Thailand Turns to Mekong Neighbors, Myanmar to Diversify Exports
- Border trade helping plug gap in shipments to Europe and U.S.
- China competes with Japan to connect Southeast Asia by rail
Thailand's Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn.
Photographer: Dario Pignatelli/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Thai policy makers searching for ways to reverse a slump in exports may have found a solution close to home -- a $170 billion market just over the border that’s growing by more than 6 percent a year.
As shipments to China, Europe and the U.S. slow, Thailand’s government is crafting a strategy to deepen links with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, an economic bloc known as the CLMV whose population of about 240 million people would make it the world’s fifth-largest if it were a country.