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BURMA RELATED NEWS - November
06, 2001.
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HEADLINES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- AP - Myanmar, Laos,
Thailand, China discuss stopping drug trade
Reuters - Japan's Asian ambitions facing China
challenge
Reuters - Wake up to China, new WTO chief warns
Asia
Reuters - Wanted: cheap but high quality condoms
for SE Asia
Reuters - China and ASEAN aim for free trade
within 10 years
BBC - Asean summit struggles to make
headway
BBC - Asean aims to cut Aids treatment
costs
ABC online - Thailand leads
the way in combatting drug problem
Kyodo News - Than Shwe
hints at possible role for Suu Kyi in Myanmar
AP - POW Art Exhibit Opens in
England
Bkk Post - Birthday invite for army
chief
Xinhuanet - Chinese, Lao, Myanma, Thai Foreign
Minsters Confer on Combatting Drugs
Xinhuanet - Myanmar's Water Supply Project
Benefits Over 263,000 People
Xinhuanet - Myanmar, Thailand to Cooperate in
Drug Elimination
Xinhuanet - Myanmar Produces Less Fertilizer in
First 8 Months
SCMP - Aung San Suu Kyi 'will not be
barred from office'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, China discuss
stopping drug trade
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) - Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and China are
cooperating more than before in the war against drugs, arresting more drug
smugglers as they cross borders and seizing amphetamines in record amounts,
Thailand's foreign minister said Tuesday.
Foreign ministers from the four countries met Tuesday on the sidelines of a
summit of Association of Southeast Asian leaders.
Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said increased intelligence
sharing was responsible for recent progress in their bid to stop drug
trafficking.
He said the countries had agreed that the drug problem is related to other
nontraditional security issues, especially transnational crime, HIV-AIDS,
migrants and terrorism.
He did not elaborate.
The ministers did not discuss specific details about drug activity in
Myanmar's Shan state, he said.
Myanmar rivals Afghanistan as the world's largest heroin exporter and has
also become a leading production center of the stimulant methamphetamine.
Most of the drugs are trafficked through China and Thailand to third
countries.
Faced with security crackdowns on traditional overland smuggling routes in
northern Thailand, smugglers have begun using sea lanes.
Surakiart said cooperation had lead to the "seizure of millions of tablets
of methamphetamine in Thailand, Myanmar, in Laos and in China.''
Prime ministers from the four countries have agreed in principle to hold a
formal summit on drugs, but no date has been set.
The four countries "are doing everything to insure that there will be a
total eradication of narcotic drugs very soon,'' Surakiart said.
He said Myanmar officials had assured Thailand that drug production in
their country would be halted by 2005, instead of an original deadline of 2014.
Ministers from Laos, China and Myanmar declined to comment on their
discussions. - AP
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday November 6, 12:42 PM
Japan's Asian ambitions facing China challenge By Elaine Lies BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters) -
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, his nation's Asian leadership hopes
challenged by China, assured Southeast Asian leaders on Tuesday that Japan will
continue to offer the region broad support.
But, in what could be a telling sign, Koizumi was kept waiting for nearly
an hour as the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
courted China.
For Beijing is newly confident, its pride boosted by robust economic
growth, imminent entrance into the World Trade Organization and selection as
host to the 2008 Olympics.
In contrast, Koizumi had the unenviable task on Monday of having to tell
ASEAN leaders that Japan's main task was improving its economy, which is
teetering on the brink of recession.
As a result, his pledges of assistance on Tuesday -- checked by Japan's
domestic economic woes, which have put paid to the lavish chequebook diplomacy
of the past -- seemed somewhat like efforts to court support.
"Japan attaches much importance to ASEAN nations, and to aid for them under
our overseas development assistance programme (ODA)," Koizumi told ASEAN leaders
at the end of two days of meetings in Brunei. "Even though we are in the midst
of extremely tough economic conditions, ASEAN remains important."
Tokyo has long used its ODA programme as a powerful diplomatic tool, and it
was the world's top aid donor for the 10th straight year in 2000.
