How to Make Millions Investing in a Hard-Line Military Dictatorship By Tom Dyson
I opened the metal door and walked into the embassy. The interior looked like the waiting room of a small-town Greyhound bus station. It was shabby and hot. A plastic clock hung over the room, ticking loudly. The people sitting on the benches had a resigned look on their faces. It seemed like they'd all been sitting there a long time...
There was no queue at the ticket counter. I went up to one of the windows and pushed my nose between the metal bars. There was a man behind the counter in a worn brown uniform. He was taking care of paperwork...
"Excuse me," I said. "Is this window open?"
He grunted, irritated I'd interrupted him.
I'm in Thailand. Myanmar is the country just west of Thailand.
I wanted to visit Myanmar while I'm in the area. So on Monday, I went to the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok to ask about tourist visas.
Myanmar is run by a hard-line military junta. It's held power for 46 years. Inept leadership has made Myanmar one of the poorest countries on Earth. Last year, Myanmar made world headlines when military gunmen killed 31 anti-government protesters in a peaceful march organized by Buddhist monks. The government cut the national Internet connection so no one would find out. Then it organized a pro-government march and paid people to participate.
Earlier this year, a gargantuan hurricane struck Myanmar's southern tip, killing 150,000 people and eradicating all civilization there. The junta refused international help.
Here's the thing... Myanmar is also a wonderful investment opportunity. It has 2,000 miles of glorious tropical beaches. It's loaded with oil, gas, minerals, gemstones, and metals. The land is so fertile that Thailand – with a similar climate – is the world's largest exporter of rice. It's also in a fantastic location to trade with China and India. This is why I'm so keen to go to Myanmar.
Doug Casey introduced me to the idea of investing in Myanmar last year. Here's what he wrote about it in his newsletter:
My first choice for high potential has been [Myanmar]. It's very cheap, very beautiful, lightly populated, and right next door to Thailand. The ruling generals, who make it a political pariah now, will be gone at some point.
But, in the meantime, a clever entrepreneur can make deals with them, because they all want to feather their nests. Property here will go up 10 or 20 times over the next generation. Want to make millions while having fun? Go to Rangoon...
Then I met Jim Rogers in Singapore last month. He told me Myanmar is one of only four Asian countries investors should be looking at right now.
I can think of two ways to invest in Myanmar. First, you could go there and buy property. Set up a youth hostel on the beach or buy a hotel in Rangoon. The visa process is easy. You fill out two forms... pay $25... and leave your passport and a couple of passport pictures. The visa is done in two business days.
There are daily flights from Bangkok to Rangoon. The flight takes less than an hour. To give your investment the best chance of working, you'll have to live there to keep squatters off your land.
My second idea for investing in Myanmar is unusual, but you wouldn't have to live there to make it work. I got this idea from a mutual-fund manager I met yesterday. He loves Myanmar and thinks there's going to be a great investment boom there someday. So he sponsored two students from Myanmar to go to university in England. There's no education system in Myanmar, so these kids are almost guaranteed to be successful Myanmar businessmen in the future. "They'll be my business partners someday," he said.
Unfortunately, I won't make it to Myanmar this time. My itinerary won't allow it. But if you're looking to make a fortune, you've got an adventurous streak, and you don't mind cutting a deal with a corrupt general... you should consider visiting Myanmar and looking for business opportunities.
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Myanmar
Re: Myanmar
by winston » Fri May 29, 2009 7:27 am
It's time to send in Rambo. Rambo dont exist ? What about Chuck Norris ? Or Iron Man, Spiderman, X-Men, Superman or Fantastic Four ?
Burma remains defiant in face of regional anger
Burma's deputy foreign minister has rejected Asian and European ''pressure and interference'' over the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, saying it is neither a political nor a human rights issue.
Speaking at a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations and EU ministers in the Cambodian capital, Maung Myint said the charges against the pro-democracy icon are an ''internal legal issue.''
He added: ''It is not political, it is not a human rights issue. So we don't accept pressure and interference from abroad.''
His remarks on live video appeared to have been accidentally broadcast to reporters at the press center outside the closed-door meetings.
Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail on charges of breaching her house arrest after an eccentric American man swam to her lakeside house in Rangoon, Burma's biggest city.
ASEAN ministers in an informal meeting yesterday confronted Burma on its treatment of Suu Kyi.
But in a signal of retreat by the regional grouping, Singapore today said expelling Burma from ASEAN is not the way to bring about reform in the military-ruled nation even if it tarnishes the group's credibility.
