wednesday, june 3, 2015 (mte daily issue 56)

PHOTO: NAING WYNN HTOON

End discrimination: ObamaThe US president yesterday responded to questions from young Southeast Asian leaders about Myanmar by urging an end to the plight of Rakhine States Muslim minority, which he called a great test for democracy. NEWS 3

Karen fighters in Law Khee Lar guard a long-awaited summit of leaders of armed ethnic groups called to hammer out a final nationwide ceasefire agreement with the government. China and the United Nations urged them to act quickly.

WWW.MMTIMES.COM DAILY EDITION ISSUE 56 | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015

500Ks.

HEARTBEAT OF THE NATION

NEWS 2

President proposes federal reformsThe president has laid out plans to amend the constitution but ethnic leaders say the proposal doesnt go far enough to achieve their vision of a federal union.

NEWS 4

Writer given two years for insulting religionA court jails former NLD official U Htin Lin Oo for two years for insulting religion following a trial condemned by rights groups as being influenced by nationalist Buddhists.

BUSINESS 9

Car importers push for lower new-car taxesCurrent tax structure favours used imports while new-car sales would get a boost by a more concessionary tax regime, say businesspeople

BUSINESS 8

Yoma Strategic chief executive talks transitionYomas chief executive Andrew Rickards is stepping down next month, with his replacement slated to be Serge Puns son Melvyn. Mr Rickards says Yoma is to continue to diversify from property and focus on deals already signed.

News 3www.mmtimes.com NEWS EDITOR: Thomas Kean | [email protected]

Obama urges an end to discrimination

US President Barack Obama has urged Myanmar to end its discrimination against the Rohingya minority as key part of its democratic transition, while US officials called for a detained boat believed to be carrying more than 700 trafficking victims to be allowed to land.

Speaking at the White House on June to young leaders from the ASE-AN, including some from Myanmar, Mr Obama said the US was focused on the unfolding tragedy.

Responding to a youth leaders question, the US president said, We were talking earlier about whats re-quired for Myanmar to succeed. One of the most important things is to put an end to discrimination against peo-ple because of what they look like or what their faith is.

I think if I were a Rohingya, I would want to stay where I was born. But Id want to make sure that my government was protecting me and that people were treating me fairly, he said. And thats why its so important, I think, as part of the democratic tran-sition, to take very seriously this issue of how the Rohingya are treated.

The Obama administration has overseen warming diplomatic rela-tions with Myanmar and has encour-aged the transition from military to ci-vilian rule by easing sanctions. But the White House is under fire from critics for not putting more pressure on My-anmar for its treatment of the Muslim minority in Rakhine State.

Amid the ongoing crisis, with boats full of Bangladeshi and Rohingya still drifting at sea, and several thousand more looking for resettlement, the US has taken sharp aim at an issue Myan-

mar has long held to be an internal matter.

During a trip to the region to ad-dress the emergency spanning two seas and at least five Southeast Asian nations, US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne Richard enumerated the solutions the US expects to see.

The answer to the issue is peace and stability and citizenship for the Ro-hingyas in Rakhine State, she said in Malaysia.

At the moment, there is tremen-dous persecution and oppression of the Rohingyas in Rakhine State. They do not have citizenship, and we are concerned about their human rights.

The US State Department called for the immediate disembarkation of a human smuggling boat crammed with 727 people who have been trapped at sea since March. The boat was stopped by the Myanmar Navy on May 29, but those on board have not been allowed to land. The United Nations and rights groups have not been granted access.

After announcing in state-run me-dia that the government would re-turn the boat people to the place they recently departed, Myanmars navy yesterday began escorting the boat from the Ayeyarwady delta to Rakhine State.

According to a local official who asked not to be named, the boat would be allowed to disembark near Maung-taw today. He said that temporary shel-ter would be arranged near the border with Bangladesh, and the UN would be allowed to provide assistance.

Information Minister U Ye Htut would not confirm the report however, commenting only that the boat would be taken to a safe destination before we hand them back over to Bangladesh.

He added that, according to ini-tial interviews, most of the people on board are from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh says it will not repatri-ate anyone who claims to have origins in Myanmar, and is already locked in a standoff with its neighbour over the nationality of 200 people rescued from a boat on May 21.

While the Presidents Office did not respond yesterday to the comments from Mr Obama, the government denies that there is any discrimina-tory policy in place in Rakhine State, despite what rights groups consider apartheid-like conditions for the Mus-lim communities.

If they want citizens rights, they have to first be a citizen. If you are an [internally displaced person], you are entitled to the rights of an IDP, Rakh-ine Chief Minister U Maung Maung Ohn said during a panel discussion on May 31.

In his monthly radio address, Presi-dent U Thein Sein said Myanmar was responding in a responsible manner.

Although Myanmar must protect its citizens and its sovereignty, our

country is also a responsible member of the global community, he said.

Therefore, we are working with other countries to offer humanitar-ian assistance to the boat migrants, and return them to their homes. The root causes of human traffick-ing and illegal migration are lack of jobs and poverty. Therefore, we are prioritising poverty alleviation and improving livelihoods for the people living in Rakhine State, the presi-dent said.

Additional reporting by Nyan Lynn Aung and Lun Min Mang

LAIGNEE BARRON

[email protected]

Nationalists warn government against hosting boat migrants

Over 700 people set to disembark from smugglers boats in Rakhine State today are raising alarm among nationalist groups.

A parliamentarian yesterday urged the speedy repatriation of such boat people, while an association of nationalist Buddhist monks known by its acronym Ma Ba Tha compared sheltering the people from smug-gling boats to keeping a viper in ones pocket.

All officials should think about the long term: Pay sympathy to them in your mind, dont help them physically, said a statement sent to the president yesterday by Sayadaw Bhaddanta Tilawkar Bhivamsa, the chair of the Committee for the Protection of Na-tionality and Religion, or Ma Ba Tha.

The statement suggested the My-anmar navy should respond to the 727 people rescued on May 29 by replicat-ing Australias push-backs and send them back to sea after providing aid.

Myanmar is already hosting over 200 Bengalis rescued and brought to Rakhine State that now cant be sent back to their home. Every racial and religious conflict occurring across Myanmar stems from accepting non-Buddhist and non-Myanmar people, the statement said.

Amyotha Hluttaw Representative U Hla Swe also suggested turning away the boats. He told parliament that if the government took people in then it should set a timeframe for assisting the rescued passengers.

Malaysia and Indonesia have both announced they will provide tempo-rary shelter to almost 4000 rescued people for only one year. However, the international community has main-tained the timeframe is not feasible as resettlement to a third country is often a lengthy, bureaucratic process.

A third route the often outspoken MP from Magwe offered, is to look to what he said was the example on the US-Mexico border.

If we adopt the way practised in the worlds leading democratic coun-tries America and India we would handle it succinctly by shooting all ille-gal migrants without any investigation, then that would frighten them and we wouldnt need to worry about these cases anymore, U Hla Swe said.

At an emergency crisis meeting called in Bangkok over the ongoing boats crisis, Myanmar agreed to a 17-point response plan that includes search and rescue operations and ensuring the safety of those at sea.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun and Kyawt Darly Lin

AUNG KYAW MINHTOO [email protected]

A woman from an unofficial camp for internally displaced persons in Rakhine State holds her son. Photo: Yu Yu

US President Barack Obama speaks with 75 youth leaders on June 1. Photo: AFP

It's so important, I think, as part of the democratic transition, to take very seriously this issue.

Barack Obama US president

4 News THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 3, 2015

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A WRITER and opposition activ-ist was claiming victory yesterday even as a judge sent him to prison for two years with hard labour on a charge of insulting religion in a literary talk.

At Chaung-Oo Township Court, Sagaing Region, Judge U Lin Min Tun was forced to deny suggestions from the defence that pressure had been placed on him to return the guilty ver-dict against U Htin Lin Oo.

The judge acquitted him of a sec-ond charge of deliberate intent to wound religious feelings. The defend-ant had denied both charges.

Speaking to reporters after the verdict, U Htin Lin Oo said, I won this case. Though I am being sent to prison, I dont feel sorry. I will keep speaking out when I come out of jail. I call on Ma Ba Tha Sayadaw [an as-sociation of nationalist monks] to live according to the discipline of Bud-dhist monks. If they fall below those standards, I will say so.

Human rights groups condemned the jailing of U Htin Lin Oo, a writ-er and a former information officer from the opposition National League for Democracy, following what was regarded as a landmark trial driven by pressure from hardline Buddhist groups. The NLD, which removed him from office after charges were laid, had no immediate comment.