But in August, as the economy continued to flag, the government lopped 10
percent off ODA for the fiscal year starting in April 2002 in an effort to
tackle its huge public debt.
In an apparent, and unusual, reference to this, Koizumi urged aid
recipients to utilize the funds they received wisely.
"We would like to ask that ASEAN, for its part, uses aid even more
efficiently and effectively," he said.
CHINA CHALLENGE?
But for many, one of the key issues underlying this year's meeting of ASEAN
plus Japan, China and Korea, has been the question of the potential challenge
posed by China to Japan's influence in the region.
The region's exporters have been hit by a slump in demand from the United
States and Japan, prompting many nations to look towards integrating China's
growing economy with that of Southeast Asia to take up some of the slack left by
Japan.
One of the best answers for ASEAN is to continue liberalising and integrate
its economies into a competitive force -- as with the ASEAN Free Trade Area
(AFTA), which opens in 2002.
Members are also keen on developing ties between China and AFTA over the
next decade to promote a vast free trade area.
In what could be a telling sign, ASEAN's meeting with China ran overtime,
forcing Koizumi to wait nearly an hour past the appointed time for ASEAN-Japan
talks to start.
However, a senior Japanese official, when asked about competition between
China and Japan, recoiled at the idea.
"We cannot afford to antagonise each other," the official said, noting that
Japan, for all its woes, remains the world's second-largest economy and will not
lose that stature rapidly.
On the chance of Japan and China, whose relations have been marred by
periodic spats over Japan's actions during World War Two, following the path of
Germany and France by binding their economies closely to avoid conflicts of the
past, he said: "It is unfortunate, but we haven't reached that stage yet."
AID OFFERS
Despite its economic difficulties, however, Japan offered ASEAN assistance
for a wide range of issues confronting the area.
Particular emphasis was placed on fighting infectious diseases such as
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by establishing a regional network capable of
tackling the issue.
This is in line with an initiative announced at the Group of Eight (G8)
summit in Okinawa last year, which had a target of allocating a total of $3
billion over the next five years.
Priority has also been placed on easing economic divisions between ASEAN
nations through development of the Mekong river area, which includes some of
Asia's poorest countries such as Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday November 6, 4:05 PM
Wake up to China, new WTO chief warns
Asia
By Wong Choon Mei KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Asian
countries must wake up to China's imminent entry to the World Trade Organisation
or face losing out on foreign investment, Supachai Panitchpakdi, the trade
body's future chief, said on Tuesday.
"This is not to alarm but to wake you up. We'll have to get our act
together, deepen our domestic reform, because now the competition is at the
front door," Supachai told a conference on Malaysia's economic outlook for 2002.
The former Thai deputy prime minister, who will take over as WTO
director-general from New Zealand's Mike Moore in September next year, said
China will be a huge competitive force in the region.
Supachai said China enjoyed average annual foreign direct investment (FDI)
of $40 billion, about 80 percent of the total FDI in Asia.
The 10-country Association of South East Asian Nations, which includes
Supachai's Thailand, received about 16 to 17 percent of the FDI.
The other ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam.
Supachai said he expected China's FDI to rise to about to $50 billion
following its WTO entry.
"Some say the number will rise to $60 to $80 billion, but I think about $50
(billion) maybe," he said in his speech.
Supachai said he saw China's share of world trade doubling to eight to 10
percent in the next five to 10 years' time.
"China will be the predominant player in 2005," he added.
Leaders from Japan, China and Korea moved towards closer economic ties with
their ASEAN partners this week during a meeting in Brunei, but failed to touch
on the question of links with a nascent free trade area in the 10-country bloc.
The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) kicks off in 2002, and members hope to
list more goods in a zero to five percent tariff band, and make cross-border
transportation of goods easier.
LACK OF ASEAN LEADER
But Supachai saw an upside to China's WTO entry, which he said presented
Asia with unprecedented growth opportunities.
"It will be a big motor for Asia. This is a superb opportunity for Asia to
get together. Our over-dependence on major economies will be softened," he said.
