Myanmar Activity Linkage

On the bustling streets of Yangon, there is little on the surface to differentiate it from other South-east Asian cities.
The buses are overloaded, hawkers at street stalls yell out to attract buyers. In the music shops you can buy Myanmar rap, while hip hop-style graffiti is daubed on pedestrian crossings.
But this is urban life under a military government and things are not what they seem.
Residents go about their daily business in spite of US sanctions aimed at forcing the hand of the military government, and in spite of the extraordinary control that government exercises in every facet of their lives.
In the main streets it seems as if there is brisk trade at the stalls, but take a walk down the back streets, you can see how sanctions have forced people to be resourceful.
Repair shops are a common sight in a country where goods need to last longer.
The government says the economy is growing at 12 per cent a year - faster than China - but there is little evidence to bear that out.
In a country used to isolation, sanctions have only hardened the military's position against the US.

Posted by 020 at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments

New Delhi, Nov 21: The North-Eastern states are keen to have a proposed gas pipeline from Myanmar routed through the region, as they believe that the project could bring about a development windfall. "Rerouting the pipeline through the North-Eastern states will bring development and prosperity to the region," Assam's Commerce and Industry Minister Pradyut Bordoloi told reporters after meeting Petroleum Minister Murli Deora here today. Bordoloi was representing a forum of Commerce and Industry Minister's from the region. India, which has been facing competition from China for gas from Myanmar, has presented eight alternative routes including one via the North-East that excluded Bangladesh for the 3-billion dollar pipeline. GAIL, which is the preferred buyer of gas from block A-1 in Myanmar, too is for bringing the pipeline via the North-East. It proposes routing the pipeline through the states of Mizoram, Assam, Bihar and West Bengal. The trunk pipeline for importing gas from Myanmar's Sitwe area will be connected to the proposed Jagdishpur-Haldia gas pipeline at Gaya in Bihar passing through Aizwal, Guwahati, Jalpaiguri and Siliguri. The proposal for the North-East route was mooted after the Bangladesh government refused to allow its territory for the project. The pipeline will also have the provision to transport gas from developing gas fields in Tripura and Assam. Bureau Report

Posted by 020 at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments

Myanmar has introduced e(electronic)- departure form system for all travellers leaving the country to facilitate people across the nation in their process for exit after a passport is ready at hand, the local weekly Voice reported in its latest issue.
Started on Nov. 16, an online service has been provided for the first time by the Ministry of Immigration and Manpower for the formalities and is implemented as part of the e-government systems.
With a special website for e-D form purpose put up on the internet, the e-D form system will be directly administered by the ministry based in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw, the report said, adding that payment for such application is arranged through local Myanmar Economic Banks.
So far, Myanmar has launched some e-government systems including e-visa, e-passport, and e-procurement to effect management of government bodies.
The introduction of the e-D form system comes at a time when Myanmar is striving to improve public internet services.
So far, 50 public access centers (PAC) have emerged this year in such areas as Yangon, Mandalay, Pyinmana, Pyay, Magway, Muse, Myitkyina, Monywa, Pathein and Taunggyi.
The authorities have projected to introduce 400 public internet service centers in 324 townships in the country within three years to facilitate communication links, according to local media.
The internet services, which include E-mail and network game, are made available by the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and the Myanmar Info-Tech.
According to the telecommunications authorities, the number of internet users in Myanmar has reached nearly 300,000, up from merely 12 four years ago.
Meanwhile, in June last year, a South Korean consortium comprising two business companies reached a 12-million-US-dollar contract with the Myanmar communications authorities to help build the entire e-government system for the country over the next few years.
According to the contract, the consortium, made up of Daewoo International Corporation and KCOMS, is to provide information and communication technology infrastructure for the Myanmar government to link its 38 ministries to a high-speed internet network and computerize its personnel management system.
Myanmar's e-government project is implemented under the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement signed at a regional summit in Singapore in 2000 with the aim of narrowing the IT gap among the ten ASEAN members.
Source: Xinhua

