Burma earned US $920 million from jade export in the period from April to December 2013, the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development told Eleven Media. During the previous fiscal year, jade export earnings totaled only $297 million, the newspaper said. Jade is one of Burma’s most valuable natural resources, but the highly profitable trade is largely unregulated and lightly taxed. China is the biggest buyer of jade. A dearth of official information surrounds the trade; a US university study estimated that annual jade trade could be worth $8 billion. It also remains unclear how much government revenues the trade generates.
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