2
Protesters take part in a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon's Kyimyintdine township on April 1. (AFP photo)
The Commerce Ministry plans to ask state-owned banks to consider granting low-interest loans to help small Thai entrepreneurs in Myanmar that have been forced to temporarily close for almost a month as a confrontation between the military regime and protesters escalates.
Thai manufacturers that use Myanmar as their export base are also desperate after the US said earlier it would consider suspending the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme for Myanmar, making Naypyitaw lose tariff-free access to the US market for certain goods.