The UN human rights special rapporteur for Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, will visit the country from Feb. 14 to 20. When he made a number of requests last year to visit the country for the second time in one year, the regime said the timing was not right. 

He will make a report on his findings to the UN Human Rights Council in March, according to the UN Human Rights office in Thailand.

Quintana has asked the authorities to meet with the detained pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and leaders of ethnic cease-fire groups during his visit, according to an interview he gave to a Burmese radio station on Tuesday. He has also asked to visit Arakan State to study the human rights situation there.

In his report to the UN last year, Quintana called for the release of all 2,156 political prisoners before the 2010 election in order to ensure national reconciliation and a transition to democracy.  

Karen flee Myanmar army attack, AFP, Jan 24

  Aid groups on Sunday expressed concern for more than 2,000 ethnic Karen villagers hiding in the eastern Myanmar jungle after they fled their homes to escape attacks by government soldiers.

The exodus took place in the past week as Myanmar's army shot and killed three villagers, burned down homes and forced a number of people into labour, according to humanitarian group Free Burma Rangers (FBR).

"There are no large-scale offensives at this time but over 2,000 people have been displaced in attacks this week while villagers were shot to death by Burma Army patrols," said a statement from FBR, which uses the country's former name.

Similar army crackdowns in recent years in the eastern region, where the ruling junta has been battling Christian-majority Karen rebels for decades, have forced huge numbers of villagers to flee their homes.

Tens of thousands of these refugees live in camps across the border in Thailand but those displaced this week are hiding in the Myanmar jungle, according to the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP), an aid group.

"They could not bring many materials, especially blankets, and now the cool season is very cold and they do not light fires because if the (army) see them they will be shot," said Saw Steve of the Thailand-based CIDKP.

Customs

Myanmar Businessmen speak highly of China-ASEAN FTA, People’s Daily, Dec 31

Starting 2010, both the building of ASEAN Community and China-ASEAN FTA will enter into a new stage. Therefore, Myanmar, like other new members of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), will face a new and greater challenge and new development opportunity, experts said.  

U Khin Maung Lwin, a Myanmar expert studying FTA, said despite the establishment of the China-ASEAN FTA in 2010, Myanmar enjoys a five-year grace period like other ASEAN new members and is allowed to meet the FTA demand until 2015, leaving a period of time and space for the country to deal with.  

Experts here said under the framework of the FTA, Myanmar possesses an advantage of having rich natural resources such as land, water and mineral resources, while its disadvantage is the lack of capital and technical know-how and then a long period of exporting primary products with less process and low added-value. The country has now attached importance to such processed and value-added export, while welcoming foreign investment in the aspect.  

Defense & Security

Myanmar to buy 20 Russian MIG-29 Fighters for $570 Million, News.Az, Jan 4 th

A 400 million-euro ($570 mln) contract has been signed for the delivery of Russian MiG-29 fighters for the Myanmar Air Force.

A 400 million-euro ($570 mln) contract has been signed for the delivery of Russian MiG-29 fighters for the Myanmar Air Force, a source close to Russia's arms export monopoly told a business daily on Wednesday.

Vedomosti quoted the source at Rosoboronexport as saying the Russian bid to supply MiG-29 Fulcrum-D carrier-based fighter jets beat China's offer to sell its latest J-10 and FC-1 fighters.

Myanmar was rearmed with Chinese military aircraft worth some $2 billion in the 1990s, the paper said.

Energy

Burmese tycoon takes over fuel imports and sales, The Irrawaddy, Jan 27

An official at the regime-owned Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Rangoon-based business sources said the Fuel Oil Importers and Distributors Association (FOIDA) was formed on Jan. 23, with Tay Za as chairman and Aung Thet Mann as vice chairman. The association has 138 members.

Aung Thet Mann is the son of the regime's No. 4, Gen. Thura Shwe Mann. Both men are on the US sanctions list.

The Burmese junta's privatization commission announced recently that it is selling more than 100 state-owned buildings and factories as part of the latest wave of privatizations. Petrol stations, which were formerly run by the Ministry of Energy, were not included in the list.

Business sources, however, said that Htoo Trading Co Ltd, owned by Tay Za, has already been awarded a contract to operate state-owned gas stations in Upper Burma.
 
Sources said that the FOIDA will oversee the operations of importing, pricing and distribution of gasoline and diesel.