For ASEAN, he advised faster integration of its markets to counter
competition from the world's most populous nation.
"What we can do to remedy it is to enhance intra-ASEAN trade," Supachai
said.
This may be easier said than done, according to Mohamed Ariff, executive
director of respected think-tank Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, who
chaired the conference.
While an integrated ASEAN market may have a combined population exceeding
500 million, armed with twice the spending power of the Chinese, the absence of
a driving force amongst its 10 members may delay any quick implementation.
"ASEAN lacks a leader. There is no one playing the leadership role since
the 1997 financial crisis," Mohamed Ariff said. "You need someone to push for
the opening up of sectors and integrating.
"Indonesia used to do it but they are now plagued by their own political
and domestic issues. So are Thailand and Philippines. Singapore is gung-ho about
it but their economy is too small. That leaves Malaysia as the only logical
choice."
Mohamed Ariff said Kuala Lumpur could secure such a role only if it pushed
through reforms of its own, such as opening up its automotive sector and
improving corporate governance.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday November 6, 6:52 PM
Wanted: cheap but high quality condoms for SE Asia BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters) -
Southeast Asia wants to cap rising HIV/AIDS cases in the region by stocking up
cheap, but high quality condoms for use by its people.
The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) said on Tuesday it
would campaign against the disease by promoting condom use for safe sex.
Ample supplies of such condoms will be judged as a success of its campaign,
an ASEAN report said. Ironically, ASEAN members Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand
also grow most of the world's rubber, the raw material used to make condoms.
There are 1.6 million HIV/AIDS victims in the region and the "number is
growing tremendously," said Angeline Ackermans, regional representative for U.N.
programme on HIV/AIDS.
Other ASEAN plans include promoting "100 percent condom policy" at
brothels, hotels and massage parlours, according to the 51-page report.
Thailand has cited increased condom use as the key to its success against
AIDS.
Its Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said its "100 percent condom policy"
at sex outlets had helped prevent the incidence of sexually transmitted
diseases.
"This policy prevented customers from purchasing sexual services unless
they used a condom," he told his ASEAN counterparts at a Brunei summit which
ended on Tuesday.
But there is a major problem threatening greater condom use across the
region.
"The main constraints in condom promotion are cultural and religious
sensitivities and the reluctance of men to use condoms,' the ASEAN report said.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday November 6, 7:32 PM
China and ASEAN aim for free trade within 10 years By Simon Cameron-Moore and Jalil Hamid BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters) -
China and 10 Southeast Asian nations agreed on Tuesday to create a free trade
area within 10 years, forming a trillion dollar market which they hope will
inject new energy into their spluttering economies.
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and his opposite numbers from the Association of
South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) decided at a regional summit in Brunei to link
their economies in a vast market covering nearly 30 percent of the world's
population.
"What we are aiming for is the biggest free trade area in the world with
1.7 billion people, and it will be closer to two billion when it comes into
effect," said Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, who read the closing statement
from the summit.
Progress towards a free trade area has been given a major fillip by China's
imminent entry to the World Trade Organisation as many regional nations fear
being inundated with cheap Chinese goods and farm produce.
A sharply slowing world economy and the region's second big downturn in
four years have also helped efforts to reach a deal.
A senior ASEAN official said although the pact will take years to put
together it should immediately turn round investors' jaundiced views of the
region.
"The FTA (free trade area) with China will have an immediate effect on
economic sentiment in this part of the world," ASEAN spokesman M.C. Abad told
Reuters.
The area is expected eventually to include two powerful North Asian
neighbours, Japan and Korea, but that will only come up for discussion at next
year's summit in Cambodia.
For now the focus is China.
China's Zhu hailed the deal, saying it was ready to launch negotiations as
soon as possible.
"The Chinese government gives it full support. China is ready to work with
ASEAN to launch negotiations on the free trade zone as soon as possible," he
added in a speech relayed from Brunei to Beijing's Foreign Ministry Web site.
Zhu had first proposed the idea of forming a new trade block at last year's
summit in Singapore.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his vision of an East Asia
economic block to rival those of North America and Europe could finally now come
true.