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Thai Prime Minister General Surayud Chulanont will pay a goodwill visit to Myanmar in the near future, an official announcement said here Monday without disclosing the date of his visit.
It will be Surayud's first visit to Myanmar since he assumed the post of prime minister after a military coup on Sept. 19 by Thai Army Commander-in-Chief General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin ousting former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Surayud is expected to meet Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council Senior-General Than Shwe and hold discussions with his Myanmar counterpart General Soe Win at the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw.
The bilateral ties between Myanmar and Thailand including economic and trade cooperation has maintained good momentum in recent years.
According to Myanmar official statistics, Thailand stands as Myanmar's largest trading partner with their bilateral trade including the border trade amounting to 1.594 billion U.S. dollars in the fiscal year of 2005-06 ended in March, of which Myanmar's export to Thailand took 1.357 billion dollars, while its import from Thailand represented 237 million dollars. The Myanmar-Thai bilateral trade took up 28.9 percent of Myanmar's total foreign trade of 5.5 billion dollars in 2005-06.
Thailand also stands a major importer of Myanmar's natural gas, buying gas from the Yadana and the Yetagun gas fields in the country's Mottama and Tanintharyi offshore areas respectively.
Thailand has stepped up cooperation with Myanmar in the pressing sectors of energy and power, planning to inject more investment into the country's natural gas and Thanlwin River hydropower projects.
According to Myanmar official statistics, Myanmar absorbed from Thailand a contracted investment of 6,034.4 million dollars in 2005-06, of which 6,030 million dollars will be intended to be injected into a major power project of 7,110-megawatt Ta Sang hydropower plant on the Thanlwin River in southern part of Shan state. The fiscal year's Thai contracted investment has brought Thailand's total investment in Myanmar up to 7.375 billion dollars since Myanmar opened to such investment in late 1988.
The latest Thai investment had sharply raised Myanmar's total contracted foreign investment by about two times from 7.78 billion dollars to 13.84 billion dollars as of March, the end of 2005-06 fiscal year, according to the compiled figures.
Meanwhile, As part of an economic cooperation strategy program of four Mekong countries -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, establishment of a special economic zone in Myanmar's Myawaddy, a border town with Thailand, is underway.
Under the Ayeyawaddy-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) agreed in November 2003, the Myawaddy special economic zone in southeastern Kayin state constitutes one of the three Thai-proposed zones to be set up on the Myanmar-Thai border to mainly attract foreign investment into the projects.
Source: Xinhua

Posted by 020 at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments

Myanmar's detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has received a visit from her personal physician, who gave her a clean bill of health after performing an ultrasound, a source close to her family said yesterday.

"Everything is fine," the source said when asked about her health.

The doctor performed the ultrasound at her home, the source said, in the first visit by her physician since August.

The medical check-up came just days after top UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari was allowed to meet with the 61-year-old Nobel peace laureate, who is under house arrest at her rambling lakeside home in Yangon.

After the meeting, Gambari urged Myanmar's military rulers to allow her doctor to make more regular visits.

Ultrasound

Her doctor has not said why he wanted to use the ultrasound, which is used to examine a variety of internal organs, and can help diagnose heart conditions as well as gynecological problems.

Aung San Suu Kyi had a gynecological operation in 2003 and fell ill in June with stomach troubles. On that occasion, her doctor was allowed to treat her at her home.

Lwin, the spokesman for her National League for Democracy party, said that the doctor had visited her on Thursday.

"I heard he went to her house yesterday to give her a medical checkup and an ultrasound. I don't have any confirmation or any information on her health condition," said Lwin, who goes by one name.

Her doctor is the only person allowed periodic visits to Aung San Suu Kyi, who lives in the house with her maid.

In theory, the military allows the doctor to see her once a month, but in practice his visits are less frequent.

Two-year lapse

When Gambari paid his first visit to Aung San Suu Kyi in May, he was the first outsider allowed to see her in more than two years.
He met her again on Nov. 11 for one hour. The UN said that the woman known here simply as "The Lady" told him that she was in good health but wanted to receive more medical care.

The UN also released the first photographs of her seen in three years.

Wearing a traditional purple silk "longyi" dress with flower prints, the pro-democracy leader looked drawn and gave a modest smile as she posed for pictures with Gambari.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the last 17 years under house arrest.

Her latest period in detention began after a May 2003 attack on her convoy by junta-backed militia in the country's central region.

She was thrown into prison after the assault but, following a gynecological operation four months later, was allowed to return home -- again under house arrest.

Her NLD party won elections in 1990 in a landslide victory, but the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, refused to recognize the result.

by taipeitimes

Posted by 020 at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments

Business organizations of Myanmar and South Korea have agreed recently to enhance trade between the two countries and seek more economic opportunities for Korean entrepreneurs to be engaged in Myanmar.

