Myanmar 01 (Sep 08 - Jan 23)

[LenaHuat]

Thai production ?, Winston.

[winston]

Not sure whether it's a Thai production or not. Dont know whether the CP Group or Siam Cement have businesses in Myanmar ....

Michelle Yeoh could play Myanmar icon in film role

Hollywood celebrity Michelle Yeoh has been spending time with Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi to study for a possible film role as the Nobel Peace laureate.

Yeoh chatted with Suu Kyi in an airport waiting lounge Tuesday as the pro-democracy leader bid farewell to her youngest son, Kim Aris, 33, who lives in England and was allowed to visit his mother for the first time in a decade after her recent release from house arrest.

The former Bond girl had spent the day with Suu Kyi on Monday as part of research for an apparent upcoming film about the democracy icon, said Suu Kyi's lawyer Nyan Win. Details of the film were not immediately known.

Yeoh — who starred in the James Bond movie "Tomorrow Never Dies" and in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" — "observed Daw Suu and they had dinner together Monday night," the lawyer said. Daw is a term of respect.

The actress, the 65-year-old Nobel laureate and her son sat together in a waiting room of the Yangon International Airport before Yeoh and Suu Kyi's son boarded flights.

Suu Kyi was released Nov. 13 after more than seven years under house arrest. Her release came a week after Myanmar's first election in 20 years in which neither she nor her party could participate. Suu Kyi was first arrested in 1989 when Kim Aris was 11 and his older brother, Alexander, was 16. The military junta kept her locked away for 15 of the past 21 years.

Aris arrived in Myanmar on Nov. 23 after waiting several weeks in Thailand, where he was granted a visa for the first time in years.

During his two-week stay, Aris bought a little brown puppy for his mother to keep her company when he leaves. Asked at the time if the dog was his new pet, he replied that it was "May May's pet," using the Burmese word for mother or mom.

Aris mostly kept a low profile except when he marked World AIDS Day on Dec. 2 at the headquarters of Suu Kyi's political group, where he played guitar and entertained HIV/AIDS patients.

He visited the famed Shwedagon Pagoda a day after his arrival and also the popular Bogyoke Aung San Market with his mother on Nov. 30, drawing huge crowds who came to greet them. Thw well-wishers shook hands with Suu Kyi and showered her with gifts ranging from jewelry to longyis, the traditional Burmese sarong.

Aris last visited his mother in Dec. 2000 when they spent Christmas together.

Source: AP News

[winston]

6.8 Earthquake hit Myanmar and can be felt in Hanoi and Bangkok

[winston]

And the Burmese leader is in China today. BTW, China is a major trading partner of Myanmar ...


US lawmakers seek to extend Myanmar sanctions

US lawmakers this week proposed to extend sanctions on Myanmar, saying that the regime has not made true efforts to improve treatment of its people despite a political transition.

The annual legislation, which has passed easily in Congress in the past, bans the import of goods from Myanmar, including lucrative gems, and restricts visas issued to government officials in the country earlier known as Burma.

President Barack Obama earlier this month extended a separate set of sanctions that bar US investment in Myanmar.

Mitch McConnell, the top member of the minority Republican Party in the Senate, criticized elections last year in Myanmar as a farce to rubber-stamp regime-backed candidates, even though the junta officially ceded power to civilians.

"We should not be fooled by the transparent efforts of the regime," the Kentucky senator said.

"It is merely trying to get out from under the international cloud of sanctions -- without making true changes in how it governs itself, treats its people and interacts with the rest of the world," he said.

McConnell proposed the sanctions extension with Senator Dianne Feinstein of Obama's Democratic Party. A similar bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Democrat Joe Crowley and Republican Peter King.

Source: AFP American Edition

[iam802]

Heard this on BBC.

--
Aung San Suu Kyi discusses what freedom means in the first of her 2011 Reith Lectures, entitled Liberty

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/reith

Direct download of the MP3 file (25Mb)
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/rad ... -0915a.mp3

[winston]

Myanmar begins releasing 651 prisoners in Yangon, witnesses say, and democracy activists are expected among them.

Source: CNN International

[winston]

Investors aim to reap benefits of Myanmar reforms by Didier Lauras

Dramatic changes afoot in Myanmar have whet the appetite of foreign investors, who are eyeing a slice of the frontier market's rich and largely untapped economic potential.

As the new army-backed government steps up its reform agenda after nearly five decades of outright military rule, the West is considering easing sanctions that have stifled development since the late 1990s.

But when the measures are eventually lifted and multinationals are given the green light to invest, they will discover a country weakened by half a century of military rule and economic mismanagement.

An abundance of natural treasures -- including gold, gas, teak, oil, jade and gems -- could make the country rich, as it was, before the generals took power.

