“One Belt, One Road” initiative
Individual Documents
Description:
"China’s long-term strategic interests of seeing Myanmar as a “land bridge” to reach the Indian Ocean will continue to drive Beijing’s strategy. This interdependency defining the relationship is unlikely to change in the near future. Myanmar’s diplomatic balancing is under stress in the face of the West distancing from Naypyidaw over the country’s handling of the Rohingya crisis. As in the past, Naypyidaw is tilting towards its northern neighbour for both political and economic support and Beijing is fully leveraging the situation to its advantage, but it will be a bumpy road.
After years of close strategic relations during Myanmar’s military rule, China-Myanmar relations plunged into a phase of uncertainty when Myanmar military regime decided to take the path of democratisation in 2010. In the following years, Myanmar’s suspension of two China-funded projects — the Myitsone hydropower project in 2011 and the Letpedaung coppermine in 2013 — marked the beginning of a troubled relationship.
Beijing recalibrated its policy towards Myanmar to suit the changing times with the aim to arrest growing anti-Chinese sentiments in the Southeast Asian nation and to safeguard its core strategic interests including limiting strategic ties between Naypyidaw and Washington.
When the Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government took office in 2016, contrary to popular perceptions, it adopted a balanced policy towards China and the West. Beijing’s Myanmar policy revision may have paid off, but it was Naypyidaw’s conscious strategic balancing that allowed the diplomatic equilibrium to evolve..."
Source/publisher:
"Observer Research Foundation (ORF)"
Date of publication:
2018-07-11
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and Myanmar are expected to further enhance their relations and explore more areas for cooperation, HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Thursday during a meeting with a visiting official from Myanmar.
At a meeting with Myanmar's Union Minister for Investment and Foreign Economic Relations and Chairman of the Myanmar Investment Commission U Thaung Tun at the Chief Executive's Office on Thursday morning, Lam highlighted the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement under negotiation, as well as the extension of a visa-free arrangement between the two places.
Hong Kong and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Myanmar, lie along the Belt and Road, Lam said, adding that Myanmar enterprises may leverage Hong Kong's advantages as an international financial, transportation and trade center to explore the Belt and Road as well as global markets.
Hong Kong is actively assisting other regions in capacity building, and is very willing to share its experience in management and training of talent with Myanmar, she added.
The parts relating to Hong Kong and some ASEAN member states including Myanmar under the Hong Kong-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement have taken effect in June, and Hong Kong is actively negotiating an Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with Myanmar, Lam said..."
Source/publisher:
"Global Times" via Xinhua
Date of publication:
2019-09-12
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"With recent intense fighting in Myanmar’s northern Shan state and ongoing armed conflict in northern Rakhine state, China’s influence in the Southeast Asian country’s peace process has grown with the country’s government pushing for ethnic armed groups to meet with peace negotiators.
But not everyone in Myanmar trusts Beijing or sees its role as beneficial.
China jumped in last month after three members of the Northern Alliance group — the Arakan Army (AA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) — launched coordinated attacks on various locations in war-torn northern Shan state and neighboring Mandalay region, killing 15 Myanmar troops, policemen, and civilians.
The combined forces carried out further armed assaults on various bridges and border passages to disrupt overland trade with China in retaliation for what they said were offensives by Myanmar soldiers in areas the ethnic armies control.
As fighting intensified last month, Sun Guoxiang, special envoy for Asian affairs from China’s foreign ministry, met with the armies to express Beijing’s displeasure with the armed conflict, which has increased instability in the border region, and pressured them to stop fighting..."
Source/publisher:
"Radio Free Asia (RFA)"
Date of publication:
2019-09-11
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies), Non-Ceasefire Groups, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones
Language:
more
Description:
"Chinese investment in projects for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is changing the homes, economies, and environments of people across Myanmar, often in conflict zones. In some cases, those affected by the projects are calling for the government to stop or alter Chinese-backed projects due to concerns about social and environmental costs. At a minimum, local residents have questions about whether they’ll see the benefits of the developments.
