"Two years after the Belt and Road Summit in Beijing, Myanmar seems ready to be integrated into Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative via the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) — despite criticisms and concern over a potential debt trap. A 1,700-plus kilometer corridor stretching from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province in China, to the seaport at Kyaukpyu in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, CMEC will be one of the largest single packages of foreign direct investment in Myanmar in decades, and the government in Naypyitaw is anticipating a quick economic lift. Ranging from trade to technology, China and Myanmar’s Pauk Phaw (fraternal) relationship is advancing. A drafted but delayed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is expected to be signed in the upcoming weeks and will become the first agreement to be inked by the newly appointed minister of planning and finance. Despite some concern over the affordability, the initial proposal incorporates over 20 projects as early harvest projects within CMEC for an estimated budget of $2 billion. The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation took the largest slice of the pie, with $400 million planned for upgrading irrigation systems. The total estimated budget of $2 billion, however, does not include the cost of major infrastructure projects to be implemented by the Ministry of Construction and Ministry of Transportation and Communication. Three major road upgrade projects, the construction and renovation of airports, and the development of inland port projects, are all planned without any feasibility studies and budget estimates to date. In drafting the proposal, these projects seem to have a political green light from the cabinet, but so far there has not been much debate over or attention paid to these initiative. The biggest concern is how to finance the infrastructure development..."