Burma Says IMF Should Give Money to

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

ONG KONG, Sept 24 (Reuter) - Burma appealed to the IMF and World Bank on
Wednesday to be allowed to benefit from their funding, saying its admission
to ASEAN in July showed it was no longer a pariah. 

Brigadier Win Tin, Burma's finance minister, told the annual meetings of the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund: ``The warm welcome we received
from the other ASEAN countries when we were accepted as its full member bears
witness to the fact that Myanmar's image is contrary to that propagated by
some countries and the media.'' 

Burma (Myanmar) joined the Association of South East Asian Nations on July
23, despite pressure from the West that said its human rights record meant it
was unfit for membership. 

``I would like to request that the Fund and the Bank avoid applying double
standards and seriously reconsider all the points I have made to...extend
tangible support to Myanmar,'' said Win Tin. 

He told the meeting multilateral assistance to Burma ended in 1988, the year
the junta crushed the democracy movement, jailing thousands of demonstrators.


Win Tin said foreign direct investment had increased $2.8 billion in 1996/7
to a total of $6 billion and said inflation had subsided to 20 percent in
1996/7 from 25 percent the previous year. 

Growth had slowed to 6.4 percent from an annual average of 7.5 in the
previous five years.  

08:05 09-24-97