Michael's assorted bag of news

[mbeer@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Useful articles for those who are tracking investment in Burma.

Copyright 1994 The New York Times Company
The New York Times

                 October 2, 1994, Sunday, Late
Edition - Final
SECTION: Section 3; Page 34; Column 1; Financial
Desk
LENGTH: 347 words
HEADLINE: Burmese Stereotypes
BODY:    To the Editor:

   "Business Must Shun Burmese Despots"
(Viewpoints, Aug. 28) reflects a rhetorical,
outdated and culturally biased view of Myanmar.  

    Most North American commentators on
human-rights issues in Asia don't consider the
irreparable damage that years of colonialism
inflicted on the social fabric of nations like
Myanmar, formerly Burma. Is it any wonder the
powers that be are suspicious of Western-style
anything, especially our less than perfect
democratic systems?

   The confrontational and aggressive approach to
promoting social and democratic (r)evolution in
Asia is ineffectual. Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's
Senior Minister, believes that "the purely Western
moral approach" that human-rights groups take
"will have little influence on Burma because the
Burmese are determined at the price of isolation
to go their own way." Emotion-charged words like
"despots" and "recalcitrant" do no good toward
advancing mutual respect and goodwill or forming
the foundation for an open exchange of views.

   Furthermore, the United States, incorrectly
identified by Edith T. Mirante in her article as
Myanmar's second-largest investor, is actually a
fading third. According to March 1994 data
provided by the Burmese Embassy in Tokyo, the
United States, with $107.6 million invested in 10
Burmese projects, is surpassed by Thailand, with
$211.1 million in 18 projects, and Singapore,
$203.2 million in 16 projects, and is followed
closely by Japan, $101.1 million in 5 projects.
Myanmar can also rely on the help of its neighbors
in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
which it is about to join.

   The case for corporate "constructive
engagement" is very compelling, and its effects on
the average person can be very real and very
positive. The point of contention here is whether
certain groups in the West will realize that they
will achieve nothing by making threats based on
conclusions drawn from a less than complete
understanding of the issues.   GINO A. SOAVE 
Toronto, Aug. 29    The writer is the director of
Emmark Associates, trade consultants.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE-MDC: October 2, 1994 

                 Copyright 1994 European
Information Service                               
    European Report

                                October 1, 1994
SECTION: No. 1980
LENGTH: 227 words
HEADLINE: GARLIC IMPORTS FROM BURMA SUSPENDED
BODY:     The European Commission has suspended
imports of garlic from the Union of Myanmar
(formerly Burma). The ban is effective from
September 27, 1994 until May 31, 1995.   The move
follows the Commission's decision in August to
restrict imports to the EU of garlic from China
and to suspend imports from Taiwan and Vietnam
until May 31 next year. The action against Taiwan
and Vietnam was taken in response to complaints
from Spain.

    Although no garlic has been imported into the
EU from Myanmar since 1980, the Commission has
recently received requests for import certificates
from the country, which has raised doubts about
the origin of the proposed imports. The Commission
has therefore decided to open an inquiry on the
subject. Garlic imports from the Union of Myanmar
will remain suspended until its investigation is
complete, in order to avoid seriously disrupting
the market in the EU, where some 50,000 families
depend on garlic for their livelihood.

                Copyright 1994 Toronto Star
Newspapers, Ltd.                                  
  The Toronto Star

                    October 1, 1994, Saturday,
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: TRAVEL; Pg. G12
LENGTH: 590 words
HEADLINE: Century after Kipling Mandalay still
exotic
BYLINE: BY PATRICK MCDOWELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MANDALY, Myanmar
BODY:     An I'm learnin' 'ere in London what the
10-year soldier tells:

   "If you've 'eard the East a callin', you won't
ever 'eed naught else."

   No! You won't 'eed nothin' else

   But them spicy garlic smells

   An' the sunshine an' the palm trees an' the
tinkly temple bells;

   On the road to Mandalay.

   - Mandalay by Rudyard Kipling

   MANDALAY, Myanmar - When Kipling's ex-soldier
dreamed of his faraway mistress, travelling the
road to Mandalay meant sailing up river from
Rangoon to the cultural crossroads of colonial
Burma (now officially Myanmar).  

   A century later, Mandalay is only starting to
revive after decades of near-idleness. When
British rule ended soon after World War II, the
mighty steamers that plied the Irrawaddy (or
Ayeyarwady) River fell into disrepair.

   But Mandalay still retains a whiff of the
exotic that Kipling would have recognized as
"somewhere east of Suez, where the best is like
the worst."

