Myanmar and Chinese bank authorities are to establish direct banking system between the two countries in a bid to facilitate transaction in border trade, traders circle said on Tuesday.

Commercial banks from Myanmar will link its counterparts from Ruili and Jie Guo from China for the move starting next year, the sources said.

Bilateral border trade payments were settled in cash during the past decade, it added.

Myanmar has five border trade points with China, namely Muse, Lwejei, Laizar, Chinshwehaw and Kambaiti.

Meanwhile, Myanmar will add one more border trade zone in Yan Lone Chai township of Kokang region, the country's northern Shan State, to facilitate trading between the region and China, earlier report said.

Once the Yan Lone Chai border trade zone is completed, it will help enhance the economic development of Laukkai and the Kokang as a whole as the border trade zone can be accessible by direct road link with Lashio, Kuttkai and Theini townships.

Myanmar-China border trade fair has been held annually and alternately in the two countries' border town of Muse and Ruili since 2001 and the last event was in Muse in December 2008.

Myanmar exports to China through Muse border trade zone farm produce such as rice, beans and pulses, corn and sesame, fruits such as mango, watermelon and muskmelon, and marine products such as fish, prawn and eel, minerals such as lead and jade, and timber and forest products, while importing from China iron, steel, construction materials, machine and machine tools, computer an accessories, farm implements, fertilizer, raw materials and household utensils.

According to Chinese official statistics, China-Myanmar bilateral trade amounted to 2.626 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up26.4 percent. Of the total, China's export to Myanmar took 1.978 billion dollars.

Up to the end of 2008, China's contracted investment in Myanmar reached 1.331 billion dollars, of which that in mining, electric power and oil and gas respectively took 866 million dollars, 281 million dollars and 124 million dollars.

China now stands the 4th in Myanmar's foreign investment line-up.