ASEAN will have greater influence on Burma by maintaining dialogue instead of isolating it or imposing sanctions, said Zainul Abidin Rasheed, senior minister of state at the foreign ministry.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Burma remains defiant in face of regional anger
Burma's deputy foreign minister has rejected Asian and European ''pressure and interference'' over the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, saying it is neither a political nor a human rights issue.
Speaking at a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations and EU ministers in the Cambodian capital, Maung Myint said the charges against the pro-democracy icon are an ''internal legal issue.''
He added: ''It is not political, it is not a human rights issue. So we don't accept pressure and interference from abroad.''
His remarks on live video appeared to have been accidentally broadcast to reporters at the press center outside the closed-door meetings.
Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail on charges of breaching her house arrest after an eccentric American man swam to her lakeside house in Rangoon, Burma's biggest city.
ASEAN ministers in an informal meeting yesterday confronted Burma on its treatment of Suu Kyi.
But in a signal of retreat by the regional grouping, Singapore today said expelling Burma from ASEAN is not the way to bring about reform in the military-ruled nation even if it tarnishes the group's credibility.
ASEAN will have greater influence on Burma by maintaining dialogue instead of isolating it or imposing sanctions, said Zainul Abidin Rasheed, senior minister of state at the foreign ministry.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"
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Re: Myanmar
by winston » Sun Aug 02, 2009 7:40 am
Another headache developing. Where's Rambo ?
Report says North Korea helping Myanmar build nuclear plant
SYDNEY: North Korea is helping Myanmar build a secret nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction plant to build an atomic bomb within five years, a report said on Saturday, citing the evidence of defectors.
The nuclear complex is hidden inside a mountain at Naung Laing, in Myanmar's north, and runs parallel to a civil reactor being built at another site by Russia, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The revelations come just weeks after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced concerns that Pyongyang was transferring weapons and nuclear technology to fellow pariah state Myanmar.
Defectors codenamed Moe Jo and Tin Min reportedly told Australian investigator Desmond Ball the military junta has nuclear ambitions that far exceed its official line.
"They say it's to produce medical isotopes for health purposes in hospitals," Ball said, quoting Tin Min about the prospect of a Myanmar nuclear programme.
"How many hospitals in Burma have nuclear science?" Tin Min allegedly said, using Myanmar's former name. "Burma can barely get electricity up and running. It's a nonsense."
Giving an account of the men's testimony in the Herald, Ball said they "claim to know the regime's plans" and that a nuclear-armed Myanmar was a "genuine possibility".
"In the event that the testimony of the defectors is proved, the alleged secret reactor could be capable of being operational and producing one bomb a year, every year, after 2014," Ball wrote in the newspaper.
Moe Jo, a former army officer, allegedly told Ball he was trained for a 1,000-man "nuclear battalion" and that Myanmar had provided yellowcake uranium to North Korea and Iran.
"He said that the army planned a plutonium reprocessing system and that Russian experts were on site to show how it was done," wrote Ball, who is a strategic studies professor from the Australian National University.
Moe Jo said part of the army's nuclear battalion was stationed in a local village to work on a weapon, and a secret operations centre was hidden in the Setkhaya Mountains, according to Ball.
"(It was) a set up including engineers, artillery and communications to act as a command and control centre for the nuclear weapons programme," wrote Ball.
Tin Min was said to have been a bookkeeper for Tay Za, a close associate of the junta's head General Than Shwe, and told Ball in 2004 he had paid a construction company to build a tunnel in the Naung Laing mountain "wide enough for two trucks to pass each other".
According to the report, Tin Min said Za negotiated nuclear contracts with Russia and North Korea and arranged the collection and transport, at night and by river, of containers of equipment from North Korean boats in Yangon's port.
Tin Min reportedly said Za told him the junta knew it couldn't compete with neighbouring Thailand on conventional weapons, but wanted to "play power like North Korea".
"They hope to combine nuclear and air defence missiles," Za said, according to Tin Min. - AFP/de
Report says North Korea helping Myanmar build nuclear plant
SYDNEY: North Korea is helping Myanmar build a secret nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction plant to build an atomic bomb within five years, a report said on Saturday, citing the evidence of defectors.
The nuclear complex is hidden inside a mountain at Naung Laing, in Myanmar's north, and runs parallel to a civil reactor being built at another site by Russia, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The revelations come just weeks after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced concerns that Pyongyang was transferring weapons and nuclear technology to fellow pariah state Myanmar.
