Weekly Business Roundup (March 15, 2008)
covering burma and southeast asia
Friday, March 29, 2024
Business

Weekly Business Roundup (March 15, 2008)


By WILLIAM BOOT / BANGKOK Saturday, March 15, 2008


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Japan Aid Continues Despite Tokyo Anger over Army Killing

The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) is to provide technical assistance to Burmese chemical companies to help them prevent environmental pollution.

JETRO has disclosed that an environmental expert from Japan visited Burma in February to consult with the Chemical Industrial Group of Myanmar Industrial Association.

JETRO says it will seek to help raise awareness about the danger to the local environment, even though Burma has relatively few chemical companies in operation.

A priority will be to help prevent or reduce ground water pollution, says JETRO, which provides similar technical help to the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Observers note that Tokyo supposedly suspended all but the most urgent humanitarian aid to Burma after the killing of a Japanese journalist who was covering a crackdown on demonstrators last September.

Only recently JETRO said the public unrest and the junta’s harsh response had had a “negative impact on Japanese firms.”

Looming Asia Gas Shortage May Benefit Burma—Total

The French oil company Total, which operates in Burma, says East Asia is facing a gas shortage within the next ten years.

Company vice president Yves Cerf-Mayer told a Bangkok industry trade fair that the region could experience an annual shortfall of 43 million tonnes of liquid natural gas (LNG) by 2015.

LNG is fast becoming a favored method of transporting gas from production sites to consumers, although Burma currently lacks facilities to convert its abundant supplies of natural gas.

“If such a shortage does come about it can only help Burma because of recent finds and potential, such as Thailand PTT’s M9 discoveries in the Gulf of Martaban,” said analyst Sar Watana.



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