BurmaNet News: August 28 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

August 28 2003 Issue #2315

INSIDE BURMA
BP: Chavalit Sees Change for Better
Xinhua: Western sanctions bring about hardship to Myanmar: newspaper
Xinhua: Myanmar commerce minister urges further cooperation with China
AP: Once killed as common pests, tigers in Myanmar now almost extinct

DRUGS
IPS: All Eyes on Thaskins’s Threat to Burmese Drug Producers

MONEY
UK Newsquest: Company accused over Burma link

GUNS
FT: One of China's largest arms manufacturers courts Maung Aye

REGIONAL
BP: Thailand to Propose EU-Style Single Visa for All Asean States
Kao Wao: Illegal Migrant Buddhist Monks Deported to Burma
AFP: Philippines withholds judgment on new Myanmar PM, urges Suu Kyi release
Narinjara: Bangladesh PM greets Burma counterpart
Vietnam News Briefs: Agriculture: 85,000 Tons of Rice Reserved for ASEAN+3
Food Security


----INSIDE BURMA----

Bangkok Post   August 28, 2003
Chavalit Sees Change for Better

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi would probably be released in
the next four or five months and would then join the military government
in working for her country and the people, Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh said yesterday.

Gen Chavalit predicted a change for the better after Monday's Burmese
leadership change in which Gen Khin Nyunt replaced Gen Than Shwe as prime
minister.

Politics in Burma cannot afford to remain static. It will keep developing
following the leadership change,'' Gen Chavalit said. Things are going to
be better in Burma in four or five months. I believe Mrs Suu Kyi will
certainly join the Burmese government in working for the country,'' he
added.

Mrs Suu Kyi has been detained since May 31, one day after a bloody clash
between her followers and a junta-backed mob in northern Burma.

Political developments in Burma would eventually lead to peace and
national reconciliation, which would result in a reduction in the flow of
drugs from Burma into Thailand, Gen Chavalit said.

Deputy army chief Watanachai Chaimuenwong, however, said Thai-Burmese
border problems were unlikely to go away easily since Burma's army chief
Gen Maung Aye still had a firm grip on the Burmese military.

Rangoon had never accepted that the ethnic Wa guerrilla army was the
biggest producer of drugs in the region. Also, the Burmese government had
never destroyed illicit drug factories along the border as promised to
Thailand, he said.

When there were troubles and we needed to talk with the Wa, Burma did not
let us do so and insisted that we communicate with the guerrillas through
the Burmese military only.

Burma always says everyone on Burmese soil is Burmese. But whenever we
asked Burma to help crack down on the Wa drug forces, it refused claiming
it did not have enough forces or time to do so,'' said Gen Watanachai.

However, Gen Watanachai also believed Mrs Suu Kyi would be released in the
next four or five months.

Meanwhile, Burma's rebel Shan State Army leader Col Yod Serk said the
leadership change in Rangoon was not a coup. It was just the junta's
internal manoeuvring for power in a bid to ease international pressure.

Col Yod Serk also did not believe the change would make things better.
Things could even get worse if Gen Maung Aye had absolute control of the
military, he said.


Xinhua General News Service  August 28, 2003
Western sanctions bring about hardship to Myanmar: newspaper

YANGON, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) --Government-run newspaper The New Light of
Myanmar said on Thursday that western economic sanctions are making
Myanmar people suffer from various kinds of hardship and harming the
national economic life.

However, "Whatever the situation is, we cannot let our nation to slide
from the status of a sovereign nation into the influence of other
nations," the paper stressed in its editorial.

Noting that Myanmar is a sovereign state, the paper said a nation can
exist long only if it is built on its social and cultural norms of the
people living in it.

The government has given top priority to national unity in shaping the
future of the nation, taking lessons from the past, it said.

Despite various constraints, the government has been fulfilling all the
requirements for regional and national development, the paper added.

Under a Congress bill signed by President George W. Bush on July 28, the
United States has tightened sanctions on Myanmar on account of the May 30
bloodshed and the continued detention by the Myanmar military government
of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK).

The US sanctions not only ban imports from Myanmar and freeze the military
government's assets in the United States but also expand the current ban
on granting US visas to Myanmar officials and codify the existing policy
that opposes new international loans or technical aid to the country.

