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Burma to continue Airport Expansion



Subject: Burma to continue Airport Expansion without Japan Aid

Burma To Continue Airport Expansion     8/3
               Without Japan Aid

               AP-Dow Jones News Service

               RANGOON -- Burma said Saturday the runway extension at Rangoon
               International Airport will resume without the Japanese aid
that was suspended
               since a 1988 bloody government crackdown.

               Transport Minister Lt. Gen. Thein Win said at a ceremony that
the runway will
               be extended over the next six months to accommodate jumbo
jets from 8,000
               feet to 11,000 feet (2,400 meters to 3,300 meters) at a cost
of 200 million
               kyats. No foreign aid will be used, he said.

               The Burmese currency is traded six kyats to one U.S. dollar
at official rates and
               about 160 kyats to a dollar on the black market.

               The Japanese government's foreign aid office, the Overseas
Economic
               Cooperation Fund, signed a loan agreement with the Burmese
military
               government in 1987 to extend the runway.

               The aid and much other foreign assistance to Burma was
suspended in 1988
               when a new generation of generals calling themselves the
State Law and Order
               Restoration Council took over and killed thousands of
anti-government
               protesters.

               The SLORC has kept a tight lid on political dissent while
opening the formerly
               socialist economy to market forces and trying to expand the
country's tourism
               industry.

               Apart from the Rangoon airport project, the government is
building an
               international airport at Burma's second city, Mandalay, with
Ital-Thai, a major
               Thailand-based construction company.

               Construction companies from China, Thailand, Malaysia and
Singapore are also
               competing to undertake construction of another major airport
about 80
               kilometers (50 miles) north of Rangoon.