   While military dictatorship has impoverished
the country, enforced isolation has caused
Buddhist traditions to be preserved better than in
other Southeast Asia countries.

   Foreigners are objects of delighted curiosity.
Men wear sarongs, not jeans. There are few cars
outside the cities, which leaves the roads to
bicycles, ox carts and ancient buses. Burma has no
burger joints, no skyscrapers and no hurry.

   For most visitors, the road to Mandalay now
means the railroad - a 600-km line that bisects
the central plain, passing buffalo wading lazily
into cooling water and peasants tilling the fields
as they have for millennia.


   Throughout the 14-hour journey, vendors hawk
barbecued rat, Pepsi and sacred amulets.

   King Mindon moved his capital to Mandalay from
nearby Amarapura in 1861 and, determined to make
it the Buddhist world's greatest city, gathered
monks from all over Asia for a synod in 1872.

   For the event, Mindon built the Kuthodaw
temple, where rows of small white pagodas house
729 marble slabs chiselled with Buddhist
scriptures. It took 2,400 monks six months to read
the scriptures aloud.

   Whatever spiritual merit Mindon earned by
erecting the temple did not save his son, King
Thibaw. The British conquered northern Burma in
1885 and Thibaw died in exile.

   Allied bombers destroyed Mindon's palace in
World War II because the Japanese used it as a
headquarters for operations against the vital
Burma Road linking China and India.

   A moat and walls ring the palace grounds, now
called Fort Mandalay. Ironically, the fort houses
both a statue of independence hero Aung San and
soldiers commanded by the junta that holds his
daughter, Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,
under house arrest.

   Modern Mandalay, a city of 500,000, is a dusty
crossroad for pilgrims, smugglers, monks,
soldiers, tribespeople and artists.

   A fire in 1981 destroyed hundreds of buildings
in the northern part of town and new buildings
transformed the face of Mandalay, but its soul is
unchanged. Monasteries cover one-fourth of the
city's area and shelter 20,000 monks.

   At the Mahamuni pagoda, up to 500,000 kyats ($
4,000 U.S.) is cleared from donation chests every
three days - a lot of money in a country with an
average annual income of $ 280.    The Mahamuni
pagoda contains a statue of Buddha believed to
have been cast in bronze by Buddha himself. Every
day, thousands of pilgrims buy bits of gold leaf
for five kyats (four cents) each and apply them to
a layer about 18 centimetres thick that covers the
statue.

   Devout Buddhists have been applying the gold
for at least a century.
GRAPHIC: Star photo: HOLY MEN: Mandalay counts
20,000 monks. Map: Myanmar

                   Copyright 1994 Extel Financial
Limited                                Regulatory
News Service

                 October 4, 1994, Tuesday  - 03:47
Eastern Time
SECTION: Company News
LENGTH: 443 words
HEADLINE: Siam Syntech Cnstrct - Result of Board
Meeting
BODY: INFORMATION MEMORANDUM   Siam Syntech
Construction Public Limited Company announces the
following  resolutions passed at the Board of
Directors' Meeting No. 05/1994 on 30th  September
1994:-   ...   4. Resolved to incorporate a
wholly-owned subsidiary company, Siam Syntech 
Construction (S) Pte, Ltd., in Singapore, for the
purpose of carrying out  construction and
construction-related activities in Vietnam and
Myanmar. The  authorised share capital shall be S$
500,000.00 (divided into 500,000 ordinary  shares
at par S$ 1.00 each) and the initial paid up
capital shall be S$ 200,000.00  only.  

             Copyright 1994 The British
Broadcasting Corporation                          
 BBC Summary of World Broadcasts

                            October 4, 1994,
Tuesday
SECTION: Part 3 Asia - Pacific; CHINA; foreign
relations; FE/2117/G ; 
LENGTH: 433 words
HEADLINE: asia and africa; China's National Day
marked in Asian, African countries
SOURCE: Beijing, in English 0721 gmt 1 Oct 94
BODY:    Editorial report

   China's national day was observed in a number
of Asian countries, Xinhua news agency, Beijing
(in English 1610 gmt 30 Sep 94) reported. In
Rangoon, the secretary-1 of the Burma State Law
and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), Lt-Gen Khin
Nyunt, attended a reception given by the Chinese
ambassador.  Over 300 overseas Chinese in Burma,
gathered in Rangoon to mark National day, Xinhua
(Beijing, in English 0721 gmt 1 Oct 94) reported. 


