Police provide security to the entrance gate in Maungtaw.
With the situation in northern Rakhine returning to normalcy, the dawn of resuming Myanmar-Bangladesh border trade, which has been stalled since the surprise coordinated attacks of violent insurgents on three border outposts on 9th October, will soon be seen, but security will need to be tightened in the first phase, officials said.
“We are working together with authorities concerned to resume the border trade as soon as possible, but it will not be easy for the situation to return to normalcy as before the conflict due to security in the state,” said U U Aung Myint Thein, Chairman of the Maungtaw Border Merchants Association said yesterday.
“Security would be tightened in the first phase for the unnecessary incidents. But we will relax the security rules step by step,” he added.
Recent armed attacks on northern Rakhine State prompted closure of all border gates with Bangladesh for more than two months, causing financial hardships for local shrimp and prawn farmers and merchants, according to officials from the saltwater prawn and shrimp market.
Local products such as dried fish and shrimp, which can be easily transported, were traded via Sittway. But export of products such as bamboo to Bangladesh came to a complete halt.
Bangladesh buys most of the aquacultured prawn and marine shrimp from Maungtaw and regions nearby. Due to a series of violent armed attacks last month by insurgents, border gates were closed, which resulted in significant losses to farming entrepreneurs and merchants, who are waiting for the return to normalcy.
Bangladesh has been purchasing saltwater prawn from Maungtaw region for years, merchants said, and the sudden halt to the commerce is unwelcome.
Last year, the volume of saltwater prawn along the Maungtaw border trade route reached 286 tonnes, resulting in an income of US$2million.
Similarly, there were export earning about US$4.3m from the sale of fishery products including mud crabs, saltwater fish and various kinds of fried fish, according to the district fishery department. There were about 15,000 acres of saltwater prawn farms in Maungtaw prior to the armed attacks. Depots received several thousand viss of prawn daily. That figure has now been reduced by half, officials said.
“Such incidents give no benefit to anyone. We want to eke out our living peacefully”, said U Arnupar, the owner of the prawn selling and purchasing depot of Myoma/south (ward) in Maungtaw.
Meanwhile, the Maungtaw District Fishery Department is planning to expand aquaculture businesses to villages in the district as part of efforts for assisting in socio-economic development in the area.
Under the plan, five fish ponds each in 96 villages in Maungtaw District along with low-interest loans will be granted to villagers through banks, according the Maungtaw District Fishery Department.
The department plans to spend more than Ks3.6 billion on digging fish ponds in the villages.
While the number of saltwater prawn ponds has reached more than 100,000 in Rakhine State, the number of freshwater fish ponds was less than 100, according to the department.
The number of freshwater fish ponds in Buthidaung has increased recently from 100 to more than 300, while Maungtaw has just around 100 ponds.
“Only when the number of hatchery farms increases can the aquaculture business be thriving in this district,” said U Naing Win Thein, Deputy Director of the Maungtaw District Fishery Department. The department has asked permission from its ministry to open five more hatchery farms in Maungtaw District, which set its target of earning US$7.5 million from exporting fishery products this year, which would be an increase from the US$ 7.3 million earned last year.
Tin Maung Lwin and staff of MNA