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India urges dropping annual human rights resolution on Myanmar
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United Nations, April 25: India has asked UN members to drop the annual ritual of passing a resolution on Myanmar’s human rights situation saying that the gesture would encourage the reforms underway there. Speaking Friday at a meeting of the Partnership Group for Peace, Development and Democracy in Myanmar, Permanent Representative Asoke Kumar Mukerji noted that in Rakhine State, the Myanmar government “has taken steps towards restoration of law and order and has expressed readiness to cooperate with UN and other humanitarian agencies regarding rehabilitation of those affected by violence.”(READ-Narendra Modi : Myanmar a valued friend)

“We urged member states to agree to the discontinuation of annual resolutions on the human rights situation in Myanmar,” Mukerji said. “In our view, this would convey the world community’s strong support and encouragement for the reform measures that are already underway in Myanmar.” The last resolution on human rights in Myanmar was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December. Noting the “scale of the reform effort undertaken” there, the resolution welcomed “the continued positive developments in Myanmar towards political and economic reform, democratization and national reconciliation and the promotion and protection of human rights.”

Rakhine State in western Myamar is recovering from the ethnic riots in 2012 between the Buddhist Rakhines and the Muslim Rohingyas. Mukerji said India has provided aid to help Rakhine State recover from the riots. New Delhi gave $240,000 for the rehabilitation effort after the riots first broke out and $1 million for constructing 10 schools for both communities in the affected areas, he said. Development aid to Rakhine State includes $300 million earmarked for the state from the total development assistance of $1.75 billion to Myanmar, and lines of credit totaling $85 million for electricity transmission and road construction in the state, he added.

The meeting was attended by a high level delegation from Government of Myanmar including Soe Thane, Minister in the Office of President, Immigration Minister Khin Yi, Attorney General Tun Shin, and Rakhine State Chief Minister Muang Muang Ohn. Myanmar has emerged from nearly 40 years of military rule after the military council was dissolved in 2011 following the 2010 elections. With democratic reforms underway, general elections are scheduled for later this year. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who chaired the meeting, praised Myanmar’s “exemplary resolve in striving to achieve peace and stability in the country.”

“The reform process initiated by the Government of President U Thein Sein continues to progress steadily,” he said. “The country has taken visible strides in many areas of socioeconomic development, national reconciliation and democratization.” Myamar has also made big strides in trying to end more than 60 years of ethnic insurgencies around the country. The the government’s Union Peace Making Work Committee (UPWC) and the ethnic armed groups Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) agreed on a ceasefire agreement on March 31. Mukerji said India welcomed the accord. Ban thanked thanked his Special Adviser, Vijay Nambiar of India, for his role in the peace process. “The quiet support that he and his team provided helped build confidence in the process,” he said.

Source:- India urges dropping annual human rights resolution on Myanmar | India | Latest India News | Get Free India.com Email | Live Cricket and Entertainment News at India.Com

may be for our F12 frigate and 773 corvette .. bro..

coz these ones just compeleted the sea trial and in serviced currently..

Great! - Myanmar's progress in building front line warships indigenously is indeed commendable bro! :tup:
 
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India urges dropping annual human rights resolution on Myanmar
ban-ki-moon-065.jpg

United Nations, April 25: India has asked UN members to drop the annual ritual of passing a resolution on Myanmar’s human rights situation saying that the gesture would encourage the reforms underway there. Speaking Friday at a meeting of the Partnership Group for Peace, Development and Democracy in Myanmar, Permanent Representative Asoke Kumar Mukerji noted that in Rakhine State, the Myanmar government “has taken steps towards restoration of law and order and has expressed readiness to cooperate with UN and other humanitarian agencies regarding rehabilitation of those affected by violence.”(READ-Narendra Modi : Myanmar a valued friend)

“We urged member states to agree to the discontinuation of annual resolutions on the human rights situation in Myanmar,” Mukerji said. “In our view, this would convey the world community’s strong support and encouragement for the reform measures that are already underway in Myanmar.” The last resolution on human rights in Myanmar was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December. Noting the “scale of the reform effort undertaken” there, the resolution welcomed “the continued positive developments in Myanmar towards political and economic reform, democratization and national reconciliation and the promotion and protection of human rights.”

Rakhine State in western Myamar is recovering from the ethnic riots in 2012 between the Buddhist Rakhines and the Muslim Rohingyas. Mukerji said India has provided aid to help Rakhine State recover from the riots. New Delhi gave $240,000 for the rehabilitation effort after the riots first broke out and $1 million for constructing 10 schools for both communities in the affected areas, he said. Development aid to Rakhine State includes $300 million earmarked for the state from the total development assistance of $1.75 billion to Myanmar, and lines of credit totaling $85 million for electricity transmission and road construction in the state, he added.

The meeting was attended by a high level delegation from Government of Myanmar including Soe Thane, Minister in the Office of President, Immigration Minister Khin Yi, Attorney General Tun Shin, and Rakhine State Chief Minister Muang Muang Ohn. Myanmar has emerged from nearly 40 years of military rule after the military council was dissolved in 2011 following the 2010 elections. With democratic reforms underway, general elections are scheduled for later this year. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who chaired the meeting, praised Myanmar’s “exemplary resolve in striving to achieve peace and stability in the country.”

“The reform process initiated by the Government of President U Thein Sein continues to progress steadily,” he said. “The country has taken visible strides in many areas of socioeconomic development, national reconciliation and democratization.” Myamar has also made big strides in trying to end more than 60 years of ethnic insurgencies around the country. The the government’s Union Peace Making Work Committee (UPWC) and the ethnic armed groups Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) agreed on a ceasefire agreement on March 31. Mukerji said India welcomed the accord. Ban thanked thanked his Special Adviser, Vijay Nambiar of India, for his role in the peace process. “The quiet support that he and his team provided helped build confidence in the process,” he said.

Source:- India urges dropping annual human rights resolution on Myanmar | India | Latest India News | Get Free India.com Email | Live Cricket and Entertainment News at India.Com



Great! - Myanmar's progress in building front line warships indigenously is indeed commendable bro! :tup:

we hope to get support form India more in future.. bro.. :D:yahoo::yahoo:

Myanmar Rice Exports Highest in Over 50 yrs
May 7, 2015 by Thiha


Myanmar’s rice exports jumped over 50 percent on year to their highest level in over half a century in 2014-2015, a commerce ministry official said last Thursday.

The country was once the world’s largest rice exporter, but output and shipments declined under 49 years of military rule that left the country impoverished and the economy shattered.

Exports of the Asian staple topped 1.81 million tonnes in the fiscal year ended March 31, said Nilar Soe, a senior official at the Ministry of Commerce. She said it was the highest volume in over 50 years but was unable to give the precise year in which exports were last this high.

The volume was up nearly 51 percent from the 1.2 million tonnes shipped in 2013-2014.

The 2014-2015 shipments were worth over $650 million, she said. Exports a year earlier amounted to $460 million, according to another official at the commerce ministry.

Since the ruling semi-civilian government took power in 2011, the rice industry has seen some improvement in productivity with the political and economic reforms undertaken by the government of President Thein Sein.

Mechanisation is slowly increasing, farmers have access to more imported material and markets such as the European Union that were inaccessible because of sanctions on the former junta are now within reach.

Over a million tonnes of the rice were exported to China, said Nilar Soe. China banned rice imports from Myanmar in August 2014 due to quality concerns, but Myanmar media reports shipments continue to flow.

Myanmar’s rice was exported to a total of 64 countries or regions in 2014-2015, including the EU and Japan, Nilar Soe said.

Over 100 migrants from Bangladesh, Myanmar found in Thai south


BANGKOK (Reuters) - More than 100 suspected Rohingya migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been found in Thailand's southern Songkhla province, police said on Friday.

Police said the 111 migrants had been left alone in the jungle after suspected human traffickers who had brought them into the country fled.

"They were found on a mountain and, from our initial investigation, the people who brought them fled so they were wandering alone," Police Lieutenant Colonel Somkiat Ostaphun, deputy superintendent of Rattaphum police station, told Reuters.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has called for a three-way meeting with neighbors Malaysia and Myanmar to try to resolve a regional human trafficking crisis following the discovery of a mass grave in the country's south.

(Reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Aukkarapon Niyomyat; Editing by Mike Collett-White)


Read more: Over 100 migrants from Bangladesh, Myanmar found in Thai south - Business Insider

Actually they're immigrant bangladeshi..... !!

