Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP; aka White Tiger Party) Treasurer Saw Than Myint says that the party plans to set up an import-export business and will import goods bought from Malaysia in late May.
Meanwhile, the party is preparing to officially register the business, which plans to import items including chemical fertilizer, motorcycle tyres and inner tubes, household appliances and other household products, according to Saw Than Myint.'We will receive the goods in late May’, he said. ‘I think our company will have been officially registered by that time’.
The company’s board of directors comprises the party’s central executive members and businessmen. Members of the board will go to Naypyitaw this week to register the business, according to Saw Than Myint.
‘We chose three names; White Tiger, Golden White Tiger and Silver White Tiger. The names are very similar’, he said.
In accordance with chapter IV of the Burmese political party registration law, political parties can operate businesses to finance their activities. The company’s board of directors will also make business decisions, according to Saw Than Myint.
Last year in December during a party conference in Taunggyi in Shan State, officials told Mizzima that the company would invest in a wide range of businesses including agriculture, mining and timber.
After registering the company, a total of 1 million shares will be sold at a price of 10,000 kyat (US $ 12) share. A shareholder can own a maximum of 10,000 shares. Seventy-five per cent of the profit will be redistributed annually to shareholders and the remaining 25 per cent will going into a party fund, officials said.
Recently, the Group of Democratic Party Friends, an alliance of 10 political parties including the White Tiger Party, asked the European Union to renew Burma’s Generalized System of Preferences status, which would eliminate or reduce tariffs.
Meanwhile, the White Tiger Party has denied a rumour that said the party was doing business with a Canada-based controversial businessman, Kyaw Myint.
Saw Myint Than told Mizzima, ‘When he was in China, he tried to contact us through friends; some party leaders, not the party itself, personally talked with him. We are not in a position to do business with him so we’ve stopped the talks’.
The SNDP focuses on Shan State and claims more than 100,000 members across Burma.
