Bangkok

MYANMAR'S secretive jade industry is worth an estimated US$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 on 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 on Friday, Global Witness estimated the value of jade produced in 2014 was around US$31 billion - far exceeding the US$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 Nov 8 elections since large-scale mining resumed last September.