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Burma ends registration of rice dealers

Bangkok Post, Agence France-Press, 15 January 1995

Rangoon - THE BURMESE government has lifted regulations that required wholesale rice dealers to register with the Trade Minister, a move that will allow free trade in the country's main staple, an official newspaper said Friday.

The Mirror daily said the movement would take affect "almost immediately." It was seen as an attempt to further liberalize the economy and to ensure the availability of rice and make it more affordable.

Rice trading, a state monopoly under the former socialist government, was freed to some extent in 1987. But when government subsidies ended, prices began rising.

Rice prices jumped in 1988 after the suppression of the pro-democracy movement here and the military take-over, and the government enacted the registration law for wholesalers in 1990 to control prices and end smuggling.

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