The foreign trade volume of Myanmar reached 12.293 billion US dollars in the first half of the fiscal year 2006-07 which ended in March, increasing 29.49 percent compared with the same period of last fiscal year, Minister of National Planning and Economic Development U Soe Tha said at a press briefing in Nay Pyi Taw on Sunday.

During the six months period, exports amounted to 8.71 billion dollars, up 28.2 percent and imports 3.583 billion dollars, up 31. 9 percent respectively over the same period of last fiscal year.

Myanmar's foreign trade hit 5.5 billion US dollars in 2005-06 registering a new record high in 17 years since 1989 when the country began to move to the market-oriented economy.

With the total trade volume going up by over 12 percent from the previous year's 4.9 billion dollars, the export during 2005-06 reached 3.554 billion dollars, up from 2.9 billion dollars in the previous year, while the import was valued at 1.9 billion dollars.

During the year, a trade surplus of 1.6 billion dollars was gained with over 60 percent more than 2004-05's 954 million dollars.

The ministry attributed the trade surplus mainly to the sale of natural gas, followed by that of agricultural, mineral and marine products.

Myanmar only enjoyed trade surplus in the past four consecutive years since 2002-03, before which it suffered a trade deficit for many years.