Myanmar to privatize all fuel stations by March, Monsters and Critics, Jan 25

Myanmar plans to privatize its state-owned petrol and diesel stations by end of March, according to business community source.

'We have been informed by authorities that private companies are to take over all state-owned fuel stations by March 31,' a prominent businessman who requested anonymity said.

The military government has strictly controlled all fuel-related   business   including filling stations since 1962.

'It was very surprising to learn the importing and selling of petrol and diesel was to be transferred suddenly to the private sector,' he said.

The ruling junta recently announced the privatization of more than 100 businesses and properties, but petrol stations were not included in the list.

'We have just formed an association under the Union of Myanmar federation of chambers of   commerce   and industries to take it over from government and run this business,' a businessman involved in the discussions told the German Press Agency dpa.

Gail to buy 4% in Myanmar-China oil project, Economic Times, Jan 19

State-run gas transportation company Gail India will pick up a 4% stake in the $2-billion Myanmar-China gas pipeline project, company 

chairman and managing director BC Tripathi said on Monday. OVL, the overseas arm of oil and gas major ONGC, will pick up another 8-8.5% stake in the pipeline project that will link two gas producing blocks A1 and A3 in Myanmar with consuming centres in the mainland China. 

“The Gail board has already approved the stake pick in the pipeline project. The investment  would go through once approvals from the government come,” Mr Tripathi said. OVL, along with Gail, already has a 30% interest in two gas producing blocks in Myanmar. The companies, however, could not secure gas from the project as the neighbour preferred China over India for gas sales from A1 and A3 blocks. In 2004, Myanmar had committed that Gail would be the preferential buyer of the gas but opted for China later due to political considerations. 

The total investment of Gail and OVL is expected to be around $250 million (over Rs 1,000 crore) in the 870-km pipeline China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is laying in Myanmar. Meanwhile, Gail’s  net profit  for the quarter ended December 31, 2009, zoomed 240% to Rs 860 crore as against Rs 253 crore in the corresponding period last year. 

Burma, Bangladesh set to resolve maritime border dispute, The Irrawaddy, Jan 12

Bangladesh and Burma have agreed in principle to demarcate their disputed maritime boundary based on both countries' differing proposals of “equidistance and equity of resources,” Bangladesh's   Daily Star  reported on Monday. 

The Dhaka-based newspaper said that on Saturday, high-level officials from both countries reached an agreement during a two-day meeting held in Chittagong in Bangladesh. Officials from both sides reportedly described the meeting as “fruitful,” and said they intended to hold another round of talks over the issue in April.

Although the terms “equidistance and equity” were not defined in the Daily Star  report with regard to the dispute, the newspaper quoted a Bangladeshi official as saying that the Bangladeshi team wanted to demarcate the maritime boundary on the basis of “equity” while Burmese delegation, led by Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint, insisted on the method of “equidistance.”

According to the report, the “equity” proposal would take into consideration both countries' populations, economic status and GDP, while the system of “equidistance” would demarcate the boundary through geometric calculations.

Energy exports to drive 8.6% annual growth: ADB, Myanmar Times, Jan 4

Mr Edito Barcelona, a consultant with the ADB who worked on the report, Energy Outlook for Asia and the Pacific, said the GDP growth projection was based on government policies and other information reported by Myanmar government officials during ASEAN meetings and workshops.

“In modelling, we assumed that this GDP growth could come from energy exports such as oil, natural gas and hydroelectricity which would also spur growth in other sectors of the economy,” Mr Barcelona said.

Dr Sean Turnell, a professor of economics at Australia’s Macquarie University and editor of Burma Economic Watch, said natural gas sales would not provide any new impetus to GDP growth until new projects came online in 2013.

“It’s true that Myanmar’s energy sector will be the source of rising export surpluses into the future – and hence a net positive contributions to GDP growth – but there’s no reason to see this sector being a growing contributor to this end in the coming year,” Dr Turnell.

“I think there will be growth in Myanmar and the report is right to note the stimulus of the pipeline construction and various other energy investments – but these are not large and have small multipliers into the broader economy, as Chinese construction often involves imported Chinese workers, for instance,” Dr Turnell said.

Natural gas exports are expected to almost double over the next decade as the Shwe and Zawtika projects come online and Mr Barcelona said these profits, augmented with foreign investment, could then be used to fund the electrification.

“To reach 80pc [electrification] in 2030, Myanmar needs to invest in increasing its electricity generating facilities, extension of its transmission and distribution lines as well as substation capacities to currently un-electrified areas in the country,” he said.

