Burma's economic role in region que

[ausgeo@xxxxxxx]

Subject: Burma's economic role in region questioned 



16 May 1997 
The Nation 
Burma's economic role in region questioned 

BY KULACHADA CHAIPIPAT 

BURMA'S ambivalent position on economic cooperation to open up the upper 
Mekong River could largely be attributed to security concerns over the 
participation of the rebellious Shan state and fears of external influence, 
Thai and Chinese scholars told a seminar yesterday. 

Rangoon's agreement to cooperate within the quadrangular economic framework 
had not been backed by action, despite its pressing need to develop its border 
area ­ a region hard-hit by the economic failure of 26 years of Burmese 
socialism, they said. 

Speakers pointed to Burma's repeated postponement of an inter-government 
meeting it is due to host to conclude a pact for the navigation of the Mekong 
River in Yunnan, in southern China, Thailand and Laos. 

Another example was the delay in the construction of a road linking Chiang Rai 
with Yunnan, via Burma's Keng Tung township in the eastern Shan State. 

''Although Myanmar [Burma] has several concerns about joining this economic 
framework, their leaders have never rejected outright their participation in 
the projects," Huang Guan Yang, a lecture at the Yunnan Institute of 
International Studies, said. 

Pornphimol Trichote, a researcher at the Institute of Asian Studies, said 
despite Burma's move towards economic reform and a more open foreign policy 
since 1988, lingering security problems along its eastern border were delaying 
its participation in quadrangular cooperation. 

Pornphimol said Burma spent four years making little progress on improvements 
to the road from Keng Tung town to Yunnan. This was not simply because of a 
lack of funds. She believed the Burmese leaders' reluctance to accept a soft 
loan when first offered by Thailand in 1995 to improve the road was a delaying 
tactic, rather than the official explanation that Rangoon wanted to undertake 
the project itself. 

Despite the surrender in January of drug warlord Khun Sa, whose Muang Tai Army 
had controlled part of the western bank of the Salwin River, there was no 
guarantee of stability in the border region, Pornphimol said. Huang and 
Pornphimol presented separate research papers on Burma's role in the Economic 
Growth Quadrangle yesterday, the second and last day of an academic seminar on 
problems confronting this economic framework, which was initiated in 1993. 

The seminar was hosted by the Institute of Asian Studies' Chinese Study Centre 
at Chulalongkorn University and attended by scholars from Yunnan and Beijing. 
The first day focused on Laos and Yunnan. 

Huang said the Burmese government feared that enabling navigation along the 
270 kilometres of the upper Mekong River which passes through the eastern Shan 
state would open the country to outside influence, in particular from the 
United States and China. 

This was a particularly sensitive issue because Rangoon was unable to fully 
control the Shan state. He said the ruling State Law and Order Restoration 
Council had a genuine concern about the influence of the Wa ethnic insurgency, 
even though the two sides had made a ceasefire agreement some years ago. 

The United Wa Organisation was still active in eastern Shan state, under the 
leadership of Lin Ming Sien, and controlled the largest remaining opium 
plantation in the Fourth Special Region. 

He said the Burmese leaders feared the economic prosperity that would be 
fuelled by the economic growth quadrangle would further strengthen the 
insurgency group. 

They also feared that cooperation would lead to the resumption of Chinese 
assistance to the Burmese Communist Party. 

Huang said Yunnan's Xishuangbanna region had since 1991 helped provide 
agricultural expertise to the Fourth Special Region, which could now produce 
rice for export and had reduced opium growing. 

In February, China and Burma entered into an agreement on narcotics 
suppression through crop substitution.