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World Bank Provides $1.6 billion For Myanmar Health Services

Posted by: The World Bank May 9, 2015 in Featured, Headlines, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Regional, Spotlight

About three million pregnant women and children are expected to benefit from improved Myanmar health services, and six million people will have better access to electricity and other basic services in the next three years under the World Bank’s first full partnership framework in 30 years.

The 2015-17 Country Partnership Framework (CPF) endorsed today by the World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors will provide up to $1.6 billion in credits, loans and grants, as well as technical assistance and knowledge from the International Development Association (IDA), the Bank’s fund for the poorest countries.

Myanmar also will receive up to $1 billion in investments and $20 million in technical assistance from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. Private lenders and investors in Myanmar will also benefit from political risk insurance offered by the Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).


The World Bank

World Bank President Jim Kim (R) with Burma’s President Thein Sein (L) in Washington DC on May 2013

“The new CPF for Myanmar is based on priorities developed in close consultation and engagement with stakeholders in Myanmar,” said Ulrich Zachau, World Bank Country Director for Myanmar.

“The CPF focuses on reducing rural poverty, providing basic services, and stimulating the private sector in an inclusive manner, so that especially the poor and vulnerable share in the benefits of reform. We look forward to working in partnership with the government, investors and civil society groups for the prosperity of the people of Myanmar.”

The CPF is the World Bank Group’s first full strategic framework for Myanmar since 1984. The CPF comes during the country’s transition from military rule to democratic governance, with its economy shifting from state-directed to market-oriented.

“Myanmar’s priority is to advance development and cut poverty in our country,” said Union Minister for the Ministry of Finance, U Win Shein. “Financing and innovative ideas from the World Bank Group can help create jobs, end poverty by 2030 and build Myanmar through growth that reaches everyone in Myanmar, especially the poorest people.”

The CPF seeks to help Myanmar’s development plans in three main areas:


Courtesy The World Bank Group

The World Bank Group will provide up to $1.6 billion in credits, loans and grants to Myanmar

First it will help reduce poverty in rural areas where more than 75 per cent of Myanmar’s poor live. The partnership strategy will focus on increasing economic opportunities and access to basic services, reducing vulnerabilities, and empowering poor rural communities to participate in the economy and the governance of the country.

In the next three years 3.5 million people will gain new or better access to electricity, with an additional 2.5 million people benefiting from improved rural infrastructure and access to public services.

Second, the CPF will help Myanmar improve the quality, access and delivery of essential services for its people, including health care and schools, and help the government achieve its announced goal of universal healthcare access by 2030. In addition, 30,000 students will receive stipends to stay in school.

Third, it will stimulate job creation in Myanmar by building a dynamic private sector with support to improve access to finance for small businesses, telecommunications and information technology, modern financial institutions, and the expansion of overseas trade for Myanmar businesses.

The World Bank Group’s support aims to increase the number of people, micro-enterprises, and small and medium enterprises using financial services by 200,000, and to facilitate financing of up to $40 million by 2017.

World Bank Group support also aims to help the government mobilize $150 million in private investment by creating a business environment conducive to private sector investment.

The CPF draws on intensive and systematic engagement with the government, the private sector and a broad range of civil society, which has helped build mutual understanding and identify priority issues for Myanmar.

It builds on findings from the Bank Group’s recent Systematic Country Diagnostic, extensive consultations with a wide range of stakeholders, and lessons learned since the institution began re-engagement in Myanmar in 2012.
 
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TODAY reports: Between 2012 and 2013, Singapore's direct investment in Myanmar grew by 41.5 per cent to reach S$311.4 million, says IE Singapore, and now Singapore firms are taking aim at the growing middle class with upmarket pre-schools and posh condominiums.
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Cask 81 by Quaich Bar in Myanmar.
SINGAPORE: Three years after Myanmar liberalised its economy, a second wave of companies from the Republic is flocking to the rapidly-developing South-east Asian country - setting up upmarket pre-school centres, swanky bars and eateries, as well as building posh condominiums.

Quaich Bar and the Whisky Store, the Les Amis Group, as well as pre-school operator Modern Montessori were among the Singapore firms that have set up shop in Myanmar in the past 18 months, with the aim of cashing in on a growing middle class and the general population’s rising affluence.

These latest entrants to the Myanmar market are following in the footsteps of big players, including construction and property firms such as Surbana, Soilbuild and Tiong Aik, that moved in to jostle for business deals in the first wave, when the country was looking to build its physical infrastructure.

A distinguishing feature of the second wave of Singapore companies moving into Myanmar is their decidedly lifestyle bent: They offer food and beverage, education and lifestyle services, all of which are attracting the swelling ranks of a growing middle-class that is on the move and in search of places and products to spend their new-found wealth on.

For the Les Amis Group, spokesman Raymond Lim made clear what its target was: “We felt there was very little supply in terms of restaurants, at the high end of the market.”

The group opened a Peperoni Pizzeria restaurant and a House of Singapura outlet in Yangon last May, with plans to open more outlets in Mandalay and Bagon.

Quaich Bar has set up Cask 81 bar in an affluent district in Yangon, targeting locals and expatriates. This is the firm’s first foray into a developing country. “Our whiskies range from those in the very low to very high end. But these days, even locals can afford to buy our high-end products,” said co-owner Chua Khoon Hui.

Also targeting the more well-off is Modern Montessori International (MMI), which gauged that the high-quality early childhood education sector has untapped potential. In March, it opened a 5,000 sq ft preschool in Yangon’s affluent Bahan township. Plans are afoot to open more centres.

Dr T Chandroo, CEO of Modern Montessori International Group, said: “Our recent entry into Myanmar is part of MMI’s strategy to accelerate expansion plans in the region to capitalise on growing demand for high-quality early childhood education in Asia, especially in countries with very large, young, vibrant and upwardly mobile populations such as Myanmar.”

With more than five million people and its status as a commercial centre, Yangon is a popular starting point for companies venturing into Myanmar.

After decades of ostracism and economic decline, Myanmar’s military leaders moved to shed the country’s pariah status in 2011 by lifting restrictions on political opponents, freeing political prisoners and relaxing other rules. In June 2012, Myanmar President Thein Sein announced economic reforms aimed at rolling back decades of state control over the country’s sheltered and dysfunctional economy.

Following the liberalisation of Myanmar’s economy, there has been a surge of direct investments from Singapore, said International Enterprise (IE) Singapore. Between 2012 and 2013, the Republic’s direct investment in Myanmar grew by 41.5 per cent to reach S$311.4 million. In 2013, Singapore became Myanmar’s third-largest trading partner. Bilateral trade increased 6.6 per cent year-on-year to reach S$3.23 billion last year.

IE Singapore’s divisional director (South-east Asia Group) Lai Shu Ying said: “Myanmar’s natural strengths lie in its strategic location at the crossroads of India, China and South-east Asia, allowing it access to a huge combined market. It also has a young, highly literate population and access to vast land and natural resources.”

She added that the nation has made “impressive strides in reforming its economy and strengthening its financial and legal framework in recent years”. Singapore companies have made good inroads in the areas of urban development, connectivity and finance, she said.

“If reforms continue to stay on track, Myanmar has the potential to realise its aspirations of becoming a middle-income economy,” said Ms Lai.

A GROWING MIDDLE CLASS

Based on a Euromonitor report published last year, the number of middle-class consumers in Myanmar is expected to double by 2020. Real annual gross domestic product grew 6 per cent on average between 2009 and 2013, and this is expected to rise to 8 per cent over the subsequent five years. The country is rich in natural resources such as gas, oil, gems, zinc and copper.

Its growing middle class has bolstered sales of non-essential products, such as beauty and personal care as well as tissue and home-care products. Sales of beauty and personal-care items reached a market value of US$318 million (S$423 million) in 2013, after growing at a compound annual growth rate of 14 per cent since 2009.

The report said consumer demand for goods is exceeding supply, with retailers planning to expand in Myanmar’s second-tier cities and develop logistics and distribution networks. The number of potential consumers is expected to rise, while consumer expenditure may triple over the next decade.

Singapore businessmen observed that Myanmar has changed dramatically since it embarked on its political and economic reforms in 2011 after decades of military rule. Mr Daniel Ding, director of business development and investment at Singapore-based property firm Soilbuild Group, said: “There wasn’t any middle class when we first came. A good indication is the malls. Now, they are sprouting up. In the past, people went to malls to eat and drink. But now, you can see people spending money on goods.

“Three years ago, there were not many cars or high-rise buildings. Today, you are bound to get stuck in traffic jams, and you can see a lot of construction of high-rise buildings.”