Finance

Regime continues privatization of resources, The Irrawaddy, Jan 7 th

As Burma gears up for elections to be held sometime later this year, the country's military junta is moving ahead with plans to transfer ownership of key industries to business firms closely associated with the ruling generals.

On Wednesday, state-run newspapers reported that the No. 2 Mining Enterprise, operating under the Ministry of Mines, signed a contract with the privately owned DELCO Co Ltd on apportionment of tin and tungsten quotas at the Kanpauk Mine in southern Burma.

Although little is known about the ownership of DELCO, the company is on the UK’s financial sanctions list, along with 1,225 other businesses run by senior military officials or their cronies. It is also one of four private firms that recently received a Build-Operate-Transfer agreement for hydro-power projects in Burma.

Some analysts have suggested that the junta has begun to privatize energy generation as a way to address the country's electricity shortages. Despite abundant energy resources, domestic power consumption lags far behind neighboring countries due to a lack of infrastructure and decades of economic mismanagement.

Increasing access to electricity is key to Burma's economic development. At present, however, households in Rangoon and Mandalay receive just six hours of electricity per day, while factories have power 12 hours a day. People and businesses in other areas generally rely on their own diesel-powered generators to meet their electricity needs.

Food & Agriculture

Myanmar forms national association to boost rice exports, Monsters and Critics, Jan 17

Myanmar has created a new national   riceindustry association in an effort to boost the country's rice exports to rival those of Thailand and Vietnam, media reports said Sunday.

The Myanmar Rice Industry Association (MRIA) was created on January 12 as a national body uniting three existing separate associations - the Myanmar Rice and Paddy Traders' Association, the Myanmar Rice Millers' Association and the Myanmar Paddy Producers' Association, the Myanmar Times reported.

'This is the first time that we've organised three existing associations with 29 recently founded rice companies to develop Myanmar's rice industry,' said Chit Khine, president of MRIA.

'Compared with Thailand and Vietnam, our rice industry is lagging behind in the region when it comes to producing quality rice for the international export market,' he said.

'We need to catch up with them to be a major rice-exporting country by organizing separate resources together, as we have in the founding of this national body,' he added.

Myanmar, once the world's leading rice   exporter , shipped about 500,000 tons in the last fiscal year, ending on March 31, 2009.

Burmese economist urges greater rice exports, The Irrawaddy, Jan 11 th

In order to increase rice exports, however, there had to be a rise in the exportable surplus of rice, U Myint cautioned. “Exportable surplus consists of current production, plus available stocks, minus projected domestic consumption,” he explained.

U Myint was speaking weeks after Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz gave an address in Naypyidaw urging the regime to invest income from gas and oil sales in the country's agricultural sector.

During his visit, Stiglitz urged Burmese regime to promote access to agricultural financing, as well as to seeds and fertilizers, dramatically increase spending on health and education and create well-paid jobs in rural infrastructure in order to stimulate development and raise incomes and spending.

U Myint, a frequent speaker at government-level gatherings, said revitalization of Burma's rice economy and exports was an area holding high promise for cooperation between the junta, academics, the business community, civil society organizations and development partners.

“Veteran rice dealers in the country with vast knowledge and experience in the industry will survive and thrive in the competitive environment,” he said. “Others, who know little about the rice business, but who are making huge profits based on connections, cozy deals and special favors will not survive and will go out of business.”

Information & Communications Tech

Time Engineering eyes Myanmar market, Bernama, Jan 27

"We have the experience and expertise and there is no reason why we should not venture outside of Malaysia. This itself speaks volumes of our efforts to broaden our horizon. Action speaks louder than words.

"A month ago we were shortlisted for another big project also in Vietnam. This project is to be funded by the World Bank. This shows that these countries have big potential in the ICT market," he said.

Lim said Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar were like Malaysia in the 1980s, when the market for ICT related products were booming.

He also pointed out that Time Engineering placed sole emphasis on profits but also wanted to share knowledge in the field of cyber security and e-learning with these nations which were now slowly, but surely, embracing ICT in the way they conduct business.

Asked on his advice to Malaysian ICT firms wanting to venture out of the domestic market, he said they would first need to identify a niche product to market.

"Go out and plant the seeds. You would be able to reap the fruits of your labour in a year or two," he said.

