Web Editor: Hu Weiwei

A South Korean company based in Seoul is seeking investment in Myanmar's fishery sector, planning to set up a joint venture company with local fishery entrepreneurs, sources with the Myanmar Fishery Department said on Tuesday.

The International Commercial Corporation of S. Korea, which is a major buyer of Myanmar's agricultural produces and fishery products, has proposed to import fresh-water fish and live long- finned eel (Nga Lin Ban) from Myanmar.

Myanmar's marine export to S. Korea was negligible in the past with prawn only, the sources said.

With a total of 131 fishery industries operating, Myanmar is exporting marine products to 33 countries and regions.

According to the official statistics, Myanmar-S. Korea bilateral trade amounted to 252 million U.S. dollars in the fiscal year of 2008-09, in which Myanmar's export to Korea took 63.7 million dollars and its import from the East Asian country stood 188.48 million dollars.

Myanmar mainly exports agricultural produces, marine and forest products, and garments to Korea, while importing from it steel, garment, electrical and electronic goods.

Meanwhile, Myanmar targets to earn 700 million dollars' marine export in the present fiscal year of 2009-10 ending in March, of which 330 million dollars worth of export have been strived as of December last year.

China topped Myanmar's marine export country line-up, followed by Thailand, Japan and Singapore and other marine products exporting countries also include Middle East countries, South Korea, Japan, Argentina.

The country's fishery sector remained as the fourth largest contributor to the gross domestic product and also the fourth largest source of foreign exchange earning during the past five years.

With a long coastline of over 2,800 km and a total area of 500, 000 hectares of swamps along the coast, the country has an estimated sustainable yield of marine products at over one million tons a year.