Myanmar Tourism News

Second Myanmar furniture show opens in Yangon

A five-day Myanmar furniture show opened here Saturday to introduce the country's value-added wood products to the world market and boost timber export.

Jointly sponsored by the state-run Myanmar Timber Enterprise ( MTE) and the Myanmar Forest Products and Timber Entrepreneurs Association, the Second Myanmar Furniture Show 2006, with 165 booths, displays various kinds of furniture, finished wood-based products, rattan and bamboo wares as well as wood-made home decoration items.

The show also exhibits finished wood product, manufacturing machines and parts of some foreign companies.

Visitors and buyers from foreign countries especially from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are being expected, the sponsor said.

Myanmar held its first furniture show in 2004.

Myanmar has been establishing wood-based industry, giving priority to manufacturing value-added finished wood products for export. Accordingly, a number of wood-based industrial zones have been set up for the purpose since export of wood log is restricted and export of teak log by the private sector also banned since 1992 when the government enacted the Forest law.

According to official statistics, Myanmar exported 333,000 cubic-tons (471,195 cubic-meters) of teak and 636,700 cubic-tons ( 900,930 cubic-meters) of hardwood in the fiscal year of 2005-06 which ended in March, gaining a total of 474 million U.S. dollars of foreign exchange.

Myanmar mainly exports its timber products to India, Thailand , Japan and Malaysia.

Timber stands as the country's third largest export goods after mineral and agricultural products.

Myanmar is rich in forest resources with forest covering about 50 percent of its total land area.

October 23, 2006

YANGON, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- A mid-year Myanmar gems emporium kicked off here Thursday, putting the country's quality gems, jade, pearl and jewelry worth over 75 million U.S. dollars on sale on the basis of competitive bidding.

Over 1,000 merchants from 12 countries and regions, including China, China's Hong Kong, Thailand and Japan, have arrived to attend the 11-day event being held at the Myanma Gems Emporium Hall and Myanmar Convention Center, said Managing Director of Myanma Gems Enterprise U Thein Swe at a press briefing here.

The 14th Mid-Year Gems Emporium will offer more gem items than the previous years for display and will attract more gem merchants than before, U Thein Swe said.

The Gems Emporium will display 4,237 jade lots, which is three times than those in 2004 and two times than in 2005, he said, adding that more jade lots are displayed because of market demand, and the merchants visiting the emporium are mostly from China and China's Hong Kong.

At the Emporium, a piece of most valuable ruby weighing 7.2 grams is displayed for bidding at a basic price of 625,000 U.S. dollars and a jade block weighing 1,188 kilos is also displayed for bidding with no basic price offered.

Mid-year gems emporiums have been introduced in addition to the annual ones since 1992 to boost earnings.

In March this year, the 43rd annual Myanmar gems emporium was held breaking sale record since it was introduced with 101 million U.S. dollars.

Myanmar started to hold gem shows annually in 1964 and since then the country has earned a total of over 600 million dollars from such events including the mid-year ones introduced since 1992and the special sale since 2004.

Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, possesses nine gems -- ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.

There are three famous gem lands in Myanmar -- Mogok in Mandalay division, Mongshu in Shan state and Phakant in Kachin state.

To develop gem-mining industry, Myanmar enacted the New Gemstone Law in 1995, allowing national entrepreneurs to mine, produce, transport and sell finished gemstone and manufactured jewelry at home and abroad.

Since 2000, the government has started mining of gems and jade in joint venture with 10 private companies under profit sharing basis.

Myanmar to hold flower festival to promote tourism

Myanmar will hold a flower festival at a national park in Pyin Oo Lwin in northern Mandalay division to attract more tourists, said a report of Monday's local weekly pre-published on Sunday.

The 13-day Flower Festival 2006 at the Kandawkyi National Park, scheduled for Dec. 10-22 and is sponsored by the Ministry of Forestry and the Woodland Group of Companies, will feature about 500,000 foreign and domestic flower plants, the Myanmar Times said.

Flower plants to be displayed will include such rare foreign plants as tulips, lilies, begonias, Gebara daisies and Cymbidium orchids, it said.
According to the Woodland Group, flower experts from China's Kunming have been invited to join Myanmar's amateur flower decorators in building replicas of famous Myanmar sights made from flower.

The upcoming flower festival will be the first of its kind in the Kandawgyi park's history since it was established in 1915 as a botanical garden by a British forestry official, Charles Rogers, the report said.

The 60-hectare garden was expanded several times and reached 177 hectares in 2000, which comprises lake, natural forest, observation tower and rose, orchid and bamboo gardens.

According to the park's statistics, about 400,000 people have visited the park annually since it was reopened in 2001.

October 23, 2006
Source: Xinhua