The expansion of infrastructure presents many business opportunities for foreign firms, Mr Ding noted, adding that his company is eyeing infrastructure projects in its next phase of business development in Myanmar.

Soilbuild started operations in the country in 2012, initially dabbling in project management and has since branched out into real estate development. Currently, it has six project management contracts covering developments across the residential, office and hotel sectors. Later this year, it will launch a 176-unit high-end condominium with a Myanmar partner.

Another Singapore company, property and construction group Tiong Aik, will also be launching a boutique condominium in the second half of the year. The group started in lubricants and property development when it first ventured into Myanmar.

Said its CEO Neo Tiam Boon: “There is oversupply in certain segments of housing, so we have identified very carefully a market that is not being addressed - the middle to upper-middle class. There are also people with significant savings who want to invest in properties.”

The company is also working on a new logistics hub, not only to serve its businesses, but also other firms in the non-perishables sector. The hub will help to fulfil the growing need for supply-chain capabilities in Myanmar, said Mr Neo.

According to Surbana, Myanmar’s construction sector is currently valued at about US$3 billion. It is expected to achieve 46 per cent growth to US$4.2 billion by next year. Surbana started operations there in 2012 and has since taken on more than 20 projects in various parts of the country in the residential and tourism sectors, said Mr Pang Yee Ean, CEO of Surbana International Consultants.

“We have identified the infrastructure sector as a key growth area and there are essential and urgent works needed to serve Myanmar’s larger development needs.”

While the lifestyle niche is getting a lot of attention from Singapore firms, there are some brand-name companies that still have an eye cocked towards Myanmar and the opportunities it presents. In the past fortnight, for instance, two Singapore banks - OCBC and United Overseas Bank - opened a branch each in Yangon. They were among the nine foreign banks that received provisional banking licences in October last year.

While there are abundant opportunities, Singapore companies said there are pitfalls aplenty too. For instance, payment modes are still very traditional, said Mr Lim of Les Amis, with most people paying in cash and not credit cards. As a common practice, landlords there also require tenants to pay a full year’s rent in advance, which would be a challenge for smaller businesses, he added.

Mr Lim noted that the supply chain for perishable food is virtually non-existent, with no logistics service from the airport to the warehouse, for instance. “Our chef has to go to the market to make day-to-day purchases … We can’t just order frozen chicken and have it arrive in a cold truck. And for non-perishables, there aren’t wholesalers or food distributors. We even have to bring in our specialised kitchen equipment from Thailand by land transport, as it is very difficult to find such equipment there,” he said.

Quaich Bar’s Mr Chua said it is tricky for food-and-beverage firms to operate in a country that is largely conservative and religious. “Recently, an operator of a bar there got jailed for putting earphones over a Buddha statue,” he said.

“Licensing is also a problem, with the authorities changing the hours (for licensees to sell alcohol) anytime. When something happens, they clamp down … and then they will randomly relax the restrictions.”

He added that there is a cap on the number of alcohol licences issued. So a new bar, for example, has to pay an existing licensee to take over a licence.

WAIT-AND-SEE APPROACH AS ELECTION NEARS

While Singapore firms have ventured into Myanmar aggressively, some are now adopting a wait-and-see approach as the nation gears up for what The Economist magazine has described as possibly “the first genuine electoral competition for national power after half a century of military rule”.

Myanmar is expected to hold its general election towards the end of the year. Mr Thein Sein, who took office in 2011, has indicated that he would step aside after the polls.

Soilbuild’s Mr Ding said: “Everyone is waiting for the election to take place to see if there are going to be any spillover effects.” However, he pointed out that it is important that his business has established a footprint in Myanmar. “We have an early mover advantage, more lead time, before the big boys move in after the election with their money,” he said. “It will then become a lot more competitive, as companies will have to compete against much bigger names for the affection of locals. Myanmar is a sleeping dragon that is going to wake up very soon.”

Tiong Aik’s Mr Neo is confident that the country will continue with reforms, regardless of the outcome of the election. “We believe Myanmar will continue to liberalise its economy because the people have tasted the sweetness of an open country,” he said.

Political analysts said it is unlikely that the political situation would change much, even if the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, comes to power. The NLD boycotted the previous general election in 2010. In by-elections held in 2012, the opposition party romped to a landslide victory, winning 43 of the 44 seats it had contested, among a total of 46 seats up for grabs.

However, experts felt it is unlikely that the NLD will win a majority in the government for the coming elections and take over the running of the country. Dr Tin Maung Maung Than, a senior research fellow specialising in Myanmar’s politics and development at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said: “People are concerned that if there is a new government, it may (result in) a more protectionist policy. But even if Aung San wins, she can’t do too much because the country has been institutionalised.”

Nevertheless, there is a possibility that the next Myanmar government may be more selective when it comes to foreign investments, as there has been talk about having more socially responsible foreign companies, especially with regard to resource extraction.

Despite the flood of investments, the benefits have yet to trickle down to the man in the street. Dr Tin noted that jobs had been added in sectors such as tourism and hospitality. “But generally, the public has felt that (after) three or four years of reform ... the trickle-down effect hasn’t occurred in many places,” he said. “Even in urban areas, growth is still slow, jobs and pay are still low, although the parliament is talking about imposing a minimum wage.”

Mr Ngwe Zaw, 45, who works in Yangon as a general manager, said the people are getting “a little impatient” about change in their lives. “They are … asking why it is so slow. But we understand (change) has to go through step by step,” he said.

He added that while businesses seemed to be worried that a change in government could set economic reforms back, there is a clamour for the opposition to take over the running of the country.

“People still love Aung San and believe she will (lead) the country in the right direction. But business circles think she doesn’t have a strong team yet to help her manage the country. They think we (the voters) should give the (incumbent government) more time to make the country stronger,” he said.
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According to official news, MM did not buy KS-1A but KS-1C SAM

Woww..!! KS-1C with improved range of 70km..!! That's Great..!! i dont know much about KS-1C Varient.. bro.. can i get any detail..? bro
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Myanmar sets sights on $2bn garment exports

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Myanmar adds new factory per week as textile sector booms

Christiane Oelrich

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

April 29, 2015 1:00 am

The international textile sector has discovered Myanmar. Low wages, plentiful labour and an image problem in neighbouring Bangladesh after the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse have all boosted the emerging country's chances.
Yangon- Green collars piled to one side, white polo shirts to the other - the young woman handles them with practised ease, creating a precise seam with her humming sewing machine. The garment in making then goes to the next station, where her co-worker applies a strip of green tape to the short sleeves. A fan rotates the warm air where 400 women labour eight hours each weekday day - four on Saturday - in the Shweyi Zabe textile plant on the outskirts of Yangon.

"One new factory opened every week in 2014," Khine Khine Nwe, the secretary of the Myanmar Garment Makers Association (MGMA), tells dpa.

There are currently 200,000 workers in more than 300 factories. Neighbouring Bangladesh has around 4,000 textile factories.

"In 10 years we want to have 3,000 factories," she says. The aim is to increase exports from the current US$1 billion a year 10 times over and to provide a million jobs. And investors are answering the call. Chinese, Taiwanese and South Korean companies are flooding into the country.

Shweyi Zabe’s boss Aye Aye Han complains that the competition is luring her workers away by offering a couple of dollars more. The country is benefiting from the waning star of neighbouring Bangladesh, where the collapse of the Rana Plaza textile factory with more than 1,000 fatalities two years ago drew attention to poor working conditions in garment factories.

The timing is also good in the politics of Myanmar, which is opening up after decades under a closed military dictatorship. There is a sense of opportunity since a nominally civilian government came to power in 2011. Garment makers in Myanmar "are evidently in the starting blocks," says Thomas Ballweg of a German fashion association.

"I see real potential." He notes that factories have apparently been well built, with only one or two floors - unlike Rana Plaza with its eight floors. The workrooms are clean and the supervisors open to ideas.

Christian Maag, who heads the German underwear company ESGE, with plants in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and India, is helping Shweyi Zabeto modernize production in Myanmar. ESGE has provided software for production planning and assisted with computer programmes to help cutting to reduce fabric waste.

"We raised our productivity 20 per cent in 2013," Aye Aye Han says.

But there is a long way to go. Estimates put Myanmar productivity at half that of China, where production rates are high, but so are wages. The Verisk Maplecroft consultancy says labour costs are lower in Myanmar than anywhere else in the world. Clothing companies like Gap, H&M and Adidas are already producing here.

"It’s a kind of development aid, but with a business motivation, "Maag says. "If things go well, we will place orders."

A trial run has proved reasonably successful, with scope for expansion, and Maag is convinced that "the textile sector has a future here.

