Japan to open more trade offices in

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Subject: Japan to open more trade offices in Myanmar, strengthen ties

Japan beefs up Myanmar ties

by Amy Shiratori
Asahi Evening News 
Sept 12, 1996

The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) are ready to open representative offices in Yangon
(Rangoon) Oct. 1, JETRO President Noboru Hatakeyama said recently.

JETRO will assign five representatives responsible for organizing commercial
exhibitions and providing trade promotion expertise to Myanmar.

Japanese ties with the Myanmar military government will also be strengthened
with support of a study, already under way, on ways to facilitate the former
socialist Myanmar's evolution to a market-driven economy, through
participation by the Institute of Developing Economies, the research
organization of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).

The government-backed organizations plan their stepped-up activities, as the
National League for Democracy, Myanmar's main opposition party led by Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, issued a statement that the ruling military junta
has arrested 60 pro-democracy activities since a major crackdown in May.

"Despite the human rights issue, the Japanese government has not changed its
policy (of constructive engagement through dialogue with the regime)," said
Hatakeyama.

Hatakeyama is also vice-chairman of a working group of government and
private officials supporting promotion of economic development in Myanmar,
Cambodia and Laos.  The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) also
participates in the working group.

The group is to submit a report on its policy proposals for helping
industrialization in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in a meeting of
economic ministers of ASEAN and Japan Friday in Jakarta.

The proposals will include designating specific cities or regions as
experimental areas for private-sector programs to promote market-driven
national economic policies in those countries, Hatakeyama said.

These zones include a high tech park near Hanoi and Koh Kong, on the west
coast of Cambodia.  The market economy zone in Myanmar is to be designated
later.

The proposals also call for coordinating and linking the industry and
markets of ASEAN, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Japan, according to Hatakeyama.

In the automobile sector, the proposals include harmonizing the standards
and conformance to facilitate trade, dispatching experts to Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar and Vietnam to help develop the automobile and auto parts industry.

For the electronics industry, the proposals include helping provide
technology-sharing through seminars and development of training programs for
technicians and engineers.

The proposals include preparation of a list of problems hindering
development of the infrastructure for economic development -- railroads,
roads and aviation and sea transport, liberalization of the
telecommunications market and planning packaged tours that link the tourism
industry in the region.

Other policy proposals include helping establish commercial laws and
auditing procedures.

"The important point of the proposals is that the nations that are given
industrial assistance are being asked to meet certain conditions -- does of
discipline," Hatakeyama said.