The move was boosted under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), the largest business organization of the country, and the Hwaseong Chamber of Commerce and Industry of South Korea, according to Thursday's official newspaper New Light of Myanmar.

Myanmar-South Korea bilateral trade amounted to 124.59 million U.S. dollars in the fiscal year 2005-06 with Myanmar's exports to Korea amounting to 38.63 million dollars and its imports from S. Korea taking 85.96 million dollars, according to Myanmar official statistics.

Meanwhile, South Korea's direct investment in Myanmar has so far reached 191.3 million U.S. dollars in 34 projects involving 100 South Korean companies since Myanmar opened to foreign investment in late 1988, it also show.

Over the last two years, Myanmar and South Korea focused cooperation in agriculture, education, technology and forestry in addition to energy as part of its bid to promote economic ties between the two countries.

Since the early period of this year, the two countries have been engaged in a project of "Specialized Complex of Agriculture" under mutually beneficial basis to boost the development of Myanmar's agriculture.

The project, initiated in February between the Myanmar Agriculture Department and the Chonnam National University and the KBH Company of Korea, covers undertaking agricultural research, human resources development, growing of agricultural crops on commercial scale for export, dissemination of agricultural technique to Myanmar experts and exchange of information and communications technology through online system.

In July, according to another MoU initiated between the UMFCCI and the Gwangju-Jeannam e-Learning Research Center and the Chonnam National University of South Korea, the country will set up a technology, culture and business education center (TCBEC) in Myanmar, aimed at promoting the development of the fields in the Southeast Asian nation.

Besides, a South Korean consortium comprising the Daewoo International Corporation and the KCOMS have also reached during this year a 12-million-U.S.-dollar contract with the Myanmar communications authorities to help build an e(electronic)- government system for the country over the next few years.

Under the project, the Korean consortium is to provide information and communication technology infrastructure for the Myanmar government to link its 38 ministries to a high-speed internet network and computerize its personnel management system.

In the business field exchange, several trade missions of South Korea comprising representatives from over a dozen small and medium enterprises have visited Myanmar since late last year to strengthen exploration of market potential for exporting products to Myanmar and importing raw materials from the country.

Meanwhile, the South Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) will also fund Myanmar's development programs with 2 million U.S. dollars during this year, according to local sources. The programs cover the sectors of health, agriculture, ICT, electric power and rail transportation.

Moreover, Myanmar and South Korea have also agreed to strengthen cooperation in the sectors of energy and mining, setting up a joint cooperation committee on energy and mineral resources at a time when the Daewoo International of South Korea is concentrating on its investment in the oil and gas sector. The Daewoo, leading a consortium with 60-percent share, has been doing good in carrying out oil and gas exploration at Block A-1 and A-3 in the offshore areas of Myanmar's western Rakhine state.

In a latest move, the Myanmar-Korea Forestry Cooperative committee met in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw earlier this month and discussions were held on cooperation in development of forest, wood-based industry, related human resources, technology sharing and arid zone greening projects.

Myanmar and South Korea forged diplomatic links in 1975 and the two countries have maintained continued cooperative relations in various areas including cultural, economic, technical cooperation.

In view of the two countries' cooperation projects underway in the most two recent years, observers here said the bilateral relations including trade and economic cooperation between Myanmar and South Korea are getting closer and heading for a new height.

Source: Xinhua

Posted by 020 at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments

16/11/2006 - Myanmar's edible oil crop is set to expand with a US$12.3 million loan to increase productivity and quality.

The loan from the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) will be supported by technical assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) over the next three years, according to an FAO announcement. The Myanmar government will add a further $2 million.

The project to increase oilseed production and improve oil processing technologies is expected to enhance rural incomes and food security in the country, where some 75 per cent of the population lives in rural areas and depends primarily on agriculture for its livelihood.

“The goal of this project is to increase the productivity and value of oil crops and their derivatives, while ensuring low cost edible oil supplies for consumers and assuring that sound policies are implemented and institutions are strengthened to develop a sustainable and competitive oil crop sector,” said Geoffrey Mrema, director of the agricultural support systems division at FAO.

Myanmar's annual average production of vegetable oils, mainly groundnut and sesame oils, is estimated at about 500,000 tonnes. The country also imports an average of 160,000 tonnes per year of palm oil.

The project will focus largely on four oil seeds: sesame, groundnut, sunflower and soybean, and on oil palm, and will boost oil crop production by expanding the availability of improved seeds and genetic material to oil crop farmers.