"Smart Myanmar, an EU project, is helping to build up a sustainable textile industry in Myanmar with the aim of secure jobs and good working conditions, along with conserving energy, recycling waste and cutting water consumption.

The head of the project is Simone Lehmann of Sequa, an organisation of German industrial associations with the German GIZ development aidagency. "Our focus is on small and medium-sized enterprises," she says. "We are supporting 16 of the 80 factories with local management."

Lars Droemer, sustainability manager at Swedish fashion company Lindex, is also optimistic on Myanmar. He praises the code of conduct agreed by the textile sector, which bans employing children younger than 15, guarantees a minimum wage, restricts working hours to a maximum of 60 hours a week and allows trade unions.

"We are interested in Myanmar, because we were able to help set up the standards from the start," he says. Lindex operates according to the principal "People - Planet - Profit," in that order, he says.

Promoting local industry is part of the sustainability drive. "Foreign companies take down their factories (and relocate) when operations become cheaper somewhere else, but local employers do not," Droemer says.

The smaller Myanmar companies have yet to master the full production chain. At present they sew and package, but the big clients want a complete service, from supplying fabric and thread to dealing with customs and loading for shipment.

The MGMA is working in this direction. "We need textile weaving plants in Myanmar, and our companies need financing, duty-free imports of goods for re-export and we need more trained seamstresses," Aye Aye Han says.
 
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Always weak in design... need more research and improvement...... :(

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some sense of fighting with KoeKang rebels....
 
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Spanish hotel chain Melia to manage HAGL’s hotel in Myanmar
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Visual from the HAGL Group website

Posted May 4th, 2015 by Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc (
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@NgocNguyenDSA
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ngocnguyen@dealstreetasia.com) & filed under Real Estate


Spanish hotel chain Melia has tied up with the Myanmar-based hotel property developer Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group (HAGL) through a hotel management contract signed on April 30, the Vietnamese company announced.

While the deal value was not revealed, HAGL-invested hotel in Yangon – Melia Yangon – will join Melia’s network of 20 five-star hotels around the world, and the deal will elevate the presence of both Melia and HAGL in the Southeast Asia region, the company said.

Melia Yangon is a new milestone for Melia’s development steps in Asia Pacific, said Melia Hotels International vice president Bernardo Cabot, adding that the new facility will promote the awareness of Melia brand in the region and is the door that opens to more areas in the country.

Meanwhile, HAGL cheif executive Vo Truong Son said, Melia, with its expertise and experience, will help us obtain effective operation within the hospitality industry.”

The hotel is part of the $550 million HAGL Myanmar Centre project, which has terminated partnership with Singapore-based lifestyle real estate and investment company Rowsley Ltd.

Also read: Rowsley, Vietnam partner terminate JV project in Myanmar

On February 11, HAGL reached an agreement to sell half of HAGL Land to the Singaporean investor for $275 million. HAGL Land is the mother company of HAGL Myanmar Co Ltd, which is the owner of the complex – the biggest in Yangon. During the course of executing the deal, real estate investment firm Rowsley had asked the Vietnamese group to allow its direct investment in HAGL Myanmar Co Ltd instead of indirect investment through purchasing shares of HAGL Land.However, due to high tax (40 per cent) imposed on capital transfer in the Burma market, Hoang Anh Gia Lai has declined the proposal, and the two sides have called off the validity of the deal.

Also read: After Rowsley’s exit, HAGL looks for partners in Hong Kong?

With the prime location in downtown Yangon, Myanmar’s former capital city, in the midpoint between the international airport and the highway leading to the current capital, Melia Yangon is designed with 429 rooms, accompanied by the facilities of conference halls, restaurants, recreation and sports centres, among others.

The developer is Myanmar’s biggest foreign investor in the hotel and tourism sector. Meanwhile, this project is, in turn, HAGL’s largest overseas investment.

Founded in 1956 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Meliá Hotels International is one of the largest hotel chain in Spain in both resort and city hotels. The company currently operates more than 350 hotels in 35 countries and 4 continents under its brands: Meliá, Gran Meliá, ME by Meliá, Paradisus, Innside by Meliá, TRYP by Wyndham, Sol Hotels and Club Meliá.
 
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Auto Policy to be Set Up Within Six Months; Japan to Provide Assistance
May 12, 2015 by Thiha


A comprehensive automobile policy will be set up within six months with Japanese assistance, said Dr Soe Htun, chairman of Automobile Manufacturers and Distributors Association.

The policy will ensure the public’s convenience and protection, he added.

Dr Soe Htun said the new policy might cause some fluctuation in motor vehicle prices once it comes out but it will help lessen Yangon’s heavy traffic problem.

“We are setting up this policy as there was previously none in Myanmar. There is now no consistency as policies are different across different departments. There is also no limitation for which models can be imported, although this regulation exists in many countries.

“The new policy would help improve the quality and safety of imported cars, and it should be followed by everyone in the private and government sectors.”

Sources say that the policy would address a wide range of issues including sidewalks, motor vehicle import regulations, permits to import vehicles with left-hand drive or right-hand drive, safety concerns, along with other regulations included in the policies of other countries.

Dr Soe Htun said that after the establishment of the policy, there would be benefits such as the presence of safer, higher quality cars and new job opportunities. In addition, government departments have to follow this policy along with the citizens.

The chairman also claimed that there would be collaborations among the Ministry of Industry, Myanmar Board of Engineering, his association, the Ministry of Commerce and other relevant government departments.

“The collaboration is essential to be able to set up a uniform policy. A draft policy was set up two years ago but was not completed. This time we have improved it.”

Source: Myanmar Business Today
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Indonesia’s Wintermar expands into Myanmar
May 12, 2015 by Thiha


Offshore vessel services (OVS) firm Wintermar Offshore Marine is seeking to expand to other Southeast Asian countries to cope with the decline in oil and gas activities in Indonesia, the company’s executive has said.

President director Sugiman Layanto said that his company was exploring the opportunity to operate in Myanmar, Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam to increase the utilization rate of the company’s vessels.

“We especially see a big opportunity in Myanmar, as increasing oil and gas activities might provide an opportunity for expansion there,” Sugiman told reporters during a press conference on Thursday.

Myanmar awarded this month contracts to international oil majors Statoil and ConocoPhillips for oil and gas exploration in a deepwater offshore block, according to Reuters. Last year, Myanmar awarded exploration rights to the two companies, as well as to Royal Dutch Shell and Total, for 10 shallow-water blocks and 10 deepwater blocks.

During the fiscal year that ended in March, Myanmar attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) totaling US$8 billion, about 35 percent of which was poured into the energy sector, Reuters reported, citing the Myanmar Investment Commission.

Sugiman said that for its foreign operations, the company currently had two vessels operating for mid-term contracts in India and one vessel for a long-term contract in Brunei Darussalam, the latter of which started last year.

The company also has two vessels to cater to Myanmar’s spot market and another vessel for the Vietnamese market.

Wintermar had no specific target for its overseas expansion, president commissioner Johnson William Sutjipto said.

“We simply follow every tender that is suitable for our business and vessel profile,” he said.

Strengthening regional business is one of the OVS firm’s strategies to mitigate plunging oil prices, which have further affected activities in the oil and gas industry and resulted in the company booking sluggish first-quarter performance. The company currently has 77 vessels, among them are 12 high-tier vessels.

Wintermar saw its revenues decline by 39 percent year-on-year (yoy) to $29.25 million during the first quarter of the year while its net profit plunged by 99 percent from $7.59 million in the first three months of last year, to $76,122.

Crude oil prices, which reached an average of $110 a barrel in mid-2004, have dropped to as low as $50 a barrel in recent months after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided in November to leave output levels unchanged. The Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas) estimates contractors will on average cut their budgets and welling activities by at least 20 percent from their initial work plans, as current low oil prices have made numerous projects uneconomical.

State-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina has said that it will reduce its drilling activities this year to 36 exploration wells and 116 exploitation wells, a significant reduction from the firm’s activities in 2014 involving drilling in 39 exploration wells and 243 exploitation wells.

During the first quarter, Wintermar saw its overall fleet utilization decrease from 70 percent last year to 61 percent this year, due to low oil and gas activities.

Pek Swan Layanto, Wintermar investor relations head, said that Wintermar decided to cut its capital expenditure to $30 million from $50 million to face slowing business.

Source: Jakarta Post

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Why are Singapore companies so prolific in Myanmar?
May 12, 2015 by andrew tan
Based on the latest statistics that I received from the Myanmar Department of Investment and Company Administration. As of the end of the Myanmar financial year 31st March 2015 Singapore is the leading investor in Myanmar. One in every four companies opened by foreigners in Myanmar is from Singapore.

