A Burmese tycoon with close ties to the country's military rulers has secured a lucrative cell phone contract.
Te Za has taken over a contract to provide GSM phones that was reached between Burma's communications agency and ZTE, China's leading telecommunications manufacturer.
The contract calls for the sale of 100,000 mobile phones throughout Burma. The official price of a GSM phone is around one thousand dollars, but they can sell for more than 2,000 dollars on the black market.
Te Za is president and managing director of the Htoo Trading Company, which is involved in tourism, logging, real estate and hotels.
He is said to be very close to Burma's military ruler Senior General Than Shwe.
