Junta-controlled firm opens shopping centre in Rangoon

Monday, 11 October 2010 17:22 Mizzima News

Rangoon (Mizzima) – Ruby Mart, a five-storey shopping complex in the former Burmese capital, was officially opened over the weekend, a spokesman of the junta-owned state firm that owns centre said.

Junta profit vehicle Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (UMEHL) spent more than 2 billion kyat (US$2 million) in renovations for the complex that was opened on Saturday on Bogyoke Aung San Road in Kyauktada Township, Rangoon, UMEHL’s Lieutanent Colonel Nay Win said.

The 38-year-old building once housed the Myanmar Agricultural Produce Trading under the Ministry of Commerce until UMEHL bought it for about 3 billion kyat (US$3 million), a shareholder said.

The ground floor of 50,000-square-foot (about 4,645-square-metre) building houses food shops, the first floor, fashion houses; the second, kitchenware and furniture; the third, computers and accessories; and the fourth, children’s items, play areas and more food shops. The centre also has a free Wi-Fi internet area.

State Peace and Development Council (SPDC, the Burmese ruling junta’s name for itself) member and former UMEHL chairman Tin Aye, Major General Tin Ngwe, chairman Major General Khin Zaw Oo, Brigadier General Zarni Win and managing director Major General Win Than attended the ceremony.

The shopping centre was employing 400 staff, trained by instructors from Singapore, the spokesman said.

Former Coastal Region Command chief Khin Zaw Oo, who is on Britain’s financial sanctions list, was appointed to head UMEHL, one of the top two military-controlled conglomerates, late last month. He was also promoted to the post of adjutant general in a major military reshuffle in August.

Tin Aye, a former lieutenant general, retired from his military post but is still an SPDC member.

According to a 2004 report by Burma Campaign UK titled, “The European Union and Burma: The Case for Targeted Sanctions”, UMEHL and the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) are the two major industrial conglomerates controlled by the military, dominating key economic sectors.

The former’s shareholders were limited to the military establishment, the report said. According to a leaked UMEHL 1995-96 annual report, two of its main objectives were “to support military personnel and their families” and “to try and become the main logistics and support organisation for the military by gradually establishing industries”, in a manner akin to Haliburton’s services to US forces, the report said.

UMEHL has gained monopolies in a wide range of businesses in Burma, such as export of consumer goods, gems, agricultural products, timber, rubber and import of staple foods and cars.

Moreover, the state-run business of Bo Aung Kyaw Port terminal and Burma’s Five Stars Ship Company had been privatised under UMEHL.

The group also bought the building that housed the state-run People’s Department Store on Pansodan Street, Rangoon, and renovated it to be reopened as the Ruby Mart shopping centre. UMEHL also owns Bandoola Transportation (a passenger bus and freight firm), Myawaddy Bank and Myawaddy Trading.

Khin Zaw Oo’s position as a close confidant of junta leader Than Shwe was the reason for his choice as chairman of UMEHL, a former military officer in exile said.