Out of 4,324 foreign owned companies in Myanmar. Singapore dominates in the area of hotel (40%), services (26% this would include law firm, business advisory, consultancy services, F&B, etc), construction (20%), tourism (17%) and banking (14%).

Several reasons can be attributed to so many Singapore businesses opening up in Myanmar.

Primary one would be familiarity with the market as there are many Singapore companies who already have Myanmar employees in Singapore and these Burmese have worked for many years for the same employer in Singapore – expanding to Myanmar is a logical solution as they can transfer their Burmese managers or supervisors over to run the operations in Yangon. This is especially true in the area of construction, engineering and legal services where there is a shortage of professional firms who can deliver work of international standards.

The second reason would be proximity of the market – Yangon is only 2.5 hours away by plane and with many budget airlines servicing the 2 countries it is not an expensive affair to work in Yangon and fly back to Singapore every fortnight.

The third reason would be the historical close link between Myanmar and Singapore. As there are many Burmese who have moved to Singapore over the last 20 years because of education, employment or business – many have become Singapore citizen, permanent resident and even if they are not citizen or PR upon their return to Myanmar they have become goodwill ambassador for Singapore among their countrymen. I was quite surprised that during the Lee Kuan Yew Memorial event that was held on 29th March 2015 at the Sedona Hotel in Yangon – many Burmese who were alumni of NTU and NUS turned up at the memorial event to pay their last respect to Mr Lee. You will find that many of the middle – upper class Burmese have children studying in Singapore or are educated in Singapore and speaks English like a Singaporean. So doing business in Myanmar is not difficult for Singaporeans in general as the Burmese tends to hold Singaporeans in high regard. In the area of engineering, business advisory and consultancy services this is definitely an advantage.

The fourth reason is that as the financial market in Myanmar is still very undeveloped so it is easier to get financing or to raise capital in Singapore than in Myanmar. Which is why many foreign companies use their Singapore office to invest in Myanmar.

With the US’s pivot to Asia strategy and the desire by the Obama administration to neutralize the influence of China in Asia. We see prominent businessman like U Win Aung of the Dagon Group taken off the US’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) and Block Persons list. More important is the fact that U Win Aung is also the President of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry the first contact point for many US businesses wanting to do business in Myanmar. There are talks that many other Myanmar tycoons will be taken off the SDN list over the next 6 months – so that US businesses have more options in terms of looking for joint venture partners. For example KFC entered Myanmar with very limited options as there was only one Burmese tycoon Serge Pun they could negotiate with as he was the only tycoon not on the US SDN list. So the US is very determined in Myanmar – they want to win in Asia and they want to dilute the influence of China in Myanmar.

With regards to the coming election in November. Most people in Myanmar think that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) will win the election. However Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will not be president as the constitution does not allow her to – as her husband and children are all foreigners. However she can be like Sonia Gandhi – she can be the President of the NLD party and appoint a capable person to be the President of the country and to run it. In Myanmar like in Thailand there will always be a role for the military due to the country’s history and number of armed minority groups in the country.

For Singaporeans that are already doing business in Myanmar – they face the problems of high rental and a shortage of skilled staff. However those who are persistent and have built up a strong local team will find that Myanmar is not a more difficult market versus Singapore whereby we also have the same problem of high rental and a shortage of skilled staff due to the government policy of restricting foreign labour. However this is where the similarity ends as Myanmar is just beginning on its road to reform and economic transformation. The IMF forecast that the GDP to grow by at least 8% per annum for the foreseeable future. In Singapore as a mature developed economy we would be very happy if we can get a consistent 2% to 3% annual growth rate over the next decade.

Author: Andrew Tan

About the author: Andrew is a Singaporean and the founder and Managing Director of Consult-Myanmar Co Ltd – a leading business consultancy in Myanmar. Andrew is also an exco member of the Singapore Association of Myanmar.
 
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When will Pakistan going to send back the Burmese and Bengalis back. Or are they willing to go back with Afghans to Afghanistan ?
 
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The Bay Area’s Burmese food boom
By Jonathan Kauffman

May 8, 2015 Updated: May 8, 2015 2:12pm
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Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

A line of diners wait for Burma Superstar to open for dinner in San Francisco — a far cry from the restaurant’s struggle before owners Joycelyn Lee and Desmond Htunlin took over in 2001.
When Shwe Myanmar opened in downtown San Rafael around Thanksgiving, it didn’t take long for local Yelpers to wax rapturous.

“Burmese food comes to San Rafael — yay!!” wrote Melanie H. Tyrone V. added, “San Rafael finally has a Burmese restaurant! I have been waiting for one to open up around these parts for the past two years!”


A decade ago, it would be hard to imagine this level of excitement for a cuisine that barely registers in New York or Chicago. After quietly sustaining itself in a few local cities for decades, this year Burmese cuisine has taken to the road: To San Rafael. To Corte Madera. To San Ramon, Santa Clara and Millbrae. In December 2014, contributors to the food website Chowhound counted 28 Bay Area Burmese restaurants — and that was a good five or six locations ago.

Since the 1962 coup d’etat that installed a military junta in Burma (Myanmar) led to many Burmese immigrating to the Bay Area, the local Burmese community now numbers in the tens of thousands, one of the largest in the nation.

The boom owes its existence to a few early arrivals who introduced the broader public to Burmese food in the early 1980s, and then to the viral, if unexpected, success of Burma Superstar in the 2000s. California’s Burmese cuisine is so dynamic and fast evolving that the food Melanie H. and Tyrone V. are thrilled to eat may not bear much resemblance to what cooks make in Burma or what some new restaurateurs are preparing.

In short: If you think you know what tea leaf salad tastes like, you haven’t been eating around.

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Photo: Amy Osborne / The Chronicle

Generation 1: Nan Yang founder Philip Chu spends his retirement writing and researching two books: “The Story of Food” and an English translation of a Chinese Taoist text.
'Where’s Burma?’

When Philip and Nancy Chu opened Nan Yang in Oakland Chinatown in 1983, it might have been the first full-fledged Burmese restaurant in the Bay Area, if not the West Coast.

“I had people coming peeking through the window, looking at the place,” Philip Chu remembers 32 years later, in his early 80s. “Burma — where’s Burma? Then they walked away. Sometimes I had only one customer all night long.”

Yet Chu felt called to continue cooking the food of his home country — by a lifelong love of beauty, he says. He had grown up in the former capital city of Rangoon, a member of the middle-class Chinese community, and that same love had caused him to reject a scholarship to study nuclear physics in order to pursue architecture.

Related
His work as an architect, for a member of the junta who was then ousted for his support of democracy, landed Chu in prison for 2½ years. He and his wife and children were allowed to leave Burma in 1969 on two conditions: They could never return, and they had to leave immediately, taking only $7 each with them. “I could not even tip the porter at the San Francisco airport when we arrived,” Chu says.

The Chus were among the scores of Chinese Burmese who trickled into the country in the late 1960s, driven away by anti-Chinese riots and anti-intellectual persecution. Educated people with a skill, explains Myanmar Community USA Director Felix Chin, were readily given visas; others had to find a relative or a sponsor. Anyone with ties to the Bay Area’s Chinese community tapped them. Many new arrivals found support — jobs, English lessons, housing — from Chinatown immigrant groups.

Chu alternated between architecture work and restaurants — one a hofbrau renowned for its roast turkey — before he and Nancy opened Nan Yang. Sharing cooking duties, the two split the menu between Burmese and Chinese dishes. They inspired a friend in the Burmese-Chinese community, Wynn Lee, to open Mandalay in San Francisco’s Richmond District six months later, where he served a similar mix.

Yet both restaurants languished, Chu admits. Despite their resolve, the Chus began to fret that they’d made a mistake. Then, in 1985, San Francisco Chronicle critic Stan Sesser reviewed Nan Yang, gushing over the ginger salad and coconut-chicken noodles. Chu ran out of most dishes by 8 p.m., despite preparing more food than he ever had after Sesser warned him a couple days in advance.

An era of hour-long waits had begun.

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Photo: Amy Osborne, The Chronicle

Traditional Burmese tea leaf salad at Mandalay restaurant in San Francisco.
Most of the subsequent writers who came to the restaurant described Burmese food as the midpoint of Chinese, Indian and Thai cuisines, with mild curries, hearty soups and thrilling salads. Chu says that he refused to compromise on his recipes for American tastes. Yet there was one dish he declined to serve, thinking it too off-putting for outsiders, until a food writer who had read about the Burmese practice of fermenting tea leaves in buried containers requested a tea leaf salad.