"I think all the others are keen to have the East Asian Group," Mahathir
told a media briefing.
TALKS TO BEGIN SOON
Chinese and ASEAN officials have been instructed to begin negotiations as
soon as possible.
They identified five areas as key to future cooperation -- agriculture, the
IT industry, human resources, future investment and development in the Mekong
River Basin, officials said.
Bilateral trade between ASEAN and China reached US$30.3 billion for the
first three quarters of 2001, an increase of 6.8 percent on the year, according
to the Chinese news agency Xinhua.
Sultan Hassanal said the combined free trade area would create a bloc with
a gross domestic product of $2 trillion and a two-way trade of $1.23 trillion.
ASEAN was formed in 1967 as an economic grouping to provide a bulwark
against communism. Its current members are Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos,
Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and Singapore. The Brunei
summit was also attended by China, Japan and Korea.
When China began knocking the shackles of central planning off its economy,
the staunchly anti-communist Southeast Asian nations looked at their giant
neighbour afresh.
"A free trade area covering ASEAN and China will propel our economic
relations to a level that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago," Sultan
Hassanal, summit chairman, said.
The ASEAN economies, dependent on exports to the West and Japan, are in the
midst of a second acute downturn in four years.
And China has wooed away trade and investment and left them wondering where
they fit into the new world order.
The WTO's future chief Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand issued a warning
to Asian countries at an economic conference in Kuala Lumpur to rise to the
challenge from China.
"This is not to alarm but to wake you up. We'll have to get our act
together, deepen our domestic reform, because now the competition is at the
front door," said Supachai, who takes over as WTO director-general next
September.
He said China averaged $40 billion of foreign direct investment annually,
about 80 percent of the total for Asia, while the ASEAN 10 took 17 to 18
percent.
While China goes from strength to strength, leading ASEAN economies are
suffering.
Higher government spending and low lending rates are the immediate
palliatives to a downturn exacerbated by the worldwide loss of consumer
confidence following the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Trade liberalisation already under way in the region, through the ASEAN
Free Trade Area (AFTA) which begins in 2002, will help develop a domestic market
of 500 million people.
But faced by the prospect of being undercut by China, it is a question of
adapt or die for many Southeast Asian industries.
JAPAN NOT LEFT BEHIND
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi denied his nation faces a
challenge to its Asian leadership hopes from China, saying that Japan will not
be left behind in the region.
"There is absolutely no worry about Japan being left behind," Koizumi told
a news conference in Brunei, where he was also taking part in the meeting.
"Japan received expressions of strong gratitude from all the ASEAN nations
for the aid and help it has given the region in the past, and I am very
encouraged by this," he said.
"If China and ASEAN deepen their ties, we welcome this.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC Monday, 5 November, 2001, 17:31
GMT
Asean summit struggles to make headway By Jonathan Head
BBC South East Asia correspondent The 10 leaders of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) have
ended a summit meeting in Brunei with a pledge to improve economic ties, and
co-operation in dealing with the threat from terrorism.
Asean also brought its three largest Asian neighbours - China, South Korea
and Japan, into an attempt to expand co-operation beyond the 10 member states.
Asean has been struggling to present itself as a credible regional
power-block ever since the financial crisis four years ago which crippled so
many member-state's economies.
But the diversity of political cultures within the region make agreement on
anything very hard to reach. This summit was no exception.
Terrorism
The leaders issued a statement on terrorism which excluded any mention of
the issue which now divides South East Asia - Muslim states want an immediate
halt to the US bombing in Afghanistan, but other states support it.
There were also declarations of support for Asean's goal of turning itself
into a free-trade area, but the timetable now appears to have shifted from 2002
until 2010.
In the current economic climate, governments here are unwilling to confront local vested interests who are against opening their borders to free trade. One factor which could shake Asean out of its inertia is China, brought in
as one of the three dialogue partners. With its own economy still growing fast,
China's trade with South East Asia is worth $40bn dollars a year, and still
rising.
