MYANMAR 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.

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 additional 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 nations, 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 significant to China, for it is there that pipelines to export oil and gas to China from Myanmar will begin. more…