960407

Pakistan may establish

trade ties with Myanmar

KARACHI: Myanmar is gradually opening up to the outside world and the Muslim community in Myanmar is playing a positive role in this direction and looking forward to establishing expanded economic and trading ties with Pakistan, said Ariff Y. Daruwala, the Managing Director of a leading Muslim owned trading firm in the Myanmar capital known formerly as Rangoon.

Ariff said that the Government of Myanmar led by the SLORC was gradually opening up to the outside world and was keen on obtaining foreign investors and also promote trading ties with the Asian countries including Pakistan.

Ariff Daruwala said that the Muslims in Myanmar were more than ten percent of the total population with a very large number concentrated in Arakan. However, in the Burmese capital and other cities, Muslim businessmen and industrialists were doing better new and the opportunity was ripe for Pakistani businessmen and industrialists to come to Myanmar. He said that in the capital city of Yangon the number of Muslim mosques was more than ninety two and all the mosques were full of the faithful during prayer times.

Ariff Daruwala said that the Muslims in the capital city of Yangon numbered more than two hundred thousand and had their own Madressas where the children were taught the Holy-Quran and Fiqah and all classes were conducted in the Urdu language.

The Muslims in Myanmar had a very close relationship with the Muslims of Pakistan. It was important for Muslims in Pakistan to remember in the Myanmar Capital of Yangon. Even otherwise, there were many other monuments of historical importance which linked the Muslims of Myanmar South Asian region. He said that Myanmar Muslims looked upto Pakistan as a brother country.

He said that Myanmar product should arouse interest in Pakistan including textiles and timber, since Myanmar had the best quality timber. Similarly Pakistan and Myanmar could cooperate in the joint development of the precious stone deposits of which Burma had very rich quantity and also Pakistan in the northern areas. He said that joint projects in the textile field could also materialise. UPP