A proposal to form an even greater free-trade area with China was floated
at Brunei, although it's opposed by some Asean members.
The role Japan has played for the past 50 years as the driving force behind
East Asia's prosperity is shrinking, along with its own economy, and it's China
which is seen as the new power in the region.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC - Monday, 5 November, 2001, 17:51
GMT
Asean aims to cut Aids treatment costs Greater awareness of safe-sex practices is
vital
By BBC science correspondent Richard Black
Leaders of the Asean group of countries have announced a joint initiative
to combat Aids, including seeking access to cheaper treatment.
Asean Secretary-General Rodolfo Severino said the group would look into
buying drugs in bulk and negotiating collectively with pharmaceutical companies
to lower their prices.
Over 1.5-million people in South East Asia are known to be infected with
HIV - the virus that causes Aids - and although the infection rate is declining
in some nations such as Thailand, it is rising in others.
Long term treatment for Aids patients is
expensive
Mr Severino said that Asean countries have collaborated closely on issues such as trade and pollution, Aids programmes have so far remained at national level. One of the ideas that Asean nations will explore is whether they can act
collectively to make Aids drugs more affordable.
By buying in bulk, and by applying political pressure on pharmaceutical
companies, they believe it may be possible to lower the prices of the
anti-retroviral drugs which prevent HIV infection developing into full-blown
Aids.
Aids trailblazers
Asean will explore partnerships outside the region, with countries such as
South Africa and Brazil, which have already found ways of providing cheaper
drugs.
Activists in South East Asia have welcomed the initiative, which involves
education and social support as well as medicines.
The Malaysian Aids Council said pharmaceutical companies will have to take
notice of this kind of concerted political action, and lower their prices, which
could bring benefits to other parts of the world where HIV is running out of
control.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
November 06, 2001.
Thailand leads the way in
combatting drug problem
Thailand's Foreign Minisiter, Surakiart Sathirathai, says broad security
cooperation among China, Laos, Burma and Thailand has inflicted a major blow on
drug producers in the Golden Triangle region.
The Thai minister was speaking after a meeting with his counterparts from
the three other countries on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations summit.
The meeting was initiated by Thailand which regards the regional drug
problem as very serious.
Mr Surakiart says there is a need for greater political commitment to
battle the drug scourge with intervention from the top leadership.
He says the four countries have basically agreed in principle to convene a
summit when necessary to discuss the problem.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Than Shwe hints at possible
role for Suu Kyi in Myanmar
By Naoko Aoki
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Nov. 5, Kyodo - Myanmar junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe
hinted Monday that he will not stand in the way of pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi playing a major role in the country should she be chosen by the people
of Myanmar in the future, a Japanese government official said.
Than Shwe told Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that the ruling junta will not intervene if Suu Kyi is chosen as a leader in a possible election sometime in the future, the official said. ''If Suu Kyi is chosen in an election, that is democracy and is not something for us to intervene in,'' the official quoted Than Shwe as saying in the meeting. The leaders of the two countries were meeting on the sidelines of the annual summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its three Northeast Asian partners in Brunei. Than Shwe made the remarks after Koizumi urged the Myanmar leader to promote democracy in the country, adding that the international community is focusing on what role Suu Kyi would play in the future. There have been signs of a thaw in the confrontation between the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Nobel laureate Suu Kyi and the junta since the two sides began confidential talks in October last year. The NLD won Myanmar's last general election in 1990 by a landslide, but was never allowed to govern. Many NLD politicians were subsequently detained, but the government has begun freeing them in batches since the talks started. Koizumi urged Than Shwe to continue the release of such prisoners in their talks on Monday, the official said. The premier also told the Myanmar leader that the two countries should work together in combating terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, according to the official. Monday's meeting was the second summit talks between the two countries since Myanmar's military government seized power in 1988. The first meeting was held in 1999 between Than Shwe and then Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on the sidelines of the ASEAN-plus-three summit in Manila. --------------------------------------------------------------------------
POW Art Exhibit Opens in
England
The Associated Press, Tue 6 Nov 2001 LONDON (AP) — An exhibition of
paintings opened Tuesday depicting the suffering of prisoners of war forced to
build the notorious Burma Railway for the Japanese during World War II.
