Yangon, February 6:

Myanmar will introduce the euro in place of the US dollar for border trade with neighbouring countries, including India and China, a report stated today.

The Voice Weekly quoted Hla Tun, Myanmar’s minister of finance and revenue, as saying that dollar accounts of merchants were closed and will be substituted with euro accounts.

Myanmar decided on August 10, 2003, that government organisations and private enterprises should use euros in place of US dollars for international business transactions including import and export. It also decided that border trade with five neighbouring countries — China, Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Laos — would be conducted in euro as well as currencies of the countries concerned.