Mobile prices falling in Burma, Mizzima, Jan 13

On January 6, the government-run state newspaper, New Light of Myanmar, announced that the regime will make available over 130,000 new mobiles along with 40,000 landlines and set up 70 auto-operated exchange centers across the country.  

Meanwhile, the regime since New Year has announced, a revision of call rates for various mobile phones including GSM, WCDMA and CDMA 450 Mhz. Under the new rate, local calls are to be charged 50 Kyat per pulse, from Kyat 25 earlier.  

But for cellular mobiles including CDA 800 Mhz, the call rates are expected to remain the same.  

In Burma, with a population of about 55 million, there are now about over two million telephones lines.  

Though mobile users in Burma are able to send text messages (SMS) at a rate of Kyat 25 per message, with no international roaming facility they are still unable to send text messages to overseas recipients

Restrictions tightened on Burmese moviemakers, The Irrawaddy, Jan 12

Burmese movie makers have had their freedom to work curtailed by a Railways Ministry order requiring advance permission to film on or near railway property.

The Burmese government—like others elsewhere in the world—applies restrictions on the filming of official property. Burmese movie makers, however, are concerned that the latest order, which went into effect at the start of 2010, will delay and hamper production schedules.

Tax will also have to be paid on work conducted on railway property. The film or video script will have to be submitted for approval by the country's censorship board—and so will the completed work.

Movie maker and painter Bagyi Soe Moe—winner of a Burmese Academy award for Best Director—told   The Irrawaddy  it normally took more than one month to receive government permission to film.

Bagyi Soe Moe said that although regulations were necessary, extreme restrictions were bad for the industry. He said he was having problems making a historical movie. ''I cannot film some scenes and some have to be filmed in difficult ways,” he said.

Movie producer and director Kyi Soe Tun, who has won five Burmese Academy awards, confirmed that it took at least one month to receive permission to film in such locations as government buildings, universities, parks and ports.

Infrastructure

Myanmar announces privatization of 110 more state owned enterprises, Xinhua, Jan 22

The Myanmar government's Privatization Commission announced on Friday auctioning of 110 more state economic enterprises as a continuous move beginning this year under its privatization plan laid down 15 years ago.

The auction includes a large number of buildings, textile, consumers goods, electronic and electrical goods producing factories, warehouses and cinemas respectively owned by 11 ministries and government departments.

Among them, 35 are owned by the Ministry of Industry-1, 21 each by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Cooperatives and 11 by the Ministry of Information.

Located across the country, these state enterprises to be sold out are scattered mainly in Yangon, Mandalay, Ayeyawaddy and Bago divisions and Rakhine state.

Closing date for the auction is set for Feb. 26 this year.

In December last year, Myanmar also announced auction of 137 more nationalized buildings and land plots in 10 cities of the country, according to the Administration Committee for Nationalized Properties.

Myanmar will bring China and India closer by re-opening old route, Toboc, Jan 13

According to sources, Myanmar has agreed to honour a long standing need of the region by re-opening the Stilwell Road to facilitate trade among China, India and Myanmar. At the recently concluded 5th North East Business Summit at Kolkata, the Foreign Minister of Myanmar Nyan Win said that Myanmar was ready to open the old route as per the proposal by India.

The reopening of this route means the distance between India and China will considerably reduce from about 6000kms to less than 1750kms. China’s Yunnan province and India’s Assam state are likely to benefit through this decision though it opens up trade potential to Myanmar and Thailand.

Politics

Myanmar minister says Suu Kyi to be freed in November, Reuters, Jan 25

Home Minister Major General Maung Oo told a January 21 meeting of local officials the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner would be released in November, a month after many observers expect the country to hold its first parliamentary elections in two decades.

The information could not be verified independently but three people who attended the meeting said the comment was made to an audience of several hundred people in Kyaukpadaung, a town about 565 km (350 miles) north of the former capital, Yangon.

The three witnesses requested anonymity.

Suu Kyi meets Official, NLD expand Executive Committee, Washington Post, Jan 15

Detained Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday held her first meeting this year with the Cabinet official responsible for contact with her, as her party makes preparations for possible participation in elections.

Officials said Suu Kyi was taken from her home to meet for about 20 minutes with Relations Minister Aung Kyi. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release information, did not know the contents of their talk.

Myanmar's military government has set elections, the first since 1990, for an unspecified date this year. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, which has not yet declared whether it will take part, this week expanded its central executive committee by nine members to 20. Last year, party colleagues agreed to Suu Kyi's suggestion that the committee be reorganized. Most of its members are elderly.

