A seminar will be held at Chiangmai’s Uniserv Hotel tomorrow to discuss the opening of a new border checkpoint between Chiangmai and Burma’s Shan State, according to one of its Shan organizers.

The province is planning to open the Laktaeng-Pang Kamkaw temporary checkpoint which is between Chiangmai’s Wiang Haeng district and Shan State’s Monghta sub-township on 15 September, he says.

The Burmese side however has yet to respond to the Thai move, which includes construction of a bridge that is capable of handling heavy cargos across the Salween between Mongpan and Monghta.

The other former checkpoint east of Laktaeng is BP1 aka Kiu Phawok, between Mongton on the Burmese side and Chiangdao on the Thai side, which was closed since 2002. The road from Thailand leads to the Tasang Bridge between Mongton and Mongpan. “This one should be primarily for tourism, not for trade,” the source says.

The United Wa State Army (UWSA) that controls part of the area around BP1 reportedly wants to have it opened. “However Thailand is still wary about the tense relations between the Wa and the Burma Army, not to say about drugs,” a Thai source explained.

A dispute between the two sides over the Burma Army’s arrest of 6 unregistered ethnic Chinese in 2 June is yet to be settled, according to locals.

The seminar is to be opened officially by the governor of Chiangmai, Wichian Puttiwinyu.