Business (July 2009)

Jewelry Trade Groups Lobby for end to gem ban

Gem tr ader s inspect sapphires and rubies in Mogok in Upper Burma. (Photo: Azlina Ali/The Irrawaddy)

The American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) is lobbying the US Congress to reverse last year’s ban on importing rubies and other precious stones from Burma. In a petition to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the association claims that rather than hurting the regime, the gems import ban is putting thousands of small-scale Burmese miners out of work. “Artisanal mining communities in Burma are being hurt by these actions,” AGTA Chief Executive Officer Douglas Hucker told a jewelers’ conference in Las Vegas. The petition to Clinton is also signed by the Canadian Jewelers Association, the Hong Kong Jewelry Manufacturers’ Association, the Indian Diamond and Colorstone Association, the New York Gem Dealers Association and the Thai Gem and Jewelry Traders Association, according to a report in the trade journal National Jeweler.

Burma-China Pipeline Work to Start in September

Work on the delayed Sino-Burmese oil and gas pipelines will begin in September and will be completed in 2012, one year ahead of schedule, according to The China Security Journal. The pipelines, constructed by the China National Petroleum Corp, will run from the western Burmese port of Kyaukpyu to Kunming, capital of China’s Yunnan Province. The pipelines will carry an estimated 85 percent of China’s imported energy requirements, cutting about 4,000 km off the route through the Strait of Malacca that tankers carrying Middle East oil and gas bound for China must now take. Sources on the Sino-Burmese border say China has started to move materials for the pipeline construction into Burma. Meanwhile Burma-China trade reached US $ 2.6 billion in 2008. Burma’s main exports to China include fisheries products, agricultural products, minerals, teak and precious stones, while it imports electronics, machinery, fertilizer, clothing and medicines from China. China is Burma’s second-largest trade partner after Thailand, which buys most of Burma’s main export, natural gas.

Commercial Car Auction Opens in Rangoon

Burma has opened its first commercial car auction in Rangoon, which will even allow people to buy new cars online. The public sale opened at Sakura Auto Auction Centre of Sakura Technical Services Co Ltd, South Okkalapa Township in Rangoon. The company, which is involved in health care, construction, engineering and trading, is owned by Htay Aung, a close associate of Lt-Gen Tin Aye of the Office of Defense Industries, who also leads the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited. Normally, the Burmese regime allows only a few thousand cars to be imported each year. According to businessmen, only two persons in the country—Snr-Gen Than Shwe and Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye—can give permission to import cars. Import restrictions have skewed the prices of cars—whether new or used—to levels that would be considered absurd in neighboring countries.

Shwe Gas Income to Flow into Junta Pockets in 2012

Gas from the large Shwe field in Burmese waters off the coast of Arakan State will begin flowing in 2012. India’s state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) said it expected income from its assets in Burma and Brazil to begin producing within three years to make up for declining production elsewhere in its oil and gas portfolio. OnGC has a development stake in two blocks of the Shwe field, with partners Daewoo of South Korea and another Indian state firm, GAIL (India) Limited. The two blocks have proven reserves of about 200 billion cubic meters of gas—virtually all of which will be sold to China. China has no hand in the field’s development, but Daewoo and the two Indian firms lost out in bids to buy the gas they will produce. Instead, they will earn income from the gas sales, along with the Burmese junta-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.

Singapore Investors Waiting for Democracy in Burma

Singapore investors will likely wait until after Burma’s elections next year before pouring any more money into the country, former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said.