Saturday, September 28, 2013

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Ways Old and New Clash in Burma’s Money Transfer Market

Posted: 28 Sep 2013 08:05 AM PDT

People walk past a Western Union branch at Times Square in New York. The company has begun offering its services to overseas Burmese. (Photo: Reuters)

RANGOON — Eight months after the global money transfer giant started operations in Burma, Western Union says people in 107 countries have sent money to the previously sanctioned Southeast Asian country.

With eight local banks onboard as in-country partners, the company has 280 agents across Burma, covering all of the country's states and regions, bar the hard-to-access Chin State in the northwest. There is even an online money transfer option, emblazoned with a smiling, thanaka-adorned young woman atop the web page.

MoneyGram is a more recent arrival to Burma, announcing in late August that its services would be provided through partnerships with three Burmese banks: Asia Green Development Bank run—by Tay Za, a long black-listed businessman—Myanmar Citizens Bank and Tun Foundation Bank.

And though Western Union and its main global rival MoneyGram are hoping that the influx of visitors to Burma for the upcoming tourism high season will see greater uptake of their services, their success in Burma depends, for now, on tapping into the millions of Burmese emigrants living and working in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States, and remitting unknown millions of kyats home every year.

In Malaysia and Thailand, where around one million and three million Burmese live, Burmese workers send money home to hard-pressed relatives living in poverty in Burma's towns and in the countryside, where job opportunities remain scarce and manual-labor farming is how most people make a living.

Trust in Burma's formal banking system dried up after a 2003 bank run and a variety of oddball financial and monetary policy decisions taken by the previous military government, such as reissuing the country's currency in notes divisible by nine, a move apparently prompted by former junta leader Gen Ne Win's numerology-infused superstitions.

Western Union and MoneyGram's entrance to the Burma market was facilitated by the Naypyidaw government's reforms, such as the floating of the kyat, allowing Burma's currency to trade officially at close to its real market value. In October 2011, Burma allowed private banks to open foreign counters and conduct foreign exchange, another precursor to Western Union and MoneyGram entering the country. The entrance of the financial services firms was ultimately made legally possible when Washington in mid-2012 eased long-held restrictions on US companies doing business with Burma.

But now, even as Burma tries to modernize its financial system, the banks are a work in progress, with banks having little or no reach beyond the country's larger towns. In the past, banks did not work too well in cities either, though Burma's economic reforms mean that in urban areas at least, there are more branches and people are using banks more than they once did.

But for Burmese abroad, sending money home has in the past meant using an informal transfer system known as hundi—a mix of agents and middlemen along a cash and trust-based word-of-mouth chain from sender abroad to recipient in Burma.

Than Lwin, vice chairman of KBZ Bank, which provides Western Union services, says KBZ has 120 banks across Burma and plans to double that number within the next year. "We are trying to coax Myanmar migrants into using the formal, legal way," he told The Irrawaddy.

Western Union says its services are faster and safer than informal channels. "Informal systems including hundi do not provide the type of service that an international money transfer service provider like Western Union does," Western Union spokeswoman Connie Yip told The Irrawaddy. At time of writing, MoneyGram had not replied to emailed questions from The Irrawaddy.

Still, it may take time for a majority of Burmese living overseas to make the switch.

Thiri Myat, an official working at the Western Union counter at a branch of First Private Bank in Rangoon, says charges for sending money via Western Union remain "a little bit high" compared with the hundi system, though rates for both hundi and Western Union vary, depending on the amount sent and location of sender.

"We get around 60 to 70 Western Union transactions a day, total numbers from all branches across the country," she told The Irrawaddy.

In Malaysia, Burmese migrants are slowly moving to using formal outlets to send money home. Lairam Vapual, a Burmese national from Chin State and now living in Malaysia, told The Irrawaddy that he believes in time "people will use Western Union and MoneyGram as they safer and less expensive." He says that the current charges for remitting from Malaysia are 10 ringgit (US$3.10) per 100,000 kyats ($103) via the informal hundi channel, and 14 ringgit per 4,000 ringgit ($1,240) remitted via Western Union.

