Wired News on June 12 & 13, 1995

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Re: Wired News on June 12 & 13, 1995
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North Carolina Professor to Help Set Up an MBA Program in Myanmar

By Leslie Williams Johnson, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News  

June 13--A UNC Charlotte associate professor is helping set up the first
 Master of Business Administration curriculum at the University of Rangoon in
 Union of Myanmar, the aloof Asian nation that used to be called Burma.  

Bob Hornaday, who teaches entrepreneurship at UNCC, left Saturday with his
wife, Joanne, for Rangoon, the capital, for a six-week program of the U.S.
Information Agency. 

"The government thinks it's a good point of contact, that people would say,
'Hey, Americans aren't so bad. They sent this guy over.' "  

Hornaday has been told by trip organizers that his visit to the military-
 controlled nation is a rarity.  

It is a minor trading partner with the United States, with textiles as its
major export.  

In one U.S. industry, Myanmar is a major trader: heroin. Last year, U.S.
 government officials said Myanmar supplied perhaps 60 percent of the U.S.
 heroin market and was the world's largest opium producer.  

But for the past several years, the country has attempted to open its doors
to greater economic development opportunities, playing catch-up to neighbors
such as China and Thailand.  

Hornaday says the new MBA program is key to learning about the basics to the
specifics of conducting business. 

"All over Southeast Asia are hotbeds of Please see Myanmar/next page This
goes on page NEXT Myanmar UNCC prof to lend his expertise in Asia From
preceding page activity. They are ready to do business," Hornaday said.
Myanmar is bordered by Thailand and Laos to the east, China and India to the
north and northwest, Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal to the west, and the
Gulf of Martabar and the Andaman Sea on the south. 

"A lot of exciting things are happening in that region," said Cheryl Brown,
an associate professor of political science at UNC Charlotte. "(Myanmar)
would be crazy to stick its head in the ground. 

"You see China expanding its trade relations. Vietnam will be able to enter
ASEAN (Association for Southeast Asian Nations). And a real turning point
came when (Singapore) Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong visited Burma last year,
one of their largest trading partners. It's a sign that there is more
positive recognition coming from Southeast Asia."  

Hornaday, who has taught at UNCC since 1985, wasn't sure what his specific
duties would be, but he was hopeful that he would get a chance to teach. Many
textbooks on business issues are out of date, going back to the early 1980s,
he said, so he would have to update students on current strategies and
developments in marketing, management and planning. "All that nitty-gritty
stuff," he said.  

In his Charlotte life, Hornaday isn't much of a traveler. He tries to avoid
uptown, citing the area's congestion.  

But when it comes to visiting an elusive foreign country he has never been to
and knows little about, Hornaday is game. 

"If you just sit back and relax and don't worry about it, things will fall
into place," Hornaday said.  

The U.S. Information Agency sent Hornaday literature on the country, but he
found that a lot of the data was old. Still, he was confident his teaching
and travel experience - he lived in Indonesia for about five years- would be
good enough. 

"I'm teaching in a business school, and I'm familiar with Asia. You don't
 always find that combination," he said.   

END!A$9?CH-MBA 
**************

Burmese Forces Resume Porter Round-Up

      MAE SOT, Thailand, June 13 (Reuter) - Military authorities in southeast
Burma are again rounding up civilians to work as porters in preparation for
further attacks on ethnic minority rebels in the area, a Thai military source
said on Tuesday. 

    More than 200 Burmese civilians from the area around the town of Myawadi
have been rounded up to serve the Burmese army as porters since Sunday, said
the Thai army source, who monitors developments on the Thai-Burmese border. 

    Clashes between Karen guerrillas and Burmese troops in a remote forest
area to the south of Myawadi have been continuing for the past week and the
new porters were expected to be used to help with further attacks on the
autonomy-seeking rebels. 

    The Burmese army traditionally uses civilian porters to carry ammunition
and other supplies on offensives against rebels in remote areas, which are
often impassable by road. 

    Human-rights groups and exiled Burmese dissidents say most if not all
porters are press-ganged into service and many are subjected to rights abuses
while working for the army. 

    Burmese military authorities deny the rights abuse accusations. 

REUTER
Transmitted: 95-06-13 11:10:26 EDT
*********

Burmese Troops Arrest and Detain Thai Villagers

      BANGKOK, June 12 (Reuter) - Burmese troops arrested and detained Thai
villagers who intruded into Burma near a border hill which was the centre of
a row between the two countries several years ago, Thai police said on
Monday. 

    The 16 villagers, apparently searching for forest products, were arrested
over the weekend near the disputed hill, known simply from its elevation as
Hill 491, on the border adjacent to the southern Thai province of Chumpon,
police said. 

    The hill was the subject of serious sabre-rattling by both countries in
late 1992 and the border there has yet to be officially demarcated. 

    Relations between Thailand and Burma have been strained in recent months
by a series of incidents along other sections of their border. 

    Police said a Thai team would attempt to negotiate the release of the
villagers later on Monday. 

REUTER
Transmitted: 95-06-12 02:54:09 EDT
--------------------------end.