Meanwhile, Japan has also suspended its economic aid to Myanmar.

The May 30 incident refers to the case in which a convoy of ASSK was
reportedly ambushed by government supporters on her political trip to the
north of the country, which resulted in, as claimed by the government,
four deaths, 48 injuries and 136 arrests in the bloody clashes between
supporters of ASSK's National League for Democracy (NLD) and
pro-government protesters.

Following the incident, the government detained ASSK in the name of
protection and since then the United States and other western countries
have stepped up sanctions against Myanmar to press for her release.


Xinhua General News Service   August 28, 2003
Myanmar commerce minister urges further cooperation with China

KUNMING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua)-- Myanmar Minister of Commerce Pyi Sone said
here Wednesday that Myanmar will further explore cooperation with China to
increase Myanmar-China trade volume.

Pyi Sone made the remarks when attending a trade fair in Kunming, capital
of China's Southwest Yunnan Province.

The Myanmar-China trade volume in 2002 reached 800 million US dollars and
China is now Myanmar's second largest trade partner, he said.

He said he hoped Myanmar and China, as close neighbors, could improve
consultation and strengthen cooperative ties, especially the economic
cooperation between Myanmar and China's southwestern provinces.


The Associated Press   August 28, 2003
Once killed as common pests, tigers in Myanmar now almost extinct
By JERRY HARMER, Associated Press Writer

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - In the days of British rule, tigers were so
numerous in Burma they were shot as pests - 1,382 of them from 1928-32,
according to historical records.

Today, those pith-helmeted hunters would stalk the country's forests in
vain. The tiger is almost extinct in Myanmar, as Burma is now known.

A landmark report by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society has
calculated there could be fewer than 150 left in this country, although
jungles still cover a third of its surface.

"We were disappointed," said Tony Lynam, leader of the society team that
produced the report after a three-year evaluation. "The population has
declined everywhere and in some places it's gone completely. It's
history."

The culprits are depressingly familiar to naturalists everywhere: the
illegal wildlife traders and their gangs of hired poachers. Tiger parts
are highly prized in China and Thailand by makers of traditional
medicines, and Myanmar sits on the border of both countries.

The report said the poachers were killing so many tigers that their own
business would become "unsustainable," and that the killing persisting
throughout forest areas "threatens to drive the Myanmar population to
extinction."

But the 80-page report, commissioned by the Myanmar government and
presented in July, is meant to trumpet the resurrection of the species,
not its requiem.

It lays out a comprehensive action plan to restore the big cat to its
former numbers. Stopping the trade is one of its key recommendations.

Among other things, it urges creation of a wildlife investigation unit and
teams of eco-rangers to patrol protected areas. It suggests coordinated
anti-poaching patrols with Thai rangers along the two countries' common
border and heavy fines for anyone caught trading tigers or tiger parts.

The action plan also urges greater education, with government officials
taught how to monitor the situation better and the public taught to value
the animal more as a living presence in their forests than as a
slaughtered commodity.

The Wildlife Conservation Society believes the report - "A National Tiger
Action Plan for the Union of Myanmar" - is the first of its kind.

Alan Rabinowitz of the conservation society said "nothing of this
magnitude has been compiled for any country where tigers still roam."

The work was supported by the U.S. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
and Exxon Mobil's "Save The Tiger Fund."

When the wildlife society's team began its research, it was operating in
the dark. Political repression and subsequent international boycotts have
largely cut off Myanmar from the outside world for 40 years, so there has
been little or no modern exploration of its far-flung corners.

"In my mind I had images of dense jungle, of grass 10 feet high," said
Lynam, the team leader. "I had great anticipation of actually seeing
tigers, that they would be all around. We had the feeling that we'd be
seeing them left, right and center."

Using techniques first developed in India, Lynam, a 38-year-old biologist
from Perth, Australia, and a trained team from Myanmar's Forestry
Department staff embarked on a survey of 17 of the most promising jungle
areas.

It was hard going. Sometimes they traveled with armed guards, and at other
times the terrain was so difficult they used elephants to carry equipment.
Many nights were so bitterly cold they could not sleep and had to huddle
around the fire until the sun came up.