Western Union is offering a flat 160 baht (US$5) fee for sending any amount of money from Thailand to Burma, beating the usual 5 percent cut that hundi agents take, while MoneyGram charges 480 baht for a 4,000 baht or less transfer. But even if Western Union and MoneyGram can offer better rates than informal rivals, for now many Burmese in Malaysia and Thailand will stick to the hundi system, which does not require time-consuming forms or presenting ID. Many Burmese in Malaysia and Thailand—perhaps several hundred thousand people in Malaysia and upwards of a million in Thailand—are not registered as migrant workers. Some don't have passports or ID—a hurdle when it comes to using the formal money transfer outlets.

A hundi agent in Kuala Lumpur, going by the name Thu Ya, told The Irrawaddy that he doesn't think his trade will drop much any time soon, despite the appearance of Western Union and MoneyGram in his homeland.

Familiarity with compatriots is one factor favoring the hundi agents, he believes. Language is another. "Many Burmese people cannot speak English, or read and write it. That means it is difficult for them to do formal transfer," he told The Irrawaddy.

The informal networks have other advantages over Western Union and MoneyGram, which are an attraction to the recipient in Burma as well as the sender abroad. An advisor to the Burmese government working on financial issues says that hundi networks have a longer reach than the formal banking networks. Many Burmese hundi recipients live in rural areas, far from any bank branch, so hundi remains the only option. "Formal channels cannot deliver to the door where most receive it," the advisor, asking that his name be withheld, told The Irrawaddy.

Those formal channels seem to realize that they still face a formidable informal competitor, and KBZ's Than Lwin says his bank, the biggest private lender in Burma, is trying to fit in with the hundi system, for now. "We are working with some of the more respectable hundi traders in Malaysia and Thailand," he says.

Neil Lawrence contributed reporting.

The post Ways Old and New Clash in Burma's Money Transfer Market appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma’s Food Safety Agency Finds Urea in Fish Paste Sample

Posted: 27 Sep 2013 10:06 PM PDT

A worker scoops fermented fish paste from a container at a wholesale market in Rangoon's Latha Township. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

Burma's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Friday it has found high levels of urea in a sample of fish paste, or Ngapi, which is a staple of the Burmese diet.

Last month, Myanmar’s only consumer rights group—the Consumer Protection Association—claimed that urea-based fertilizer is being widely used in the production of fish paste and is putting the health of consumers at risk. The association sent three samples of fish paste sold in Burma to the FDA department of the Health Ministry on Aug. 28.

"Sample No. 2 is found to contain more urea than it should have," Professor Dr Myint Han, the director general of the FDA, told The Irrawaddy.

However, he said, "It is hard to say whether this urea is from the fertilizer or not, because we found ammonia, which could come from the fish’s own urea."

The urea and ammonia are unstable compounds, and in the long term they usually dissolve and should not pose serious health risks, said Dr Myint Han, although he admitted it is difficult to rule out health problems arising from ingesting the chemicals in the long term.

The FDA will continue to conduct researching and testing in order to ensure safety for consumers, he said.

"We are doing our best for the food safety for consumer, but we still have to analyze these without having a standardized method," Dr Myint Han said.

Ba Oak Khaing, the chairman of the Consumer Protection Association said, sample No. 2 was fish paste purchased in Irrawaddy Division.

"The result from the FDA finally came out almost a month after we submitted the samples to test," said Ba Oak Khaing. "But the FDA still cannot clearly distinguish whether these urea are organic urea [from animal or human waste] or inorganic [from fertilizer]."

Ba Oak Khaing argued that "If the urea is organic, it would be found in all three samples," but the tests is only found it in one sample.

After the Consumer Protection Association raised concerns about urea-based fertilizer being used in Ngapi, some sellers have reportedly seen their sales drop. Ba Oak Khaing said consumers were becoming cautious about the fish paste and that some sellers had reported a drop of two thirds in demand.

Ba Oak Khaing said other than Ngapi, other products had been found to have high levels of potentially dangerous ingredients, since regulation of food standards is lacking in Burma. Red chili sauce, which is used in Burmese salads and noodle salad, has been found to contain excessive bacteria, he said.