This is a sad indication of how Myanmar continues to rely on a range of draconian laws to silence and lock up critical voices. Despite promises to clear the countrys jails of prison-ers of conscience, arrests of peaceful activists have actually picked up pace alarmingly over the past two years, said Rupert Abbott, Amnesty Interna-tionals research director for South-east Asia and the Pacific.

Extremist Buddhist groups with a nationalist agenda have become in-creasingly influential in recent years. They maintain a growing presence on social media where U Htin Lin Oos speech was first brought to wid-er public attention, and played a key role in pushing for his prosecution, Amnesty said. It accused the govern-ment of compounding the problem by imprisoning those speaking out against religious intolerance.

The charges were brought by U

Oo Tun Khine, head of the township Immigration and National Registra-tion Department, under sections 295(a) and 298 of the penal code after a literary talk given by U Htin Lin Oo in Thone Pan Hla village, Mandalay Region, last October.

The sentence, to be served in Mo-nywa prison, Sagaing Region, will be reduced by the six months already served, and he has leave to appeal.

His lawyer, U Thein Than Oo, said, I havent seen a case like this

before. The section under which my client was charged is mostly applied to monks who drink alcohol or who fall below the standards of discipline expected of a Buddhist monk. This is the first time I have seen it used against a layperson. I will appeal to the regional court.

U Thein Than Oo claimed that the judge was pressured during the trial, but the judge denied it.

No one put pressure on me. The defendant showed that he was guilty. I made my decision because his offence was evident, the judge said.

In London, the Burma Campaign UK issued a statement condemning the verdict. It called on British For-eign Secretary Philip Hammond to demand his release and that of all political prisoners in Myanmar. The lobby group said U Htin Lin Oo, in his speech, had criticised the use of Bud-dhism to promote discrimination and prejudice in the country.

The Burmese government should be encouraging writers like Htin Lin Oo to promote interfaith tolerance in the country, rather than sending him to jail, the group said.

A local woman who requested anonymity said, Everyone who loves truth knows that the author is right.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun

Writer, activist jailed for two years for insulting religionMAUNG ZAW

[email protected]

U Htin Lin Oo (right) arrives at Chaung-Oo Township Court in Sagaing Region on March 24 in Sagaing Region. Photo: Than Naing Soe

Monastic school to offer university classes

PHAUNG Daw Oo monastic school in Mandalay plans to offer a university-level education for teachers and stu-dents of monastic schools throughout Myanmar, according to its teaching director.

Our school will offer universi-ty-level education for our students and teachers because the quality of teachers from monastic schools is lower than that of other schools, said

Sayadaw U Htereinda, who is a mem-ber of the Coalition for the Promotion of Monastic Education.

Phaung Daw Oo provides high-school and college-level education. Students who have completed col-lege education there can apply for a scholarship to attend an international school.

We teach up to the college level, but now we plan to upgrade to the university level. The regional govern-ment says its too early for us to of-fer university-level education, but we

have to raise standards. Otherwise, we dont know when we can offer univer-sity level, said U Htereinda.

The teaching director of Phaung Daw Oo has been to Australia to ob-serve university administration there, and invited academic officials from overseas universities to visit his school and advise him on how to raise stand-ards. The university will be separate-ly run, and we will continue to teach high school classes here, he said.

The future university will be in Patheingyi township, and foreign

tutors will be employed to teach inter-national-level subjects.

We would like to run a univer-sity for monastic schools because we need to raise our teachers educational level. If the quality of our teachers is better, the quality of the students will improve, said a teacher from the mo-nastic school.

In selecting students for the new university, teachers, students, monks and nuns from monastic schools across Myanmar will be given priority.


MG [email protected]

This is a sad indication of how Myanmar continues to rely on a range of draconian laws to silence and lock up critical voices.

Rupert Abbott Research director for Southeast

Asia, Amnesty International

News 5www.mmtimes.com

Villagers afraid to break silence over militia murder allegations

ACTIVISTS have accused a govern-ment-backed militia in southern Shan State of responsibility for the death of an area resident on May 23.

Ko Tha Lo, 33, was found dead in the Moe Bye area of Pekon township near the border between Shan and Kayah states on May 23. Covered in cuts, bruises and other wounds, his body was found in the kitchen of a Kayan National Guard (KNG) soldier.

Residents said it is the third death involving KNG soldiers to occur in the Moe Bye area in the past three months. None of the cases have been investigated by police, while residents are afraid to speak out publicly against the powerful militia.

Friends of the victim, who asked not to be named, said Ko Tha Lo was taken into custody by the KNG at about 7pm following a family dispute. He was home, cooking for his daugh-ter, when three soldiers came to take him in. We heard a lot of screams and sounds of struggle, one told The My-anmar Times.

He was always fighting with his father-in-law, arguing about his wifes family sending her to work in Thai-land without consulting him. His father-in-law got scared and asked the

militia to deal with him.A cousin of Ko Tha Lo said the

alarm was raised by his four-year-old daughter, who was present when he was taken. She was the first to cry for help and tell people her father was being tortured and taken away by sol-diers, the cousin said.

KNG commander U Aung Naing confirmed that the victim was taken

into custody. He described the death as a suicide. He was very depressed, always drunk, doing drugs, constantly crying over his wife leaving him. He bothered everyone, so we tried to rea-son with him. During the night he es-caped, fell and knocked himself on a wall. It is clear he committed suicide and the family knows.

Ko Tha Los father said that he

believed his son committed suicide due to depression and alcohol abuse.

However, wounds on the body indi-cate otherwise. Several witnesses also reported seeing Ko Tha Lo tied up at a KNG barracks in Pwe Kon 3 quarter, which is home to the groups headquar-ters. He was allegedly caught trying to escape and was beaten by five men.

While residents in the area initially confirmed this, they later changed their story and insisted it was suicide.

Activist Ko Kah Lee Staw, a mem-ber of the local activist group Kayan New Generation Youth (KNGY), said they were afraid of the KNG.

We cant be satisfied with their story because there is no evidence, he said. Everyone here is scared of the KNG no one dares to talk.

Both the KNGY and prominent Kayan activist Ko Bedhu said police were ignoring the death.

A man was tortured and killed and no one investigated the cause of death. No medical staff saw the body. We want the culprits to be brought to jus-tice. Rule of law has to be established here, the group said in a statement.

Ko Bedhu said that the KNG had been allowed to operate with impunity in the area, and its soldiers had been linked to three deaths in the past three months.

The people here are subjected to human rights abuses and local author-

ities just close their eyes. The KNG has the weapons, so even the police avoid dealing with them, he said.

The KNG, a breakaway group

from the Kayan New Land Party, was formed in 1992. They transformed into a pro-government militia in 1993. Despite having just 100 men un-der arms, the KNG unofficially rules the Moe Bye area, running profitable business like sawmills and construc-tion firms.

While KNG commander U Aung Naing said meetings are being held to discuss these recent killings, civil soci-ety groups said there had so far been no dialogue.

Regardless, he said his organisa-tion had no questions to answer over Ko Tha Lus death. As long as the fam-ilies are satisfied, there is no problem.

MATTHIEU BAUDEY CAROLE [email protected]

U Aung Naing, KNG commander in chief. Photo: Matthieu Baudey

A civilian found dead in the kitchen of a Kayan National Guard soldier is the third victim connected to the militia in the last three months

Everyone here is scared of the [Kayan National Guard] no one dares to talk.

Ko Kah Lee Staw local activist


TOO much traffic, not enough instruc-tors. In a country where an estimated 30 percent of drivers are running around unlicensed, only 18 people are available in Yangon to test new driv-ers, it has emerged.

And the test is taken sitting behind a computer, not out on the road. The congestion is too bad, said a transport official yesterday.

Deputy director U Tin Maung Swe of the Road Transport Administration Department (RTAD) said the driving licence testing department could draw on only 18 officials to test the compe-tence of would-be drivers.

There are 80 staff throughout the country as a whole. But at any one time, only about 60 are availa-ble. Of those, only 13 are assigned to Yangon, so weve added another five to help them. We really need 20 or 30, he said.

People arriving to take their tests have to wait for hours, sometimes leaving untested at 5 or 6pm for lack of staff.

We have enough computers to test 135 people at a time, and we in-stalled an extra 50 chairs. As of yester-day, weve set aside another room for 100 people, so we can test nearly 300 people at the same time, said U Tin Maung Swe.

The computers are a recent in-novation. Until April, the exam was handwritten, until stories started cir-culating of instructors handing out licences to their friends and relatives. The number of test questions was also increased.

We also added a psych test. And before, drivers only had to answer 20 questions for a nga or a gagyi licence, said U Tin Maung Swe, referring to licences for automobiles and commer-cial vehicles. Now applicants have to answer 100 questions on road and traffic rules. The pass mark is 80 per-cent. We award licences on the basis of the computerised result, and if ap-plicants fail, they just have to accept it, he said.

