Obama doubles up on Myanmar
visit By Syed Tashfin Chowdhury
DHAKA - The opening up of Myanmar,
highlighted by the unprecedented visit to the
country today by US President Barack Obama,
appears set to include its western neighbor
Bangladesh, with an agreement this month to boost
trade that at present struggles to reach US$100
million a year.
Bangladesh and Myanmar
agreed during their 6th Joint Trade Commission
(JTC) meeting on November 11 and 12 to gear up
border trade and business visits between the
countries. The
meeting targeted US$500
million in bilateral trade, which at present is
skewed in favor of Myanmar, which in the year to
March 2012 exported $65 million worth of goods to
Bangladesh, accepting $13.5 million in return.
President Obama has been urged to speak
out against continued ethnic conflict in Myanmar's
western Rakhine State, which borders Bangladesh
and through which most of the targeted new trade
will flow. Most of the recent destruction in the
state affected the homes of Muslim Rohingya,
considered by the Myanmar government to be
stateless, though local Rakhine and other
Buddhists were also affected.
"Unfortunately there are some communal
problems in our area, which is delaying the
enhancement of border trade. When the conditions
improve our border trade will also increase. It is
assured," Deputy Commerce Minister Pwint San, who
led the Myanmar side at the JTC, was quoted by the
Daily Star in Bangladesh as saying.
During
a meeting with Buddhists and Muslims of Myanmar on
Friday, which was televised on Myanmar's state
television, President Thein Sein blamed
nationalist and religious extremists for the
violence in which, he said, "167 people had been
killed in two periods of violence in Rakhine in
June and October this year, while 223 were
injured. Some 101,000 buildings were destroyed and
111,000 people were made homeless."
The
JTC meeting decided to "establish shipping and air
connectivity, arrange banking procedures with the
Asian Clearing Union and also maintain regular
communication between the businesspeople of the
two countries," according to Commerce Secretary
Mahbub Ahmed, who headed the Bangladesh
delegation.
Myanmar last week also
expressed plans to set up a wholesale market and
hold trade fairs along the border to increase
bilateral trade. Increasing the number of
commodities traded at the Bangladesh-Myanmar
border was also discussed at the meeting. A mere
125 are traded at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border,
compared with an estimated 10,000 at the
China-Myanmar border and 3,000 at Myanmar's border
with Thailand border.
When Myanmar opened
its economy in 2010 after years of direct military
rule ended, trade with Bangladesh eased to some
extent through moves such as the direct opening of
letters of credit with Myanmar. Earlier, these had
to be done through a third-country, especially
Singapore. Last year, the governments increased
the consignment value through their shared border
to $50,000 from $30,000.
While trade
between Myanmar and Bangladesh remains low, other
markets are opening up quickly, notably the United
States, which lifted a ban on most imports from
Myanmar ahead of Obama's visit, the BBC reported
on Friday. Quoting US officials, the BBC said that
the "move was intended to support political reform
in Burma [as the US and some other countries still
call Myanmar] and to offer new bilateral business
opportunities".
Those efforts will do
little to benefit Rohingya, according to Khairul
Quader, a Bangladeshi journalist who has covered
the Rohingya issue extensively and visited Myanmar
this month. "While such bilateral business
opportunities may help the Myanmar economy and can
also enhance bilateral trade between Bangladesh
and Myanmar, the Rohingyas will most likely not be
better off even after this," he told Asia Times
Online.
"The Rohingyas dominated the
border trade between Bangladesh and Myanmar till
1982, when these businesses were captured by the
Burmese and the Rohingyas lost their citizenship
rights. Rohingyas are at present living on
agriculture and related fields in Myanmar," he
said.
Many Rohingyas fleeing this year's
violence tried to reach Bangladesh by boat but
were pushed back by the local authorities. The
Bangladesh government this year has resisted
international pressure to open its borders to the
Rohingyas, as the country still already hosts as
many as 100,000 refugees who have fled Myanmar in
several waves following the cancellation of their
citizenship rights there.
The biggest
exodus occurred in early 1992, when 250,000 fled
to Bangladesh when faced with "military
persecution" in Myanmar. Rohingya refugees were
last repatriated into Myanmar in May, 2005.
Although the situation has calmed down
since the October conflict this year, Rohingyas
still fear more persecution.
Last week,
Marķa Otero, US Under Secretary of State for
Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights,
accompanied by other US officials, visited the two
Rohingya camps run by the UN High Commission for
Refugees and the Bangladesh government near Cox's
Bazar in Bangladesh.
Otero, who arrived in
Dhaka on Thursday on a three-day visit, later
termed Myanmar's Rohingya issue a "complex one"
having "an international dimension". She conveyed
that the US is "ready to assist the relevant
countries including Bangladesh for a lasting
solution to the decades-old problem".
Md
Feroz Salauddin, Commissioner of Bangladesh's
Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commission, who
was with the US officials during their camp visits
and news conference, told Asia Times Online on
Friday that Otero had been assured that the US
will call upon Myanmar "to restore stability" in
its riot-hit Rakhine State.
"At the same
time, Otero urged Bangladesh to respect the rights
of Rohingya Muslims and other individuals fleeing
violence in the Buddhist-dominant country and to
allow international non-government organizations
to provide assistance to these refugees," he said.
Reuters reported on Friday that President
Thein Sein had sent a letter to the United Nations
"promising action to tackle the problems in
Rakhine, home to an estimated 800,000 Rohingya
Muslims that Myanmar does not recognize as
citizens".
Quader pointed out that the
Rakhine capital and main port of Sittwe is likely
to become very prominent within the next few
months as, not only is it very near to the
Bangladesh border, "It is also well-connected with
a road opening up to the seven northern states of
India."
He also confirmed Asia Times
Online reports that Rohingyas and local Buddhists
are losing their land to incoming foreign
businesses seeking to exploit local energy and
mineral resources.
"Chinese and Indian
organizations have already set up offices and
plants in Rakhine state. The lands are mostly
occupied from poor Muslim Rohingyas and Rakhine
Buddhists," he said.
Syed Tashfin
Chowdhury is the Editor of Xtra, the weekend
magazine of New Age, in Bangladesh.
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