The 24 watercolors at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas,
Staffordshire, central England are the work of Fred Seiker, himself a veteran of
the so-called ``railway of death,'' where thousands of prisoners labored and
died in harsh conditions to build a supply line for Japanese troops.
Seiker said he was proud that the collection had found a permanent home in
Britain, to serve as a reminder.
``If you don't tell people what happened, they can't know,'' said Seiker, a
native of Rotterdam, who worked on the railway for 3 1/2 years after being
captured by Japanese forces.
``It is something, that if you survive it, nothing can ever be as bad.''
The collection, entitled ``Lest We Forget,'' was painted over the last six
years and depicts many of Seiker's experiences, including seeing other prisoners
being tortured.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok Post - November 06,
2001.
Birthday invite for army
chief
Wassana Nanuam
Burma's army chief Gen Maung Aye will be invited to attend next month's
trooping of the colours to mark His Majesty the King's birthday, an aide to the
defence minister said.
Gen Sanan Kachornklam said he would deliver the defence minister's
invitation during his weekend visit to Rangoon.
Burmese top brass had been invited to the Dec 2 ceremony every year, but
had never attended.
It was hoped the Burmese army chief would set a precedent now that
relations with Burma have improved.
Gen Sanan is secretary of the defence minister's team of advisers, but will
visit Rangoon between Friday and Sunday as secretary-general of the Thai-Burmese
Cultural and Economic Association. He would make arrangements for a meeting of
the association's executives on Nov 28.
Topics for discussion include a joint venture on fisheries between Thailand
and Burma. Thailand will also give 10 oxen to Burma's Livestock and Fisheries
department, he said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chinese, Lao, Myanma, Thai Foreign
Minsters Confer on Combatting Drugs
Xinhuanet 2001-11-06 21:02:26 BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, November 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Tang
Jiaxuan said Tuesday that China will continue its cooperation with other nations
in combatting drugs.
Tang made the remarks here at the informal meeting among the foreign
ministers of China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.
Tang said that drugs are a common threat to the world and one of the
important topics in the non-traditional security field.
Common grounds have been reached on fighting drugs during the
ministerial-level meetings between the above four countries not long ago, he
said.
During Tuesday's meeting, the four foreign ministers agreed on the proposal
Thailand has made to hold the leaders meeting on
fighting drugs. They held that four countries should first target the setting goals, and
then continue to discuss what is the proper time to hold the leaders
meeting.
Tang accompanied Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji to attend the leaders meeting
between ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar's Water Supply Project
Benefits Over 263,000 People
Xinhuanet 2001-11-06 12:15:05 YANGON, November 6 (Xinhuanet)
-- A total of 263,100 rural people in Myanmar's dry zone were benefited in the
first year of implementation of the country's 10-year water supply project,
according to the Myanmar Ministry for Progress of Border Areas and National
Races and Development Affairs Tuesday.
These people are from 714 villages in the three divisions of Sagaing,
Magway and Mandalay, the sources said.
There are altogether 15,802 villages in the three divisions where a total
of 10 million people inhabit and have been facing problems of insufficient water
supply, unclean water and even no access to water supply.
The government has pledged to carry out the project for these areas with
the full use of money and machinery in the present second year (2001-02) of the
project, it added.
On completion of the 10-year water supply project, the current population
in the dry zone is expected to enjoy adequate supply of clean portable
water.
Meanwhile, Myanmar also began in July 2000 another three-year project of
securing water supply in dry zone in the country in cooperation with two
Japanese organizations, sinking a number of tube wells in four villages and
supplying water to over 3,200 villagers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar, Thailand to Cooperate in
Drug Elimination
Xinhuanet 2001-11-06 10:38:05 YANGON, November 6 (Xinhuanet)
-- The anti-drug authorities of Myanmar and Thailand met here on Monday and
discussed matters on cooperation between the two countries in drug
elimination.
