'Myanmar needs stability, reconciliation'

'Myanmar needs stability, reconciliation'

SINGAPORE (Agencies): Singapore has told Myanmar's ruling
junta that political stability and reconciliation are necessary
for Yangon to attract foreign investments and promote trade.

Premier Goh Chok Tong made the point during talks with the
chairman of Myanmar's State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC), Than Shwe, and during a dinner hosted for the visitor
late Thursday.

"Besides a conducive economic environment, political stability
and reconciliation are necessary for encouraging trade,
investments and tourism," Goh was quoted telling the Myanmarese
leader in a statement issued by the Singapore foreign ministry.

Than Shwe arrived here Thursday for a four-day official visit
at the invitation of Premier Goh. It is his first to the city
state since he became SLORC head in April 1992. He is also the
prime minister of Burma, Myanmar's official name.

Than Shwe briefed Goh on political and economic developments
in Myanmar during their talks, the statement said.

It did not specify whether the issue of Myanmarese opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest since 1989, figured
at the meeting.

Goh said at the dinner for Than Shwe that the opening of the
Myanmarese economy to foreign investors and Yangon's steps to
build a market economy would enable it to join the bandwagon of
emerging Asian economies.

"If the momentum is sustained by constructive political
developments and stable conditions, there will be increased
international confidence in your country's investment climate,"
Goh told Than Shwe. "More trade, investments and tourism will
follow."

Singapore and its colleagues in the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines and Thailand -- have rejected Western calls to
isolate Yangon in a bid to force the junta to release Suu Kyi.

ASEAN's line is "constructive engagement" with Myanmar which
it feels will produce better results than isolation.

Before his visit here, Than Shwe was in Indonesia for a four-
day official visit -- his first to an ASEAN country.

Goh welcomed the steps taken by Myanmar to integrate with the
regional community, adding that they would contribute to regional
stability.

Than Shwe said in his dinner speech that his visit to
Singapore was a "significant symbol of a concrete step forward"
in bilateral relations.

He added that Myanmar was taking steps to invite more foreign
investment and encourage local entrepreneurs.

Myanmar and Singapore signed an agreement Thursday to step up
economic cooperation and trade, with a joint ministerial panel to
be set up to coordinate bilateral projects initiated under the
pact.

Singapore is a leading investor in Myanmar, with investments
of more than S$400 million (US$285.7 million).

Meanwhile, Myanmarese military authorities released a leading
pro-democracy politician a week after detaining him and several
other elderly dissidents, sources close to his family said
yesterday.

Kyi Maung, 74, a senior member of Aung San Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy (NLD), was arrested in Yangon last Friday
soon after he met the British ambassador. He was released on
Thursday, the sources said.

Four or five other elderly dissidents who were detained with
him during a get-together at the home of Tha Hla, a former rector
of Rangoon University, were also freed, said the sources, who
asked not to be identified.

Diplomats said the detention of the dissidents last week was
apparently an attempt by Myanmar's ruling military to prevent
dissidents from meeting diplomats.

Kyi Maung was NLD spokesman until Aung San Suu Kyi and other
top party members were arrested in mid-1989. He took over the
leadership, carrying the party through the May, 1990, election in
which the NLD won more than 80 percent of the seats.