Thein Sein on 3-day visit to China
- Written by Mizzima News
- Category: Regional
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On Sept 23, he will leave Burma to attend the 67th UN General Assembly to be held in New York. His visit to China in May last year was the first in his presidency.
Burma is host of the expo representing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year. China's Nanning and Rangoon established a friendship city relationship in July 2009.
According to Chinese official statistics, in 2011, China-Burma bilateral trade totaled US$ 6.5 billion, up 46.3 percent correspondingly. China's investment reached 20.26 billion US dollars by the end of last year, leading both Burma's foreign trade and foreign investment.
In the first six months of 2012, bilateral trade amounted to $ 2. 6 billion, while China' s investment in Burma also increased during the period. In 2011, the bilateral trade between Guangxi and Burma reached $56.19, 197 percent up from 2010.
Thein Sein’s second visit will be the first since his announcement of the suspension of the Myitson dam project on Sept. 30, 2011. China and Burma have conducted talks on the postponed dam project, but there has been no announcement about the future of the project.
The hydropower dam would have supplied electricity to China, but it was postponed after local residents and environmentalists opposed it in countrywide demonstrations.