Wired News on Feb.28, '95

[FreeBurma@xxxxxxx]

Attn: Burma Newsreaders
Re: Wired News on February 28, 1995
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     HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Feb 28 (Reuter) - Burma has granted Britain's
Standard Chartered Bank a licence to open a representative office in Rangoon,
the bank said on Tuesday. 

    It was returning to Burma ``in the light of increasing foreign interest
and investment, and the undoubted potential of this resource-rich country'',
General Manager for East Asia Tony Mauger said in a statement released in Ho
Chi Minh City, where the bank has its regional office for Indochina and
Burma. 

    Opening the office was a step in the bank's ``Greater Mekong''
development strategy, the statement said. Standard Chartered has offices in
Hanoi and Phnom Penh as well as Ho Chi Minh City. 

    Private banks were nationalised in Burma in 1963. Since the economy
opened up in 1990, four state-owned banks have been established and banking
licences granted to about 15 private banks. Some 20 foreign banks have
representative offices. 

    A predecessor of Standard Chartered, the Chartered Bank of India, China
and Australia, first opened a branch in Rangoon in 1862.  REUTER


Transmitted: 95-02-28 08:05:37 EST
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