By Martin Petty
HANOI, March 17 (Reuters) - The European Union will launchnegotiations this week for an investment pact with Myanmar, theEU's top trade representative said on Monday, a deal aimed atgiving European firms preferential access to one of Asia's finalfrontier markets.
Myanmar, an underdeveloped country closed off until 2012 toWestern firms due to trade sanctions, is on the radar of manyEuropean companies seeking access to restricted sectors andguarantees against risks in an uncertain climate.
"We'll negotiate preferential agreements and special deals,mostly because we have quite a lot to offer them. We are biginvestors and for a country like Myanmar, it's of the utmostimportance to have investors," EU Trade Commissioner Karel DeGucht said in an interview in Hanoi.
Located between the booming economies of India and China andoffering low wages, big agriculture and tourism potential andnatural resources like oil, gas, teak, copper and gemstones,Myanmar's opening after 49 years of military rule has seen arush of western investor interest.
The country is looking to review investment legislation morethan a year after passing a foreign investment law that causedrumbles among local tycoons and small firms worried aboutcompetition.
Many foreign firms have yet to commit fully to Myanmar,however, concerned about red tape and poor power and transportinfrastructure. They are also looking for safeguards in anenvironment where cronyism exists among a political and economicelite with ties to the still-powerful army.
"Our investors must be protected and it's important toMyanmar because if the investments aren't protected, they simplywon't happen," De Gucht said.
"If you don't have that it's very difficult to take the riskof putting in money from abroad."
De Gucht was in Hanoi to try to advance talks on a freetrade agreement with Vietnam which he said both sides were keento finalise by October after six rounds of negotiations.
Such an agreement has been reached with Singapore and talkson a similar pact were ongoing with Thailand and Malaysia.
The push to finalise the bilateral deals, he said, did notmean the EU had scrapped its initial plan of a trade deal withthe Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the10-member bloc that covers a region of more than 500 millionpeople, with a combined GDP of over $2 trillion.
"It didn't work out and we switched to a one-on-onesolution," he said. "The idea is ...once we have agreement withmajority of ASEAN members, we can then turn it into a regionalagreement and that has been repeatedly discussed.
"We haven't put this aside, we've approached this the otherway around. A region-to-region agreement is the ultimate goal."
De Gucht was due to visit Cambodia on Tuesday, where he saidhe would relay concerns from EU lawmakers about the rate of landgrabs and forced evictions in the country, some of whichimplicate companies that have benefited from EU tradeconcessions offered to poorer nations.
"The European parliament has explicitly asked me to discussthis with the Cambodian government," he said. (Editing by Toby Chopra)
- UK International News
- Singapore International News
- Myanmar
- Karel De Gucht
- European Union
http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/eu-to-start-investment-pact-talks-with-myanmar-this-week/
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