Ruili (Mizzima) – Sino-Burmese border trade is taking a beating and passenger bus services on the second biggest border trade zone, Bamo-Lweje, have dwindled to a quarter because of a ban on the import of Chinese goods.
The Burmese military junta banned import of Chinese goods from Jiang Peng, opposite Lweje, this month following which the volume of traffic fell considerably. Two passenger bus companies, Sein Lone Taung Dan and Shwe Hlegar plied over 70 buses. Now only 20 buses are plying on this route.
“Many buses have stopped plying. Of 70 to 80 buses, only 20 ply on this route due to reasons which are purely economic,” a bus driver from ‘Shwe Hlegar’ said.
The service is provided by Toyota Hilux pickup trucks and highway buses. Most of the cars are Hilux.
“We could not ply buses on this route for over a week. Our bus has been run on a trial basis for 1 to 2 days,” the wife of a driver of a highway passenger bus said.
Import of Chinese goods was banned after a complaint was lodged with Naypyitaw (capital) against government employees manning the checkpoints on the border trade route for extorting money from bus owners and traders.
“The Director of Na Ka Tha (Border Trade Authority) lodged a complaint against his subordinates to Naypyitaw at the beginning of this month. The higher authorities came and monitored the checkpoints and departmental business operations. It is now difficult for traders to cross the checkpoints,” a trader from Lwe Je said.
“They did not ban plying of buses on this route but prohibited import of Chinese goods. Passenger buses are still operating on this route but the numbers have fallen. This fresh ban has hit medium and small traders and the government employees,” he said.
“We cannot get a lot of goods from our customers now. Now we can get only a small amount of original (officially) imported goods from them. The goods cannot be imported into Burma because of the government staff. The situation has changed drastically. The number of traders travelling on this route has plummeted. We can barely recover fuel costs from our transport business, which is about Kyat 40,000 to 60,000 per trip,” he said.
After the Director of Border Trade Authority at Lwe Je complained against his subordinate staff members, the authorities upped and banned the import of Chinese goods. But no action was taken action against the staff members. Some were reportedly transferred to other places.
“We haven’t yet heard of any arrest. But we are having difficulty in carrying contraband goods because of strict monitoring. As such many staff members from Lwe Je office are frustrated,” a trader from Lwe Je said.
Observers living on the Sino-Burmese border said that it was strange to see import of Chinese goods being banned. Extortion and demands for protection money on these border trade routes such as Bamo-Lwe Je and Bamo-Laiza by government staff manning these checkpoints are not new and have existed for a long time.
The banned on imports of Chinese goods was made following a visit by Vice-Senior Gen. Maung Aye to the 105-mile Sino-Burmese border trade zone in early July.
