U.N. Envoy meets Myanmar leader

YANGON, Myanmar - Former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas, visited Myanmar as the special Envoy of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, speaking to reporters at his hotel Friday afternoon in Yangon, Aug 19, 2005. Alatas said he had a 90 minutes meeting with Myanmar top leader Sr.Gen. Than Shwe at the parliament building Friday morning and discussed about the U.N. reform. Alatas arrived Yangon Thursday as Annan's Envoy to the 2005 World Summit scheduled to be held next month at the U.N. headquarters in New York. Over 170 head of governments are expected to attend the summit, but it is not clear yet that Myanmar leader Than Shwe will be among them.

Government relaxes restriction on FE earnings

YANGON, Aug. 18 - Myanmar government recently announced it would allow the taxpaying foreign exchange earners to use their earnings in import business, local media reported this week.

Myanmar Minister for Finance and Revenue Maj. Gen. Hla Tun said at a commerce ministry meeting on Aug. 5 that the move is to facilitate the raising import sector and to attract remittances into an official channel, the 'Myanmar Times' weekly reported.

Up to last month, remittances of Myanmar workers abroad as well as foreign currency earnings from hotel and tourism sector, and real estate and property rentals were not allowed to use in import business, significantly lowering the value of the earnings, another weekly paper 'The Voice' said.

It is not clear how much is the amount of foreign exchange earnings inside Myanmar and the annual remittances into Myanmar.

Majority of Myanmar citizens working abroad remitted their incomes through unofficial channels ( illegally remitting through private business contacts ), the reports said.

Under the new system, remittances and hard currency earnings inland must be channeled into state owned banks paying 10 percent income tax, before becoming official earnings, the papers said.

Traders and business analysts in Yangon welcomed the move saying it would benefit all party involved in the process but warned that the success of the new system would depend on how easy the import licenses can be acquired.

Myanmar government last month imposed new regulations for export-import licenses that now can only be issued by the trade council, the highest authorizing body, according to The Voice weekly.

Myanmar's foreign trade volume reached U.S. dollar 4.9 billion in the previous fiscal year ending March 31, with imports of nearly 2 billion.

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Myanmar, Nepal to establish air link

YANGON, AUG 10 Kyodo - Myanmar and Nepal plan to establish an air link before the end of 2005 to facilitate travel by Buddhist pilgrims of the countries, local media reported Wednesday.

Cosmic Air, Nepal's largest airline in terms of fleet, seat capacity and traffic carriage, will operate the Kathmandu-Yangon service, the Flower News weekly quoted aviation sources as saying.

Cosmic Air says on its website that it plans to fly to Yangon from August. It says two out of its three weekly flights to Calcutta, India, will be extended to Yangon.

Myanmar pilgrims traveling to Lumbini in southern Nepal, known as the birthplace of Buddha, currently have to change planes in Calcutta as there is no direct air service between Myanmar and Nepal.

The new air link might also bring in the Nepalese pilgrims to visit religious sites in Myanmar, including the renowned Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon and the ancient city of Bagan, according to travel industry sources.

Cosmic Air currently connects Nepal with only India and Bangladesh.

About a dozen international airlines now fly into and out of Myanmar. They include Thai Airways International, Singapore's Silk Air, Malaysian Airline System, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Indian Airlines and Air China.

Myanmar's national carrier Myanmar Airways International flies to five destinations in the region -- Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi and Singapore. The country also has four domestic airlines -- state-run Myanma Airways and three joint ventures - Air Mandalay, Yangon Airways and Air Bagan.

Shangri-La to recruit Myanmar staffers

Yangon, Aug 5 - Hong Kong based Shangri-La International Hotel management will recruit over 60 staff members from Traders Hotel Yangon, for its planned establishment in Oman, the Myanmar Times weekly reported in its latest issue.

Representatives from Shangri-La, last month, conducted personal interviews to more than 150 staff members from variety of departments at Traders Hotel Yangon.

Shangri-La owns a network of 47 hotels in 13 countries under the Traders and Shangri-La names, and has plans to expend up to 80 hotels by 2007, according to the group.

The Traders Hotel Yangon is also one of Shangri-La's investments in South East Asia.

Staff members recruited for Oman can expect salaries three to five times higher than they currently earns in Myanmar, Myanmar Times said.

Current part-timers and trainees will replace vacated positions at Traders Hotel Yangon, Myanmar Times added.

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