But actual road testing has yet to be introduced.

We also want drivers to be tested on the road. But we dont have the time, and the traffic jams in Yangon are terrible. If the applicant isnt a very good driver, things could get awkward. So we just test them in our compound, for driving and parking. We hope to introduce road tests later, said U Tin Maung Swe.

Most licence applicants in Yangon come via one of the citys 25 private driving schools, since the RTAD op-erates only one driving school. Su-pervision of the standards or quality of the private schools, which pay a K200,000 registration fee, leaves much to be desired.

According to the vice president, there should be at least one driving school in every town. There are only 50 in the whole country. Some are good, some not so good. They just

want their drivers to pass. We can check these schools once a month. They show us their best side, but we dont know what theyre like the rest of the time, said U Tin Maung Swe.

The Road Transport Administra-tion Department has no power to open driving schools. Thats the job of the Ministry of Road Transport. They are preparing to open a taxi driving school and a motorcycle school this year, which we will support, said U Tin Maung Swe.

Amid rumours that a fake licence can be had for K70,000, and statistics showing that most accidents are down to driver error, news that something is being done to improve driving stand-ards would be welcome. In May, 10,937 people sat the exam, with a further 1600 on June 1 alone. Only one-third passed.

Traffic and staff shortages stall licence testing department

TAXI drivers from out of town are lost in Yangon, exasperated passen-gers are complaining. In the absence of a system for testing cabbies knowl-edge of the city streets as part of their licensing requirement, many passen-gers end up having to give directions.

Cheaper car imports and vehicle rental fees have tempted many from upper Myanmar to take up the profes-sion, putting downward pressure on drivers profits. This has prompted experienced cabbies to quit and look for other work.

At the end of January, I hired a taxi to go to Pansodan, said Ma Hnin See, who lives in Thuwunna. After we set off, he asked for directions, saying hed just arrived from Mandalay and didnt know the streets in Yangon.

Hlaing township resident Ma Su Su hailed a cab one evening last week

in front of Peoples Park to take her to Parami Sein Gay Har supermarket. At first I was happy, because some taxi drivers dont want to go there at that time because of traffic jams. But when he set off in the wrong direc-tion, I asked him where he was go-ing. He didnt answer, so I told him to stop, she said. He said hed forgot-ten the route because it was so long since hed driven. I had to give him directions.

Some sceptical passengers think this apparent ignorance is just a way of inflating fares.

Its their job to know the streets. Theyre just pretending not to know the way. If the driver and the pas-senger dont know the way, then they would be in trouble, said Ko Thet Na-ing, adding, I always record the taxi number and phone home to let them know Im coming.

But there is no requirement for taxi drivers to have ever even driven

in Yangon before picking up their first passengers. They are only re-quired to hold a gagyi or nga drivers licence named after the fourth and fifth characters in the Myanmar al-phabet which entitles them to drive throughout the country.

That means we cant take action against them just because they dont know the streets of Yangon, said U Kyaw Aye Lwin, head of the dis-trict Road Transport Administration Department.

Even the chair of the taxi licens-ing authority says cabbies have asked him for directions.

Its even happened to me. I hailed a taxi whose driver asked me for direc-tions, said U Hla Aung, chair of the Yangon Region Supervisory Commit-tee for Motor Vehicles, better known by its Myanmar acronym Ma Hta Tha.

Cab drivers should be profession-al and provide a full service to pas-sengers, and value for money. That

means learning their way around the city. The mindset needs to change.

Ma Hta Tha took over responsibil-ity for city taxi registration from Yan-gon City Development Committee on October 1, 2014. But U Hla Aung said they have no plans to introduce a re-quirement for drivers to demonstrate knowledge of the city streets before the licence is issued.

According to Ma Hta Tha, the number of taxis in Yangon almost tri-pled from 20,000 to 55,000 in the 18 months to October last year. The figure does not include taxis regis-tered in states or regions other than Yangon that are operating in the city in violation of municipal laws.

Police say that while the majority of taxis are licensed, some driver are not.

We do come across taxi drivers not in possession of the correct li-cence. This happens more at night than during the day. But under the 1989 law, the fine is only K1500, said

Traffic Police Captain Win Lwin. He added that passengers should record the taxi registration number when they hire a cab.

Many experienced local taxi driv-ers have quit because of low pay, and newcomers, many from upper Myan-mar, have replaced them, according to drivers.

Young people from upper Myan-mar and former trishaw drivers dont know the streets very well, said cab driver U Kyaw Zaw. Drivers should at least know the important locations and tourist attractions of Yangon. But when I take a cab, drivers are always asking me how to get to the destination.

And driver U Ko Ko Gyi said many drivers had taken up the work after the government had allowed a flood of new vehicles into the country. Many were unfamiliar not just with the street system, but even with the rules of the road. The taxi industry is already completely broken, he said.

New cabbies struggle to get to grips with Yangon streetsAYE NYEIN [email protected]

We also want drivers to be tested on the road. But we dont have the time, and the traffic jams in Yangon are terrible.

U Tin Maung Swe Deputy director, Road Transport Administration Department

Its testing times for drivers like these stuck in a jam on Sule Pagoda Road recently. Photo: Naing Wynn Htoon

AYENYEIN

[email protected]

Traffic congestion and lack of human resources push licensing department to abandon practical driving tests, while only one-third pass theory exams

News 7www.mmtimes.com

Views

AN unusual urgent pro-posal was submitted to the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw on May 22. Its object was to suspend an invitation to tender.

In what might or might not be a similar case, in 2013 another proposal was submitted to suspend a tender invitation for telecommunications operators just as the government was about to grant tenders, on the grounds that losses could be incurred by Myanmar citizens who owned businesses.

At that time, the process was so far advanced, and the appointment of internationally recognised consult-ant companies carried out with such transparency, that the cabinet decided it could not suspend the process. Telenor and Ooredoo duly won the tenders concerned and are now going about their business.

To come back to the May 22 pro-posal: Does it have the same intent as the 2013 proposal? And will it be more successful?

This time around, the proposal to suspend the tender process was submitted by U Aung Thein Linn, MP for South Okkalapa, Yangon Region. He proposed that the Union govern-ment suspend the tender invitation so as to be able to reconsider and decide again whether the tender invitation to transfer 90 acres of land in Mayan-gone townships Yayku broadcasting station compound to the private sec-tor outright is appropriate or not.

In this connection, hluttaw Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann explained that the urgent proposal did not constitute interference in the processes of government, and hluttaw agreed to receive it under article 66(a) of its rules of procedure.

According to U Aung Thein Linn, he submitted the proposal because

the amount of money expected to be involved is so large as to suggest that the tender rules had been written with the intention of allowing only one or two selected business persons to bid. The effective exclusion of the great majority of private companies, he said, would undermine public trust in the government.

The rules governing the tender appear to bear him out. The tender invitation states that the plot known as the Yayku Broadcasting Station compound owned by the Ministry of Information in Mayangone town-ship is about 120 acres in extent, of which 15 acres will be set aside for the construction of two broadcasting buildings and three studios. Another 15 acres must be set aside for housing for 300 staff of the Ministry of Infor-mation, at the expense of the tender winner, who would own outright the remaining 90 acres.

The tender winner also needs to provide the information ministry with 150 acres of land in an area accept-

able to the ministry within Yangon Region, as well as building a new broadcasting station to replace the old one.

So far, so inclusive for those who have the money. But now the conditions start to get a bit more restrictive.

Regulation number 1 says, Ten-der applicants shall be Myanmar national-owned companies that have been running a media business for at least the past three years, preferably including television broadcasting experience.

Regulations 2 and 3 stipulate that tender competitors must be suf-ficiently familiar with broadcasting to ensure that the existing station can move seamlessly to its new home without suspending operations.

In the light of these rules, it is pretty clear that there are only two qualified companies: Shwe Than Lwins Skynet and Forever Groups MRTV 4.

President U Thein Seins govern-ment does not allow media freedom. It doesnt allow the private sector into radio and television broadcasting, on the pretext that the relevant law has yet to be enacted. But the former military government did grant televi-sion broadcasting permits to Forever Group and Shwe Than Lwin, and some cronies are allowed to do radio broadcasting. The Ministry of Infor-mation has handed out privileges to those two media companies, as well as giving them under the counter the right to use its own stations, studios and land, and the related tax relief. Setting tender regulations requiring qualities that only these two com-panies possess is inappropriate at what should be a time of increasing transparency.