Despite the privations, Lynam and his team stuck to their task. They spent
1,300 man-hours methodically searching for tiger tracks and other signs,
such as droppings.

They did almost 1,000 interviews of forest people to gather anecdotal
evidence. The team staked out trails with dozens of camera traps - still
cameras, strapped to trees, which take shots when anything breaks an
infrared beam.

After a month, they were collected and the film developed, producing 4,099
photos. The results were sobering. The cameras snapped tigers at just four
of the 17 sites. At two of the sites, just a single photo of a tiger was
taken.

The report states that forest tribesmen have been so efficient in
supplying the trade in traditional medicines that dealers on the Thai
border claim they can produce a tiger within three days for a deposit of
about $12.

It remains to be seen just how completely Myanmar adopts the wildlife
society's action plan, given the history of governments in developing
countries ignoring experts' ideas for all manner of suggested
improvements.

But in a preface to the report, the Forestry Department's
director-general, U Shwe Kyaw, says the society's recommendations would
become part of government policy.

If so, the plan concludes, it is possible to bring the number of tigers
back to "their former abundance across their range in Myanmar."


----DRUGS----

Inter Press Service (IPS)   August 28, 2003
All Eyes on Thaskins’s Threat to Burmese Drug Producers
By Marwaan Macan-Markar/Bangkok

At home, short tempers and intimidation have worked to get Thai Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra desired political results, but will the same
combination help him when taking on stubborn outsiders?

That question has risen this week in the wake of the verbal salvos fired
by Thaksin at Southeast Asia’s most notorious drug traffickers, the United
Wa State Army (UWSA), which runs its narcotics trade from Shan State in
Burma.

To some Burma watchers, the level of the outburst was unprecedented, since
the Thai premier not only threatened to send troops into Burma to crush
the Wa’s narcotics trade along the This-Burma border but used
extraordinarily strong language in his threat.
"It was very unusual, coming from the Prime Minister. In the past, it was
the Thai army that made such statements," said Soe Aung, external affairs
director of the Network for Democracy and Development, a group of Burmese
exiles in Thailand.

Thai troops "would shoot to kill," Thaksin was quoted as having told
reporters last Thursday. "Their [Wa] drugs have gradually killed our
children, so we won’t spare them."

At the end of last week, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai was
reported to have fired a missive to Burma’s military government, demanding
that Rangoon crack down on the Wa’s drug production and supply of the
narcotics into Thailand.

Surakiart has asked "for increased cooperation from Burma in fighting drug
production and muggling," the Bangkok Post newspaper states in its Friday
edition. Thaksin launched this broadside at the Wa following an aborted
attempt by the drug traffickers to smuggle in one million methamphetamine
pills into Thailand on Wednesday. Nine armed Wa operatives were killed in
a 30-minute gun duel in Thailand’s northern Chiang Mai province during
this attempt, The Nation reported.

To Thais, Thaksin’s stance is an extension of the tough line he has taken
since the beginning of this year to cleanse this country of
methamphetamines, or yaa baa as it is known here. In February, Thailand
launched a harsh nationwide anti-drug campaign to counter the estimated
700 million yaa baa pills that are supplied every year to meet local
demand.

"The government’s anti-drug campaign has received tremendous public
support, and this focus on the Wa will be seen as part of that policy,"
said Chayachoke Chulasiriwongs, head of the international relations
department at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

The current approach is far removed from before, Chayachoke added.
"Thaksin has raised the profile of the drug issue and shown that it can be
dealt with, unlike the previous governments who would sweep issues they
could not tackle—like drugs—under the carpet."

In fact, the anti-drug agency says that this year’s "war on drugs" has had
a noticeable impact. "There has been a shift in the routes drug smugglers
are using to bring in yaa baa from Burma into Thailand," said Chartchai
Suthiklom, deputy secretary general of the Narcotics Control Board.

Previously, the favored routes were Thailand’s northern-most Chiang Rai
province, Chartchai revealed in an interview. "But after the crackdown,
the smuggling has shifted, with the jungles in Mae Ai [in the Chiang Mai
province] being used."