The post Burma's Food Safety Agency Finds Urea in Fish Paste Sample appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

In Bagan, Child Guides Eke Out a Living for Their Families

Posted: 27 Sep 2013 08:58 PM PDT

A boy talks to local visitors to explain the history of the 11th century Lawkanandar temple for a small fee. (Photo: Zarni Mann / The Irrawaddy)

BAGAN — "Please do not record my voice or take photos of me. If they catch me I could be arrested and fined. But if you want to know the history of this temple, I will explain it to you for a bit of money," says Aung Aung, a 10-year-old boy, as he quickly approaches a visitor to Manuha Temple.

He is one of dozens of young children who hang out at the major temples of Bagan Archaeological Zone, such as Shwezigon, Manuha and Lawkanandar, where they hope to offer their service as unofficial guides to foreign tourists and local Buddhist pilgrims.

Persistent, cute and armed with snippets of knowledge about the 11th to 13th-century temples of Bagan, an ancient Buddhist city complex in central Burma, the children manage to regularly convince visitors to pay for a guided tour of a temple.

If they succeed, their small fees will support their impoverished rural families, who struggle to eke out a living on the hot, dry plain on which Bagan's numerous temples were built. Many youngsters dropped out of school after only two or three years of primary education.

"Since my father passed away, I have to quit from school and have to work," explains Aung Aung, adding that his mother is partially paralyzed and can't support their family of six. "Before, I worked at a lacquer ware workshop and painted. But I didn’t earn much so I learned about the history of the temple and tried to become a guide," he says, "We learned it by heart from the village elders."

Aung Aung says he and his 8-year-old brother usually earn between US$2 and $8 per day from explaining the history of the 11th-century Manuha Temple to visitors, allowing them to make a significant contribution to the family's meager daily income.

He is among a group of five children, aged between 8 and 12 years old, who hang out at the temple, where they wait until Bagan Archeological Zone employees are out of sight before approaching visitors. The little crew of tourist guides has to be careful, as authorities prohibited child guides from working at the temples in 2011.

"They said we are disturbing the pilgrims. That’s why we are not allowed to come here in the morning. Even now, if they see us, they would arrest us and detain us for two days," says Aung Aung, adding that he once had to pay a $5 fine to temple guards after being caught.

At the 11th-century Lawkananda Temple, however, the temple guardians are more relaxed in their attitudes towards the urchins. "We allow these children to work here as we understand their hardships. But the only thing this, they mustn’t approach the visitors like crows fighting for a piece of food," said one of the laymen at the temple.

Although Burma's nascent tourism industry is growing rapidly following the opening up of the country in the past two years, the children at Bagan have not yet mastered enough English to offer unofficial temple tours to foreign visitors. Instead, their focus is on local Buddhist pilgrims, whose numbers swell as Buddhist Lent draws near in the month of October.

"The foreigners, they are not so interested in us, so we are always looking for chances to explain the history to the local visitors," says Kyaw Ko Ko, a 10-year-old boy, whose little face is covered in Thanaka, a yellow paste made from ground Thanaka tree bark that is a popular Burmese skin conditioner.

At most temple grounds, children are allowed to sell souvenirs and postcards. But Kyaw Ko Ko says, "This is not very good business because locals never buy them. Even the foreign tourists, they are not so interested to buy from us. That’s why I just want to work as a guide."

Although the work that the children do supports their families, some local social activists are taking steps to end the practice as it is considered harmful for the children's development.

"Most of the children, they have no enthusiasm to go back to school again as they know they earn some money to support their family, as well as for themselves," said Zaw, one of several teachers from the Bagan area who are trying to bring the children away from the temples and back into the schools.

"If we want them to be in the class room, we need to educate their parents first. It seems that we need to support the family in order to substitute the earnings received by their child," he said, "We still have a very long way to go."

Zaw is also concerned about the spread of harmful habits among the children working at Bagan's temples. "Sniffing glue is popular among the youngsters and some of these boys have habits of stealing and pickpocketing," he said.

San San Nu, a 12-year-old girl who works at Lawkanandar Temple, said she didn't mind the daily work she does there, although she hoped to one day become an official tour guide who can explain to foreign visitors the history of her country's famous temples.