The Chinese and Myanmar governments, for the most part, haven’t directly addressed these concerns.
In the case of the proposed Myitsone dam in Kachin State, the Chinese government has pushed local communities to accept the project, despite the fact that most of the benefits will go to China. Late last month, a team of Chinese experts spoke in the state’s parliament in an attempt to convince Kachin lawmakers to come out in favour of the dam. The government in Myanmar has encouraged those opposed to the project to reconsider their position.
Local communities in Rakhine State have also struggled to voice their concerns over the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ). China is pushing the Myanmar government to advance this crucial piece of the BRI but unlike in Kachin, Beijing isn’t facilitating any sort of peace process around the conflicts in the area. Instead, China is shielding Myanmar from international accountability and working to prevent Kyaukphyu from becoming “another Myitsone” by minimising public opposition..."
Source/publisher:
"ASEAN Today"
Date of publication:
2019-07-15
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"China and Myanmar have developed fruitful cooperation in the infrastructure construction of China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) under the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI).
China has been supporting Myanmar in advancing the transportation infrastructure construction including railways, roads, airports, ports, electricity and telecommunication, to inject strong impetus for Myanmar’s economic development.
Chinese businesses are very interested in making investment in Myanmar. Myanmar also started issuing visa-on-arrival for Chinese visitors. Myanmar enjoyed 37 per cent growth in Chinese tourists arrivals.
However, Tourism officials in Myanmar are bemoaning what they consider the bad behaviour of the skyrocketing number of Chinese visitors to the Southeast Asia Nation after they began offering the Chinese visas on arrival in 2018.
Though the officials acknowledge that the growing number of Chinese visitors has given a much needed boost to the slumping economy, they have voiced concern that their actions are endangering the country’s cultural heritage sites and that their spending primarily benefits Chinese run businesses..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News" via Current Affairs Correspondent East Asia
Date of publication:
2019-08-09
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Tourism in Burma - articles and studies, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Topic:
Barter Deal, Belt And Road Forum, Mandalay Rice Development Company, Myanmar Rice Exports, Rice Farmers
Sub-title:
Rice merchants in Myanmar are struggling to adapt to a new barter trade deal with China. The barter deal aims to stabilise border trade but risks depriving Myanmar’s rice industry of much-needed income.
Topic:
Barter Deal, Belt And Road Forum, Mandalay Rice Development Company, Myanmar Rice Exports, Rice Farmers
Description:
"Myanmar recently signed a trade deal with China to increase rice exports across its northern border fourfold to 400,000 tonnes per year. But under the new trade agreement, Chinese traders will pay for a quarter of the sum with bartered goods.
The barter deal offers a boost to farmers and traders in Myanmar by regulating trade and reducing costly border closures and unpredictable tariffs on the Chinese side. But the terms of the deal also impose a burden for everyone along Myanmar’s supply chains.
Myanmar and China signed the agreement on agricultural trade at the Belt and Road Forum in April. Mandalay Rice Development Company (MRDC) agreed to export 100,000 tonnes of rice to Kunming Green Color Trade Co in exchange for construction materials, appliances, fertilizers and agricultural machinery. But many merchants in Myanmar find they’re unable to sell the bartered goods.
U Htay Lwin, chair of the Rice Millers Association in Mandalay, has advocated for a barter system, saying that it would help reduce the power imbalance between the trading partners. But the current agreement may fall short of this goal..."
Source/publisher:
"ASEAN Today"
Date of publication:
2019-08-13
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Agricultural Economics, Border Trade with China, Smallholder farming and farmers in Burma/Myanmar, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Topic:
China, Myanmar, Rohingya
Sub-title:
Renewed violence between ethnic armed groups and the Myanmar military in Shan State has thrown joint China-Myanmar development plans into question. Relying on China to broker peace seems an increasingly risky gamble.
Topic:
China, Myanmar, Rohingya
Description:
"Since mid-August, violent clashes between ethnic armed groups and the Myanmar military have increased in Myanmar’s Shan State.