Human rights groups, however, faulted the government for using excessive
violence during the first three months of the anti-drug campaign.
According to available reports, close to 2,270 alleged drug dealers were
killed during the campaign, which amounts to some 25 extrajudicial-type
deaths per day.

But there is no disagreement when the spotlight turns to the role of the
Wa drug lords and their hosts, the Burmese military government, in keeping
Thailand supplied with yaa baa.

"This link has also enabled drugs being produced in eastern Burma to be
transported across the country to its western border, to meet the demand
in India and Bangladesh," said Debbie Stothard of ALTSEAN, a regional
Bangkok-based human rights lobby.

That this happens openly is "an indictment of the junta," she added.
Currently, Wa leaders like Wei Hsueh-kang are wanted by the US government
for trafficking both heroin and speed pills. The US State Department, in
fact, has offered US $2 million to anyone who hands him over to American
officials.

Nevertheless, it is no secret that Wei Hsueh-kang and former drug lord
Khun Sa receive protection from Rangoon’s regime due to the security and
assistance the Wa has provided the Burmese government along the Thai-Burma
border.

In fact, Thaksin visited Burma in February this year with the hope of
getting Rangoon to pressure the Wa into cutting its drug links with
Thailand. "I will discuss the drugs issues with the Burmese to work out
joint measures against drug trafficking along the border," Thaksin said on
the eve of that visit.

That has been followed by other overtures Bangkok has made to Rangoon in a
spirit of friendship, including Thailand’s recent effort to be sympathetic
towards the Burmese government following a battery of criticism for its
imprisonment of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party members.

"Thaksin has enjoyed a cozy relationship with the Burmese government,"
said Stothard. "So his outburst was unusually hardline." Consequently, two
questions arise: Will the junta agree to mount a crackdown on the Wa? Will
the Wa heed Thaksin’s words?

According to Stothard, a shift from the status quo is unlikely, since the
"Wa is a key ally of the junta and Rangoon has not responded with results
when on previous occasions, links with the Wa were made."


----MONEY----

UK Newsquest Regional Press   August 28, 2003
Company accused over Burma link

Campaigners have accused two Sussex-based garden furniture firms of
helping prop up a brutal military dictatorship.

Campaigners believe Alexander Rose in Burgess Hill and Eastbourne-based
Lister Lutyens are supporting the notorious ruling regime in Burma. Both
firms buy materials produced in the south-east Asian country.

Alexander Rose sources about ten per cent of its timber from a factory in
Burma while Lister Lutyens imports teak.

Campaigners say such exports are an important source of income for the
ruling regime which has been condemned by the United Nations for crimes
against humanity .

Leaders of the military junta have consistently refused to transfer power
to Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy which won a landslide
election victory in 1990.

Now Burma Campaign UK has named the two Sussex firms on its so-called
Dirty List.

A spokesman said: "We are calling for targeted sanctions which will cut
the economic lifeline to the regime. We believe companies on the Dirty
List are directly or indirectly helping keep the regime in power."

Borge Leth a director of Alexander Rose defended his firm's involvement in
Burma.

He said: "We agree with the campaign that the government in Burma is a
cruel and indecent dictatorship. Where we don't agree is on its claim that
we are helping support that regime."

Mr Leth said the factory with which they dealt bought its timber from the
regime at a lower price than would be charged to firms in countries such
as China or Indonesia if it was exported.

He added: "We are supporting a small factory in Burma and the people
there. If it weren't for us the government would get more money for the
timber."

Nick Mottershead managing director of Lister Lutyens in Alder Close was
unavailable for comment.

But in a letter to Burma Campaign UK the company said it bought teak from
Forest Stewardship Council approved sources in Thailand Indonesia Laos and
Burma.

It said the amount of wood it bought from environment-friendly sources in
Thailand had increased but would not say if it intended to sever its
trading links with Burma.

Meanwhile in response to claims that by pulling out firms would only harm
ordinary Burmese people the Campaign cited Aung San Suu Kyi.

In May 2002 she said: "I don't think we have found evidence that sanctions
have harmed the Burmese people because they have been clearly limited."