Defectors codenamed Moe Jo and Tin Min reportedly told Australian investigator Desmond Ball the military junta has nuclear ambitions that far exceed its official line.
"They say it's to produce medical isotopes for health purposes in hospitals," Ball said, quoting Tin Min about the prospect of a Myanmar nuclear programme.
"How many hospitals in Burma have nuclear science?" Tin Min allegedly said, using Myanmar's former name. "Burma can barely get electricity up and running. It's a nonsense."
Giving an account of the men's testimony in the Herald, Ball said they "claim to know the regime's plans" and that a nuclear-armed Myanmar was a "genuine possibility".
"In the event that the testimony of the defectors is proved, the alleged secret reactor could be capable of being operational and producing one bomb a year, every year, after 2014," Ball wrote in the newspaper.
Moe Jo, a former army officer, allegedly told Ball he was trained for a 1,000-man "nuclear battalion" and that Myanmar had provided yellowcake uranium to North Korea and Iran.
"He said that the army planned a plutonium reprocessing system and that Russian experts were on site to show how it was done," wrote Ball, who is a strategic studies professor from the Australian National University.
Moe Jo said part of the army's nuclear battalion was stationed in a local village to work on a weapon, and a secret operations centre was hidden in the Setkhaya Mountains, according to Ball.
"(It was) a set up including engineers, artillery and communications to act as a command and control centre for the nuclear weapons programme," wrote Ball.
Tin Min was said to have been a bookkeeper for Tay Za, a close associate of the junta's head General Than Shwe, and told Ball in 2004 he had paid a construction company to build a tunnel in the Naung Laing mountain "wide enough for two trucks to pass each other".
According to the report, Tin Min said Za negotiated nuclear contracts with Russia and North Korea and arranged the collection and transport, at night and by river, of containers of equipment from North Korean boats in Yangon's port.
Tin Min reportedly said Za told him the junta knew it couldn't compete with neighbouring Thailand on conventional weapons, but wanted to "play power like North Korea".
"They hope to combine nuclear and air defence missiles," Za said, according to Tin Min. - AFP/de
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"
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Re: Myanmar
by winston » Fri Jun 04, 2010 4:17 pm
Another potential problem ...
Report: Myanmar beginning a nuclear weapons program
DENIS D. GRAY
AP News
Jun 04, 2010 03:53 EDT
Documents smuggled out of Myanmar by an army defector indicate its military regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and North Korea is probably assisting the program, an expatriate media group said Friday.
The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma said the defector had been involved in the nuclear program and smuggled out extensive files and photographs describing experiments with uranium and specialized equipment needed to build a nuclear reactor and develop enrichment capabilities.
But the group concluded in a report that Myanmar is still far from producing a nuclear weapon.
On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Jim Webb announced he was postponing a trip to Myanmar because of new allegations that it was collaborating with North Korea to develop a nuclear program.
Webb, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs, referred to documents provided by a Myanmar army defector.
Myanmar's military government has denied similar allegations in the past, but suspicions have mounted recently that the impoverished Southeast Asian nation has embarked on a nuclear program.
Myanmar's junta, which has been condemned worldwide for its human rights abuses, has no hostile neighbors. The military's prime concern is suppressing dissidents at home and battling several small-scaled insurgencies.
Last month, U.N. experts monitoring sanctions imposed against North Korea over its nuclear and missile tests said their research indicated it was involved in banned nuclear and ballistic missile activities in Iran, Syria and Myanmar, which is also called Burma.
The DVB report said Russia has also trained Myanmar technicians in nuclear and missile technology.
The group, which operates Oslo-based television and radio stations, said the defector, Sai Thein Win, was an army major who was trained in Myanmar as a defense engineer and later in Russia as a missile expert. It said he had access to secret Myanmar nuclear facilities including a nuclear battalion north of Mandalay "charged with building up a nuclear weapons capability."
It said the documents it obtained were examined by Robert Kelley, an American nuclear scientist and former director in the International Atomic Energy Agency who concluded that Myanmar "is probably mining uranium and exploring nuclear technology that is only useful for weapons."
The group said its report was based on a five-year study that indicated that North Korea was involved in assisting the program.
Documents obtained earlier showed that North Korea was helping Myanmar dig a series of underground facilities and develop missiles with a range of up to 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles).