Chu mixed one up, using leaves imported by a tiny market in Los Angeles and pulses and seeds he painstakingly soaked, roasted and fried. Other customers found out about the dish. Within a few years, tea leaf salad had surpassed ginger salad in popularity.

Nan Yang opened a second location on Rockridge in 1992, closing the original location a few years later and retiring from the restaurant business in 2012. Across the bay, Mandalay sputtered along until 2003, when its original owner sold to a family friend, a more talented cook.

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Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

Generation 2: Burma Superstar co-owner Joycelyn Lee with the restaurant’s tea leaf salad.
Superstar saviors

Around the same time, Burma Superstar’s current owners Joycelyn Lee and partner Desmond Htunlin got into the restaurant business because they couldn’t imagine parting with their favorite place.

Languishing on a slow block of Clement Street, Burma Superstar was not much to look at in 2001, with beer signs for atmosphere, a dining room gazebo consumed by plastic ivy and a near-perennially empty dining room. The owners had opened the restaurant in 1992, but nine years in, they were exhausted and ready to sell.

Htunlin is Burmese-Chinese and Lee is Filipino-Chinese, so the two regular customers, then in their late 20s, were well acquainted with the cuisine. Lee says she remembers thinking. “If they close, where would we eat Burmese food? Burmese food is a lot of work.”

Their decision to sustain the restaurant — one of the owners stayed on as a waiter — took on new urgency one month later when Lee lost her graphic design job in the dot-com crash. Suddenly, she realized, “I have a lot of people working in the kitchen, and how are we going to pay them? So I started to do anything and everything to help it grow.”

Htunlin and Lee gradually took down the beer signs and replaced them with photographs. They removed the gazebo and the ugly wood paneling. They touched up the menu based on suggestions from the Burma-born cooks and waiters. There was a cold noodle dish, for instance, with 20 ingredients that Lee loved, but in Burmese it was called hand salad, and hand salad wasn’t going on the menu. So she renamed it Rainbow Salad, and the dish suddenly sold like crazy.

Lee can’t point to a moment when she felt assured of Burma Superstar’s success, but somewhere, around 2005, the jostling in the dining room spilled onto the sidewalk. Local publications began touting the restaurant’s vegetarian samusa soup — a popular street food in Burma, Lee says — and customers couldn’t get enough of the coconut rice and the tea leaf salad, now made with added romaine lettuce for a lighter crunch.

In 2007, Htunlin and Lee took over a friend’s flailing Alameda restaurant and turned it into a second Burma Superstar, then opened a third branch in Temescal in 2009.

Burma Superstar had become a phenomenon.

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Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

Server Katharine Camilli (right) mixes tea leaf salad for Maximo Botello (left) from Orange County at B Star Bar in San Francisco, California, on Friday, May 1, 2015.
Setting the pace

In the wake of the phenomenon came Rangoon Rubys and Burma Houses and Pagans. Overflow from the Burma Superstar lines even helped transform the pace at nearby Mandalay from sleepy to manic.

Lee attributes today’s Burmese boom to changing tastes. “I think, in general, people are more interested in trying something new,” she says. “What’s new to them is traditional to Burma. You can bring on the fish sauce, bring on the shrimp paste. People are open to trying other people’s cuisines.”

Yet, as Burmese cuisine has settled into its new country, it has changed. How could it not? The vegetables sold at market are different. The Pacific Ocean yields different fish than Southeast Asian rivers.

The context in which we eat the food is different, too. Burma’s national dish, a pounded-fish stew called mohinga, is ladled into bowls at street corner stalls at all hours of the day; on Bay Area menus, it takes a demure place in the soup section. Here, curries aren’t set on the table with a profusion of bowls: rice, soup, raw and lightly cooked vegetables, pickles and relishes.

Most important, who eats the food is different.

“Real Burmese food,” says Myanmar Community USA Director Chin, “they use fish sauce a lot. But not many people can stand the smell. So they have to use it a little bit lighter, so non-Burmese people will come and eat it.”

There’s also a similarity between newer restaurants’ menus and Burma Superstar’s. You can see it at Shwe Myanmar in San Rafael, whose menu — rainbow salad, samusa soup and all — emulates the more established restaurant’s with the fierce devotion of a drag queen to her Beyonce cover.

Burmese food is becoming Burmese American food, just as what Americans consider Thai and Indian food congealed several decades before: a short canon of dishes popularized by early restaurants like Nan Yang, Mandalay and Burma Superstar, interspersed with Chinese American and Thai dishes. The prepackaged tea leaf salad you now find at grocery stores is a lettuce salad lightly flecked with dark green.

Who emigrates from Burma to America has changed as well. Given the ruling regime’s repression of the many ethnic groups — Karen, Shan, Chin, Kachin, Mon — the U.S. government has granted asylum to 150,000 new refugees since 2001, many of whom have settled across the country. Northern California-bound immigrants find housing in Oakland or Union City instead of San Francisco. Instead of working on farms and in workshops in Burma, here they can become cooks and servers.

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Photo: Amy Osborne, The Chronicle

Generation 3: (Left to Right) Wanna-E owners Zin Win, Rainy Shai, Coco Lee, and William Lee.
Free to experiment

We are entering a new phase: Bay Area diners have embraced Burmese food so enthusiastically that they have freed some restaurateurs to experiment.

William Lue exemplifies both aspects of the rush. After spending the 1970s and ’80s in Chinese and Burmese restaurants, Lue left the industry until 2012, when he launched a short-lived Burmese food truck that circulated in SoMa. A string of pop-ups and half-baked restaurants followed. Then Lue settled on an empire-building strategy: taking Burmese to the ’burbs.

Tapping into the flow of immigrant cooks to the East Bay, Lue opened the Refined Palate in Orinda in December 2013, TW Burmese Gourmet in San Ramon in May 2014, Grocery Cafe in East Oakland in March 2015 and Pacheco Bistro in Martinez three weeks ago.

All fit the designation “hole in the wall”: sparsely decorated restaurants in central but far from high-profile locations, each with a short introductory menu of classics like tea and ginger salads, mohinga, coconut-chicken noodles, and a few curries.

Lue, a man with so many plans that it’s hard to separate the ideal from reality, has even grander ambitions. He’s hoping to have Hmong farmers in Fresno grow Burmese vegetables like moringa (“drumstick tree”) and chinbong, the “sour leaf” that some restaurants stir-fry with shrimp, and to introduce the East Bay to rare Shan and Karen dishes. His cooks are already preparing rarities for groups who request them in advance, and Lue says he produces fermented fish paste, spicy dried anchovies and other fragrant condiments for customers who ask for “Burmese Burmese” food.

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Photo: Amy Osborne / The Chronicle

Wanna-E food truck in San Francisco.
Lue isn’t alone. Some of the most distinctive Burmese food in San Francisco is coming from Wanna-E, a food truck that became street-legal just two months ago.

Wanna-E is run by a group of Burmese-Chinese friends in their 20s who arrived in the Bay Area in the mid-2000s. Manager William Lee and his sister, Coco, a recent culinary-school grad, teamed up with Zin Win and Rainy Shai because they wanted to introduce the food of Mandalay, the city where all four spent their early years.

“Mandalay is really diverse,” William Lee says. “A lot of immigrants have come there from China and Thailand, and our cuisine has already been shaped by this diverse culture.”

The four winnowed down their initial list of 50 dishes — all of which they hold in reserve for their restaurant, should they ever open one — down to a menu of 10 mobile-friendly offerings. It includes Chinese-Burmese noodles with braised pork and scads of fried garlic, and a Yunnanese mushroom noodle soup. A salad of crispy shredded pork with cabbage and lime is a dish the Lees’ grandmother concocted years ago.

Even their classics taste more vivid than the versions we’ve come to expect: Tea leaf salad thrums with the funk of squid sauce, and crisp-edged squares of split-pea “tofu” come with a tart, chile-laced tamarind dipping sauce that Lee says is ubiquitous in Mandalay.

“Our customers tell us it’s very different from Burmese dishes at other restaurants,” William Lee says. “That’s a good thing to hear.”

Burma Superstar is not maintaining the status quo, either. When Htunlin opened Burma Love in December, he replaced some of the staples with new dishes. Lee, too, says she has just returned from a Burmese voyage, inspired. New dishes may spin out of her trip, she says, as well as a series of pop-ups to raise money for school uniforms.

