Myanmar minister seeks Japanese investment

[Source - AFP]
Friday, January 18, 2008
AFP

TOKYO -- Myanmar's foreign minister Thursday called on Japan to invest in the country's rich natural resources, boasting that China and India were doing business there despite Western sanctions.

Myanmar faced heavy international criticism for its crackdown on pro democracy protests last year, with the United States and the European Union tightening sanctions on the military-ruled regime.

But Foreign Minister Nyan Win told a seminar of investors in Tokyo that Japanese investors would be missing out if they shunned the country.

"A business-friendly environment is created for foreign investors in Japan," Nyan Win told the seminar sponsored by Japan's foreign ministry and the local office of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"Therefore, we invite all the Japanese entrepreneurs to come and invest in Myanmar's oil and gas sectors and other sectors," he said.