20 October 2004 -- Hoping to boost the Philippine jewelry-making industry, the Philippine Embassy in Yangon organized a group of fifteen (15) Myanmar jewelers to participate in the Manila Furniture, Fashion Accessories Merchandise Exhibition (FAME) International Fair to be held in the World Trade Center in Pasay City from 21-24 October 2004. The group is the first trade group from Myanmar to participate in the Manila FAME.

The first batch of eight Myanmar women jewelers, who will have a display booth at the Manila FAME, arrived in Manila on 18 October. The all-women's group, led by Daw Hla Hla Khine, is a member of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI).  The group members exemplify the entrepreneurial skills of Myanmar women in the private sector, who are at the forefront of their country's development efforts. Many of them have been in the jewelry business for a long time, putting up the business themselves or inheriting them from parents, who were gem traders before them.

Ambassador Phoebe A. Gomez recalled that the Philippines has excellent jewelry designers whose works are well known in the US, Europe and Asia. Filipinos have a long tradition in jewelry making, predating the Spanish Colonial period. On the other hand, Myanmar is one of the world's best sources of precious and semi-precious gemstones. Myanmar's rich natural concentration of minerals has produced 4 precious gemstones: ruby, sapphire, jadeite jade and diamond. It is also the source of most of the world's best-known semi-precious gemstones, and has a thriving South Sea pearl farming industry.

Ambassador Gomez informed the jewelers that the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Manila FAME organizers have made arrangements for the Myanmar group to meet with the Philippine Jewelry Makers Association on 25 October 2004. The Chairman of the Philippines-Myanmar Business Council, Mr. Jose P. Leviste, Chairman of Pacific Rim Innovation and Management Exponents, Inc. (PRIMEX), has also planned meetings between relevant Philippine entrepreneurs and the Myanmar guests.

On 12 October 2004, Ambassador Gomez hosted a luncheon at the Sedona Hotel, Yangon, for the Myanmar women trade group. Also present during the occasion was U Sein Win Hlaing, Secretary General of the UMFCCI, who said that he will organize a larger delegation for next year's trade fair. He hopes to expand the delegation to other business areas, such as furniture and agricultural products. Ambassador Gomez expressed to the group her hope that this will be the first of a succession of Myanmar entrepreneurs that will participate in the annual trade fair, and that these events will develop linkages between the business sectors of the Philippines and Myanmar.

The participation of Myanmar in the Manila FAME International Fair is a concrete realization of one of the agreements reached in the area of trade cooperation during the first meeting of the Philippines-Myanmar Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) held in Yangon, Union of Myanmar in April 2004. During that meeting, the Philippines and Myanmar agreed to participate in each other's trade fairs, and to work for the realization of Philippine trade fairs in Myanmar and Myanmar trade fairs in the Philippines. END