She also came home with a more profound sense of her restaurant’s reach after talking with a woman in Burma who runs a cooking school and community center.

Well into their discussion, the woman finally asked Lee where she was traveling from. San Francisco, Lee told her.

“Oh!” the woman exclaimed. “Burma Superstar!”


Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jkauffman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jonkauffman


A guide to Burma by the bay

Here’s an opinionated, incomplete and highly personal guide to some of my favorite Burmese dishes from local restaurants.


Mandalay: 4348 California St., San Francisco; (415) 386-3895. www.mandalaysf.com. Lunch and dinner daily.

Pick the Burmese dishes out from the sugary Chinese American ones, and you will eat well: lettuce-free tea leaf salad, ginger salad, Mandalay special noodles (noodles with coconut, chicken and lime), kaw soi dok (cold noodles with fried shallots and tamarind dressing).

Burma Superstar: 309 Clement St., San Francisco; (415) 387-2147. www.burmasuperstar.com. Lunch and dinner daily.

Samusa soup, rainbow salad, okra egg curry, platha with curry.

Wanna-E: Thisfood truck is often parked during lunchtime at the corner of Third and Harrison streets in San Francisco. Check www.wanna-e.com or Wanna-E (@WannaESF) | Twitter for locations.

Split-pea tofu, tea leaf salad, pork sung salad, chicken curry with coconut rice.

Little Yangon: 6318 Mission St., Daly City; (650) 994-0111. http://littleyangon.com. Lunch and dinner Monday, Wednesday-Friday; breakfast through dinner Saturday-Sunday.

Mohinga (fish-noodle soup), Indo-Burmese biryani and, if you’re inclined toward strong flavors, belachang (fried ground shrimp and chiles). One of the few Bay Area restaurants that does not stint on shrimp paste and fish sauce.

Grocery Cafe: 2248 10th Ave., Oakland; (925) 566-4877. www.facebook.com/grocerycafe. Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday.

Mohinga (fish-noodle soup), ginger salad, braised pork with pickled mango, and whatever daily specials that William Lue is testing out on customers.

Mingalaba: 1213 Burlingame Ave., Burlingame; (650) 343-3228. www.mingalabarestaurant.com. Lunch and dinner daily.

Mingalaba is owned by the same family behind Mandalay, and the menu is similar. Food Editor Miriam Morgan, a regular customer, recommends ong noh kaw soi (coconut milk chicken soup), tea leaf salad, pan-fried okra prawns and house special noodles (with coconut, split peas and lime leaf).

Pakistan going to send back the Burmese and Bengalis back.

wrong person.. bro..!! u should ask to ur Gov..

they willing to go back with Afghans to Afghanistan ?

may be.. bro.. !!
 
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Phuket of Myanmar’ seeks MIC approval
May 14, 2015 by Thiha

The US$1.2 billion LuxDream Island project is branded “the next Phuket” and will feature a high-end marina, luxury hotels, a theme park and a casino.

The plan may seem incongruous with the serenity of Myanmar’s Myeik Archipelago. But the island dream looks set to become reality, as Singaporean Zochwell Group prepares to sign a Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) contract with the Tanintharyi Region Government next month.

The Myeik Archipelago is a group of more than 800 islands in the Andaman Sea, off the southern tip of Myanmar. The islands are home to the Moken, or “sea gypsies” and are almost untouched by tourism.
The area had five hotels and motels with a total of 196 rooms by the end of 2014, according to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism. But this is set to change.

In 2012, Gareth Chin, Zochwell’s chief commercial officer, was looking for business opportunities in Myanmar, and was introduced to Kawthoung, the city at the southernmost point of Myanmar.
Following preliminary studies on Salon Island, or LuxDream as it appears in investment literature, he met with U Htay Aung, Union minister for hotels and tourism, who wrote a letter to connect Zochwell Group to the chief minister of Tanintharyi Region, according to Mr Chin.

Salon is another name given to the Moken people in Myanmar. The island is 697 acres in size, located around 20 minutes by boat from Kawthoung jetty.

“Several farmers who were living on the mainland used the island for planting crops including coconut, cashew nuts, betel nuts, corn and rubber. So we have spent the past two years negotiating compensation,” said Mr Chin.

Almost all the farmers have now been compensated, he said. Those who have not accepted the terms will keep their land and, for now, the development will go ahead around it.

The land was previously classified as farmland, which Zochwell changed to commercial land under Myanmar law. “This was not a problem as the project had already been approved in principle by the regional government,” said Mr Chin.

“We are going to sign the land lease and the Build, Operate, Transfer terms with the chief minister [of Tanintharyi region] in the next month, as soon as the Attorney General’s Office approves the agreement. After that, we will seek Myanmar Investment Commission approval.”

Zochwell will rent the island under standard BOT terms of 50 years, with an option to extend the contract twice, by 10 years each time, said Mr Chin.

However, U Hlwan Moe, assistant director of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism in Myeik, said he did not know about the project.

“We oversee all of the islands in the Myeik Archipelago. They need to get approve from our department, but we haven’t had any information yet,” he said.

The entire project will cost an estimated $1.2 billion. Phase one will include development of the marina, a golf course to be designed by former US golfer Jack Nicklaus’s company, Nicklaus Design, and a clubhouse.

Zochwell has approached companies including ONE°15 Marina Club and Resort, a Singapore listed firm which operates the Sentosa Island marina in Singapore, according to Mr Chin. ONE°15 Marina is exploring the possibilities of developing and managing a marina on the island, he said.

Zochwell is also in talks with Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts, according to Mr Chin. The hotel operator is most famous for its “7 star” Burj Al Arab Jumeirah hotel in Dubai.

Neither Nicklaus Design, ONE°15 Marina Club and Resort nor Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts responded to requests for comment. However, Singaporean architect Ong & Ong confirmed that it was working with Zochwell on the design.

“We have signed an MOU and are working on a masterplan for the whole island,” said Andy Goh, Ong & Ong’s chief consultant in Myanmar. “We will start with the design for the marina and the hotel.”

Furthermore, the island will feature a casino. While these are not legal in Myanmar, it is possible to gain a licence for an offshore establishment. The Andaman Club Resort, on an island near to Salon Island, has had a casino in operation since 1996.

The LuxDream Island casino has already been approved in principle, though still requires MIC approval, said Mr Chin.

Assuming the project gains MIC approval, the initial phase will begin at the end of 2015, he said.
“We are in the process of choosing contractors, operators and investors. We will manage the island in the same way that Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) manages Sentosa Island in Singapore. We will lease it from the government, divide it up, and sub-lease sections of it to independent investors.”
The SDC describes Sentosa, which means peace and tranquility in Malay, as follows: “Once a modest fishing village and military base, it has since been transformed into one of Asia’s leading leisure and lifestyle destinations.”

Several islands in Myeik, too, have long been used by Myanmar’s military. “The island immediately west of Salon Island is a naval base. It’s well located, as it will help protect us from monsoons,” jokes Mr Chin.

Prospective partners from Singapore, Thailand and China have conditionally agreed to invest, and are now waiting for MIC approval, said Mr Chin.

“We are getting ready to open this project to Myanmar investors soon,” he said.
Zochwell will develop the marina, which Mr Chin hopes will become a major destination on the global yachting route.

“Many people with yachts want to do a round-the-world tour. In this region, they pass through Singapore, then Malaysia and Phuket. But all four marinas on Phuket are fully booked and the government won’t issue any more licences as capacity is to the brim,” he said.

“The next stop on the map is the Nicobar Islands [in the Eastern Indian Ocean]. Currently only larger boats can make this trip directly from Phuket. But with a marina in Myanmar, smaller boats could stop at our island before moving on.”

He plans to include immigration facilities on Salon Island, so that it can become a gateway to Myanmar, said Mr Chin.

“In a later phase, we will build an 800-metre bridge to the mainland via another island, where there is already a causeway to the mainland. We will need to work with the Ministry of Transport to ensure we don’t block the waterway,” he said.

The project will be developed according to responsible tourism guidelines, said Mr Chin. “The Myanmar government wants to avoid the sort of pollution and damage that has happened in Phuket.”
Last year, Flora & Fauna International (FFI) proposed establishing a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Myeik Archipelago, as the area has a unique biodiversity, which is under serious threat.

The FFI carried out studies over two years in collaboration with the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry (MOECAF), the Department of Fisheries and the navy, according to an October 2014 statement. The parties are now discussing the best ways to protect the area. The region is also on UNESCO’s tentative list of nominations for World Heritage Sites.