Regulation 9 says the tender win-ner cant do what it wants on the 90 acres of land it will acquire. It must build a broadcasting complex, TV and radio stations, a satellite headed gate-way, two towers, a studio complex, a

15,000-seat weather-proof theatre, a 50,000-seat open-air theatre, a mul-timedia university and other related buildings, all at its own expense. No company other than Skynet and For-ever Group can do this.

So to answer my own question, this proposal to suspend the invita-tion to tender is not the same as the proposal to block the invitation to international companies to enter the mobile phone operating business. The Yayku tender invitation resembles the Yangon New Town plan that the

Yangon Region government tried to implement secretly last year that is, its a huge project requiring vast sums of money that nobody is told about in order to ensure that the contracts go to the right people.

In pursuing the invitation to tender as currently written, the Ministry of Information is acting out a pre-rehearsed drama, not inviting genuine competition. It wants its own heroes to win.

I hope this tender will be delayed, as U Aung Thein Lin proposed, and that in the meantime provision is added for an investigation in the event of any suspicion of corruption or partiality.

While were at it, the government should also draw up strict guide-lines governing the appearance of impartiality and excluding any risk that tender invitations will be drawn up with the intention of selecting only companies controlled by someones friends. Translation by Kyawt Darli Lin and Thiri Min Htun

Is it a tender when the result is fixed? USDP MP for South Okkalapa U Aung Thein Linn says a tender for a 120-acre land plot should be suspended and reconsidered

SITHU AUNG [email protected]

U Aung Thein Linn has proposed that a Ministry for Information tender

for land in Mayangone township be suspended. Photo: Aung Htay Hlaing

Setting tender regulations requiring qualities that only these two companies possess is inappropriate at what should be a time of increasing transparency.


LEADERS of armed ethnic groups meeting yesterday to debate the closing stages of the national cease-fire process were urged to lay down their arms and take up political negotiations.

Karen National Union chair Saw Mutu Say Poe called on the leaders to approve the draft ceasefire agreement text provisionally approved in March between government and ethnic ne-gotiators. China and a UN envoy also pressed them to move quickly and sign.

The leaders are meeting, under international scrutiny, at the KNU stronghold of Law Khee Lar, Kayin State, in what could be among the fi-nal rounds of the 18-month-long peace process. If it is successful, it could bring to a close some of the worlds longest-running conflicts.

We have been trying to resolve our differences through fighting for more than 60 years. After we have signed the ceasefire agreement, we can con-tinue to fight at the negotiating table, he said.

Saw Mutu Say Poe stressed the strong points of the draft agreement, including the re-deployment of forces so as to avoid fresh outbreaks of fight-ing and anxiety for the public, and the need to proceed to draw up a frame-work for political talks.

Over the next four days, ethnic leaders will review the draft agree-ment and the guidelines proposed for the framework.

In his opening remarks, the KNU leader said, I believe this conference is important for our ethnic armed groups and for the future political landscape of our country.

In addition to the armed groups themselves, international observers present include the UN special en-voy on Myanmar, the Chinese Min-istry of Foreign Affairs, the Nippon

Foundation and several representa-tives of civil society.

Vijay Nambiar, the UN special representative, told participants they had a limited time to act. Myanmars

peace is in your hands, he said, call-ing on them to put their trust in the process.

Chinas Asian affairs expert Sun Guoxiang said the armed groups should move on from the signing of the provisional agreement by tak-ing further steps. There is a Chinese saying: Grasp opportunity when it appears, because it will not appear again, he said.

One obstacle to signing may lie in the absence from Law Khee Lar of the leaders of the three armed groups still fighting the government: the My-anmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army (AA). All are engaged in the clashes that have rocked the

Kokang region since February, and have threatened to leave the armed groups umbrella organisation, the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), if they are not invited to sign the draft. The government has proposed a two-speed peace process which would involve signing the cur-rent draft first, and negotiating with those three parties later.

Ko Aye Tun, liaison officer for the Arakan Army, said, Wed like to be united in signing the NCA. I cant ac-cept that any group should be exclud-ed, not just our own. However, the risk that the signing could be delayed by opposition from the three fighting groups appears to have receded over the past few weeks.


Ethnic military leaders urged to sign ceasefire accord

UN special representative Vijay Nambiar addresses the media yesterday during a meeting of ethnic groups in Kayin State. Photo: Naing Wynn Htoon

WA LONE

[email protected]

ETHNIC politicians yesterday urged President U Thein Sein to go beyond his latest proposals to amend sections of the constitution to establish a genu-ine federal state.

The president set out his legislative plans in his June radio address, saying that draft amendments to Schedules 1 and 2 of the constitution, which set out divisions of political and econom-ic powers between the federal gov-ernment and the states and regions, would be submitted to parliament later this month.

U Thein Sein linked his proposed reforms to the process of signing a na-tionwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) with armed ethnic groups.

Once the NCA is finalised, politi-cal dialogue will take place as pledged in the agreement. The objective of the dialogue is to work together in unity to build a Union based on the princi-ples of democracy and federalism that all the nations ethnic groups desire, the president said.

He said Tatmadaw representatives, who make up one-quarter of parlia-ment, had introduced amendments to Schedules 1 and 2 with the support of other MPs and suggestions made by parties.

The right conditions must exist for the emergence of a federal-based Union, the president stated, explain-ing that this would include fair rev-enue sharing.

Based on four years of practical experiences, trials, consultations and advice, draft amendments to Sched-ules 1 and 2 will be submitted to par-liament later this month, he said.

But some ethnic politicians re-sponded that the proposals did not go far enough.

U Aye Thar Aung, a senior official of the Rakhine National Party, said a federal state should be based on what he called the non-militarisation of politics, and power and resource sharing.

In a federal nation there is no 25 percent of army representatives in parliament. Also there is no particular privilege for the commander-in-chief of the Tatmadaw in constitutions of federal nations, he said.

Launching the process of constitu-tional change would not accelerate the signing of the ceasefire accord, which needed further discussions, he said.

The edited version of the draft of the NCA will need to be agreed by the government side, including the commander-in-chief, he said. He also noted differences between the govern-ment and armed ethnic leaders over

how many groups would sign the accord.

U Sai Aik Paung, leader of the Shan National Democratic Party (SNDP) and minister for forestry and ,ining in the Shan State government, said the current constitution gave no authority to the states and regions.

As a minister, I have learned that ministers of the states and regions have very limited authority in their respective sectors, he said, blaming

the centralisation of powers set by the 2008 constitution. I think most eth-nic nationalities will not be satisfied with just amending the two schedules for a federal nation.

The Nationalities Brotherhood Federation, an alliance of more than 20 ethnic parties, including the SNDP, has called for the amend-ment of Article 261 of the constitu-tion which says the president se-lects chief ministers of states and regions.

The goal of the alliance is to take control of state parliaments in the November elections and appoint their own chief ministers.

U Khun Soe Myint, general sec-retary of the Union Pa-Oh National Organisation, said the president and ethnic armed groups had different concepts of federalism.

The president used the words a Union based on the principles of de-mocracy and federalism whereas the leaders of ethnic armed groups use the words a federal union. These two terms look similar but actually they can move in different directions, he said.

The most important thing is to build a federal nation on principles guaranteeing the freedom, equality and self-determination of ethnic na-tionalities, he said.

Ethnic politicians urge president to go furtherLUN MIN [email protected]

The most important thing is to build a federal nation on principles guaranteeing the freedom, equality and self-determination of ethnic nationalities.

U Khun Soe Myint General secretary, Union Pa-Oh

National Organisation

We have been trying to resolve our differences through fighting for more than 60 years.

Saw Mutu Say Poe Karen National Union chair

Voter lists incomplete, say absent MPsKYAW PHONE [email protected]

YANGON Region electoral offi-cials are scrambling to correct voters lists that contain some surprising omissions. U Kyaw, Yangon Region MP for Thin-gangyun township, says his name is not on the list.

Another missing name is re-portedly that of Daw Khin Aye, the wife of U Thein Nyunt, a Pyithu Hluttaw MP. Both MPs are members of the New Na-tional Democratic Party, and U Thein Nyunt is the party chair. Daw Khin Aye yesterday declined to comment on the re-ported omission.

Electoral officials confessed that even a member of the elec-toral commission had been left off the list.

None of this was deliberate, said one.

U Kyaw told The Myanmar Times yesterday, Im 70 years old and Ive voted in every elec-tion since 1974. Voting is im-portant for me even if I were not an MP.

He said he had declined an invitation from electoral offi-cials to send in a so-called form 3, requesting inclusion of his name, but provided them with a copy of his household list. U Kyaw doesnt know yet if he will be able to vote or not.

They should have double-checked the voters list before displaying it [for public re-view]. Their list is from the Department of Immigration and Population. Its not very satisfactory.

