The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Portraits of Burma’s Independence Hero
- Court Sentencing in Burma
- Visa Enforcement Tightens for Thailand’s Expats
- The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (July 19, 2014)
| Portraits of Burma’s Independence Hero Posted: 18 Jul 2014 06:30 PM PDT  Part of an exhibition of portraits of Gen. Aung San on display at a gallery in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — An art exhibition to honor Burma's independence hero was not originally scheduled to open on the anniversary of his death. "It was a coincidence!" said Nan New, manager of Ahla Thit gallery in Rangoon, which is honoring Gen. Aung San by showing about 70 portraits of him starting on Saturday, exactly 67 years after he was assassinated by a political rival. The manager said the exhibition was originally scheduled to open on Aung San's birthday, Feb. 13. "We faced some difficulties at that time. But we could make it happen now," he told The Irrawaddy. Aung San, the father of Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, is one of the most respected historical figures in Burma, known for his leadership in Burma's struggle for independence from the British. A founding member of the Burma Army, he was gunned down along with six cabinet ministers and two other officials on July 19, 1947, in Rangoon. "The art exhibition is a tribute to our leader by artists," Nan New said. Thirty-six painters who worked in acrylic, oil, water-color and mixed medium contributed to the exhibition. "Bogyoke is Our Father" is open to the public at Ahla Thit Art Gallery (No.17, University Avenue, Bahan Township, Rangoon) from July 19-30. The post Portraits of Burma's Independence Hero appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Posted: 18 Jul 2014 06:00 PM PDT  Court Sentencing in Burma The post Court Sentencing in Burma appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| Visa Enforcement Tightens for Thailand’s Expats Posted: 18 Jul 2014 05:30 PM PDT  Western visitors to the Thai resort of Pattaya talk with local bar girls. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) Since the days of the Vietnam War, Bangkok, with its louche hotspots like Soi Cowboy and Patpong, has been a haven for lonely ex-GI's, drunks and others looking for love in all the wrong places, as the song goes. But it appears that the days when a middle-aged male could wash up on Thailand's shores to find romance and cheap housing and excellent food on a tourist visa and make "border runs" to Cambodia or Burma to renew the visas in a few hours, then return to Thailand, are ending. In addition to sending home as many as 200,000 Burmese workers, the junta is also lining up to send the drunks and sex tourists home. Of course there are plenty of productive expatriate westerners in Thailand who do more than drink and chase girls. They are either freelancing illegally—IT, design, online writers—or have enough independent cash to eke out a living. The country for decades has been a welcoming home for freelance writers and photographers who use either Bangkok or the northern city of Chiang Mai, with their low costs and good flight connections to other regions, as a base. Among them are so-called "digital nomads," location-independent entrepreneurs who favor Thailand. Many stay on tourist visas, traveling around the region and returning to Thailand thanks to its low cost for high quality living, its reliable high-speed Internet and other attractive perks. But there are pockets of problems. A substantial population of Russians are constantly in the papers for crashing cars, spinning con games or being involved in violent bar fights. The government is clearly fed up and is seeking to prevent people from working illegally in Thailand and to decrease crime. The Immigration Bureau has been on a campaign to root out foreigners for a long time. A fairly large number of Caucasians lived in Chiang Mai on tourism visas, crossing the border into Burma or elsewhere every month or 90 days to renew and then come back but the government cracked down about four years ago, a Chiang Mai-based editor said. "But definitely there is no shortage of lonely older guys still propping up bars in Chiang Mai," he said. "I would say that across the country they number in the tens of thousands." The brief overland trips in and out of neighboring countries have long been popular among long-stay travelers and tourists who want to extend their time in the country. Even those on valid tourist visas may be denied entry if immigration officials suspect feel they are spending too long in the country or working illegally. Although some border crossings had appeared more lenient than others since a crackdown was announced in May, new directives to weed out those who are not "genuine tourists" have gone countrywide. "Every immigration post on land borders and at airports now has the same rules," said Pol Col Sanchai Chokkayaikij, Superintendent of the Phuket Immigration Office, told local media in Phuket. "If they are genuine tourists that's fine. But if we believe they are not tourists, they will not be readmitted into Thailand. We can see [from their passport stamps] if a foreigner has stayed in Thailand too long [on tourist visas]. We will not let them in." The Immigration Bureau announced in May that those taking advantage of the in-and-out exemptions would be scrutinized and that border runs by land were being phased out. Those by air will be allowed until mid-August, after which the same-day reentry would no longer be possible for tourists. Those wishing to stay in the country longer than the 30-day exemption allowed were encouraged to apply for 60-day tourist visas, which are easily available from Thai embassies and consulates around the world. People did heed the warning in May and left to secure proper tourist visas. But now that may not be enough. The Thai Visa website reported that some foreigners with proper visas were refused entry at points along the Thai-Malaysian border. Their reporter said 20 foreigners holding 60-day tourist visas were turned away at the Sungai Kolok crossing to Malaysia in Narathiwat Province, and that "all of the foreigners who were denied entry had a previous history of multiple visa exempt entries or back to back tourist visas." They were told to take a bus to Kuala Lumpur and fly back into Thailand. Those affected were from several different countries, including the US, UK, Ukraine, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, and Italy. The fact that even those holding visas are being denied in some cases suggests the seriousness of this crackdown. Though Immigration officials can deny anyone entry, many have got by for years getting back-to-back visas or doing regular in-and-out visa exemption trips. Those concerned with the tightened standards should follow Thai Visa, which regularly has posts and forum updates on visa issues. The crackdown will undoubtedly affect businesses built around visa run services, including tour companies that offer transportation services to and from the border. As the rules have tightened, Chinese officials have requested a visa-free privilege for Chinese tourists to Thailand, according to The Nation. Chinese make up the number one foreign tourist group in Thailand, with 4 million visiting the country between January and October 2013. Thailand's Foreign Ministry permanent secretary Sihasak Phuangketkeow said the request would be sent on to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), The Nation reported. "The Foreign Ministry will gather pros and cons of the free-visa privilege and submit them to the NCPO to substantiate this for consideration," they quoted Sihasak as saying. The agreement would allow Thais to travel to China visa-free as well. The post Visa Enforcement Tightens for Thailand's Expats appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. | |
