China’s Burma Border Trade Thrives despite Problems Elsewhere

Some of China’s biggest business activities in Myanmar may have been halted or put in doubt due to public protests, such as the Myitsone hydroelectric dam and the Letpadaung copper mine, but Chinese border trade is busier than ever.

New government figures show that trade across China’s Yunnan Province border with Kachin and Shan states is the biggest of all among Myanmar’s border neighbors.

The value of official trade across the Yunnan border over the last four fiscal years to 2012 has totaled US $7.8 billion, according to Myanmar’s Department of Border Trade. This is far greater than the US $1.5 billion logged across the border with Thailand; the US$117 million with Bangladesh; and the mere US $66 million in border trade with giant India.

However, it’s widely suspected that illegal cross-border trade, for which there are no statistics, would greatly inflate all the official figures, with the possible exception of Bangladesh.

The Department of Border Trade last November moved to crack down on illegal trade across the Myanmar-Thailand border—action that businesspeople at the Myawaddy-Mae Sot crossing complained was damaging legitimate trade.

“The border towns in Yunnan thrive on trade with [Myanmar]. You see everywhere markets selling polished jade or jade rock. You see logs piled up, timber brought in from [Myanmar],” said The Economist’s Beijing correspondent James Miles in a special report from Yunnan. “This is not a very wealthy part of China but it is one which in recent years has flourished.” opened a bank branch in Yangon in 1862.

Dams Revival in China

Threatens Burma’s Salween Communities parties at the local, regional, national and international levels must be able to openly communicate and play a role in the future and protection of the river and its surrounding environment.”

The livelihoods of thousands of people dependent on the Salween River flowing through eastern Myanmar could be undermined by revived plans to build a string of hydro dams upstream in China’s Yunnan Province.

The State Council in Beijing has decided to allow 13 dams on the upper Salween, known in China as the Nu River. Construction of the dams was stopped a few years ago by Premier Wen Jiabao on environmental grounds, but he retires in March and a new leadership is in favor of more hydroelectric projects to help solve China’s energy shortages.

The 2,400-km Salween is one of the longest in East Asia and the last freeflowing major waterway, starting in Tibet and spilling into the Andaman Sea.

Tents for Tourists: Novel Way to Beat Rooms Shortage

An up-market regional tourism company is overcoming Myanmar’s accommodation shortage by opening a “tent lodge” in Bagan.

Vietnam-based Apple Tree Group is offering luxury air-conditioned tents in a new complex including a restaurant, spa and swimming pool, due to open in April.

Standard Chartered ‘First for a Foreign Bank License’ in Myanmar

The Standard Chartered Bank, which has been associated with Myanmar since the 19th century, could be the first Western financial business to open a bank in the post-military regime era.

“Standard Chartered has a strong presence in Southeast Asia and its regional headquarters in Singapore has been keeping a close eye on Myanmar’s reforms, so it could be first in line for any joint venture licenses,” said the US Forbes business magazine in an assessment of Myanmar’s financial liberalization.

It’s anticipated that foreign banks will be allowed majority ownership in any new bank joint ventures in Myanmar following new legislation now being prepared. A new law could be approved by Parliament by April.

Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China are among a number of Asian financial businesses to have opened representative offices in Yangon, but Standard Chartered is the first Western bank to do so.

It’s expected to reestablish a base in Myanmar in February after an absence of nine years. Standard Chartered first

Plans to build five large hydroelectric dams along the Myanmar stretch of the river in Shan, Karen and Mon states involving Chinese and Thai companies are still on the table. Tens of thousands of people have been forcibly moved from around the site of one, at Tasang, says the environment NGO Salween Watch.

The Myanmar dams were meant to provide electricity mainly for Thailand and China. It’s not clear if they will now go ahead if China builds upstream.

“It is urgent that the future of the Salween River is responsibly planned and equitably managed to protect the environment and the inhabitants of the watershed,” Salween Watch says. “All affected

Foreign tourists are flocking to Myanmar in the wake of liberalization but there is a dearth of quality hotel rooms and even simple guest house accommodation is limited. Myanmar had about 1 million visitors in 2012, according to Minister of Hotels and Tourism Htay Aung, with arrivals at Yangon’s international airport up 50 percent over 2011 as the number of foreign airlines flying to the country grew.

“Bagan is the hottest travel destination in Southeast Asia,” Apple Tree general manager Kurt Walter said in a statement. “Myanmar is on every traveler’s radar screen, and Bagan is going to emerge as the hottest attraction in the country.”

The tent hotel near the Irrawaddy River will have 85 “rooms” and suites.

Apple Tree also owns the Exotissimo Travel brand which has been operating in Myanmar since before the military regime ended.

By WILLIAM BOOT