“We will have to prepare an EIA [environmental impact assessment] before our MIC application, and to do whatever is proposed by the government,” said Mr Chin.

Furthermore, he suggested that a research centre could be built on Salon Island, for academics and scientists to study the Myeik Archipelago “before it disappears”. Zochwell has been talking to the National University of Singapore, among other potential partners, to find out whether this is feasible, he said.
Zochwell is not the only company with ambitious plans for the region. Myeik Public Corporation plans to develop island resorts in the archipelago – on Kunthee Island, East Sula Island, Langan Island and Tanintharyi Island, according to a 2014 article in state-owned newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar.

The projects are likely to include hotels, a golf course and amusement parks, according to the article.

Zochwell Group began doing business in Myanmar in 2012. In addition to Salon Island, the company has several ambitious projects including a chain of “boutique, three-star hotels” in Yangon, which will go by the brand Equiloft, a mix of “exquisite” and “loft”.

The group is also building a small-scale residential development in Dawbon township, Yangon, and has cement batching plants in Yangon and Bago, with another to be built in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

Finally, the group is in talks with several Norwegian companies about a gated community project in Yangon for Norwegian expats, which would include facilities including a clubhouse, a gym, a spa, restaurants and a school.

Source: Myanmar Times
 
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After decades of decay, Myanmar bets on Thilawa to lead industry boom
May 14, 2015 by Thiha

From the banks of the Yangon River rises Myanmar’s great economic hope, a $1.5 billion manufacturing complex designed to lure investment and help the impoverished country compete in the global marketplace.

The first phase of the 2,400-hectare (5900-acre) Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ), an hour from the commercial capital Yangon, is only months away from completion, and plans to host some 100 factories employing 50,000 people are being fast-tracked.

Corruption, sanctions and scant investment under a half-century of military dictatorship has left Myanmar with a labour surplus, and the reformist government is hoping to capitalise on its workforce to give it a competitive edge.

A diverse range of manufacturers from Suzuki Motor Corp to a soft toys factory called “Cute Myanmar” are getting ready to set up at Thilawa.

The project is being driven by Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp, Marubeni Corp and Sumitomo Corp, with the backing of the four-year-old government.

“The Myanmar government is serious,” said Takashi Yanai, president of Myanmar-Japan Thilawa Development (MJTD), which has a 49 percent stake in the SEZ. “They want to change the old style.”

That style helped fill the pockets of generals but scared off investors, who watched Myanmar’s economy wilt while neighbours China, India and Thailand grew apace.

Now, managed by a semi-civilian government, Myanmar has one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
Developers hope the Thilawa project will provide a further boost to foreign direct investment, which last fiscal year amounted to $8.1 billion – about 25 times the $329.6 million received in 2009/2010 before the military ceded power.

Myanmar has two other SEZs on the way, in Dawai, a southern port complex abutting Thailand and Kyaukpyu on its west coast at the Bay of Bengal.

But the government has made Thilawa the top priority. New roads have been built, investment permits have been issued in as little as three weeks, and there a plans to expand a nearby port. Of the 41 firms that have so far signed up, 21 are from Japan.

The SEZ is currently connected to Myanmar’s notoriously unreliable power grid, but the government has pledged to build a 50 megawatt power plant nearby. Sumitomo announced last month it had won a contract to build the 5 billion yen ($41.59 million) gas-fired plant, and it will be fully operational by July 2016.

“Thilawa is very important … it will become the symbol that attracts foreign investment,” said Tanaka Akihiko, president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

CHEAP LABOUR

Koyo Radiator Company, a unit of Japanese-owned Koyo Group, chose Thilawa due to rising costs at its affiliate plants in nearby countries.

“Labour costs in both Indonesia and China have dramatically increased, which has resulted in a tough situation in terms of company profit margins,” said Takuma Ejiri, managing director of Koyorad Myanmar, a member of the Koyo Group.

Aware of the cost-saving advantages presented by its workforce, the government must balance cheap labour against fair pay.

The head of parliament has recommended the civil servant minimum of 3,000 kyat ($2.75) per day be the standard for industry also. That would compare with about $9.14 in Thailand and $6.35 in Vietnam.
But the zone has its critics. Mekong Watch, a Tokyo-based watchdog that scrutinises regional investments, says villagers have been displaced without adequate compensation.

Kyaw Naing Oo was among those relocated to a small community nearby that residents call Japan New Quarter. He was given a small amount of money and a wooden house on a 25 by 50-foot plot of land in return for his two acres of farmland. He hopes to work at Thilawa, which has offered training and jobs to those who moved.

“If I get a job there it will be a better life,” he said. “But the way I feel now, I prefer the other place.”

Source: Reuters

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Local, fair-trade coffee in Yangon? That’s Genius
May 14, 2015 by Thiha


Rubber, rice, fisheries, beans and pulses – the list of primary products Myanmar exports is well enough known. And then Ko Ngwe Tun thought: Why not coffee?

Ko Ngwe Tun is familiar with his country’s geography. He knew where to find the right climate and the rich soil needed to grow the best coffee trees. What he didn’t find was any competition.

The technical director of an IT company, he decided to add to the list of Myanmar’s best-known natural products, and by doing so help local communities and protect the environment. Very soon his company, Genius Coffee, was born.

“Everyone drinks coffee, regardless of race, class or religion,” said Ko Ngwe Tun, sitting in the Genius coffee shop on Yangon’s 31st Street.

“When the country started to open up, I started wondering what we could export that foreigners would want. We export rice, but rice can’t be value-added. Coffee can, and it sells everywhere. That’s why I started the coffee business. If we try harder to produce high-quality coffee, we can earn foreign income,” he said.

Nature made Chin State and southern Shan State for the cultivation of coffee trees. Ko Ngwe Tun chose Ywar Ngan township, Taunggyi district, southern Shan State, where the year-round cool climate and sloping hills at an average altitude of 4000 feet (1220m) provide the ideal location for growing his Arabica beans.

He hires local farmers, Danu hill tribal families, who live in the area and depend on growing seasonal crops. In December 2011, he started to grow coffee trees in a 9-hectare (20-acre) patch of land under shady trees and even began to buy and store raw coffee from the nearby plantations.

“By growing coffee, we can create a green and pleasant environment under the shade trees. Both the shade trees and the coffee trees provide income,” he said. “The decayed leaves from the shade trees provide the best fertiliser for the coffee trees. That’s why I trust in the quality of my coffee.”

His aim is to follow the likes of Costa Rica, Kenya and Panama that aim for quality rather than quantity. “I don’t want to cultivate large plantations that damage the soil, but in small plots worked by a few farmers under shady trees,” said Ko Ngwe Tun.

Profit is not his goal. He distributes coffee trees to villagers who want to grow them and shade trees to monasteries and hospitals for greening the environment. Genius adheres to Fair Trade principles and contributes about 10 percent of the proceeds from its coffee sales toward the development of surrounding villages, supporting their schools, teaching English and providing outstanding students with stipends.
Genius also educates farmers in minimising deforestation and encourages the use of shade trees to help preserve the ecosystem.

“During the harvest time each year, we visit coffee plantations in Ywar Ngan and conduct free training. We invite the local farmers and train them how to pick the beans at the right time, to grow coffee trees and to protect the trees from the insect pests without using pesticide,” Ko Ngwe Tun said.
He acquired processing facilities and last year he opened his Genius coffee shop in 31st Street to offer local coffee drinkers the nation’s purest and finest, whether hot sweet and black in the cup, or in the form of roasted beans or ground coffee in brown paper bags.

One of the shop’s specialties is drip-bag coffee for K400. He got the idea in Japan.
“Whenever I travel abroad I usually visit coffee shops. In Japan, I saw people carrying coffee packs wherever they go,” he said.

“Many people drink poor-quality coffee mix. I want them to drink pure coffee at a low price,” he added.
“Tea shops will price a cup of pure coffee at K500 at least. I fixed a reasonable price for coffee drinkers who want the best.”

His Shan highlands coffee has been exported to Singapore and will expand to Japan soon. Last July, he sent samples to the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) for analysis, scoring 81/100. This year, he raised his score to 85.

“I trust in the quality of my coffee. It can compete with the world,” he said.

Here at home, Ko Ngwe Tun wants people to know the difference between his coffee and the mixed stuff that comes in a packet. “I hope they will come to know the difference in ingredients. Genius coffee contains only natural ingredients, pure coffee, and it’s safe for health,” he said.

“Ywar Gyan is being put to the test. If the quality is high, we will expand the plantation by giving farmers free trees to grow on their land if they already have shade trees,” he said.

Source: Myanmar Times
 
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