Tue May 22, 2007
Cambodia, Myanmar move to strengthen tourism ties
YANGON (AFP) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen met with junta head Senior General Than Shwe in military-ruled Myanmar on Tuesday, officials said, as the two nations moved to improve tourism links.
Hun Sen arrived in Myanmar on Monday morning, his first visit to this isolated state since 2000. During the three-day trip he will discuss the possibility of introducing direct flights between the two nations.
The visit comes as Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest is due to be reviewed and likely extended this weekend, but Cambodian officials have been tight-lipped about whether Hun Sen will urge the junta to free her.
Officials from both countries have said the focus would be trade and tourism.
Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told AFP that Hun Sen would discuss ways of making travel easier between Myanmar and nearby Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, with possible direct flights and package tours.
"Buddhism will be the potential tourist link for these four countries -- like Cambodia, there are a lot of temples in Myanmar," Khieu Kanharith said.
These talks are hoped to spur action on a tourism agreement already signed between the two countries, but which has not been implemented yet.
Tourism is a key industry in impoverished Cambodia, and tourist arrivals in Myanmar are also creeping up, despite calls by supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi for tourists to boycott the country.
Information ministry sources said that Hun Sen met with Myanmar's Senior General Than Shwe on Tuesday morning.
On Monday, Hun Sen met with acting premier Thein Sein and a number of officials, including the transport and foreign ministers and the deputy minister for tourism, the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
The government mouthpiece said that Hun Sen, who will spend his whole visit in the new administrative capital Naypyidaw before heading home on Wednesday morning, discussed a "further strengthening of bilateral ties."
Cambodia has close diplomatic ties with Myanmar, which has been under military rule since 1962 and is one of the most isolated nations in the world.
Diplomatic relations between the two nations date back to 1955, but were broken off in 1974 as the Khmer Rouge advanced on Phnom Penh.
Ties were restored in 1994 as Cambodia emerged from decades of civil war. A Myanmar embassy opened in Phnom Penh in 1999, and one Western diplomat in the Cambodian capital said Hun Sen was keen to cultivate regional relations.
He said Hun Sen "has a long-term view of where he wants Cambodia to be," and could see engaging Myanmar as part of a larger plan to raise the country's profile as a regional power.
Cambodia, Myanmar move to strengthen tourism ties
YANGON (AFP) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen met with junta head Senior General Than Shwe in military-ruled Myanmar on Tuesday, officials said, as the two nations moved to improve tourism links.
Hun Sen arrived in Myanmar on Monday morning, his first visit to this isolated state since 2000. During the three-day trip he will discuss the possibility of introducing direct flights between the two nations.
The visit comes as Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest is due to be reviewed and likely extended this weekend, but Cambodian officials have been tight-lipped about whether Hun Sen will urge the junta to free her.
Officials from both countries have said the focus would be trade and tourism.
Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told AFP that Hun Sen would discuss ways of making travel easier between Myanmar and nearby Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, with possible direct flights and package tours.
"Buddhism will be the potential tourist link for these four countries -- like Cambodia, there are a lot of temples in Myanmar," Khieu Kanharith said.
These talks are hoped to spur action on a tourism agreement already signed between the two countries, but which has not been implemented yet.
Tourism is a key industry in impoverished Cambodia, and tourist arrivals in Myanmar are also creeping up, despite calls by supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi for tourists to boycott the country.
Information ministry sources said that Hun Sen met with Myanmar's Senior General Than Shwe on Tuesday morning.
On Monday, Hun Sen met with acting premier Thein Sein and a number of officials, including the transport and foreign ministers and the deputy minister for tourism, the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
The government mouthpiece said that Hun Sen, who will spend his whole visit in the new administrative capital Naypyidaw before heading home on Wednesday morning, discussed a "further strengthening of bilateral ties."
Cambodia has close diplomatic ties with Myanmar, which has been under military rule since 1962 and is one of the most isolated nations in the world.
Diplomatic relations between the two nations date back to 1955, but were broken off in 1974 as the Khmer Rouge advanced on Phnom Penh.
Ties were restored in 1994 as Cambodia emerged from decades of civil war. A Myanmar embassy opened in Phnom Penh in 1999, and one Western diplomat in the Cambodian capital said Hun Sen was keen to cultivate regional relations.
He said Hun Sen "has a long-term view of where he wants Cambodia to be," and could see engaging Myanmar as part of a larger plan to raise the country's profile as a regional power.
1 comment:
The difficult part with getting
communist countries to open to
tourist is that they are paranoid
about spies. People has been
arrested for taking picture of
millitary compound and some others
government building. Thus, if you
plan to visit Burma, Vietnam, or
Laos, please be careful with your
camera, hehehe.
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