----GUNS----

Financial Times   August 27, 2003
Irrepressible

The top guns at China North Industries Corp, better known as Norinco, one
of China's largest arms manufacturers, are gluttons for punishment. In
May, the US imposed sanctions on Norinco, alleging, despite Chinese
denials, that it had "materially contributed" to Iran's missile programme.

Now Norinco appears to be cultivating another of Washington's least
favourite countries: Burma, subject to US sanctions from today for
suppressing the opposition.

General Maung Aye, one of the junta's top men, visited China last week,
and received a warm welcome, and not just from the government. After one
lunch, his large delegation could be seen strolling through the five-star
China World hotel clutching sample bags stamped with the imprint of
Norinco, their host for the day.

Chinese leaders denounced the US sanctions against Burma - useful training
as more could be on the way.


----REGIONAL----

Bangkok Post, Thailand   August 28, 2003
Thailand to Propose EU-Style Single Visa for All Asean States
By Nondhanada Intarakomalyasut

 Thailand will ask fellow Asean states to adopt an EU-style regime that
would require only one visa to visit all of the countries in the region
in order to increase tourism.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is expected to raise the issue at the
Asean summit in Bali in October, said Sasithara Pichaichaanarong, director
of the Office of Tourism Development at the Tourism and Sports Ministry.

She said authorities could consider offering one visa for all 10 Asean
countries or a single visa for the two or three countries best prepared to
implement the regulation.

The new regime could make possible a marathon bicycle competition similar
to the Tour de France, covering Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Burma, she
said.

The event, proposed to be held each November, would promote new tourism
routes in the four countries and generate income for hotels, restaurants
and other services along the routes.

The government has allocated 7.5 billion baht to restore damaged tourist
destinations and infrastructure. So far, 1.6 billion has been provided to
100 projects through local communities. The remaining budget will be
allocated through the relevant ministries, she said.

In another development, the Tourism Authority of Thailand said yesterday
that the next Bangkok Film Festival would be held from Jan 22 to Feb 2.

The festival is expected to draw affluent tourists, promote Thai films and
potential shooting locations for international filmmakers. More directors
and superstars from Hollywood are also expected but the guest list has not
been finalised.


Kao Wao News Group   August 26, 2003
Illegal Migrant Buddhist Monks Deported to Burma
By- Kao Wao News reporter

August 26, Bangkok- Royal Thai Polices arrested over thirty illegal
Buddhist monks at Bangkadee susburd in the west of Bangkok for illegal
entry to the Kingdom.

Over thirty Buddhist Mon monks including two political monks- refugees
were arrested then disrobed by Royal Thai police at Wat Bang Yar and Wat
Sudhammavatee in Bang Khun Tein District.

“They asked us to proof Thai ID cards or Registration of Thai Citizenship
Document -hta-bin bum” a remaining monks who hold Thai ID cards said. 
They arrested all other monks who could not proof Thai nationality ID
cards, he added.

Majority Mon Buddhist monks were odinated by senior Rev Uttama, Abbot of
Wat Viwekaram at Sangkhlaburi in Kanchanaburi Province.  They hold
Buddhist monk ID cards issued by the Abbot for acknowledgement of his
obdediants.

According to a close source to Rev Uttama, detained monks are encouraged
to return originally resident at Sangkhlaburi.

Sangha Association of Thailand and Local Police concented for deporting
migrant monks without disrobing them but Sangkha Police Task Foce led by
Wat Maha Htat.

The official of Royal Thai Government siad, migrant monks are only allowed
to reside at local temple where they orriginally live and they could not
live illegally in Thailand.

Senior officials of Overseas Mon Nationals Students Organization based in
bangkok urgenly wrote a letter to United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees to give a protection to two detained Monk-refugees as a “Person
of concern”.

“They have the rights to stay here uner UNHCR’s protection as they are
being recognized by the office” Nonda Rarman, A Spokeperson for the OMNSO
said.

After the the event took place, other Mon migrant monks at Wat Prok in
Yanawa district and Wat Mai Klong (7) at Lumluka district also have packed
up to return their originally temple, the souce from the monastry said.

