1st big trade fair held in Myanmar since 1988

1st big trade fair held in Myanmar since 1988

By Dan Thomas

YANGON (Reuter): The colorful leather jacket made from barking
deer hide and snakeskin was definitely more Mandalay than Milan.

Red and brown blotches on a light tan coat fringed in rough
green and black boa constrictor skin may not be everybody's idea
of style, but it drew a lot of attention at Myanmar's first major
trade fair this month.

"We call this our three-color flower design," explained Myint
Than, chairman of the Mandalay-based Nila Leather Jerkin Product
Cooperative.

"My 15-year-old son invented this unique technique while
playing around with different dyes. The inspiration comes from
Allah," he said with an engaging waggle of the head.

Surrounding his stall were hundreds of other displays by
Myanmarese businessmen and civil servants hawking everything from
plastic buckets and handwoven textiles from the Golden Triangle
to vast tracts of farm land and a new brand of cigarettes.

Foreign businessmen and curious tourists joined thousands of
local residents for a stroll along the aisles as eager salesmen
invited them to take a closer look at their wares.

Formerly Burma, politically and economically shunned by all
but a few nations since its ruling generals crushed a pro-
democracy movement in 1988 and renamed the country Myanmar, has
recently been opening up in a bid to boost its economy.

Organized by the ministry of trade, Myanmar Trade Fair '94 was
part of a relatively new drive by the ruling State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC) to attract investment and win export
orders.

The only problem was that almost all participants at the show
were new to the export game.

"We are beginners. We haven't any customers. Now that the
government has opened the economy this is our first chance to
find exporters," said Myint Than.

Opening the fair, which ran from April 1 to 12 under the
slogan "Export expansion -- the national strength", Trade
Minister Lt. Gen. Tun Kyi said one of the main aims was to get
international exposure for Myanmar's exportable goods.

"The government is therefore giving top priority to export
promotion," he said at the opening ceremony attended by leading
members of SLORC, diplomats, local and foreign businessmen and a
bevy of beautiful Myanmarese models.

Of the 203 stalls, 33 were taken by state-owned corporations,
18 by government joint ventures, 60 by cooperatives and the rest
by private enterprises.

Thein Win, chairman of the Myanmar Industry Association and a
successful Myanmarese entrepreneur himself, was busily looking
for buyers for his new brand of cigarettes, Polo Nine, which he
hoped to be able to export to Russia and China.

The cigarettes, which wholesale at just US$2.50 for a carton
of 200, were made locally from the purest Myanmarese Virginia
tobacco by the Myanmar Glacier Tobacco Ltd -- a joint venture set
up one year ago with backing from South Korea's Glacier Tobacco
Ltd, he said.

"A lot of people believe the game polo was invented in Burma
and everybody here considers the number nine to be lucky, hence
the name Polo Nine," he said.

Asked if he thought SLORC's poor human rights record might put
off potential buyers and investors, he said Myanmar was better
than China "in a political sense" and that China didn't seem to
have any problems selling its goods.

"Just because of the human rights situation, do I have to stop
my work?" he demanded to know. "My people need work, politics is
a different issue."

Beneath a large sign inviting foreigners to "grab the golden
opportunity now", civil servant Myo Myint from the ministry of
agriculture was on the lookout for foreign businessmen to
persuade to invest in farming, plantations and food-processing.

He said the government had identified 1.55 million hectares
(3.83 million acres) of fallow land and 8.23 million hectares
(20.33 million acres) of culturable wasteland which would be
suitable for joint ventures.

"This is the first time we have been to a trade fair to invite
foreign investment," he said excitedly. "Come and sit down."

American businessman Scott Montgomery, who has lived in Yangon
for just over a year, said amidst the bustle that the Myanmarese
government was trying to follow China by encouraging state-owned
enterprises to play a leading role in building up the economy.

"It is getting more and more open but it isn't a free market
yet," he said.

Back at the Nila Leather Jerkin Cooperative stand, Myint Than
was trying to interest Ecuadorean tourist Gustavo Chabes in his
multicolored jacket.

"They certainly have their own sense of style," said Chabes as
he made his excuses and left.