Myanmar to play key role in China's supply links

This will impact supply-chain industry in region: Kerry's George YeoMYANMAR is likely to play a key role in China's bid to intensify supply-chain links with mainland South-east Asia, which could both create business opportunities and sharpen competition for certain segments of industry here, Kerry Logistics Network chairman George Yeo has said.儲存倉Singapore's former foreign minister said China is looking to expand its links with South-east Asia and will explore all channels, including those by land and by sea, to do so.And even though borders between China and Asean have become more open and road links have improved, the opening up of Myanmar is "the last piece of the jigsaw" that has been slotted into place to link China, Asean and peripheral countries, including India, he said.Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Supply Chain Asia Forum, an annual gathering of the supply-chain industry here, Mr Yeo said that the deep-sea port of Kyaukphyu in Myanmar's Rakhine state, for example, will be strategically important to China, for it is there that pipelines to export oil and gas to China from Myanmar will begin.To intensify its links with Kyaukphyu, China is building an 800km, high-speed railway to link Myanmar to its own Yunnan province through Mandalay. This rail link will be China's land link to Myanmar, he said.With Myanmar's unique geographic position giving it common borders with China, India, Thailand and Bangladesh, the once-isolated nation will become an 迷你倉價錢mportant connector of huge populations, he added.The intensification of sea, road and rail links between China and South-east Asia through Myanmar will have an impact on the supply-chain industry in the region, including that in Singapore. For instance, as costs in China rise, greater accessibility may help create business opportunities here.But it may be a double-edged sword in that the shipping industry here could be forced to reconfigure itself to maintain its position as a global shipping hub, said Mr Yeo, who is also vice-chairman of the Kerry Group."The configurations are changing, and will continue to change and since we (Singapore companies) are price-takers, we have to adjust and adapt ourselves to those changes to capture the flow (of trade). We can only capture the flow if we add value."He added that, with appropriate land infrastructure, it would be possible in future to truck goods between China and India through Myanmar. "It will make a lot of sense if you are in Yunnan (in southern China) and you got to send things to Kolkata (in eastern India). What is the shortest way? It would be (by land) through Myanmar."In his keynote address at the event earlier, Mr Yeo had quoted China's foreign minister Wang Yi as having said that China is now the No. 1 trading partner for 128 countries in the world - which would be enough to force anyone to pause and think that China's being a focus for global logistics is an inescapable result of this economic reality.迷你倉