The chair of the township election commission, U Aung Kyaw Hein, said, When the voters list was compiled, some voters were absent from home. We might have missed some. Even a member of the election commission was omitted. Were fixing the list now, and Ive in-formed U Kyaw accordingly. I can say honestly we did not do this intentionally.

U Kyaw has also criticised electoral commission rules that restrict the voters list to those listed on official family house-hold lists, making it difficult for internal migrant workers to register.

Its mostly the migrants and the grassroots people who are not on the list who want to vote for a party like ours. The rules are against us, he said.

Electoral official U Aung Kyaw Hein said, Some people are refusing to send the re-questing letter [for inclusion]. In that case we can request the official family household list in order to rectify the omissions. But he denied any personal bias on the part of electoral officials, despite a claim by U Kyaw that lower-level electoral officials might be subject to government influence.

The secretary of the ward-level electoral commission is the ward clerk, who is a gov-ernment employee. The govern-ment is run by the ruling party, the USDP. How much USDP influence is being brought to bear? he said.

Social media critics are claiming that in some villages in Htantabin township, Yangon Region, all voters are listed as having the same birthday.

8 THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 2, 2015

Business

YOMA Strategic Holdings chief ex-ecutive Andrew Rickards is stepping down next month after a nearly four-year term, though remains bullish on Myanmars long term prospects.

As the best-known Myanmar-fo-cused company listed on a foreign ex-change, Yoma Strategic has attracted business and investors eager to par-ticipate in whats sometimes touted as the last frontier economy.

Yoma Strategic is chaired by Serge Pun, one of Myanmars best-known entrepreneurs, who also chairs Serge Pun & Associates and First Myanmar Investment. While Mr Pun is not shy about publicity and has been one of the leading public faces of a more business-friendly Myanmar, Yoma Strategic itself has grown and changed sig-nificantly during Mr Rickards term at the top.

Singapore-listed Yoma Strategic has moved beyond its core property business into diverse areas such as the telecoms tower business through Myanmar Tower Company, automo-tive through agreements with Hino, Volkswagen and Mitsubishi Corpora-tion, and also quick-service restau-rants with KFC.

These agreements and a couple of dozen others were signed in the last few years, as Yoma Strategic looks to become less reliant on property. The companys goal is that 50 percent of its business is property and the rest making up the other 50pc.

Mr Rickards said that as a whole, the group may now be doing less new deals going forward, and more

making a go of what it has already announced.

If you imagine the analogy of an accordion, initially you open it out and then you hone in and get the right sounds coming out, he said. Mr Rickards said Yomas next few years will likely be similar, as it ends up with perhaps five core businesses it which it can be a market leader.

Real estate will doubtlessly be one of those core businesses. While the market has slowed this year, Mr Rickards said the Group is optimistic about its long-term potential.

The country is coming out of a long period of no new builds and has a lot of catching up to do, he said.

I dont think one should be fooled by all these billboards popping up saying lots of apartments coming Not all the projects that are an-nounced are actually getting built. We think the supply-demand mis-match is still there, he said.

Yoma Strategic also reckons the property market is not homogenous. Different parts of the sector move at slightly different times, with for instance serviced apartment supply still lagging residential development, he said.

With the lions share of its busi-ness concentrated in Myanmar, the firm rests heavily on the internation-al profile and actions of the country. The period leading up to this years election will probably be quiet com-pared to the rapid change over the last few years.

Im remarkably bullish about the medium to longer term, but I do think this year will be a little slower, he said. However, I dont think paus-ing for breath is a bad thing.

Yoma Strategic aims to continue its current conglomerate approach. The firm is a Serge Pun-created vehi-cle, and will be led by his son Melvyn Pun, who becomes CEO on July 27.

Another son, Cyrus, is the head of Yoma Strategics real estate, the firms most important division.

Mr Rickards said that while it is a heavily family-dominated company, much of his work over the past 3.5 years has been institutionalising the company by bringing in well-regard-ed shareholders like Aberdeen and Capital, as well as bringing interna-tional best practices into its internal systems. He also said that in the re-gion, family-dominated companies have often outperformed non-family companies in the longer term.

Theres clearly a very heavy in-fluence from the family, but I think thats a good thing, he said.

Melvyn Pun is an ex-Goldman Sachs employee, who was hired into the American investment bank fresh out of university by Mr Rickards. While the two did not work in the same division at Goldman Sachs, they now share an office in Yangons FMI Centre, as Melvyn is CEO of SPA Group.

Asked why now for transition, he said the plan had always been for Melvyn Pun to step-up to the CEO position. The timing is also less im-portant than making the handover successful.

Its a bit like the 4x100 relay race the most important thing is you dont drop the baton when you hand over from one runner to the other, he said.

Mr Rickards himself said he will stay on as an adviser to the new CEO through to the end of the year, and then will be working on something else. While he declined to say what it will be, he said it will be a Myanmar-related activity.

Expect me to be wholeheartedly involved in Myanmar, he said. I be-lieve in our lifetime the reemergence of Myanmar still represents one of the greatest opportunities and one that doesnt come around very often.

Yoma Strategic Holdings chief executive Andrew Rickards speaks in an interview last year. Photo: Zarni Phyo

Yoma Strategic chief executive talks leadership transition

JEREMY MULLINS

[email protected]

THE Central Bank is urging gov-ernment organisations to only use kyat payments to reduce US dollar demand and prevent dollarisation of the economy.

The Foreign Exchange Manage-ment Department of the Central Bank last week announced that the kyat only should be used in domes-tic payments at national, regional and state-level organisations.

Using foreign currencies in lo-cal industry makes exchange rates instable and impacts the countrys currency, the circular said.

The document aiming to pre-vent widespread government use of the dollar was one of several put out by the Central Bank on May 29. A separate document also limited US dollar withdrawals from a do-mestic bank account to US$10,000 a week for all people or institu-tions except for a few bodies such as international NGOs, embassies and United Nations organisations.

U Mya Than, chair of the Yangon Foreign Exchange Committee, said the necessity of using foreign curren-cy for local payments tends to make exchange rate fluctuations worse. Some people speculate by buying lots of dollars or withdrawing mas-sive amounts from their accounts that they do not actually need.

Those people sell outside for-mal institutions and strengthen the informal market, so the Cen-tral Bank is protecting against that habit, he said.

The kyat has lost about 6 per-cent against the dollar so far this year, according to the Central Bank of Myanmars official reference rate. If the market rate is used for calculations, the depreciation of the kyat is closer to 10pc.

Several different government

departments have been known to demand payments US dollars from local companies. Sailors or car im-porters must often make their tax payments to government accounts in US dollars rather than kyat, for instance.

While government use of the greenback has been tapering off from 2011, many hotels, restau-rants and jewellery shops, particu-larly in tourist areas, still list their prices in US dollars.

Businesspeople say it is impor-tant to preserve use of the US dol-lar at private businesses.

U Than Maung, owner of a jew-ellery shop on Kabar Aye Pagoda Road and an executive member of the Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association, said nearly every jewellery shop takes a friendly stance toward dollar pay-ments by cash or card to serve for-eign customers.

Daw Win Mar, owner of a sepa-rate jewellery shop, said kyat pay-ments are not convenient for pur-chases of jewellery, as often pieces get expensive and require a large mass of notes.

The kyat is not compact. What-ever foreign currency buyers use, we accept it and then enter a value in kyat on the receipt, she said.

Others say they prefer kyat pay-ments, but must be able to meet customer demand.

Daw Tin Mar Myint, managing director of Win restaurant and bar, said most citizen-owned restau-rants prefer kyat or card payments, but sometimes must accept foreign currency.

We just prioritise the con-venience of our customers. Some-times even if they pay in dollar we give them an advantageous rate of K1000, even though the official rate may be closer to K1100, she said.

Central Bank urges government to reduce dollar useAYE THIDAR [email protected]

Hitachi president confirms large local committment

JAPANESE multinational Hitachi aims to employ more than 1000 lo-cal people in the country within five years, according to its president Toshiaki Higashihara.

Speaking in Nay Pyi Taw yester-day, Mr Higashihara said the firm is looking to expand in sectors in Myanmar like telecoms, railway sys-tems and electricity.

We will use local people and we will share technology for use of My-anmar people, he said.

The firm opened a Yangon branch office in 2012, though has been do-ing business with the country for a longer period. Mr Higashihara also met with President U Thein Sein during his visit to Myanmar.

Myanmar is an attractive mar-ket for the firm as its development

is increasing, and it is in need of technology and infrastructure. Currently, the firm is looking at opportunities for gas turbines in Thilawa special economic zone, as well as jointly working with Mit-subishi on a US$20 million rail-way signaling system for the Yan-gon to Mandalay line, according to Tsunehiro Takahashi, Hitachis Yangon-based general manager.

