 |
| Construction workers
lay tiles around a swimming pool outside the Royal Ruby Jade
Hotel, beside one of nine planned jade warehouses under construction
in Mayangone township, Yangon, |
TWO jade warehouses out of nine being built in Yangon to accommodate
miners from upper Myanmar will be ready for the Myanma Gem Enterprise’s
mid-year emporium next month, an engineer with the YCDC said.
The warehouses in Mayangone township are being built by the
Yangon City Development Committee as part of a plan to make the
city Myanmar’s sole gem and jade trading centre, said Yangon
Mayor Brigadier General Aung Thein Linn.
U Zaw Win, head of the YCDC’s engineering department,
said the two most advanced warehouses were 80 percent complete.
“We are now working on the construction of a third warehouse,”
he said, without revealing when the remaining warehouses would
be completed.
The warehouses, measuring 60 feet by 40 feet, will allow jade
traders from Kachin State to store stones unsold in Yangon auctions
for future sales.
An MGE official last week said new accommodation for foreign
gem and jade merchants was also planned, including a hotel to
be built near the Myanmar Convention Centre – where the
MGE holds its sales – by Ruby Dragon Co., Ltd, which operates
several jade and gem mines in upper Myanmar.
Brig-Gen Aung Thein Linn said 36 three-storey buildings and
36 single-level cottages were also to be built within the 29-acre
jade-trading centre under development. The buildings will be used
as jewellery shops and as accommodation for jade industry specialists
visiting Yangon, he said.
“We are targeting jade carvers and jade traders who will
stay a long time and make long-term investments in the country,”
Brig-Gen Aung Thein Linn said.
The MGE official added that private-sector jade companies were
keen to invite foreign jade carvers – particularly Chinese
– to Yangon so they could pass on techniques.
“Hosting foreign carvers will help develop the value-added
jade market in the country,” he said.
The MGE will hold its mid-year gem emporium from November 14-26.
