Yangon - Oil-rich Kuwait has signed two economic agreements
with gas-rich Myanmar as part of Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser
al-Mohammed al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah's tour of the region, state
media reports said Thursday.
Nasser visited Myanmar's military capital of Naypyitaw on
Wednesday and held talks with Prime Minister General Thein Sein to
discuss bilateral relations, said The New Light of Myanmar, a
government mouthpiece.
The two premiers witnessed the signing of an 'Agreement for the
Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of investment between the
Union of Myanmar and the State of Kuwait' and an 'Agreement for
Economic and Technical Cooperation between the Union of Myanmar and
the State of Kuwait.'
Myanmar, a pariah state among Western democracies for its
atrocious human rights record, is one of Asia's most backward
economies. It is, however, rich in offshore natural gas reserves
which last year earned the country about 2.6 billion dollars in
export revenues.
The Kuwaiti premier has been on a tour of Asia that has already
taken him to Brunei, Japan, South Korea, Cambodia and Laos. He will
also visit Thailand August 13 to 14.
In Laos and Cambodia, Nasser expressed Kuwait's interest in
investing in the two countries' agricultural sectors.
Kuwait is oil-rich but largely covered in desert, making it
difficult to grow enough food for its 2-million-plus residents.
'This is a new policy of Kuwait and the Persian Gulf as a whole,'
said Lao Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy. 'Now they
have extra money from oil, so they are looking further afield for
investments. This is good for us because we have economic potential
but lack capital.'
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