Indonesia, Myanmar sign coal exploration agreement

Indonesia, Myanmar sign coal exploration agreement

YANGON (DPA): Indonesia's PT Austindo Nusantara Energi has
signed an agreement with Myanmar's Ministry of Mines for coal
prospecting and exploration in the country's southern Taninthayi
state, local news reports said Saturday.

The agreement was signed Friday between the firm's president
George Santosa Tahija and Soe Myint, director general of the
Myanmar ministry's department of geological survey and mineral
exploration, said the New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

"We have provided incentives in the form of initial tax
exemption and in addition, an option has been given to purchase
government interest at an agreed price after the positive
feasibility study," said Minister of Mines Brigadier General Ohn
Myint.

Myanmar's current junta, the self-styled State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), has opened up the country to limited
foreign investment since seizing power in September 1988, and
allowed the local private sector a greater role in trade and
business in restricted sectors.

At a seminar on trade Friday SPDC Second Secretary General Tin
Oo claimed the private sector accounted for 75 percent of the
country's gross domestic product last year compared to 69 per
cent ten years ago.

He added that private traders accounted for 68 percent of the
country's exports in fiscal 1997/98, ending on March 31, and 72
per cent of all imports.

Tin Oo urged the private sector to invest in new export
industries and to curb imports as a means of overcoming the
country's currency crisis.

Myanmar's blackmarket rate for the kyat currency is now close
to 350 to the dollar, compared to the official fixed rate of
about 6 kyat to the greenback. Most transactions are carried out
at the blackmarket rate or in U.S. dollars.