Myanmar gains Singapore know-how
SINGAPORE, 1 February 2012: Myanmar signed an agreement with Singapore, Monday, seeking the financial centre’s help as the country emerges from political and economic isolation after decades of military rule.
President Thein Sein arrived Sunday for a four-day state visit to the city-state accompanied by a top-level delegation which included business leaders and top ministers in charge of economic portfolios.
Thein Sein met with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Monday to witness the signing by their foreign ministers of an agreement under which Singapore will provide training for reforms in the legal, banking and financial sectors.
No nukes in Myanmar
SINGAPORE, 1 February 2012: Myanmar President Thein Sein has denied his country is trying to obtain nuclear weapons from North Korea, describing allegations of a covert programme as “unfounded”.
“We are not acquiring nuclear weapons from North Korea,” the Straits Times newspaper on Tuesday quoted him as saying in an interview during a four-day state visit to Singapore.
“These allegations are unfounded and based on suspicion by some Western countries.” Read more
Myanmar taps Singapore investors
SINGAPORE, 30 January 2012: Myanmar President Thein Sein has arrived in Singapore hoping to tap the financial centre’s expertise as the country emerges from political and economic isolation, analysts said.
Thein Sein arrived Sunday for a four-day state visit accompanied by a top-level delegation which included business leaders and top ministers in charge of economic portfolios.
On Monday Thein Sein met with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding under which Singapore will provide training for reforms in the legal, banking and financial sectors.
ASEAN speaks out on Myanmar
PHNOM PENH, 16 January 2012: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) late last week called for European nations to lift sanctions against Myanmar following much-lauded signs of change in the army-dominated nation.
Strict sanctions on Myanmar, enforced notably by the United States and the European Union in response to human rights abuses and for failing to free all political prisoners, have long left the country isolated.
Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, whose country has just taken over the rotating chairmanship of the 10-nation regional bloc, said democratic reform in Myanmar was moving forward. Read more
Changes in Myanmar shock comic
BANGKOK, 22 December 2011: He kept his quick wit throughout jail terms, torture and solitary confinement, but it seems nothing quite prepared Myanmar’s most famous comedian for his first trip out of the military-dominated state.
“When I saw the airplane I got a shock, when I saw the airport I got a shock, when I saw the big building and big bridge and good road I got a shock,” he told a packed audience that turned out to hear him in Bangkok.
But it is the faces of young people in neighbouring Thailand — expressing “freedom” and “self-confidence” — that have really stunned the 50-year-old Zarganar. Read more
Suu Kyi to run in 2012 elections
YANGON, 14 December 2011 – Myanmar authorities on Tuesday gave Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party the green light to rejoin mainstream politics, paving the way for the Nobel laureate to run for a seat in the new parliament.
The announcement in state media follows a series of reformist moves by a new military-backed government dominated by former generals, who are now reaching out to political opponents and the West.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) was stripped of its status as a legal political party by the junta last year after it chose to boycott a rare election, saying the rules were unfair. Read more
US and China confer on Myanmar
WASHINGTON, 7 December 2011 – The United States and China will next week discuss developments in Myanmar after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s landmark visit to the longtime ally of Beijing, a US official said Tuesday.
Derek Mitchell, the US special envoy on Myanmar, will visit Beijing on 12 to 13 December after holding meetings this week in Japan and South Korea, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Clinton last week became the top US official in more than 50 years to visit Myanmar, also known as Burma, as she sought to encourage reforms by the government which has opened talks with the opposition and ethnic minorities. Read more
Myanmar to allow street protests
YANGON, 6 December 2011: Myanmar’s president has formally approved a bill allowing citizens to protest peacefully if they have permission, state media reported over the weekend, in one of a series of reformist moves by the regime.
The bill, signed by the President Thein Sein on Friday, requires that demonstrators inform the authorities five days in advance of when, where and why they wish to protest, according to the official Myanmar Ahlin newspaper.
The law was passed last month by a parliament dominated by Thein Sein’s party and its military allies, making his final approval a mere formality. Read more
Obama woos Myanmar
YANGON, 2 December 2011: US President Barack Obama offered Myanmar a new era in relations if it reforms and vowed support for democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday as his top diplomat met the opposition icon in Yangon.
The high-stakes personal intervention in a country long regarded by the West as a pariah state came during a historic visit by Hillary Clinton, the first US secretary of state to set foot in the isolated nation for 50 years.
After talks with President Thein Sein in the capital Naypyidaw, Clinton met Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi at the US diplomatic mission in Yangon where the pair posed for photographs before holding a private dinner. Read more
Resorts open in Myanmar
November 30, 2011 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under Mekong Region, Myanmar
YANGON, 30 November 2011 – New resorts have opened in time for the peak season at Myanmar’s key tourist destinations – Inle Lake in the northern Shan State and Ngapali Beach in southern Rakhine state.
Myanmar Times reported, Monday, Amara Group opened its second property, Amara Ocean Resort on Ngapali Beach about 4 km north of Thandwe Airport .
The resort’s general manager, Dominik Dell, says the resort has strong advance bookings up to the close of the peak season in March 2012. Read more
