Vietnam government representatives signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday to import more than 5 million dollars of wood from Myanmar by 2010 at the Vietnam-Myanmar Joint Conference on Trade Exchanges in Ho Chi Minh City.

At the conference, which attracted more than 50 entrepreneurs from the two countries, the Vietnamese importing company DIC said it had signed an agreement to buy 14,000 cubic metres of the tropical hardwood pyinkado from Myanmar.

'This wood is not listed on the embargo lists of the US and the European Union, so it presents no problem for us,' said Nguyen Thanh The, director of DIC's wood department.

The said the wood was intended chiefly for Vietnamese customers, who like its reddish coloration for use in parquet floors and furniture.

The United States, European Union, Canada and other Western countries have barred imports of products from Myanmar as part of sanctions intended to punish the country's authoritarian military government for human rights violations.

Myanmar's military government is accused by Western countries and independent organizations of carrying out human rights violations. The sanctions were imposed after 1990, when its military junta repressed an opposition political party that overwhelmingly won the country's elections.

The junta has held the leader of the party, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.

Sanctions against the regime have proven ineffective in part because Myanmar continues to trade with its Asian neighbours.

Trade between Myanmar and Vietnam reached 108.2 million dollars in 2008, up 10 per cent from 2007. Vietnamese companies, including the state-owned oil company PetroVietnam and state-owned telecommunications firm Viettel, have operations in Myanmar.

Deutsche Presse Agentur - February 26, 2009

Business meet promotes Myanmar, Viet Nam trade

HCM CITY — Two-way trade between Myanmar and Viet Nam amounted to US$108.2 million last year, up 11 per cent over 2007, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The ministry presented the data during a meeting between representatives of Myanmar and Vietnamese businesspeople yesterday.

Representatives of Myanmar’s Trade Ministry and Viet Nam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade as well as 50 companies from both countries attended the meeting, which aims to promote business relations between the two ASEAN-member countries.

Bilateral trade between Myanmar and Viet Nam has attained significant growth since the fourth meeting of the Myanmar-Viet Nam Joint Trade Co-operation Committee in January 2007, according to the chief of the representative office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in HCM City, Phan The Hao.

He said in 2008, Viet Nam attained an export turnover of $32.6 million to Myanmar, a year-on-year increase of 49.6 per cent, making Viet Nam one of the top 16 exporters to Myanmar.

Viet Nam’s major goods exported to Myanmar include textile and garment products ($6.1 million) and plastics ($2.5 million).

Meanwhile, Viet Nam’s imports from Myanmar reached $75.6 million, up 0.3 per cent over 2007, making Viet Nam one of the top buyers of Myanmar’s goods.

Major imports from Myanmar include wood and wood products ($57.1 million) as well as rubber ($4.8 million).

According to figures released at the meeting, two-way trade between the two countries in 2007 amounted to $97.2 million, up 20 per cent over 2006 and 68.4 per cent over 2005.

The two countries still have great business potential to be tapped, especially in the sectors of agriculture and forestry, textiles and garments, electronics, electrical appliances, medical and pharmaceutical equipment and consumer goods, according to Hao.

The deputy minister for trade of Myanmar and deputy president of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Brig-Gen Aung Tun, said the meeting offered Myanmar and Vietnamese businesses an opportunity to better understand the markets in each country and promote bilateral trade.

"Viet Nam is one of the major trading partners of Myanmar in the ASEAN region. Both countries have intensified co-operation in economic and trade and investment since Myanmar adopted a market-oriented system in early 1990," said Aung Tun.

Vietnam News Agency - February 26, 2009