According to the Buddhist principles of living, during four months of
reaining season monks are obligated only to stay permanently in single
temple without moving to other place over seven days.  Monks are also
obligated to exercise learning, teaching, preachning and medidating for
over four months.

Former senior monk of Wat Sudhammavatee is an active Abbot who support
young Mon monks to studies for both Thai and Mon languages in his temple. 
He has established his private Prinint Press for publication of Pali, Mon
and Thai text in the last twenty years.

Majority Mon migrant monks read and write both Thai and Mon language well
for serving social and moral teaching to fellow men and women in their
temples.


Agence France Presse   August 28, 2003
Philippines withholds judgment on new Myanmar PM, urges Suu Kyi release

MANILA: The Philippines reacted cautiously Thursday to the appointment of
intelligence chief Khin Nyunt as Myanmar's prime minister, saying the
ruling junta should still free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"If the intention is to begin genuine democratic reforms, then this
appointment is certainly one that we would welcome," Foreign Secretary
Blas Ople said in a statement.

But while he described the general as the "most outward-looking figure in
government," Ople said the implications of Monday's announcement "remain
unclear and deserve close watching."

General Khin Nyunt, the number three in the ruling junta, was axed from
his role as Secretary One of the junta and made prime minister, a role
which observers say has little real power.

A source close to the junta told AFP in Yangon on Wednesday that Myanmar's
leader Senior General Than Shwe intends to remain in power indefinitely
and will use his new prime minister as a shield against international
criticism.

"Regardless of any changes in leadership, Myanmar should immediately
release Daw Suu Kyi and her followers and allow them to participate fully
and safely in the political life of the people of Myanmar," Ople said.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), meanwhile,
was preparing to lay the groundwork for a regional "ministerial mission"
for dialogue with the junta and Suu Kyi, Ople said.

Indonesia, the incoming chairman of ASEAN, was to send a special envoy to
Yangon ahead of the ministerial mission planned for October.

"President Megawati is sending a special envoy to that country to lay the
basis for eventual talks between ASEAN ministers and the military regime
in Yangon as well as Aung San Suu Kyi," he said.

"But we will have to insist that we will have to meet with Aung San Suu
Kyi no longer as a prisoner but as a free person."

There was no schedule given for the mission, Ople said while noting Manila
would be "terribly disappointed if there is no movement in Myanmar in time
for the Bali summit of ASEAN."

ASEAN also groups Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand
and Vietnam.

Khin Nyunt was responsible for handling a UN-sponsored national
reconciliation process with Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which
began in October 2000 with tentative talks between the two sides.

But the process collapsed after her detention, which also triggered a
tightening of tough US and EU sanctions that have plunged the economy
deeper into chaos.


Narinjara News  August 28, 2003
Bangladesh PM greets Burma counterpart

Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has felicitated her Burma
counterpart on his assumption to the office of the prime minister of the
Union of Myanmar, report UNB.

In a message to general Khin Nyunt, she said, “ I take this opportunity to
express my firm belief that during your tenure the existing bonds of
friendship and cooperation between Bangladesh and Burma will be further
consolidated and strengthened to the mutual benefit of our two people.”

Bilateral relation between Bangladesh and Burma have been promoted since
the BNP government came to the power in 2001.


Vietnam News Briefs   August 28, 2003
Agriculture: 85,000 Tons of Rice Reserved for ASEAN+3 Food Security

Vietnam should set aside at least 85,000 tons of rice for regional rice
reserves, proposed a meeting in Malaysia on August 21 involving
agricultural ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) and its dialogues partners China, Japan and South Korea, said an
official attending the meeting.

Other ASEAN members of Thailand and Myanmar and the three East Asian
nations each would also earmark a certain amount for the proposed rice
reserve for neighboring regional countries to purchase from, with
assistance from non-grower Singapore in a possible food crisis or natural
calamity.

The emergency rice reserve will be put into place in early 2004.

Studies have shown that 90% of world rice is produced in Asia with around
150 million tons a year, consuming 95% of that by itself as only four
countries in the region are rice exporters, including China, Myanmar,
Thailand and Vietnam. The regional demand could rise to 160 million tons
by 2020.

The 550 million-people ASEAN now groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.