Higher crop productivity is expected also through the adoption of improved farming systems, which will be promoted by participatory farm extension approaches, such as the establishment of several demonstration fields and the organization of farmers' field schools.

The project will also cover the construction of two new oil solvent extraction plants and the upgrading of existing oil processing facilities to improve yields and there will be greater amounts of refined edible oils available from the domestic market, reducing the need for imports.

It will also improve the quality and value of both edible oil and oilcake. In addition to these activities, the project will establish national edible oils standards and institutional capacity for edible oil quality control.

by Dominique Patton
money in the pocket....

Posted by 020 at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments

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Detail Of Event:

Myanmar Classic Music & Concert "Live"
Date: Dec 02 2006
Time: 6:30pm
Venue: Singapore Polytechnic
Convention Centre (Dover MRT)

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Disclaimer: Please read terms & conditions from organizer of this event.

Posted by 020 at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments

Ibrahim Gambari is surrounded by reporters on his arrival at Suvarnbhumi Airport in Thailand, from Myanmar, November 12, 2006U.N. envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, says detained Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi seems to be in good health but needs more medical visits. The envoy spoke in Bangkok after a four-day trip to Burma - which focused on getting Burma's military rulers to take concrete steps toward political reform and national reconciliation with the democratic opposition.
Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.'s Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs, told reporters in Bangkok Monday that Aung San Suu Kyi is reasonably well, considering that she has been under house arrest for most of the past 17 years. But he says the 61-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner requires more regular medical visits.
Aung San Suu Kyi's doctor is one of the few people who have been allowed to visit her home in Rangoon, where she is confined. But he has been quoted as saying that he has not seen her since late August because of what he called "political developments" in Burma.
Gambari is the only foreigner allowed to meet with Aung Suu Kyi in several years. The first time was in May and they again met Saturday for an hour at a government guesthouse in Rangoon.
UN official Ibrahim Gambari poses for a photo with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during discussions in Rangoon, 11 November 2006Gambari says that Aung San Suu Kyi, who heads the National League for Democracy, welcomed the U.N.'s continued commitment to address political and humanitarian issues in Burma, which has been renamed Myanmar by the military.
"She is very alert. She is concerned not just about her own welfare but the welfare of the people of Myanmar, all of them, and also, of course, the contribution that her party, the NLD, and others can make to peace, development, democracy and enjoyment of human rights," said Gambari.
Gambari says his talks with the military junta, including the top leader, General Than Shwe, were more frank and constructive than in May. He says he laid out U.N. concerns about Burma's human rights situation and political stagnation.
"The first meeting was diplomatic. It was an opening," he noted. "But now there is some hard bargaining and give and take. But as I said - and the British have an expression - 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating'. So now it is up to the authorities to have some concrete results from that visit."
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan instructed Gambari to press the Burmese government to release more than 1,100 political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
The U.N. also wants the junta to open a political dialogue with the Aung San Suu Kyi's democratic opposition - which won elections in 1990 but has never been allowed to take power. The military has run the country in one form or another since 1962.
The military government has set up a national convention to write a new constitution, as the first step on what it says is a road map to democracy. But the NLD, the U.N. and Western countries regard the process as a sham aimed at keeping the military in power permanently.
Gambari's visit to Burma came two months after the United States succeeded in putting Burma's human rights situation on the agenda of the U.N. Security Council for the first time.

from voanews.com

Posted by 020 at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments

BANGKOK, Thailand:

A U.N. official who held a rare meeting with Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Sunday she seemed "reasonably well" and alert but that she needs more regular medical attention.
Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.'s undersecretary-general for political affairs, met Suu Kyi for an hour on Saturday before wrapping up a four-day mission to press the leaders of Myanmar's military junta for democratic reforms.
Gambari's visit came two months after the U.N. Security Council took the historic step of putting the country on its agenda in September, meaning that Myanmar's ruling junta is subject to greater U.N. scrutiny.
The United States has said it plans to introduce a resolution on Myanmar to the Security Council this year. John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said Washington would wait until after Gambari's visit before deciding on the contents of the resolution.
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Gambari told reporters in Bangkok after arriving from Yangon that his talks with junta leaders were "frank, and very constructive" and included dialogue on Suu Kyi's continued detention and the need for political reforms in Myanmar.
"It was a very good meeting," he said of his talks with junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe. "It laid out the concerns of the international community and the U.N."
The visit was Gambari's second since May, when he became the first foreigner to see Suu Kyi in two years.
"She is reasonably well, considering that she has been in detention for 10 of the last 17 years or so," Gambari said. "Of course, she needs to be allowed to see her doctors much more regularly."
Suu Kyi has spent 11 of the last 17 years in detention, mostly under house arrest.
Gambari's comment followed up on a statement issued by the United Nations on Saturday, which said Suu Kyi had conveyed to Gambari that she is in "good health but requires more regular medical visits." Neither the statement nor Gambari elaborated on her health condition.
"She is very alert," he told reporters. "She has concern not only about her own welfare but the welfare of the people of Myanmar, all of them."
Myanmar's junta took power in 1988 after crushing the democracy movement led by Suu Kyi. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's party won a landslide election victory. Since then, Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel peace prize, has been in and our of detention. She is kept in near-solitary confinement at her home, and is generally not allowed telephone contact or outside visitors.
Suu Kyi looked gaunt in a rare photo released by the United Nations after her meeting with Gambari.
The photograph is believed to be the first image of Suu Kyi released to the outside world since her latest detention began in May 2003. It shows Suu Kyi standing beside Gambari with her hands clasped in front of her, staring at the camera without smiling. She is wearing a light purple silk traditional shirt and a violet silk floral-patterned formal sarong, known as a longyi.
Suu Kyi's physician, Tin Myo Win, is one of her only connections with the outside world. Until recently, he was allowed to visit about once a month. However, he was recently quoted as saying that he had not seen her since Aug. 24 because of political developments in the country. He did not elaborate.

from www.iht.com/

Posted by 020 at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments

SEOUL, Nov. 13 (Yonhap) --
South Korea on Monday gave the green light for the country's two flag carriers to operate regular direct flights to Myanmar for the first time, the government said.The Ministry of Construction and Transportation said Korean Air and Asiana Airlines will provide seven weekly flights from Incheon International Airport, the country's main international gateway, to Yangon, the Southeast Asian country's capital. The two companies previously had no regular flights on the route, although Korean Air started charter flights to Yangon in May. No. 1 carrier Korean Air was also allowed 13 new weekly flights from South Korea to Cambodia, while rival Asiana Airlines was allowed 11 flights, up from the previous six per week.Korean Air was also awarded seven weekly flights linking Incheon and China's central city of Zhengzhou. while Asiana Airlines was permitted to run 20 new weekly flights from South Korea's southwestern city of Gwangju to Beijing, the ministry said.odissy@yna.co.kr(END)

Posted by 020 at 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments

Myanmar imported a total of over 530 million U.S. dollars' worth of fuel including petrol and diesel in the months of August and September, standing the highest monthly imports in value so far during this year, the local 7-Day News reported Wednesday.
The imports by the state-run Myanmar Petrochemical Enterprise ( MPE) under the Ministry of Energy for the month of August amounted to 174.98 million dollars in value, while that for September represented 357.22 million dollars, the report quoted the figures of the Ministry of Commerce as saying.
The two months' import figures of fuel respectively approached and exceeded the yearly figures of such imports, the report pointed out, citing the annual import figures of over 200 million dollars for the fiscal year 2003-04 and 250 million dollars for 2004-05.
The huge import of fuel during the period was apparently made to meet oil demand domestically, observers said.
Meanwhile, Myanmar has reportedly designed to raise its onshore crude oil production starting December to help meet its oil demand at home by drilling more test wells. The onshore oil output will be increased to 10,000 barrels from the current 9,400 barrels per day, according to the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise ( MOGE) which said Myanmar yields about 20,000 barrels of oil per day from both onshore and offshore areas, accounting for 40 percent of the 50,000 barrels of diesel and petrol the country consumes per day with the rest fulfilled through import from Singapore and Malaysia.
In a bid to cut the cost of oil imports, the government introduced a program in August 2004 to substitute fuel with gas for transportation purpose, converting some 9,000 diesel and petrol vehicles to run on compressed natural gas (CNG).
Meanwhile, Myanmar exported a huge amount of natural gas yearly since it has abundance of gas.
According to official statistics, in the fiscal year 2005-06 which ended in March, the country produced 7.962 million barrels of crude oil and 11.45 billion cubic-meters (BCM) of gas. Gas export during the year went to 9.138 BCM, earning over 1 billion U. S. dollars.
Source: Xinhua

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