Hitachi has invested in Myan-mar since 1958, when it invested in a hydropower project on the Balu Chaung river, he said.

Now we have signed an agree-ment to set a railway signaling sys-tem with JICA financing, he said.

The system it is installing is al-ready in use in Japan, and will im-prove the Myanmar system after it is installed. It provides much more control over rail lines, also making it easier to use the railway, he said.

MYAT NOE [email protected]

9BUSINESS EDITOR: Jeremy Mullins | [email protected]

Exchange Rates (June 2 close)Currency Buying Selling

EuroMalaysia RingittSingapore DollarThai BahtUS Dollar

K1182K295K799

K32K1097

K1201K303K811

K33K1099

Cambodian rice exporters fret growing competition from Myanmar

Taiwan president worried about stuck China trade and investment deals

BUSINESS 10 BUSINESS 11

ALMOST all of the cars imported to Myanmar last year were second-hand, due to a high tax on brand-new vehicles. The government should re-consider its policy relating to the im-port of new cars, say businesspeople.

As far as I know, most Myanmar citizens import used cars. According to the records from last year, brand new cars accounted for only 3 per-cent of imports, said U Aye Htun, managing director of Aung Thein Than Company.

Used cars are cheaper and easy to buy, so Myanmar citizens usually opt for this option, he said. Further-more, the market for used cars is well developed.

When a person wants to buy a car, they always think to buy a used car first. This is directly related to

government policy. We want to im-port more brand-new cars, but ac-cording to government policy, low models are cheap and high models are expensive, said U Aye Tun. If the government wants to favour new models, they should change their policy a little.

Depending on the situation of the country, the market is changing, and the government should set a long-term plan, said U Min Min Maung, from Wun Yan Kha car sales centre. The tax is very high. We want the government to reduce it, he said.

Used and new vehicles imported into the country are subject to cus-toms taxes. For most used imports with a 1300-cubic-centimetre en-gine, the tax is levied against a value of $5000 for the car. For used vehi-cles with a large engine, the value of the vehicle for tax purposes is higher.

Similarly, for new cars, import taxes are levied as percentage on the vehicles value. However, for most used car imports, the value of the vehicle for tax purposes is not a set amount, but instead from a list of

Cost, Insurance, Freight (CIF) kept by the government. For instance, a 2014 Toyota Camry had a CIF value of $30,000, according to a list kept by myanmarcarsdb.com.

While tax rates are the same for new and used vehicles, the large difference between CIF values for used and new cars make for vastly different tax payments. Taxes range between 65 and 100pc based on the size of the cars engine, which take a much bigger bite from a higher-value, new vehicle.

Dealers say they would like to see more done to encourage the pur-chase of new cars.

Sometimes used cars are in such a bad condition that the cost of fix-ing them is higher than the cost of buying a new car. Because of this, car dealers suggest that the govern-ment should place quality controls on used car imports.

We hope to encourage foreign in-vestment through brand new car im-ports, so that foreign businessmen can have confidence in our growing market. In Myanmar, very few car

sales centres get as much business as they hope, said U Aye Tun.

For the districts and regions out-side of Yangon, 1300cc and 1500cc engines are not powerful enough. People want to import more power-ful engines, but they cant afford new cars.

The current system, which has been in place since 2011, states one avenue for receiving permission to buy a new car means trading in an old vehicle. The trade-in receives a slip from the Road Transport Ad-

ministration Department. This is valued at around K10 million.

The slip system is the current fa-vourite method of obtaining permis-sion to import, though every Myanmar citizen also has the right to import one vehicle during their lifetime.

These policies stem from the time under the military government when ordinary citizens were effec-tively prohibited from importing a car. Prices were very high: In the 2000s, a used Toyota van that would cost about K100 million in Myanmar could be bought on the Thai border for just K4 million. Based on these figures, Myanmar was the worlds most expensive country to buy a car.

We need a slip to buy a new car, and the price of a slip is very ex-pensive. I think there is something wrong with this system. We hope it will be phased out within the next two years, said Ko Ayay Kyo from Mandalay.

It is up to the government to im-plement the policy. The kind of cars that we import is totally dependent on this, said U Min Min Maung.

Tyred out: importers say tax policy favours used carsAYE

NYEINWIN

[email protected]

BANGKOK Bank opened its Yangon branch office yesterday with a paid-up capital of US$200 million, ac-cording to company officials.

The bank is the largest in Thai-land, and the only one from that country among the nine foreign banks allowed to open a branch in Myanmar.

Thailand is the second-largest source of foreign investment in My-anmar after China, and that coun-trys investors will be the initial tar-get for Bangkok Bank in Myanmar, as they are familiar from operating together in Thailand, said senior vice president and branch manager Kanet Buranasin.

We have the luxury of know-ing them, so Thai customers will be one of our top priorities, but others from different countries will also be our customers, he said.

The branch is on Kabar Aye Pago-da Road near Yangons Sedona Hotel. Company officials said the fact that it is the only one of the nine foreign banks with a standalone branch, rather than a location inside an of-fice building, shows its commitment to the country.

Chaiyarit Anuchitworawong, Bangkok Bank executive vice presi-dent, said the bank plans to offer a number of services from its Yangon branch, including trade finance, fund transfers, loans to businesses and will also play a part in syndi-cated loans in the future.

Thailand and Myanmar are close neighbours, leading the bank to having a strong passion for the country. There are both similari-ties and dissimilarities between Thailand and Myanmar, he said. Myanmar is developing itself very quickly.

With the rapid pace of devel-

opment, it is important that pro-gress takes place properly as well as quickly. He added that the bank will be able to discuss with its cus-tomers on when is the correct time to enter Myanmar.

While Bangkok Bank has had a Yangon representative office for about 20 years, most of the change it has witnessed has happened in the last five, he said.

The foreign banks have been brought in partly with the goal of improving foreign investment flows

to the country. They will initially be limited to one branch and barred from retail banking and from lend-ing to local companies directly.

Some local bankers have said foreign banks have been given too much leeway to operate, but Kanet Buranasin said the market has so much potential, he does not believe only local or foreign banks will be successful, but they can both do so together.

Bangkok Bank already has a number of connections with local

banks such as KBZ and CB, and also aims to improve the domestic financial sector in areas such as contributing to the development of the the interbank and foreign ex-change markets.

The Myanmar Investment Com-mission has previously permitted about $10 billion in Thai invest-ment from 85 different companies as of the end of April, representing 18 percent of total foreign invest-ment approved to Myanmar.

China is the largest source of ap-

proved investment at $15 billion or 26pc of the total.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has also received permis-sion to open its Yangon branch as of June 2.

Six of the nine banks awarded banking licences last year have now received that permission, with the remaining three expected to receive the go-ahead by the end of September.

The last three banks yet to open are Maybank, Mizuho and ANZ.

Bangkok Bank branch opens its doors

Bangkok Bank officials lead a tour of their branch yesterday. Photo: Thiri Lu

AYE THIDAR KYAW JEREMY MULLINS

When a person wants to buy a car, they always think to buy a used car first.

U Aye Htun Car dealer

10 Business THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 2, 2015

TRADEMARK CAUTIONARY NOTICEMunchener Ruckversicherungs-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft in Munchen, a company organized under the laws of Germany and carrying on business and having its principal office at KoniginstraBe 107, 80802 Munchen, Germany is the owner and sole proprietor of the following Trademarks: -

MUNICH HEALTHMyanmar Registration Number. 4/7691/2014

International Classes 9, 35,36 & 44

Myanmar Registration Number. 4/7692/2014International Classes 9,35,36 & 44

Used in respect of :Data-processing equipment and computers; Computer operating programs; Computer software; Computer programs; Data carriers in International Class 9.

Advertising; Business management; Business administration; Office functions in International Class 35.

Insurance; Finance; Monetary affairs; Real estate affairs in International Class 36.

Medical service; Hygienic and beauty care in International Class 44.

Myanmar Registration Number. 4/7694/2014International Class 36

Myanmar Registration Number. 4/7695/2014International Class 36

Munich REMyanmar Registration Number. 4/7693/2014

International Class36Used in respect of Insurance, financial services in International Class 36.

Any unauthorized use, imitation, infringements or fraudulent intentions of the above marks will be dealt with according to law.

