THE Myanmar Forest Products and Timber Merchants’ Association became the sixth member of the ASEAN Furniture Industries Council at the council’s first conference, held in Jakarta in Indonesia last month.

“Myanmar went to Indonesia as an observer but became a full-fledged member of the council at the conference,” said U Aung Lwin, the chairman of the association, who led a delegation to the conference.

The council organised the conference to discuss ways to compete with China’s furniture exports, which occupy 11 per cent of the global market.

U Aye Lwin, the secretary general of the association and the vice chairman of ASEAN Forest Products Industry Council, told Myanmar Times that during the conference, the delegates discussed how ASEAN nations could catch up with China’s furniture exports by cooperating to search for new markets.

“China enjoys the biggest market share in world furniture export market, producing US$24 billion worth of furniture a year, $10b of which it exports,” said U Aye Lwin.

Among the members of the ASEAN Furniture Industries Council, Indonesia exported $1.5b of furniture in 2003, Malaysia $1.6b, the Philippines $278 million, Singapore $74m and Thailand $1.03b, while Myanmar’s furniture exports were estimated at only $58m, for a total of $4.5b.

U Aye Lwin said Myanmar’s furniture figures were low even though it produces the highest quantity timber in the ASEAN region. This high productivity – with 400,000 to 700,000 cubic tonnes of annual timber exports – is one of the reasons that the council accepted Myanmar as a member.

“We need to make an all-out effort to export Myanmar furniture to the world market, as some neighbouring countries use raw material from Myanmar to earn hundreds of millions of dollars annually by adding value to timber,” said U Aye Lwin.

Myanmar’s entry into the council would result in direct foreign investment in the country, as well as technology and market transfers from member countries, he said.