Junta Investment minister sacked, T

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Junta Investment minister sacked, TotalFina, Unocal brace corrupt regime

TIN KYI wrote:
> 
> Myanmar minister on investment body retires
> 10:22 p.m. Nov 30, 1999 Eastern
> 
> YANGON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A minister in Myanmar's ruling military
> council on the country's foreign investment commission has retired,
> the third cabinet member to step down in two months.
> 
> Official Myanmar Radio and Television announced on Tuesday night that
> Brigadier-General Maung Maung, a minister in the office of State Peace
> and Development Council (SPDC) chairman Senior General Than Shwe, had
> been permitted to retire.
> 
> Maung Maung was also secretary of the Myanmar Investment Commission,
> which is responsible for policy on foreign investment into the
> country. He was expected to be automatically relieved of that post.
> 
> Myanmar, under U.S. sanctions since 1997 because of its human rights
> record and failure to democratise, announced dismal foreign investment
> statistics in July this year.
> 
> It said it had approved just $29.5 million of foreign direct
> investment in the fiscal year to March, down from $777.4 million a
> year earlier and $2.8 billion the year before that.
> 
> Officials of the Ministry of National Planning and Economic
> Development blamed the sharp fall on the Asian economic crisis rather
> than on the sanctions.
> 
> Several foreign firms have pulled out of Myanmar due to concerns about
> being associated with its poor rights record. However, some large U.S.
> and European oil firms, such as Unocal and TotalFina, remain in the
> country.
> 
> The declaration announcing Maung Maung's retirement was signed by
> Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, officially number three in the SPDC but
> considered its must powerful figure.
> 
> Maung Maung had been one of three ministers in Than Shwe's office
> since November 1997 and had been livestock and fisheries minister
> before that. Previously he was commander of Yangon airbase.
> 
> Last month, the SPDC announced that Major-General Kyaw Than had been
> permitted to retire as minister of commerce and Brigadier-General Sein
> Win as minister of sports.