February 21, 2013

Australia eyes agricultural business trade in Burma

In order to help develop business between the two countries, Australia has plans to open an Austrade office in Burma's former capital and financial centre, Rangoon.

Burma has the second largest population in South East Asia behind Indonesia and is surrounded by two of the biggest markets in the region - India and China.

So there is growing interest in business opportunities in the countries.

Associate Professor of Economics at Macquarie University, Sean Turnell, who specialises in the Burmese economy and is an adviser to democracy activist and parliamentarian Aung San Suu Kyi says there are opportunities for future agricultural investment in Burma.

Turnell says before the military takeover in 1962, Burma was one of the world's largest exporters of rice. Burma has large oil and gas deposits which have mostly been taken up by China but there are still off-shore opportunities for Australian companies.

Executive Vice President Exploration at Woodside Energy Ltd, Peter Moore, told a meeting in Rangoon last year that, "Woodside announced the conditional acceptance of two offers to take equity in deep water blocks offshore, in the Rakhine Basin."