According to the Myanmar Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC)
Tuesday, the meeting was attended by the Myanmar delegation, led by CCDAC
Secretary Police Major-General Soe Win and the visiting Thai delegation, headed
by Secretary-General of Drug Abuse Control Organization Kitti Limchaikit.
The discussions covered assistance offer by Thailand for Myanmar's drug
eradication and alternative development tasks in Mongyawng, southern Wa region
of the country's eastern Shan state.
The seven-member Thai anti-drug delegation arrived here on Monday for the
meeting and during their four-day visit in the country, they will also tour the
Shan state and meet with the Wa ethnic leaders, according to the CCDAC.
In June this year, Myanmar and Thailand reached in Yangon a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) on cooperation in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances
and precursor chemical control. The MOU also includes cooperation in information
exchange on illicit drug-related issues and establishment of three anti-drug
trafficking border outposts in Tachilek-Maesai, Myawaddy-Maesot and Victoria
Point-Ranong.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myanmar Produces Less Fertilizer
in First 8 Months
Xinhuanet 2001-11-06 08:51:45 YANGON, November 6 (Xinhuanet)
-- Myanmar produced 52,596 tons of chemical fertilizer in the first eight months
of this year, a reduction of 49.56 percent as compared with the same period of
2000, according to the latest figures of the country's Central Statistical
Organization.
Meanwhile, during the eight-month period, the country imported 11.42
million U.S. dollars worth of fertilizer.
In 2000, Myanmar produced 167,599 tons of chemical fertilizer, up 14.8
percent from 1999.
Up to now, the country has only three fertilizer plants which can only
produce urea and are far from meeting its annual demand of over 800,000 tons of
chemical fertilizer.
To promote agricultural development, Myanmar government has exempted the
import duties of agricultural implements including fertilizer, pesticide,
improved variety and machinery.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- South China Morning Post
Tuesday, November 6, 2001
ASEAN SUMMIT
Aung San Suu Kyi 'will not be barred from office' JAKE LLOYD-SMITH Myanmar's military Government will not prevent opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from taking national office in future, the head of the ruling junta has said, according to a senior Japanese official. The remarks follow a meeting yesterday between Japanese Premier Junichiro Koizumi and Myanmar's Senior General Than Shwe on the sidelines of the two-day Asean summit in Brunei. The comments, from a Tokyo official, appeared to signal a further
commitment on the part of the Yangon administration to continued, gradual
democratic reform.
"We do not care what kind of position Aung San Suu Kyi would hold in the
course of democratisation," the official quoted General Than Shwe as telling Mr
Koizumi. "If Aung San Suu Kyi was elected in votes, it is democracy and is not
what we should meddle in."
Ms Aung San Suu Kyi headed the National League for Democracy (NLD), which
won a national election in Myanmar in 1990, two years after the military seized
power in a bloody crackdown. The election result was, however, not recognised by
the military, which has run the country for most of the past four decades.
Ms Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for five years until
1995, but has been back in detention since October last year.
Tokyo has better relations with the military administration in Yangon than
many Western and Asian governments. Despite criticism from human rights groups,
Japan resumed aid donations to Myanmar in 1994, shortly before Ms Aung San Suu
Kyi's release.
Japan has said that the resumption of humanitarian aid to one of Southeast
Asia's most repressive regimes was intended to induce the junta to accept
democratic change, an explanation that was repeated yesterday.
"We welcome your efforts for freeing political prisoners and we ask for you
to continue. International society is closely watching the role of Aung San Suu
Kyi," Mr Koizumi was quoted as having said. "We hope you will recognise this and
make further efforts for democracy."
In the past year, a special representative from the United Nations has
attempted to liaise with both sides in Myanmar in a bid to promote moves towards
democracy. The junta has released several NLD activists and said it was
committed to a peaceful transition to parliamentary-style democracy.
In July, Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka told Myanmar counterpart
Win Aung that Tokyo would work to help to improve the country's antiquated
power-generation programme.
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