Tin Ohnmar Tun, Tin Thiri Aung & The Law Chambers Ph:0973150632Email:[email protected](For.AMICA LAW LLC, Singapore)Dated. 3rd June, 2015

TRADEMARK CAUTION NOTICEMONEYMAX PAWNSHOP PTE. LTD., a company organized under the laws of Singapore carrying on business as and having its principal office at 51 KAKI BUKIT PLACE, SINGAPORE 416228 is the owner and sole proprietor of the following Trademark : -

Myanmar Registration Number. 4/5331/2014Used in respect of :- Pawn brokerage; pawn-broking services in class 36.

Any unauthorised use, imitation, infringements or fraudulent intentions of the above mark will be dealt with according to law.

Tin Ohnmar Tun, Tin Thiri Aung & The Law ChambersPh: 0973150632Email:[email protected](For. Amica Law LLC, Singapore)Dated. 3rd June, 2015

Business

CAMBODIAN rice exports to the Eu-ropean Union have declined slightly, while Myanmars have undergone a sharp increase, according to recent figures.

From September to April, Cambo-dian rice exports to the EU dropped by 1 percent compared to the same period last year, from 167,660 tonnes to 165,940 tonnes, according to figures released by the European Commission last week.

Myanmars rice exports to the EU, in contrast, increased by 81pc from 79,940 to 144,550 tonnes for the same period.

Industry insiders expect Cambo-dian rice export volumes to the Euro-pean Union to level off, admitting that Myanmar is a strong competitor.

We acknowledge them as a

competitor because they are also a developing country and their rice is cheaper than our rice, said Kim Savuth, vice president of the Cam-bodia Rice Federation. Cambodia should focus on exporting fragrant

rice and improving packaging to make higher margins, Mr Savuth said. Myanmar and other major rice exporters cannot produce fragrance rice as we do.

Cambodian white rice sells at $430 per tonne, the figures reported, while there was no price estimate for Myan-mar rice.

According to Hun Lak, president of rice export firm Mekong Oryza Trade, Myanmar rice is about $20 cheaper per tonne.

However, other factors could be behind Cambodias weakened EU rice exports, he said.

The declining trend can also be due to the weakening of the Euro against the US dollar, so countries in the EU buy less but increase their production. Phnom Penh Post

Cambodian rice seller blames Myanmar for Europe competition

They are also a developing country and their rice is cheaper than our rice.

Kim Savuth Cambodia Rice Federation

LEADING Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has launched an on-line accessory store in the United States and major European coun-tries as it expands into lucrative Western markets.

Xiaomi launched mi.com in France, Britain and Germany yes-terday, it said in a statement.

The store went online in the United States on June 1, it added.

Xiaomi, which was founded only in 2010 by entrepreneur Lei Jun, has excelled in Chinas cut-throat smartphone market by delivering high-performance products at low prices.

In just five years, the Chinese firm has become the worlds num-ber-three smartphone vendor, be-hind only Apple and South Koreas Samsung, with rapid growth in emerging countries.

Now the launch of mi.com marks

the brands move into established Western markets.

A company spokesperson said yesterday that the site is restricted to accessories.

Products on offer include a US$14.99 fitness band compared with $99.99 for the mid-range tracker from San Francisco-based Jawbone, $79.99 headphones and battery cells as cheap as $9.99, ac-cording to the website.

Shipments are currently limited to the four countries, the company said.

However, Xiaomi has signalled its intention to offer more products to consumers in the US and Europe.

It has enjoyed huge success in its home market of China, and in the first quarter of 2015 held a 13.7 per-cent market share behind only US rival Apple.

Consumers have snapped up its

products which often undercut for-eign rivals. Xiaomis high-end Mi 4 with 64GB of memory lists for $410, less than half the $998 Chinese re-tail price of a comparable Apple iP-hone 6. Its Redmi 2 budget model is only $115.

It was the top smartphone com-pany in China during 2014, claiming sales of more than 61 million smart-phones, up 227pc from 2013.

Xiaomi has launched products outside mainland China in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as South-east Asia, but has yet to expand its footprint into developed countries.

Hugo Barra, vice president of Xi-aomi Global, said in the statement he was truly excited to bring a se-lection of our best-selling accesso-ries to consumers in the West.

He added, We look forward to bringing more Mi products over time to the US and Europe. AFP

Xiaomi starts online stores in the United States and Europe

BEIJING

Myanmar labourers load rice onto a lorry. Photo: Kaung Htet

International Business 11www.mmtimes.com

PRESIDENT Ma Ying-jeou warned yesterday of damage to Taiwans economy if the legislature does not pass controversial trade deals with China, which have stalled in the wake of mass protests.

His comments come as tensions remain high over increased Chinese influence on the island.

I would like to voice my concern over related agreements with China still under deliberation in the legis-lature, said Mr Ma, speaking at the opening ceremony of Computex Asias largest tech fair in the capital Taipei.

The pacts are on hold after a ser-vice trade deal with Beijing sparked huge rallies and the three-week oc-cupation of parliament last year, re-flecting growing unease over Taiwans warming ties with Beijing.

Mr Ma said the passage of the agreements should accelerate, par-ticularly in the wake of a free trade deal signed between China and South Korea on June 1.

That agreement would impact Tai-

wans traditional industries, includ-ing textiles, said Mr Ma.

It took them only three years [to reach the agreement]. Look at our service trade agreement with the mainland, which is still lying in par-liament, he said.

The pact is on ice as a concession to protesters, who said it had been passed in secret.

They demanded new measures guaranteeing transparency over fu-ture deals, but that oversight legis-lation is now the subject of intense political wrangling and has yet to be passed.

China still sees Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification by force if necessary. The self-ruled is-land split from China at the end of a civil war in 1949.

Since he became president in 2008, Mr Mas pro-Beijing Kuom-intang party has led a rapprochement with China, with more than 20 trade deals and a tourism boom as main-land visitors flock to the island.

But many ordinary Taiwanese feel they have reaped little benefit from the trade pacts and worry about get-ting closer to Beijing.

The Kuomintang was trounced at local elections in November and faces a struggle in next years presidential vote, with a stagnant economy and a string of food scandals adding to its woes.

Mr Ma pointed to reports that Tai-wan was lagging behind South Korea in its development.

We ... really have to work hard to try to face our predicament and do something substantial. Foreign trade is very important to Taiwan, he said.

AFP

Taiwan leader frets unpassed China deals

TAIPEI TAIPEI

AS the Computex trade show opened its doors yesterday in Taiwan it is putting a new focus on start-ups to boost the islands tech credentials in the face of intense competition from rival China.

Taiwan has hosted Asias biggest tech trade show for 35 years and made its name as a hub of innova-tion and engineering in the age of the PC, manufacturing components and assembling computers.

More recently it has benefited from Apples new iPhone 6, launched last year, with a number of leading Taiwanese firms such as Foxconn and TSMC reportedly among Apples suppliers.

The island is also one of the worlds biggest suppliers of semi-conductors and is home to well-known industry players, from com-puter maker Asus to smartphone brand HTC.

But as China pushes to grow its own tech industry with the devel-opment of domestic smartphone brands and homegrown hardware, including chips, Taiwan is looking to

smaller niche firms with new ideas. Nine start-ups which Computex

organisers say have potential to tap international markets will be given a special exhibition area at the show this year for the first time in a bid to raise their profile.

We have to turn to a new direc-tion, with more innovation, rather than mass manufacturing, said Li Chang, deputy secretary general of Taipei Computer Association (TCA), co-organiser of Computex.

He called on the government to do more to support fledgling firms.

There might be a number of young people who have creative ideas and can manage to turn them into innovative products, but ... they face difficulties in raising capital and marketing, said Mr Li.

New Taiwanese firm Mozbii, one of the nine start-ups selected, last year raised US$45,000 through crowdfunding site Kickstarter for what it bills as the worlds first col-our picking stylus a hi-tech ver-sion of colouring in.

A round sensor at one end of the

stylus captures the colour of any ob-ject it is pressed upon.

The stylus then replicates that colour when touched on a tablet screen, so children can fill in tem-plates or draw their own creations.

We have an environment here to develop things and the government is starting to sense the importance of supporting start-ups, said Mozbii CEO Jeremy Shu, who leads a team of eight. But pushing the product to the world is difficult.

At the other end of the scale, Asus crams in hundreds of interna-tional visitors to its Computex prod-uct launches, complete with theatri-cal film clips, booming soundtracks and catwalk models.

As it seeks to diversify away from PCs, Asus unveiled its new ZenPad tablet and Zenphone Selfie on June 1 which includes a beautification mode to even out skin tone.

But the number of Taiwanese brands with global traction remains limited, said Ralph Wiegmann, CEO of Hanover-based iF International Forum Design. AFP

Journalists line up to see the various smart watches designed by Taiwans ASUSTeK Computer during the Computex Show press conference at the World Trade Center in Taipei. Photo: AFP

Focus on start-ups for Taiwan tech

Look at our service trade agreement with the mainland, which is still lying in parliament.

