Myanmar: Why don't Myanmar Log Trade Figures Add Up? Corruption, says NGO

Mar 27, 2014 | Alisa Tang, Thomson Reuters Foundation
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BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Global imports of timber from Myanmar between 2000 and 2013 were three and a half times as large as the quantity it officially exported, proof of serious ‘criminality and corruption’ in the country’s timber sector, according to a UK-based watchdog that analysed the numbers.

Official figures published earlier this month showed that Myanmar exported 6.5 million cubic metres of timber from its forests between 2000 and 2013.

In the same period, countries around the world imported 22.8 million cubic metres of logs from Myanmar.