| The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (July 19, 2014) Posted: 18 Jul 2014 05:00 PM PDT Western Companies Shy Away From Banking License Bidding Only two Western banks are listed among 25 foreign banks to have formally applied for licenses to open normal banking services in Burma. The most bidders for licenses come from Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, a statement by Burma's central bank said this week. Four banks from each of those countries have gone forward from an initial list of 30 that had expressed interest. More than 40 foreign banking companies have opened representative offices in the country but none are yet permitted to provide banking services. The two Western firms to move into the net round of license bidding are Australia's ANZ Bank and the BRED Bank of France, said the statement. BRED stands for Banque Régionale d'Escompte et de Dépôt. It's one of France's biggest regional banks with headquarters in Paris. Others countries with banks bidding for a license are China, India, Vietnam, Taiwan, Mauritius and South Korea. Between five and ten foreign banks will be awarded licenses from September, Central Bank Vice-Governor Set Aung was quoted by Eleven Media as saying in June. A selection committee to pick licensees will be made up of the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, the Attorney-General's Office, a German advisory team, and representatives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, according to Set Aung. Tour operators want to see an improvement in infrastructure before they can make a commitment to organize foreign visitor groups to three historic sites awarded World Heritage status, an industry report said. Hotels and Tourism Minister Htay Aung has urged tourism leaders in Burma and abroad to promote visits to three Pyu sites: Sri Ksetra in Pegu Division; Hanlin in Sagaing Division; and Beikthano in Magwe Division. The three sites were added to the World Heritage list in June by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). But tour operators say they are unsure that facilities such as transport, accommodation and road access are adequate, the regional tourism newspaper TTR Weekly said. "The Pyu sites identified by UNESCO are far from ready to cater to international visitors," the paper said. "Some tour operators raised concerns about transportation and said there was not enough detailed information on what tourist-friendly infrastructures exists to allow them to make intelligent decisions on when and how to package the attractions in tour programmes." Two "Burmese" firms involved in an electricity equipment agreement brokered by the British Foreign Office might not be Burmese, an NGO campaigning for more transparent business activities has alleged. The agreement, overseen by UK Foreign Officer Minister Hugo Swire and Burmese Minister for Electric Power Khin Maung Soe during a visit to London last week, is for small-scale power plant and generating equipment to be supplied by firms based in Britain. One deal involves a Bangkok-based company called Andaman Power & Utility which The Irrawaddy has previously tried to contact without success over its claims about electricity development in the Dawei area of southeast Burma. Andaman Power "has no transparent ownership" while one of the British companies involved, Aggreko, "has on its board a director who is most famous for running a different company which ripped of a million of its customers," said Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK human rights NGO in London. A second firm in the deals described by the British Embassy in Rangoon as Burmese, Yeya and Associates, appears to be closely linked with the Thai company Gunkul Engineering, Farmaner told The Irrawaddy. "The British government dropped human rights as its priority in Burma in order to secure business deals like this from the Burmese government, but what have we got to show for it?" Farmaner said. Small-scale natural gas-fueled mobile power plants offer Burma the best short-term answer to electricity shortages while developers of large-scale projects remain "wary of committing significant investment," a business study said. Potentially huge opportunities for investment in power generation capacity will ensure that global players will continue to look for entry points into [Burma], said risk assessors Business Monitor International. "Nevertheless , the transformation of the power sector in this frontier market will take time, underscored by the fact that around 75% of the population have no access to electricity and per capita electricity consumption is amongst the lowest in the world," the study said. "With the construction of large-scale gas or coal power plants likely to take many months, and many investors likely to remain wary of committing significant investment in large scale power capacity until they are more certain about the political and economic landscape, we believe that temporary power providers such as APR Energy will remain well placed to capitalise on demand for power in the interim." US firm APR Energy in June installed a 100-megawatt temporary gas-fueled power plant in the Mandalay region to operate on a two-year contract. But if the contract is not renewed, APR can dismantle and remove its equipment. Burma's domestic airline Air Mandalay is buying six new Japanese-made aircraft, each costing around US$40 million and with a passenger capacity of just under 100 people. The Rangoon-based airline said it had chosen the Mitsubishi MRJ90 to both update its ageing turbo-prop fleet and give it new capacity and range to expand in the region. The MRJ90s—Japan's first domestically developed civilian commercial aircraft for years—will be delivered from 2018. In the meantime, the airline is also purchasing six Embraer Regional Jets from Brazil. This plane can carry about 50 people. "Our plan is to expand our route structure in order to service our expanding customer base as the country's air travel requirements continue to show record growth," Air Mandalay chief executive Gary Villiard said in a statement. The purchase agreements were made at Britain's Farnborough air show, said Myanmar Business Today. The trade gap between Burma and China is widening with the import deficit growing to around $1.2 billion in the financial year ending in March, according to government figures. Official imports from China in the 2013-2014 financial year totaled $4.1 billion, compared with Burma's recorded exports to China, worth $2.9 billion, said the National Planning and Economic Development Ministry, quoted by Eleven Media. In the two previous financial years, imports and exports between the two neighbors were fairly even. The post The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (July 19, 2014) appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
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