"If we have spare time, we can play together and I’m very happy to work here," she said. "But if I have a chance to go back to school again, I want to learn English and other languages to become a professional tourist guide, so I will… have a chance to explain the history and I will be able to go around every temple of Bagan."

The post In Bagan, Child Guides Eke Out a Living for Their Families appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Day Trips From Chiang Mai

Posted: 27 Sep 2013 08:42 PM PDT

A panoramic view of Lisu Lodge. (Photo: Cate Langmuir / The Irrawaddy)

Chiang Mai province boasts more natural forest cover than any other in Thailand's north, and there is no end of ways to enjoy it, whether you fancy hiking, bird-watching or river rafting.

Thai people love getting close to nature and there are national parks all over northern Thailand with soaring peaks, cascading waterfalls and enough rare birdlife to fill a twitcher's notebook. Most have cabins or larger lodges that can be booked for overnight stays, and usually a restaurant and shop on-site.

Khun Tan, to the south, is one of the closest and is accessible by train from Chiang Mai. The train stops right by the park entrance from where it's a short trek up through teak trees and bamboo groves to the park office – which rents cabins for 150 baht each – and marked trails through the rainforest and up the mountain.

For a glimpse of the elegant mansions of former Myanmar lumber barons, head to Lampang (about three hours by train from Chiang Mai), which became an important center for the international teak trade in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Myanmar teak merchants also sponsored the construction of more than a dozen temples, leaving an impressive legacy. Wat Phra Kaew Don Tao, for example, is decorated with glass mosaic in Myanmar style, while Baan Sao Nak is a house-turned-museum filled with Myanmar and Thai antiques.

A couple of hours' drive south of Chiang Mai, Doi Inthanon is the country's highest mountain (2,565m) and you can drive right to the top, pose under the signpost, then drive home. But to experience rare flora and fauna and spectacular views, walk the Ang Ka, a cloud forest trail led by guides from hill-tribes living inside the national park.

Chiang Dao National Park is a two-hour drive north of Chiang Mai. Dao means star in Thai and this mountain range is a real celebrity, all sheer cliffs and impossible angles.

Traveling east, a day out could start with a visit to Doi Sukhet temple with its quirky murals, half an hour's drive out of Chiang Mai. A little further on, into the hills, is Baan Mae Kampong, a village clinging to the side of a precipitous mountain, with trails through the national park and a choice of lunch stops and eccentric home-stays, John's Place, for example. On the way back to Chiang Mai, make a stop at the San Kampaeng hot springs, where geysers spout and spray scalding mist.

For a taste of life out in the sticks, a company called Asian Oasis (www.asian-oasis.com) runs all-inclusive two, three or four-day packages that include a stay in a country lodge and a range of activities, from trekking round hill tribe villages, to Thai cookery courses. Accommodation and programs are developed in full cooperation with the local community. At Lisu Lodge, in the Mae Taeng area about an hour's drive north of Chiang Mai, all the staff are recruited from the local Lisu village and paid a wage equivalent to workers in Chiang Mai, while tribal elders are in on every new development that might affect the community they're responsible for.

Closer to home, the Queen Sirikit Botanical Gardens (en route to Mae Rim) is Thailand's oldest botanical garden in a scenic foothills setting; Bo Sang umbrella village is colorful, particularly during the January Umbrella Festival; and there's not much that beats a river trip on the Mae Ping on a scorpion-tailed boat for tourist cred.

But these are the contrasts that make Chiang Mai what it is, a city now being noticed by the jet set, so don't leave it too long to make your own trip there.

This story first appeared in the September 2013 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine, where it accompanied this article.

The post Day Trips From Chiang Mai appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Irrawaddy Business Roundup (September 28)

Posted: 27 Sep 2013 08:05 PM PDT

World Bank Gives US$140M Loan for Burma Power Station Upgrade

Money to renovate and upgrade a gas-fueled power station in Mon State is being provided in an interest-free loan from the World Bank.

A total of US$140 million will be advanced via the bank's International Development Association to buy new gas turbines and improve the efficiency of the 106 megawatt plant at Thaton.

