailand is one of Myanmar’s major trading partners and foreign investors. Major Thai exports to Myanmar are beverages, sugar, finished oil products, machinery and equipment, and chemicals. Main imports from Myanmar are petroleum products, meat, live animals, metal ores, vegetables and fruits. EXIM is a Thai state-owned financial institution under the Ministry of Finance’s supervision. It officially started its operations in 1994.