On August 15, members of the Northern Alliance of ethnic armed groups attacked the Myanmar military’s Defence Services Technological Academy in the northern Shan State town of Pyin Oo Lwin, as well as a police outpost, a narcotics checkpoint and a key bridge on the highway to China.
“We haven’t seen anything like this in decades of civil war in Myanmar,” said David Mathieson, an independent analyst in Yangon.
At least 15 people were killed in the violence and over 7,000 people have fled their homes as fighting continues.
“We have to flee quite frequently, but this time has been the worst,” said Maung Kyan, a local resident of a village near the town of Kutkai.
Northern Alliance groups have targeted trade routes linking China’s Yunnan province to Mandalay and the rest of Myanmar, prompting the closure of two key border points at Muse and Chinshwehaw. Chinese officials have met with both sides in an attempt to stop the fighting.
Northern Alliance leaders met with government representatives for peace talks in Keng Tung on August 31 but there’s been no news of progress towards a resolution.
The conflict area in Northern Shan is central to the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Both the Chinese and Myanmese governments have pushed forward with development plans for the area without securing lasting peace with the ethnic armed groups in Shan State..."
Source/publisher:
"ASEAN Today"
Date of publication:
2019-09-05
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Armed conflict in Shan State - ceasefires and ceasefire talks, Non-Ceasefire Groups, Burma's economic relations with China, Border Trade with China, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed Myanmar's active participation in jointly building the Belt and Road during his meeting with Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday.
Myanmar formed a steering committee for implementation of tasks relating to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative chaired by Suu Kyi. The committee is tasked to implement works relating to the establishment of China-Myanmar economic corridor (CMEC) and China-Myanmar border economic cooperation zone under the Belt and Road Initiative.
During the meeting, Xi expressed China's support for the domestic peace process and economic development in Myanmar and expected the two countries will further promote Belt and Road cooperation and the establishment of the CMEC in order to benefit two peoples.
Xi also hailed Myanmar's efforts in maintaining border stability, saying that China is willing to work with Myanmar in maintaining border security and stability..."
Source/publisher:
"CGTN"
Date of publication:
2019-04-24
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Amid rapidly changing Asian dynamics and news reports on claimed civilization clashes, China hosted the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations (CDAC) last week. How should we refute such a claim as the "clash of civilizations?" Global Times (GT) reporter Wang Wenwen talked to Ko Ko Hlaing (Hlaing), co-founder of Myanmar's Center for Strategic and International Studies, who served under Thein Sein as the chief political adviser to the President's Office, on the sidelines of the conference. Hlaing also shed light on the recent trajectory of China-Myanmar relations. Hlaing: A clash of civilizations occurs when civilizations have little understanding of or misunderstandings with each other, and their interests clash. So, if we would like to reduce those threats, we need to develop a mutual understanding and construct the right approach for common interests on a common platform.
That's why this conference is being held. It can contribute to clearing up misunderstandings or misconceptions. And it can foster closer cooperation for the region's common future..."
Source/publisher:
"Global Times"
Date of publication:
2019-05-19
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies)
Language:
more
Description:
"It was completely dark outside at night when this Global Times reporter visited Kyaukpyu county, Myanmar eight years ago. Now, the city has witnessed tremendous changes thanks to the China-Myanmar crude oil and gas pipeline, a pioneer project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, local citizens told the Global Times.
The pipeline project serves as the fourth energy import channel after the China-Central Asia pipelines, China-Russia oil pipeline, and the Middle East. As a result, the project has a strategic significance for China's energy diversification and security, said Zhang Qiang, manager of the project of Sino-Pipeline International Company. He noted Myanmar also benefits a great deal from the project.
An oil tanker stops at a western Myanmar port in Kyaukpyu county. Three oil delivery pipes are lowered down to unload oil into its 100,000-ton oil storage tank.
That oil will go through the 771-kilometer-long China-Myanmar crude oil pipeline and head to China from Namhkam, Shan State in eastern Myanmar.
