Narinjara news


“Traders: 60%, Department of Agricultural Produce: 40%”

Sittwe, 27 February:  The Department of Agriculture and Farm Produce Trading in Burma has issued a directive, announcing what it termed as a ‘joint venture business’ in transporting and trading in such agricultural produce as red chilli, onions and garlic, according to our correspondent who quoted an unnamed official in the State Agricultural Produce Department.

According to the directive issued in the beginning of January, the interested traders from the frontier areas and villages far off from big cities have been instructed to register with the headquarters of the department in Rangoon with resume, a copy of photograph and Xerox copy of the national registration card.  The successful candidates will have to provide a 60% capital while the department will provide the rest 40% of the capital. 

The dividend from the deals will then be divided accordingly between the two parties, it said.

A number of traders and businessmen have already left for Rangoon for obtaining the licence and permit to do the “joint venture business.” 

Though the successive Burmese juntas have declared open market economy to be practised in the country since 1988, the trade in agricultural produce including rice, the chief agricultural item has been kept under tight control of the regime, said a trader in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in western Burma.   #