                       Copyright 1994 Xinhua News
Agency
                            OCTOBER 4, 1994,
TUESDAY
LENGTH: 205 words
HEADLINE: myanmar more attentive to border area
development
DATELINE: yangon, october 4; ITEM NO: 1004063
BODY:    more attention has been paid to the
development of border areas in myanmar, according
to an official report today.  tasks for this
effort were coordinated at a meeting here monday. 
in implementing the border area development tasks
over the past five years, the state has spent
1,908.71 million kyats (equivalent to about 300
million u.s. dollars according to official rates). 
the border area development tasks, totaling 15
major aspects, include building roads and
transport facilities, education and health, making
energy available, agriculture and forestry,
livestock breeding, communication, and eradication
of narcotic drugs in border areas.  according to
the official report, first secretary of myanmar
state law and order restoration council (slorc)
lieutenant-general khin nyunt pointed out at the
meeting that there are now 12 armed groups which
have returned to the legal fold after realizing
the true goodwill and attitude of the government
and to join hands with the government in
developing their own regions.  there are good
prospects for more armed groups to follow suit, he
added.  he also stressed that as more and more
groups return to the legal fold, the border area
development tasks will also increase.
                      Copyright 1994 Reuters
Limited                        The Reuter
Asia-Pacific Business Report

                       October 4, 1994, Tuesday,
BC cycle
LENGTH: 575 words
HEADLINE: INDONESIA PRIMED FOR OFFSHORE VENTURE
CAPITAL
BYLINE: By Dean Yates
DATELINE: JAKARTA, Oct 4
BODY:    Indonesia is primed for venture  capital
funds as its economy goes through a fundamental
shift  from large conglomerates to a budding
entrepreneurial class,  industry sources said on
Tuesday.

   They said the transition, along with lending
constraints  triggered by several years of high
interest rates, had left a  host of established
small and medium-sized firms in one of the 
world's fastest growing economies starved of cash.

   "Indonesia is one of the real opportunities for venture 
capital. People talk about Vietnam and Burma but those
markets  are much less developed than Indonesia.

   "Here there is a reasonable legal system, a
growing need  for capital, not much bank financing
available, a high-growth  economy but most
important, a tested exit mechanism on the  Jakarta
stock exchange," said Adams.

                 Copyright 1994 Times Business
Publications                                    
Business Times

                                October 3, 1994
SECTION: Shipping Times; Pg. 20
LENGTH: 360 words
HEADLINE: UPS extends network to Laos
BYLINE: Alec Almazan
BODY:     SINGAPORE -United Parcel Service
customers will be able to send express documents
and parcels to and from Laos from today.

   The Atlanta-based air express company said it
will work with its local service partner, S&B
Shipping and Services.   Under the agreement, S&B
will handle pick-up and delivery in Laos, while
UPS will provide S&B with access to its
international network.

   Laos will be the final link in the UPS
Indochina network, which started in April this
year with the introduction of a Worldwide Express
service to Vietnam. The service was extended to
Myanmar in June and Cambodia this month.

   UPS serves more than 200 countries and
territories. With estimated revenue of US$ 17.8
billion and volume of almost 3 billion packages
and documents in 1993, it is the largest package
distribution company in the world.

                       Copyright 1994 Xinhua News
Agency
The materials in the Xinhua file were compiled by
The Xinhua News Agency. These materials may not be
republished without the express written consent of
The Xinhua News Agency.

                            OCTOBER 2, 1994,
SUNDAY
LENGTH: 140 words
HEADLINE: opening of bangladesh-myanmar border
trade delayed
DATELINE: dhaka, october 2; ITEM NO: 1002083
BODY:    the inauguration of the formal border
trade between bangladesh and myanmar has been
further postponed as the two sides failed to fix
banking arrangements, according to local sources. 
in may this year, the two governments signed the
accord to start official border trade on june 15,
1994, however, the implementation of the agreement
has been postponed several times due to many
factors.  there is no problem from the bangladesh
side and it is "internal procedure" in myanmar
that has delayed the finalization of banking
arrangements, according to the sources.  the two
countries, sharing a 180 km-long border, have
showed much interest in opening border to bolster
their economic and trade ties, and meanwhile, the
two sides have also talked about establishing
joint ventures in each other's side to further
explore local resources.

                Copyright 1994 South China Morning
Post Ltd.                                 South
China Morning Post

                                October 2, 1994
SECTION: MON; The Week Ahead; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 934 words
HEADLINE: The Week Ahead

    JULIAN Hartland-Swann, the British ambassador
to Burma, will give a breakfast briefing on Trade
And Investment Opportunities In Burma on Friday at
8.15 am at the Hong Kong Club, Harcourt Room.



Michael Beer
mbeer@xxxxxxxxxxx