DHAKA, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's Senior Vice-General Maung Aye Thursday ended his three-day whirlwind but fruitful visit to Bangladesh as the two neighboring countries promised to expand political and economic ties for the mutual benefit.

    General Aye, Vice-Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar, led a 57-member high profile delegation including seven cabinet ministers and business leaders.

    In series of meetings, they discussed with their Bangladeshi counterparts on wide range of issues from trade and business to construction of direct road links and cooperation in various sectors.

    Immediately on arrival amidst a red carpet ovation on Tuesday, General Aye talked with Bangladesh's caretaker government chief adviser Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed.

    Maung Aye said after the meeting that his country stands ready to enhance cooperation with Bangladesh at every level to ensure that the two peoples live in peace and harmony for mutual benefit.

    "The main purpose of our visit is to further cement and strengthen the existing friendly relations and cooperation between our two countries," he said.

    During the visit, the two sides decided on purchase of 100,000 tons of rice from Myanmar by Bangladesh and expedite steps in terms of energy cooperation, construction of trans-border road, delimitation of maritime boundary and import of pharmaceutics from Bangladesh.

    They agree to start the construction work of a 25-km road connecting the two neighboring countries soon, with 23 km inside Myanmar and 2 km on Bangladesh's territory.

    An MOU was signed last year and Bangladesh will bear the cost of about 20 million U.S. dollars. Bangladesh wants to connect the road with Kunming of China to boost trade and tourism among the three countries.

    As the volume of bilateral trade remains at an insignificant stage of 140 million U.S. dollars, the two sides expressed willingness to increase it up to 500 million U.S. dollars in the next fiscal year (July 2009-June 2010).

    An agreement on Avoidance of Double Taxation was signed during the visit.

    Myanmar also expressed interest to move forward a Bangladesh proposal to set up a hydropower plant project from which Bangladesh will get electricity.

    According to the proposal, Bangladesh will build up the plant in Myanmar at its own cost and get 70 percent of the electricity from the project while Myanmar will get 30 percent as royalty.

    Bangladesh's Commerce Adviser Dr. Hossain Zillur regretted that the business potentials between the two countries can't fully be exploited for some small barriers like poor road communication and banking system, lack of air connectivity and complicated visa process.

    They have agreed to take effective measures to boost trade and remove trade barriers.

    Bangladesh's Foreign Adviser Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury has said, "We will expand both political and economic relations to each other's advantage."