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BURMA RELATED NEWS - August 05,
2001.
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HEADLINES
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AP - Report: Laos Opium Production
Down
Kyodo News - Kansai
Electric Power signs consulting contract with Myanmar
AFP - Quake hits India's Andaman
Islands
Bkk Post - Locals to complain about dirty
factories and illegal labour
Xinhuanet - Myanmar's Machinery Import Drops
Slightly in First Quarter
Xinhuanet - Myanmar's Cotton Yarn
Production Up in First Quarter
------------------------------------------------------ Report: Laos Opium Production
Down
The Associated Press, Sat 4 Aug 2001 BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — The
opium yield in communist Laos, a major world producer of the illicit drug, has
dropped by an estimated 30 percent this year, the Lao state news agency
reported.
The yield for the 2001 growing season was estimated to be 117.5 tons,
compared with 167 tons in 2000, the Khao San Pathet Lao agency reported in a
dispatch received in Bangkok on Saturday.
One ton of opium is sufficient to produce about 220 pounds of heroin.
According to the report, the reduction was due to ``the attention of the
local authorities, and the awareness of local people in combination with
climatic changes.''
Opium flourishes on mountainsides in Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle,
where the borders of Laos, Myanmar and northern Thailand meet.
Southeast Asian countries have agreed to eradicate the drug by 2008, but it
is an important cash crop for poor villagers.
The KPL agency was citing a survey on opium production prepared by the Lao
National Commission for Drug Supervision and Control and the United Nations
International Drug Control Program. Most of Laos' opium is believed to be
consumed domestically by more than 60,000 opium addicts.
------------------------------------------------------ Kansai Electric Power signs consulting
contract with Myanmar
OSAKA, Aug. 4, Kyodo - Kansai
Electric Power Co. said Friday it has signed a contract with Myanmar's state-run
utility firm for technical consulting to develop hydroelectric power plants,
becoming the first Japanese concern to take part in large-scale power projects
in the military-ruled country.
Under the contract, Kansai Electric will assist the Myanmar concern in
feasibility studies, designs and construction of such plants at 12 locations
over the next five years as part of Myanmar's larger project to alleviate power
shortages, the company said.
The contract is estimated to be worth around 300 million yen, Kansai
Electric officials said.
The company has already established a representative office late last month
in Yangon, with five workers dispatched there.
------------------------------------------------------ Sunday August 5, 9:58 PM
Quake hits India's Andaman Islands HONG KONG, Aug 5 (AFP) - India's Andaman Islands were Sunday hit by an intense earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, Hong Kong Observatory said. The quake struck at 1.21 pm (0521 GMT) and was centred off the east coast
of Middle Andaman Island, which is located about 580 kilometres (360 miles)
southeast of Myanmar capital Yangon.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
A series of mild tremors shook the Bangladesh port city of Chittagong
earlier Sunday causing panic among residents but no casualties were
reported.
Bangladesh meteorological department officials said two earthquakes
measuring 4.3 and 4.4 on the Richter scale shook the city early Sunday and were
preceeded by two on Saturday night measuring 3.4 and 3.6.
The average epicentre was located 150 kilometers (93 miles) southeast of
Chittagong, the officials said.
Police said they had no reports of casualties or damage.
Bangladesh and the Andaman Islands are located on the edge of the same
tectonic plate.
------------------------------------------------------ Bangkok Post - August 05,
2001.
Locals to complain about dirty
factories and illegal labour
Residents say 40,000 affected by pollution Supamart Kasem
Fifteen communities in Mae Sot will join forces tomorrow to push for
clampdowns on factories and alien labour that have allegedly caused pollution,
crime and health problems.
Some 50 people from 15 Mae Sot communities, officials and experts came
together yesterday for an anti-pollution seminar held by the Environmental Law
Centre Thailand (ELCT).
The meeting agreed that locals and the Mae Sot mayor, Therdkiat
Shinsoranan, would file a complaint with police on Monday to seek the arrest of
illegal alien workers allegedly employed by more than 30 factories here. Some
40,000 residents in Mae Sot have been affected by air, noise and water pollution
caused by the factories, employing a total 20,000 alien workers, the meeting was
told.
Somjit Pa-ai, a local leader from Bua Khoon, said his community was in
serious trouble. Its underground water was contaminated by toxic substances from
nearby textile factories which also discharged waste water into rice fields,
created out loud noise at night and emitted fumes.
He mentioned crimes allegedly committed by alien workers. "An officer once
found a human skull behind a factory during a raid in May. We complained and a
team of officials was sent, but there has been little progress."Chalie
Sriprasert, from a Muslim community near Bua Khoon, said physicians at Mae Sot
hospital confirmed an increase in residents suffering from respiratory
diseases.
Pig and chicken slaughterhouses in Chumpol Patthana discharged smelly
untreated waste water into Mae Sot stream, he said.
Many family members of foreign workers earned their living by begging. The
Mae Sot mayor said several factories had been told to close for causing
pollution but they continued to run at night.
Many factories held licences to operate not as factories but
warehouses.
An official from the provincial industrial office said staff were trying
their best but were held back by a shortage of experts and equipment.
However, a panel representing concerned agencies and affected communities
would be set up to help with anti-pollution work, the official said.
------------------------------------------------------ Myanmar's Machinery Import Drops
Slightly in First Quarter
Xinhuanet 2001.08.05 09:54:07 YANGON, August 5 (Xinhuanet) --
Myanmar's import of machinery was valued at 211.21 million U.S. dollars in the
first quarter of thisyear, down by 1.06 percent compared with the same period of
2000, according to the latest data released by the country's Central Statistical
Organization.
During the three-month period, the import value of such machinery
equipment accounted for 33.3 percent of the country's total import value
which was registered at 633.44 million dollars.
Of this, the import value of electric machinery apparatus amounted to
51.46 million dollars, increasing by 12.1 percent from the same period of 2000,
while that of non-electric ones reached 159.75 million dollars,
falling by 4.68 percent from the corresponding period of 2000.
According to official statistics, in 2000, Myanmar imported 628. 05 million
dollars' worth of machinery equipment including electric and non-electric
ones.
Myanmar, an agricultural country lacking development in industry, has
to depend on import for the majority of its different machinery equipment
in need.
------------------------------------------------------ Myanmar's Cotton Yarn Production
Up in First Quarter
Xinhuanet 2001.08.05 09:47:03 YANGON, August 5 (Xinhuanet) --
Myanmar produced 1,562.65 tons of cotton yarn in the first quarter of this
year, 31.89 percent more than the same period of 2000 when it registered
1,184.8 tons, according to the latest data released by the country's
Central Statistical Organization.
During the three-month period, Myanmar also yielded over six million
meters of cotton fabrics , up 26 percent from the corresponding period of
2000 which saw a production of 4,828,662 meters.
Cotton is one of the four major crops of Myanmar with the other three known
as paddy, beans and pulses, and sugar cane.
Official statistics show that in 2000, Myanmar produced 5,700 tons of
cotton yarn and 22 million meters of cotton fabrics, up 19 percent and 23.37
percent respectively from 1999.
Other statistics show that altogether 325,215 hectares of cotton were
cultivated in Myanmar in the fiscal year 2000-01 which ended in March and the
country targets to grow 348,300 hectares of the crop in 2001-02.
Meanwhile, to maintain the enthusiasm of cotton growers and to solve
their difficulties of shortage of capital used in cultivation, the
government provides annually more than 1 billion Kyats (about 2 million
U.S. dollars) of loans to the growers in the country in addition to
granting advance payment to them for the purchase of cotton.
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