Business Reports

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The following reports come from Myabuzz, a Thailand-based news service:

0816-01 Yangon Hosts 10th ASEAN National Tourism Organization Meet
**Yangon hosts this year's ASEAN National Tourism Organizations (NTO)
meeting. This will be held on the 25th and 26th of August at downtown's
Traders Hotel. This is the 10th ASEAN NTO meeting to date.

Before this regional forum, a Task Force on Tourism Investment conference
will be held on the 24th of August.

Delegates from the 10 ASEAN countries, as well as Tokyo's ASEAN Promotions
Center (ASEANTA) representatives will be participating in the ASEAN
National Tourism Organizations (NTO) meet.

Myanmar joined the ASEAN in July of 1997.

0816-02 Mutual Investments Between Indonesia and Myanmar Sought
**A seminar on investment opportunities in Indonesia for Myanmar
entrepreneurs was held in Yangon last month.
Presently, Indonesian companies have investments in nine projects in
mining, oil production and others. Indonesia makes up the sixth largest
investor in Myanmar with total investment of over US$ 37 million.
As ASEAN nations launched ASEAN Free Trade Area initiatives, mutual
beneficial investment shall speed up greater regional cooperation.

0816-03 Industrialization Gets Thumbs Up from Officials
**The Industrial Development Committee comprising of top ranking government
officials held another committee meeting last Thursday. They highlighted an
all-go campaign towards industrialization in the country. They have
discussed this current drive especially in the agriculture sector, which
has been one of the primary concerns over the recent times. Also discussed
were the loan distribution systems being given to industrialists.

Massive scale industrialization in agriculture is one of the country's
major priorities at present.

0816-04 US$ 3 Million Garment Factory Starts 50,000 Monthly Production
**A garment factory started its production recently with an investment of
US$ 3 Million.  This is another foreign investment garment factory in
Myanmar. Quite a number of foreign-owned and managed garment factories has
sprouted in Myanmar especially at the new industrial zones off the city of
Yangon.

The factory has employed 700 workers.  It has monthly production capacity
of 50,000 pieces of jackets, pants, sportswear, and knitwear.

0816-05 Myanmar Mushrooms Off to Hong Kong
**Growing mushrooms in Myanmar are proving to be lucrative and worthwhile
business as Myanmar found a new market in Hong Kong.   Recently a
Yangon-based company exported US$ 5,500 worth of mushrooms. The exported
mushrooms were already canned and were reportedly sold to Hong Kong's
various food industries.

0816-06 Opportunities in Insurance High
**The Myanma Investment Commission and the Managing Director of Japan's
Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance very recently met.  Investment matters with
regards to insurance were discussed.

Insurance, although quite new in Myanmar will likely be one of the biggest
industries here as more and more companies are being set up in the country.

At present there are only a handful of insurance companies. Among the
insurance categories permitted in Myanmar are the following: life
assurance, fire insurance, comprehensive motor insurance, cash-in-transit
insurance, cash-in safe insurance, and fidelity insurance.
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