RI's Astra Graphia opens Yangon office

RI's Astra Graphia opens Yangon office

YANGON (DPA): Astra Graphia Company of Indonesia has opened a
Yangon office to pioneer Maynmar's fledgling information
technology market, news reports said yesterday.

A ceremony marking the opening of Myanmar-Astra Graphia
Company Ltd, a subsidiary of Indonesia's Astra International
group, was held Tuesday with the attendance of Myanmar National
Economic Planning Minister Brigadier General David Abel, ASEAN
Secretary-General Dato Ajit Singh and several Astra executives,
said the New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

"Possession of information technology will help Myanmar
(Burma) leapfrog into the era of industrialization at a much
faster pace than would otherwise be possible," said Singh, the
current secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations.

Myanmar won full membership to ASEAN, despite strong protests
from the West, on July 23.

Singh noted that ASEAN countries had accounted for 45 per cent
of total foreign investments in Burma last year, and that
Indonesia was now the eighth largest investor in the country with
eight projects worth US$236.37 million.

U.S. President Bill Clinton slapped a ban on all new American
investments in Myanmar last April to punish the military
government for its poor human rights record and its refusal to
acknowledge the outcome of the 1990 general election.

Minister Abel said Astra Graphia would soon bring in capital
and state-of-the-art technology needed by Burmese businesses.

"Myanmar's initiative to sustain robust growth in the next
years to come and to turn itself into an attractive investment
base greatly requires, I believe, the development of several
information technology infrastructures and the acceleration of
technology transfer," said Astra Graphia Company President Inget
Sembiring.