Regime's cronies feel pressure of sanctions
Sunday, 4 November 2007
Amy Kazmin from Bangkok
In early September, Tay Za, a charismatic Burmese businessman accused of having close links to the military junta, was in Singapore to launch a daily service between the city state and Rangoon for his airline, Air Bagan. The three-year-old carrier, which does most of its business within Burma, had launched daily Bangkok flights and hoped to make an ambitious regional expansion.
The right to operate an airline was just the latest in a series of lucrative concessions secured by Burma's most powerful businessman, whose extensive interests range from hotels to logging and mobile phones.
But Air Bagan announced lately it had been forced to suspend its Singapore flights starting on November 4, a move that came after Tay Za, his wife, his son, and his companies were blacklisted by the US as main supporters of the military regime.
The move was evidence that the international response to the military's violent crackdown on peaceful protesters last month is beginning to pinch the Burmese businessmen who until now have profited from their association with the generals who control the economy.
"They must be starting to feel a little bit encircled," said Sean Turnell, an Australian economist who edits the journal Burma Economic Watch. "These things hurt them because they want to be seen as legitimate."
Also named by the US have been Htay Myint, chairman of the Yuzana Company, which runs supermarkets, hotels, property-related enterprises and agribusinesses, and Khin Shwe, chairman of the Kay Gabar Group. Identified as key regime cronies, all face the prospect of their assets in US banks, or their overseas subsidiaries, being seized.
The same entrepreneurs - along with another 27 Burmese businessmen and relatives deemed to be beneficiaries of the regime's economic policies - have also been hit by Australian financial sanctions.
Analysts say the sanctions may not have much of an obvious direct impact, as the businessmen are not thought to keep their assets in US banks or subsidiaries of US banks and no one knows how much Burmese money may be parked in Australia.
Yet Mr Turnell said that blacklisting businessmen as key cronies of a pariah regime "could be more effective than they appear to be on paper" as it was likely to make other non-financial companies wary of the risks of dealing with them.
Air Bagan officials in Singapore said they did not know why the Singapore-Rangoon route had been suspended, and calls to the head office in Rangoon went unanswered. But The Irrawaddy, a Thai-based news organisation dedicated to Burma, reported the company was facing difficulties with its Singapore-based bank.
Under syndication arrangement with FE
In early September, Tay Za, a charismatic Burmese businessman accused of having close links to the military junta, was in Singapore to launch a daily service between the city state and Rangoon for his airline, Air Bagan. The three-year-old carrier, which does most of its business within Burma, had launched daily Bangkok flights and hoped to make an ambitious regional expansion.
The right to operate an airline was just the latest in a series of lucrative concessions secured by Burma's most powerful businessman, whose extensive interests range from hotels to logging and mobile phones.
But Air Bagan announced lately it had been forced to suspend its Singapore flights starting on November 4, a move that came after Tay Za, his wife, his son, and his companies were blacklisted by the US as main supporters of the military regime.
The move was evidence that the international response to the military's violent crackdown on peaceful protesters last month is beginning to pinch the Burmese businessmen who until now have profited from their association with the generals who control the economy.
"They must be starting to feel a little bit encircled," said Sean Turnell, an Australian economist who edits the journal Burma Economic Watch. "These things hurt them because they want to be seen as legitimate."
Also named by the US have been Htay Myint, chairman of the Yuzana Company, which runs supermarkets, hotels, property-related enterprises and agribusinesses, and Khin Shwe, chairman of the Kay Gabar Group. Identified as key regime cronies, all face the prospect of their assets in US banks, or their overseas subsidiaries, being seized.
The same entrepreneurs - along with another 27 Burmese businessmen and relatives deemed to be beneficiaries of the regime's economic policies - have also been hit by Australian financial sanctions.
Analysts say the sanctions may not have much of an obvious direct impact, as the businessmen are not thought to keep their assets in US banks or subsidiaries of US banks and no one knows how much Burmese money may be parked in Australia.
Yet Mr Turnell said that blacklisting businessmen as key cronies of a pariah regime "could be more effective than they appear to be on paper" as it was likely to make other non-financial companies wary of the risks of dealing with them.
Air Bagan officials in Singapore said they did not know why the Singapore-Rangoon route had been suspended, and calls to the head office in Rangoon went unanswered. But The Irrawaddy, a Thai-based news organisation dedicated to Burma, reported the company was facing difficulties with its Singapore-based bank.
Under syndication arrangement with FE