The group said the documents obtained from the defector show a number of components used in nuclear weapons and missile technology, including a missile fuel pump impeller, chemical engineering equipment that can be used to make compounds used in uranium enrichment, and nozzles used to separate uranium isotopes into bomb materials.
"The total picture is very compelling. Burma is trying to build pieces of a nuclear program, specifically a nuclear reactor to make plutonium and a uranium enrichment program," the report said.
Source: AP News
Report: Myanmar beginning a nuclear weapons program
DENIS D. GRAY
AP News
Jun 04, 2010 03:53 EDT
Documents smuggled out of Myanmar by an army defector indicate its military regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and North Korea is probably assisting the program, an expatriate media group said Friday.
The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma said the defector had been involved in the nuclear program and smuggled out extensive files and photographs describing experiments with uranium and specialized equipment needed to build a nuclear reactor and develop enrichment capabilities.
But the group concluded in a report that Myanmar is still far from producing a nuclear weapon.
On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Jim Webb announced he was postponing a trip to Myanmar because of new allegations that it was collaborating with North Korea to develop a nuclear program.
Webb, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs, referred to documents provided by a Myanmar army defector.
Myanmar's military government has denied similar allegations in the past, but suspicions have mounted recently that the impoverished Southeast Asian nation has embarked on a nuclear program.
Myanmar's junta, which has been condemned worldwide for its human rights abuses, has no hostile neighbors. The military's prime concern is suppressing dissidents at home and battling several small-scaled insurgencies.
Last month, U.N. experts monitoring sanctions imposed against North Korea over its nuclear and missile tests said their research indicated it was involved in banned nuclear and ballistic missile activities in Iran, Syria and Myanmar, which is also called Burma.
The DVB report said Russia has also trained Myanmar technicians in nuclear and missile technology.
The group, which operates Oslo-based television and radio stations, said the defector, Sai Thein Win, was an army major who was trained in Myanmar as a defense engineer and later in Russia as a missile expert. It said he had access to secret Myanmar nuclear facilities including a nuclear battalion north of Mandalay "charged with building up a nuclear weapons capability."
It said the documents it obtained were examined by Robert Kelley, an American nuclear scientist and former director in the International Atomic Energy Agency who concluded that Myanmar "is probably mining uranium and exploring nuclear technology that is only useful for weapons."
The group said its report was based on a five-year study that indicated that North Korea was involved in assisting the program.
Documents obtained earlier showed that North Korea was helping Myanmar dig a series of underground facilities and develop missiles with a range of up to 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles).
The group said the documents obtained from the defector show a number of components used in nuclear weapons and missile technology, including a missile fuel pump impeller, chemical engineering equipment that can be used to make compounds used in uranium enrichment, and nozzles used to separate uranium isotopes into bomb materials.
"The total picture is very compelling. Burma is trying to build pieces of a nuclear program, specifically a nuclear reactor to make plutonium and a uranium enrichment program," the report said.
Source: AP News
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"
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Re: Myanmar
by winston » Sat Nov 13, 2010 7:03 pm
Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest, according to police outside her home.
Source: CNN International
Source: CNN International
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"
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Re: Myanmar
by LenaHuat » Mon Nov 15, 2010 1:58 pm
I have been to this lovely country some 6-7 times. I read good tidings from Suu Kyi's release. If Myanmar truly opens up like China under Deng, Asia will see even greater and faster growth in the next 2 decades. She has gargantuan infrastructural needs.
Please be forewarned that you are reading a post by an otiose housewife. 
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Re: Myanmar
by behappyalways » Mon Nov 15, 2010 3:56 pm
Been there 2 times.....Practicing of Buddhism by followers around the world has been waning. More to form than substance but Myanmar is one of those places where there are still many practioners....maybe less temptations there......not much shopping centers for modern 'monks'
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0 ... 35,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0 ... 35,00.html
血要热 头脑要冷 骨头要硬
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Re: Myanmar
by LenaHuat » Tue Dec 07, 2010 9:11 pm
The Chinese and Thais are big-time investors in Myanmar. Myanmar looks set to join the emerging market.
What Thai tickers to buy? SET will link up with SGX by 1half 2011.
What Thai tickers to buy? SET will link up with SGX by 1half 2011.
Please be forewarned that you are reading a post by an otiose housewife. ****@@
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Re: Myanmar
by winston » Tue Dec 07, 2010 9:14 pm
Michelle Yeoh will be Aung San Suu Kyi in a new movie 
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