Eighty percent of freights to international destinations are carried via sea routes, 10 percent by air and 10 percent by road, estimated Myanmar International Freight Forwarders’ Association (MIFFA).
However, local freight transporting primarily depends on road transportation, said U Ye Win Tun, manager of Inland Water Transport (IWT).
“Although inland water transportation is cheap, it takes a long time to transport freight. That’s why the use of inland water transportation is very unpopular,” he told Myanmar Business Today.
“In order to promote transport through inland water routes, we need to have better infrastructure for storing freight at every port. Now it takes about 15 days to transport freight from Yangon to Mandalay, longer than road transportation,” said Daw Hla Hla Yi, secretary of MIFFA.
The trade volume for this fiscal year so far via maritime routes is $4.5 billion and via border routes is $2.7 billion, according to Ministry of Commerce figures.
To promote freight transportation via inland water routes, the development of river basin maintenance is also needed, IWT officials said.
Source: Myanmar Business Today
