[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

SWEEPINGS FROM SINGAPORE



                         DROPPINGS FROM SINGAPORE 
 
 
Europe-Asia economic summit planned
 
   SINGAPORE, Sept. 15 (UPI) _ European and Asian business
leaders will meet next week in hopes of improving business ties
between the two economically powerful regions.
   The conference will focus on financial issues, intellectual
property rights, environmental concerns, human resources,
stability and security and the role of the private sector in
helping to develop national infrastructure, organizers said.
   The fourth annual Europe-East Asia Economic Summit, which
begins Wednesday, is organized by the World Economic Forum (WEF),
a non-profit group based in Switzerland. About 500 business
people are expected to participate.
   The forum will include a special seminar on Burma. Burmese
government and trade officials will meet with European and other
Asian officials to discuss business opportunities in the formerly
closed nation. 
   Talks also will focus on economic development in the Mekong
River area, which is shared by Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia
and China, according to Tommy Koh, Singapore's ambassador-at-
large and chairman of the summit steering committee.
   Heads of state at the meeting will include Singapore's Prime
Minister Goh Chok Tong and Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew,
Indonesia's President Suharto, Norway's Prime Minister Gro Harlem
Brundtland, South Korea's Prime Minster Lee Hong Koo and
Cambodia's First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh.
   Jeffrey Garten, a U.S. Commerce undersecretary, and Australian
Foreign Minister Gareth Evans also are scheduled to attend.
   The World Economic Forum was founded in 1971 ``to bring the
business community, governments and academicians,'' said WEF
director Colette Mathur.
   Mathur said the WEF placed a heavy emphasis on Europe-Asia
economic ties.
   ``With the beginning of APEC (the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum), we thought Europe would be a little left out
of this great grouping,'' Mathur said.
   ``Europeans would like to be sure that they are treated on an
equal basis with our American friends or competitors,'' in the
Asia-Pacific trade arena, she said.
   Mathur said Burma's attendance at the conference was
particularly exciting to participants from the business world.
 ``Every year we choose a country that is not fully open _ last
year it was Vietnam,'' she said.
   
 .................................................................
 
   Burmese junta, vowing reconciliation, seeks more investment
   (ADDS ministers comments at news conference)
 
   SINGAPORE, Sept 20 (AFP) - A Burmese junta leader appealed
here Wednesday  for more foreign investment in his country as it
presses ahead with market reforms and vowed that national
reconciliation was in the works.
   Brigadier General David Abel, the minister for national
planning and economic development, told a seminar for Asian and
European businessmen that the junta had approved three billion
dollars in foreign investment.
   The junta, known as the State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC), enacted a foreign investment law shortly after
taking power in 1988, crushing  a democracy movement in the
backward but resource-rich Southeast Asian nation.
   It boosted its diplomatic image last July when it freed
popular opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San
Suu Kyi from house arrest, but remains under international
pressure to carry out democratic reforms.
   Speaking at a news conference after the seminar, hosted by the
Geneva-based World Economic Forum, Abel said the SLORC had
achieved "90  percent" of its political objectives including
peace, security and stability,  and hoped to attain "national
reconciliation" as well.
   He said progress had been achieved in framing a new
constitution and vowed that "very soon" a meeting will be
convened to complete the work.
   Asked when the junta would hold a dialogue with Aung San Suu
Kyi, he replied that it was a "very hard question for me to
answer," saying vaguely that "legal procedures" will have to be
followed. 
   In a seminar paper, Abel said Burma had approved slightly more
than three billion dollars in foreign investment since the junta
took power. This involves 157 projects, with nearly half the
funds, 1.44 billion dollars, going into oil and gas.
   "What is really needed for further development is the influx
of capital and technology in order to reap the most effective
benefit of its endowment in natural and human resources," he said
in the paper on "golden opportunities" in Burma, renamed Myanmar
by the junta. 
   "This is the most opportune time to do business in Myanmar,
making best use of its abundant resources for mutual benefits,"
Abel said.
   Figures supplied by Abel showed the second biggest investment
area after oil and gas was hotel and tourism, with 31 projects
totalling 604 million dollars.
   Other major investment sectors were fisheries, with 252
million dollars, real estate with 224 million dollars and mining
with 192 million dollars. 
   
 .................................................................
 
   Burmese junta approves three billion dollars in investment
 
   SINGAPORE, Sept 20 (AFP) - The Burmese junta has approved more
than three billion dollars in foreign investment, nearly half of
it in energy projects, but wants more overseas capital, a Burmese
minister said here Wednesday.
   Appealing for greater investment to modernise his country,
National Planning and Economic Development Minister David Abel
told a seminar here that Burma "has made a significant move"
towards a "market-oriented economy."
   "What is really needed for further development is the influx
of capital and technology in order to reap the most effective
benefit of (Burma's) endowment in natural and human resources,"
the brigadier-general said.
   "This is the most opportune time to do business in Myanmar,
making best use of its abundant resources for mutual benefits,"
he told the seminar sponsored by the Geneva-based World Economic
Forum.
   Myanmar is the official name for Burma adopted by the ruling
State Law and  Order Council.
   Out of 157 projects approved by the end of August under a
foreign investment law enacted in late 1988, shortly after the
junta came to power, 24 oil and gas projects accounted for 1.44
billion dollars in approved investments.
   They were followed by 31 hotel and tourism projects, totalling
604 million  dollars, Abel said in a seminar paper.
   Other major investment sectors were fisheries, with 252
million dollars, real estate with 224 million dollars and mining
with 192 million dollars.
   The leading investor in terms of cumulative approved
investments was Britain, with 642 million dollars, followed by
Singapore, with 548 million dollars, France with 465 million
dollars and Burma's closest neighbour, Thailand, with 418 million
dollars.
   The biggest foreign investment project in Burma is the Yadanar
gas field, in the Gulf of Moattama, being developed by Total of
France and US energy firm Unocal, with estimated gas reserves of
9,000 billion cubic feet (270 billion cubic metres).
   Abel said gas from the field, mainly intended to be sold to
Thailand, may also be used for the domestic market.
   "Therefore, there is a great potential for the downstream
industries or oil- and gas-related industries," he said.
   In the hotel and tourism sector, Abel said once the 31 ongoing
projects are completed, 5,000 new rooms should be available in
Burma, which has designated 1996 as "Visit Myanmar" year to
promote itself as a tourist destination.
   "Many investment opportunities are also available for the
development of golf courses, beach resorts, tourist villages,
amusement parks, recreational centres, service apartments,
condominiums and office complexes," Abel added.