Myanmar’s secretive jade industry is worth an estimated $31 billion, far higher than official accounts, with most profits going to powerful military and ex-junta figures instead of the state coffers, a corruption watchdog said Friday.
Shady income derived from the trade has long driven conflict in Myanmar, undermining efforts to stabilise its nascent democracy ahead of landmark elections next month, an investigation from London-based Global Witness said.
Jade mining, which was firmly in the hands of the military and elites during the final years of junta rule, remains cloaked in secrecy despite reforms under a quasi-civilian government that came to power in 2011.
In a report published Friday Global Witness estimated the value of jade produced in 2014 was around $31 billion — far exceeding the $3.4 billion sold at Myanmar’s gem emporium last year, the country’s only official market for international sales of the precious stone.
The estimated value of last year’s jade haul would amount to almost half of the impoverished country’s GDP.
“The numbers are staggering,” said Juman Kubba from Global Witness, saying the country’s jade trade “may be the biggest natural resource heist in modern history”.
She added that there has been a “massive escalation” in jade extraction ahead of the November 8 elections since large-scale mining resumed last September.
The vote is likely to be swept by Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition, which is contesting a general election for the first time in 25 years, if free and fair.
The watchdog also alleged links between jade firms and powerful figures in the military, drugs trade and the former junta, including strongman Than Shwe’s family.
“You are talking about the people with the most to lose from genuine democracy making huge amounts of money so that raises questions,” said Kubba.
The Myanmar government did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
– Highly prized –
Most of the world’s best quality jadeite is mined in Hpakant, a strip of torn earth in Myanmar’s insurgency-wracked northern Kachin state bordering China, a country with a voracious demand for the precious stone.
But the shadowy nature of the industry makes it difficult to ascertain where the money goes.
The Global Witness valuation of jade mining in Myanmar is based on factors such as government production data, official sales prices and industry reports suggesting that up to 80 percent of the precious stone is smuggled directly out of the country.
Jade from Myanmar, which is still under US sanctions, is highly prized in China as a symbol of virtue and power.
Official Chinese import data from 2014 indicates more than $12 billion of precious stones were imported from Myanmar — the vast majority jade — dwarfing Myanmar’s official figures.
Jade is also thought to be an important revenue stream for the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) — large amounts of the stone are sold through illegal mines and in rebel-held areas — as it battles the Myanmar army.
Myanmar signed a ceasefire with several ethnic minority armies this month, but the KIA was one of the major groups which declined to ink the agreement.
The nation’s lucrative jade mines have also long been a perilous workplace with accidents and landslides common — landslides killed at least nine miners in April and four in January.