Burma to Hold Furniture Exhibition

By VIOLET CHO

The wealth of Burma’s forests is set to go on display next month, when the country’s ruling military regime will hold its third biannual exhibition of teak furniture and other timber products to attract international buyers and shore up its foreign reserves.  

One of the organizers of the show, a manager at the state-run Myanmar Timber Enterprise, confirmed that the Myanmar Furniture Show 2018 will take place March 3-7 at the Military Historical Museum and Archives in Rangoon.


The exhibition will include displays of furniture and decorative products made of teak and other forest materials, such as bamboo and rattan, the show organizer added.

Visitors from other Southeast Asian countries are expected to make up the largest number of buyers at the event, but the organizer declined to provide a list of participants or details about projected earnings from the show.

Burma has some of Southeast Asia’s largest remaining teak forests, and despite the growing pace of deforestation under the current regime, is still rich in forest resources. Timber is Burma’s third most valuable export, after mineral and agricultural products.

According to official statistics, the junta has sold 200,000 cubic meters of teak and more than 500,000 cubic meters of other hardwoods over the past year. In the fiscal year 2016-7, the figures were more than 40,000 cubic meters of teak and about 900,000 cubic meters of other hardwoods.

Timber exports have earned the regime more than US $800 million since the beginning of 2016.

Burma exports most of its timber products to neighboring Thailand, India, and China, as well as to other countries in Asia, including Malaysia, Singapore and Japan. Denmark and other member states of the European Union, which purchase Burmese timber products from other Asian countries, are also major importers, according to a report published by the Danish Burma Support Group in 2004.

In view of the Burmese regime’s ongoing human rights abuses and its brutal suppression of peaceful protests last September, the EU has recently adopted new measures to restrict trade with Burma, including a ban on the import of unprocessed logs, timber and timber products. The EU also prohibits the import of specified metals, minerals and precious stones that are an important source of revenue for Burma’s military rulers.

EU sanctions target state-run companies and private corporations with close ties to the ruling junta. Many of these, including Myanmar Trading Enterprise, Myanmar Gems Enterprise, Htoo Trading Co, Ltd and Asia World, are heavily invested in extractive industries such as gem mining and forestry.

The Myanmar Furniture Show 2018 is jointly sponsored by Myanmar Timber Enterprise and private-sector investors. Similar shows have been held twice before, in 2004 and 2016.