Economy
Exports to China include fruit, beans, rice and onions, while electronics, textiles and foodstuffs are imported. The volume of trade however is much smaller compared with Muse in Shan State where up to 75% of exports to Yunnan passes through to Ruili across the Shweli River.
After the military regime negotiated cease-fire agreements with the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the New Democratic Army (Kachin) (NDA-K) in 1989, and with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in 1994, a boom in the timber trade with China followed. Earlier logging concessions granted to Thai companies were cancelled in 1993 due to economic loss from violation of terms and over-logging with ecological devastation.
Northern Kachin State became the area for most of the logging activity mainly by Chinese companies employing Chinese labour, and Lweje, along with Laiza, one of the checkpoints on the border. KIO logging activities also increased dramatically when after the cease-fire deal it lost control of the Hpakant jade mines and the revenue they had generated. From 1997 to 2002, 88% of China's timber exports from Burma was shipped overland to Yunnan, 75% of this from Kachin State.
There are believed to exist large deposits of coal in the Lweje area.
Read more about this topic: Lweje
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“Quidquid luce fuit tenebris agit: but also the other way around. What we experience in dreams, so long as we experience it frequently, is in the end just as much a part of the total economy of our soul as anything we “really” experience: because of it we are richer or poorer, are sensitive to one need more or less, and are eventually guided a little by our dream-habits in broad daylight and even in the most cheerful moments occupying our waking spirit.”
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