Myanmar polls likely in second half of year: Thai FM, Reuters, Jan 14

Myanmar will likely hold its long-awaited election in the second half of this year because the ruling junta is still crafting the legal framework for the vote, Thailand's foreign minister said on Thursday.

Kasit Piromya made the comments after a meeting with Myanmar counterpart Nyan Win during which he was told that 60-70 percent of the election and political party laws were completed.

"You take another two or three months to make it 100 percent, so it will take you by that time from the mathematical, or the guessing point of view, to the middle of this year," Kasit told Reuters in an interview.

"So, I think the elections would be most probably in the second half."

Relations with the U.S.

U.S. wants Burma to reach out, The Irrawaddy, Jan 27

Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P. J. Crowley told reporters at a daily news briefing: “It’s important for the Government of Burma to reach out not only to those who wish to be politically active, but also to the various ethnic communities within Burma.”

When asked about a reported statement by the Burmese Home Minister that democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi would be released from house arrest later this year, Crowley said the US wants her released as soon as possible. “We have long demanded the release of Aung San Suu Kyi,” he said. “ We think that should still be done and as quickly as possible. I think the idea that her release will conveniently come after the election is unfortunate.”

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Sen. Jim Webb, the chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this week to discuss the situation in Burma and the upcoming elections. The Obama administration had two rounds of direct talks with the military junta last year.

“For Washington, this concerns the release of political prisoners and the unhindered participation of all Burmese political stakeholders—Ms. Suu Kyi included—in the forthcoming elections; for Naypyidaw, significantly enhanced U.S. market access for Burmese-origin light manufacturing and labor-intensive production so as to relieve pressures within its overcrowded farm sector and redirect the surplus labor towards an outward-oriented, and faster-growing small-and-medium scale enterprise sector,” wrote Sourabh Gupta, a senior research associate at Samuels International Associates.

Gupta said it is unlikely that a politician as charismatic as Suu Kyi would be allowed to participate in the prospective 2010 elections.

“The political space accorded to Ms. Suu Kyi (and perhaps her political party) in the run-up to the elections is also likely to be tied to her success in serving as the spokesperson for reducing the sanctions imposed on the junta now that she has reversed course and affirmed this intent in writing to Sen-General Than Shwe.”

“Given concerns over what is likely to be a tainted election as well as the timing, pace and scope of sanctions removal, the United States should perhaps place the fledgling engagement process and the electoral timetable on separate tracks that might loosely overlap but are not forced to coincide. If a graduated glide path to Western markets, conditioned on a release of political prisoners and sequential steps towards civil society opening, allows for participative politics to take hold, pragmatic engagement will serve a useful purpose,” Gupta said.

US-Burma Relations, Sourabh Gupta for East West Center, Jan 26

U.S. Policy grants China greater influence in Burma, Mizzima, January 22

The inconsistent foreign policy of the United States towards Asian countries has gifted an opportunity to China to enhance its influence over regional countries including military-ruled Burma, Senator Jim Webb said on Thursday during a hearing of which he chaired.

Webb, in his remarks at the Senate’s Foreign Relations Subcommittee Hearing on Washington’s engagement in Asia, said, “American sanctions and other policy restrictions have not only increased Chinese political and economic influence in Southeast Asia, they ironically serve as a double reward for China because all the while American interaction in East Asia has been declining.”

Webb said in recent years China has become the only country in the world to which the United States is vulnerable, strategically and economically.

“And nowhere is this more obvious than in Burma, where Chinese influence has grown steadily at a time when the United States has cut off virtually all economic and diplomatic relations. Since then, Chinese arms sales and other military aid has exceeded $3 billion,” added the Virginian Senator.

Webb, who in August 2009 travelled to Burma and met with high-ranking junta officials, including Senior General Than Shwe, as well as detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, is a strong advocate of engagement with the Burmese junta, in power since 1988.

Other

Tourist arrivals to Myanmar jumped 25 per cent in 2009, despite the global recession and the economic sanctions imposed on the pyriah state, media reports said Sunday.

According to figures released by the Ministry of   Hotels   and Tourism, more than 227,400 tourists visited the country between January and December 2009, more than 25 per cent up on the 170,812 recorded for the year 2008, the Myanmar Times reported.

END MEMO

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