Myanmar president to visit Singapore

Myanmar President U Thein Sein will pay a goodwill visit to Singapore soon, an official announcement from Nay Pyi Taw said Thursday without specifying the date of the visit. It will be Thein Sein's first visit to the Southeast Asian member nation since he assumed office as the president in March 2011. Thein Sein last met Singapore Foreign Minister K Shanmugam in Nay Pyi Taw in December last year who handed over tube wells donated to 25 villages of Yangon region's Kawmu township hit by cyclone Nargis in May 2008. According to official statistics, Myanmar-Singapore bilateral trade reached 2.074 billion U.S. dollars in the 2010-11 fiscal year. Of the total, Myanmar's export to Singapore amounted to 446. 4 million dollars, while its import from Singapore stood at 1.628 billion dollars, suffering a trade deficit of 1.181 billion dollars.