The investment will increase electricity generating efficiency by 250 percent using the same volume of natural gas as now, said a World Bank statement announcing the loan. It will also reduce air and noise pollution from the plant, which will then be able to deliver 50 percent of Mon State's power demand.

Meanwhile, Emerging Markets Energy Limited of Singapore announced that it has signed a preliminary agreement with Burma's electricity ministry to source for underground geothermal energy in several areas of the country.

A feasibility study will assess whether there is sufficient energy from underground hot rocks and hot springs to build one or more electricity generating projects. The search will be focused in Shan State, Tenasserim Division, Sagaing Division, Magway Division and Mandalay Division, the Singapore firm said.

Farmers Seek Compensation From India Over Abandoned Chindwin Dam

Villagers and farmers forced out of homes and land to make way for a 1,200 megawatts hydroelectric dam at Tamanthi on the River Chindwin are demanding compensation from the Indian government now that the project has been abandoned.

Hundreds of people at the area in Sagaing Division were forcibly moved as the dam site was cleared but received no more than US$5 each in compensation, according to the Burma Rivers Network NGO quoting the Kuki Women's Human Rights Organisation.

The former residents have filed a petition to the Indian Embassy in Rangoon and the Ministry of Electric Power for proper payment for the loss of land and property and the right to return.

"The families are from two villages, Tazone and Leivomjang, forced in 2007 to move at gunpoint from the Tamanthi dam site to a barren relocation settlement 40 miles downriver," said the NGO.

Their farms produced rice, tea, bananas and bamboo.

The Tamanthi dam was to have been built by Indian state-owned National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), but it recently abandoned the delayed project on the grounds that it was not financially viable.

Most of the electricity from the Tamanthi dam would have been transmitted to India.

Thai PM Renews Bangkok-Naypidaw Talks on Dawei Economic Zone

Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has held talks with Burma's parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann in Bangkok on plans to push forward the stalled special economic zone proposed for Dawei on the Burmese southeast coast, said Bangkok newspapers.

Yingluck told Shwe Mann that despite the failure of leading developer Italian-Thai Development (ITD) to take the project forward because of a lack of capital, various Thai government departments are "conducting an economic study on infrastructure in Dawei, such as transportation and power and water supply," the Bangkok Post reported.

Talks were due to be continued in Naypidaw this week between Burmese and Thai officials on ways to attract Japanese investment for Dawei, Eleven Media reported.

The renewed government-level talks coincided with protests from local communities in Dawei alleging that the face eviction without adequate compensation or consultation from areas around the development zone.

The Tavoyan Women's Union alleged that ITD was engaged in land clearance and road construction which was wrecking farm crops, the Burma Campaign UK reported.

Suu Kyi Urges Foreign Firms to Demand Business Transparency in Burma

Changing Burma's Constitution and ensuring the rule of law are essential if the country's economic growth is to benefit all its citizens, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said in Singapore.

Suu Kyi stopped in the city state to attend a regional economic conference in her way back to Burma from visits to several countries in Eastern Europe.

"A lot of our problems in recent months have arisen from the fact that we have been lacking in transparency. Business deals that have turned sour, the demands of the people for their wrongs to be put right so transparency is very important," she was quoted by Channel News Asia as telling the conference.

"But transparency is linked to confidence. We need a leadership that has enough confidence in themselves to be transparent and enough honesty to accept criticisms."

She reportedly urged foreign companies seeking to invest in Burma to insist on business transparency—avoiding sweetheart deals which involve old-style crony habits or corruption.

Action Needed on More Business Facilities in Burma, Says Planning Chief

Burma risks frightening away some foreign investors because of a severe shortage of business facilities such as office space, the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development director-general Aung Naing Oo said.

"To solve the problem of the shortage of hotel and office apartment, we are now encouraging investors in these sectors by approving their proposals very speedily," he told Reuters.

Some large foreign firms who were unable to secure adequate offices in Rangoon were basing executives in Bangkok and flying them into Burma for meetings, the news agency said.

"The rising tide of foreign investment is fueling a property boom in the commercial capital [Rangoon] with the increasing demand for rental space feeding the highest office rental rates of any Southeast Asian city, according to real-estate firm Colliers International, which opened a branch in Yangon in July," said Reuters.

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