The country formerly known as Burma also has a pool of low-cost labour and English is widely spoken, a legacy of more than a century of British rule until independence in 1948.

And the Southeast Asian nation of 60 million people is tipped as a hot tourist destination, thanks to its appealing colonial architecture, picturesque temples and golden beaches.

"The numbers are exploding. There are no empty rooms in hotels in high season anymore," said a foreign businessman involved in the tourism sector.

Doing business is also becoming easier, he said. "Licences which took weeks to obtain can be got in a day. Things that were impossible to do are now authorised."

The European Union is considering lifting sanctions against Myanmar as soon as February, according to diplomats in Brussels, while Washington has promised further reforms will be met with US rewards.

But firms hoping to rush in should bear in mind that the new parliament has yet to pass any laws on investment and the judiciary lacks the competence and the independence to ensure contracts are respected, observers say.

"The law is obsolete so people find their way by themselves. They don't want to break the law but they have no choice," Toe Naing Mann, son of key regime figure Shwe Mann, the lower house speaker, told AFP.

In the meantime, the black economy has boomed, notably cross-border trade and the illegal migration of workers from Myanmar who go overseas to work, particularly to neighbouring Thailand, and send home money.

Myanmar's banking system has never really recovered from a major crisis in 2003 and illegal money changers flourish thanks to an exchange rate almost 100 times better than the official one.

Asian allies such as China and Thailand already have a foot in the door and their firms are involved in the construction of hydropower, deep-sea ports and gas pipeline projects.

So far junta-friendly Myanmar tycoons have been the main beneficiaries of economic development, but experts say the headaches for foreigners of doing business are gradually easing.

The junta, which ruled until March 2011, also set in motion a programme to sell state assets such as petrol stations and Yangon's port.

But a dearth of infrastructure means the downstream oil and gas sector is still not profitable enough to attract foreign giants, said Toe Naing Mann.

Like Vietnam in the 1990s, when the United States lifted a trade embargo and restored diplomatic relations with Hanoi, lawyers and consultancy firms are likely to be the first to become well-established in Myanmar.

The resources and tourism sectors will also be deluged with requests for licences, predicted Aekapol Chongvilaivan, a fellow at Singapore?s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

But problems such as corruption, mismanagement and inadequate economic policies need to be addressed, he added.

"Particularly, industrial and financial market reforms have desperately struggled in the midst of inadequate infrastructure, policy uncertainties, and bleak business climate," he said.

Source: AFP Asian Edition

http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?a ... &buid=3281

[kennynah]

And the Southeast Asian nation of 60 million people is tipped as a hot tourist destination, thanks to its appealing colonial architecture, picturesque temples and golden beaches.

that's the size of UK population

[winston]

The Next Big Story in Asia By Chris Mayer

"It's like Thailand was 50 years ago," Alexandre de Lesseps told me.

We were talking about the next big emerging market to bloom in Asia. It may surprise you, but it is one heck of a story… and opportunity.

It's also the subject of my upcoming book, World Right Side Up. The country I'm talking about is Myanmar (or Burma, as most people still seem to call it).

I caught up with Alex over the holidays because I remembered his infectious enthusiasm for the country. He is an accomplished investor of frontier markets, those half-forgotten realms on the fringe of the investing world.

Alex has been investing in Burma for 15 years as a partner at SPA Capital Partners, working with Serge Pun & Associates. The latter is an investment holding company that has been in Burma since '91.

(And yes, Alex is the great-great-grandson of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French developer of the Suez Canal, who also oversaw the early construction of the Panama Canal.)

I first met Alex at a dinner at a pleasant riverside restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. My friend Doug Clayton of Leopard Capital arranged the dinner. (We'll hear from Doug in a bit.) I was in the middle of a swing through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

When I asked investors in these places what the next big story to emerge from Southeast Asia would be, the answer was always the same: Burma.

[winston]

Continue ...

Burma is beginning, at last, to thaw. The grip of the military junta is loosening, by its own hand. ("This is very important," Alex said. "The decision to change the country came from within.

It speaks to the depth and substance of the changes taking place.") The market is beginning to open up. Political prisoners have been released. Press censorship rules have been relaxed. Things are happening quickly. Even Hillary Clinton visited late last year, the first U.S. secretary of state to do so in 50 years.

Alex told me he's never seen anything like it in all his years in Burma. The hotels are full. Many are already sold out for the first few months of the year. And Burma gets more and more mainstream attention nearly every week.

Why is Burma important? In short, it has everything the world craves – in size.

The Wall Street Journal reported: "Myanmar's potential is too great for some investors to ignore. One of the last, large frontier markets in Asia, it is rich in oil, gas, timber and gems and has the potential to be a major rice and seafood exporter."

Estimates of natural gas reserves, for instance, would make Burmese fields the 10th-largest in the world. Labor costs are low, which could support basic manufacturing.