Myanmar President, U Thein Sein, has gone to the United States for a landmark visit. It is the first official visit to the US by the country’s head of state in 47 years.

U Thein Sein will meet US President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday to discuss democracy building in the Southeast Asian country. Two agreements on trade and investment are expected to be signed. But the meeting has been somewhat overshadowed by the US decision in early May to extend part of its sanctions against Myanmar for another year. It left Myanmar’s exporters, who had been hoping for an easing of restrictions on exports to the US, bitterly disappointed.

Many exporting companies in Myanmar have been unable to get credit from banks due to the sanctions extension. Some companies have now set up branches in a third country to deal with export procedures, and to avoid their US dollar accounts being frozen by the United States. But officials say the third party system is very expensive.