Ma Ying-jeou President of Taiwan

INDIAS central bank yesterday cut interest rates for the third time this year and downplayed recent growth in Asias third-largest economy, say-ing investment remained weak.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lowered the benchmark repo rate the level at which it lends to com-mercial banks by 25 basis points to 7.25 percent with immediate effect.

It was in line with analysts ex-pectations and means the RBI has now lopped 75 basis points from bor-rowing rates in 2015.

RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said the cut was necessary to boost investment and consumer demand in the economy, which he said was still not firing on all cylinders de-spite growth picking up pace.

We still believe the economy is below potential. Investment is still tepid and demand is weak, he told reporters after the banks monetary policy meeting in Mumbai.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis right-wing government swept to power last year pledging to reform and revive a flagging economy, and has been keen for the RBI to lower interest rates.

It received a major boost on May

29 when data showed that Indias economy grew 7.5pc in the first three months of the year, overtak-ing China.

The government posted annual growth of 7.3pc for 2014-15, up from 6.8pc the previous year, but Mr Ra-jan suggested firm evidence of an economic recovery was far from clear.

With low domestic capacity uti-lisation, still mixed indicators of re-covery, and subdued investment and credit growth, there is a case for a cut in the policy rate today, he wrote in the statement.

He later added, This policy stance is neither conservative nor aggressive. It is just appropriate giv-en the conditions.

We have acted as much as what [the] data allowed us to do.

The RBI announced its first eas-ing in 20 months in January, snip-ping 25 basis points off the repo rate.

It then made a surprise cut in March before keeping the rate un-changed in April, citing inflation concerns and a failure of most com-mercial banks to implement reduced loan rates.

AFP

India cuts rates, claiming investment remains too weak

NEW DELHI

12 International Business THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 3, 2015

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia is forecast to post a budget deficit of 20 percent of gross domestic product because of the sharp decline in oil revenues, the IMF said yesterday.

Government spending in 2015 is expected to remain strong, partly due to a number of one-off factors, while oil revenues have declined, an Interna-tional Monetary Fund team said after visiting the Gulf kingdom.

As a result, IMF staff projects that the government will run a fiscal deficit of around 20 percent of GDP in 2015.

The report made no reference to the costly air campaigns Saudi warplanes are involved in, against the Islamic State group in Syria and Huthi rebels in Yemen.

The projected deficit translates into around US$130 billion as the IMF is projecting Saudi nominal GDP this

year at $649 billion. Riyadh is project-ing a budget shortfall of just $39 bil-lion. The IMF said the decline in oil prices has resulted in a substantial decrease in revenues, but its impact on the rest of the economy has so far been limited by strong public spending. The IMF team projects Saudi growth this year at 3.5pc, unchanged from 2014, but said the pace will slow to 2.7pc in 2016.

Oil prices crashed from around $115 a barrel in June last year to just $46 in January before recovering to around $65.

Oil income makes up more than 90pc of Saudi public revenues. The worlds largest exporter is currently pumping 10.3 million barrels of crude per day. A sizable fiscal policy consoli-dation will be needed over the next few years to cut the deficit gradually.

Going forward, the decline in gov-ernment deposits will slow as the gov-ernment starts to issue debt to finance the deficit, the IMF said.

It also said the decline in oil revenues has emphasised the need for economic diversification, boosting spending effi-ciency and raising non-oil revenues.

Saudi firm Jadwa Research said the kingdoms foreign reserves dropped by $49 billion in the first four months of 2015 following the dive in world oil prices. The reserves, piled up over the past decade during high prices of crude, dropped from $732 billion at the end of 2014 to $683 billion at the end of April, Jadwa said in a report.

In March and April alone, the re-serves dipped $31 billion, it said. Last month, IMF estimated the oil price necessary to balance the Saudi budget at more than $100 a barrel. AFP

Saudi Arabia faces giant budget deficit on plunge in oil prices

RIYADH

CANBERRA

AUSTRALIA yesterday kept interest rates at 2.0 percent after slashing them to a record low last month, and called for a weaker currency to help counter a sluggish economy struggling with soft business spend-ing.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has been loosening monetary policy as the country exits an unprecedent-ed China-driven mining investment boom and non-resources industries strain to fill the gap.

Despite not cutting rates further, it signalled a mild easing bias after its monthly meeting.

Having eased monetary pol-icy last month, the board today judged that leaving the cash rate unchanged was appropriate at this meeting, Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens said in a statement.

Information on economic and financial conditions to be received over the period ahead will inform the boards assessment of the out-look and hence whether the current stance of policy will most effectively foster sustainable growth and infla-

tion consistent with the target.The Australian dollar traded

US$0.005 higher at $0.7674 after the decision as financial markets had expected a clearer easing bias.

The RBAs decision was widely expected by analysts, who said the central bank would sit on the side-lines as it waits to see if its two 25 basis point cuts this year one in February and another in May lift economic growth.

I think theyre still prepared to cut rates but I think they didnt want to go so far to signal a near-term move, said Barclays chief econo-mist for Australia Kieran Davies.

The housing market is giving them pause for thought.

Mr Stevens noted that house pric-es continued to increase strongly in Sydney, although growth trends were more varied in other cities.

Economists have said lower in-terest rates could overheat the al-ready booming residential property sectors in the two biggest cities Syd-ney and Melbourne.

Mr Stevens warned that business spending remained soft and was a

key drag on private demand. Weak capital expenditure data last week showed non-mining firms were still reluctant to spend.

Weakness in business capital ex-penditure ... is likely to persist over the coming year. Public spending is also scheduled to be subdued, the governor said.

Overall, the economy is likely to be operating with a degree of spare capacity for some time yet.

The central bank maintained its call for a weaker exchange rate, saying further depreciation seems both likely and necessary, particu-larly given the significant declines in key commodity prices.

Weakening commodity prices, particularly Australias largest ex-port iron ore, have hurt the economy and squeezed government revenue.

The RBA meeting came ahead of an official reading of economic growth in the first three months of this year, due today.

The data is forecast to show that GDP expanded by 0.5pc in the first-quarter to take annual growth to a below-trend 1.9pc. AFP

Australian central bank keeps rates steady

Pedestrians are reflected in the window of the Australian Stock Exchange. Photo: AFP

TRADEMARK CAUTIONFocus Network Agencies (S) Pte Ltd, a Company incorporated and existing under the laws of Singapore, and having its registered office at 103 Defu Lane 10, #06-01 FNA Group Building, Singapore 539223, hereby declares that the Company is the Owner and Sole Proprietor of the following Trademark.

Reg. No. IV/5677/2015 (5 May 2015)The above trademark is used in respect of Biscuits; chocolate; chocolate beverages with milk; chocolate-based beverages; cocoa; cocoa beverages with milk; cocoa-based beverages; cocoa products; confectionery; cookies in Class 30 and

The bringing together, for the benefit of others, of chocolate products, cocoa products, biscuits, cookies and confectionery products (excluding the transport thereof), enabling customers to conveniently view and purchase these goods from a retail store; retail store services in relation to chocolate products, cocoa products, biscuits, cookies and confectionery products in Class 35.

Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the above mark or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with according to law.

Daw Thit Thit Kyaw, (H.G.P.)For Focus Network Agencies (S) Pte Ltd,c/o BM Myanmar Legal Services Limited (Baker & McKenzie)# 1206, 12th Floor, Sakura Tower,339 Bogyoke Aung San Road,Kyauktada Township, Yangon, The Republic of the Union of Myanmar.Dated: 3 June 2015

TRADEMARK CAUTIONARY NOTICEHDN Development Corporation, a company organized under the laws of United States of America and having its principal office at 370 Knollwood Street, Suite 500, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27103, United States of America is the owner and sole proprietor of the following Trademark :-

KRISPY KREMEMyanmar Registration Number

4/13765/2014 for Class 21, 4/13766/2014 for Class 25, 4/13767/2014 for Class 30, 4/13768/20147 for Class 43

Used in respect of : -

Household or kitchen utensils and containers (not of precious metal or coated therewith); glass-ware, porcelain and earthenware not included in other classes; mugs and coffee cups in Class 21.

Clothing, namely, sweatshirts, t-shirt, and caps in Class 25

Glaze flavors; coffee, tea, cocoa, artificial coffee; doughnuts, doughnut holes, pies, cakes, buns, bagels, pastries of all types; doughnut mixes in Class 30

Providing of food and drink; restaurant services specializing in the provision of doughnuts, pies, cakes, buns, bagels, pastries, coffee, juices, cocoa, and beverages in Clas

wednesday, june 3, 2015 (mte daily issue 56)

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