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[burmanet2-l] ST-Myanmar's new airp



Subject: Re: [burmanet2-l] ST-Myanmar's new airport still empty after six months

TIN KYI wrote:
> 
> The Straits Times
> JAN 12 2000
> 
>  Myanmar's new airport still empty after
>  six months
> 
>  Cost $250m, boasts 4.2-km runway,
>  high-tech control tower, 36 check-in
>  counters, but...
> 
>  The miracle cure for its economic ills has
>  been thwarted by funding hitches and
>  Western trade sanctions so far, but a Thai
>  firm hopes to change that
> 
>  By JAMES EAST
>  IN BANGKOK
> 
>  STANDING on a plain outside Myanmar's
>  second city sits the ghost town of
>  South-east Asia's airline industry -- an
>  empty gleaming US$150 million (S$250
>  million) international airport capable of
>  handling three million passengers a year.
> 
>  Mandalay International Airport is a
>  technological marvel in a country famed
>  for its ox-cart transport, crumbling
>  colonial buildings and its tin-pot
>  economy.
> 
>  But despite being finished for six months,
>  not one tourist plane has roared down its
>  4.2-km runway nor a single passenger
>  passed through its glassed and
>  golden-roofed terminal building.
> 
>  Few outside Myanmar know of the existence
>  of the airport, built 35 km south-west of
>  its second city and on the fringes of
>  Pagan, the most exquisite temple complex
>  in South-east Asia outside of Cambodia's
>  Angkor Wat.
> 
>  Built with help from Thai construction
>  firm Italian-Thai Development Company, the
>  top of the range airport in Mandalay
>  boasts a longer runway than Bangkok, a
>  sophisticated control tower able to handle
>  45,000 aircraft movements annually and a
>  fully mechanised passenger terminal with
>  36 check-in counters.
> 
>  The pet project of Prime Minister Than
>  Shwe, it was to have been a miracle cure
>  for the country's economic ills, bringing
>  in Boeing 747s full of tourists and
>  millions of dollars of desperately needed
>  foreign aid.
> 
>  But trade sanctions imposed by Western
>  nations and funding difficulties have
>  until now put paid to the government's
>  dream.
> 
>  But this week, Thailand's Thai Airports
>  Ground Services (TAGS) hopes to change all
>  that.
> 
>  TAGS expects to win a 28-year operations
>  concession to run the airport.
> 
>  TAGS president Anuphong Rojnuckarin says:
>  "The airport is ready but they do not have
>  the ground equipment. The airport hasn't
>  opened because they don't have the capital
>  or the know-how."
> 
>  Mr Anuphong knows the difficulties but
>  adds: "I'm a gambler but a safe one."
> 
>  He believes his high level contacts with
>  the government -- meeting Deputy Minister
>  of Transport Kyaw Myint and Department of
>  Civil Aviation chief Win Maung as well as
>  gaining Myanmar Cabinet approval -- will
>  help ensure the venture's success.
> 
>  In Thailand, the deal is being brokered by
>  businessman Maung Maung Gyi Al Haj, a
>  former classmate of Myanamar's most
>  powerful man, military intelligence chief
>  Khin Nyunt.
> 
>  Sitting at TAGS' headquarters at Bangkok
>  International Airport, Mr Maung Maung
>  says: "I don't think politics is a major
>  issue at present. Compromise is what is
>  needed. Let the people come in and
>  naturally things will change."
> 
>  TAGS is now searching the world for the
>  equipment needed to run the airport,
>  having received a loan of US$2 million
>  from Thailand's Exim Bank.
> 
>  Aircraft tugs, tractors and loaders will
>  be shipped to Myanmar's capital Yangon and
>  trucked on to Mandalay.
> 
>  Mr Anuphong says Exim is anxious to see a
>  return on the US$150 million loan it has
>  already ploughed into the airport
>  terminal.
> 
>  Once open, Mandalay will be Myanmar's main
>  international airport challenging Bangkok,
>  Malaysia and Singapore as a hub for
>  South-east Asian and Chinese traffic.
> 
>  The old domestic airport at Mandalay will
>  be shut and direct flights will be laid on
>  from Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, and
>  Bangkok.
> 
>  Travel companies have already promised
>  charter flights of French tourists and
>  scheduled flights have been pledged by
>  China Airlines, Japan's All Nippon Airways
>  and Thailand's Angel Air.
> 
>  TAGS hopes to cater to 98 flights a week,
>  rising by 20 per cent a year over the
>  following four years. But human rights
>  groups and exiled groups of students are
>  certain to oppose any dealings with
>  Myanmar and the opening of the airport.
> 
>  Bangkok-based pro-democracy group
>  Alt-Asean-Burma coordinator Debbie
>  Stothard says: "We have always opposed
>  tourism because it benefits the regime
>  more than the people."
> 
>  The ruling generals have no clue how to
>  run the economy in a way that is
>  attractive to foreign investors. "Many
>  investors go wrong in a very short time in
>  Burma," she warns.
> 
>            ----------------------
> 
>  Discouraging visitors and investment
> 
>  TO WESTERN governments, Myanmar is a
>  pariah state; its opposition leader Nobel
>  Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi
>  discourages foreign investment or visits
>  by tourists; and the government is
>  notoriously unpredictable in international
>  relations.
> 
>  In a recent tiff with Thailand, Myanmar
>  shut its borders and banned fishermen from
>  its waters following Thailand's failure to
>  capture a gang of hostage takers who fled
>  after seizing the Myanmar Embassy in
>  Bangkok in October.