In the same way, the natural gas gathered from southwestern Myanmar will go through the China-Myanmar gas pipeline.
"The China-Myanmar crude oil and gas pipeline allows crude oil from the Middle East to bypass the Malacca Straits and go ashore on Made Island, which faces the Andaman Sea in the Indian Ocean. The oil will eventually arrive in China's southwestern region," Zhang told the Global Times.
He noted that Myanmar requires less than 2 million tons of crude oil and 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas to promote local economic development and raise people's standard of living.
Every day, about 602,700 cubic meters of natural gas are supplied from the starting station in Kyaukpyu county and transferred to the local power station..."
Source/publisher:
"Global Times"
Date of publication:
2019-04-16
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Since Myanmar embarked on its political transition, political elites in the country have championed that peace is the premise for economic and social development. In the first two years of the government led by National League for Democracy (NLD), Nay Pyi Taw devoted a lot of efforts to promoting national reconciliation with the hope of making a major breakthrough and consolidating public support. Regrettably, results are not satisfactory. The NLD government is currently locked in a stalemate over national reconciliation.
It has also performed poorly in boosting the economy and improving people's lives. Main economic indicators suggest that since the NLD government assumed power, Living standards haven't substantially improved, and more economic problems have surfaced to plague the country. One of the main reasons why the NLD lost seats in the 2018 elections is the government's lackluster economic performance. If the economy doesn't improve, it will inevitably affect the NLD's potential for victory in the 2020 election.
Therefore, the NLD government is now attaching increasing importance to economic and livelihood issues. It has issued a string of policies to attract foreign investment. Take the new Myanmar Companies Act. Under the law, foreigners are permitted to take up to a 35 percent stake in local companies and businesses with foreign stakes of more than 35 percent will be classified as a foreign company, which facilitates cooperation between foreign investors and local businessmen and will help attract more foreign investment..."
Source/publisher:
"Global Times"
Date of publication:
2019-02-17
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Myanmar’s Government signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MOU’s) and an agreement letter with China at Beijing’s Belt and Road Forum on Thursday, detailing strengthened cooperation between the countries on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), trade and technology.
According to the Ministry of Information, Myanmar State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China Li Keqiang were present to witness the signing of the documents.
The ministry’s statement said that a China-Myanmar Economic Corridor cooperation (2019-2030) MOU was signed by Myanmar’s Ministry of Planning and Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planning agency.
In September, a 15-point MOU for the CMEC was signed. The economic corridor is set to be part of Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which aims to construct basic infrastructure connecting key economic centres in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News"
Date of publication:
2019-04-27
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, Canada-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"China is the largest investor in Myanmar’s Financial Hub, Yangon Region, in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, according to the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA). China is already the second largest investor in the country.
The director of DICA’s Yangon Region Office, U Myo Khaing Oo, said on Wednesday that as of July 24, Yangon Region had given the green light to a total of 113 foreign investment projects in the current 2018-19 fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. Of those, 65 are by Chinese companies.
“Chinese account for the biggest share,” said U Myo Khaing Oo, who is also secretary of the Yangon Region Investment Committee (YRIC). However, he did not reveal which sector received the most investment from China.
In addition to the Chinese projects, the regional government approved 17 projects from Hong Kong; six each from India and Taiwan; four from Japan; three each from Singapore and the British Virgin Islands; and nine from other countries. The foreign projects were worth a total of US$201.022 million (303.83 billion kyats), according to the YRIC..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News" via Business Reporting Desk
Date of publication:
2019-07-27
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Chinese investment, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Myanmar is proving to be a major test of strategic economic cooperation between the United States and Japan one which reveals wider foreign policy differences between the allied nations.
Those differences make substantial collaboration towards realising a “free and open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP) in specific countries difficult, despite joint strategic interests and aligned high-level political visions.
In Japan’s pursuit of a policy response to China’s infrastructure Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), economic cooperation with partners in third countries to beef up the financing on offer has emerged as a key component.
Strategic commercial cooperation is arguably most opportune and necessary in Myanmar because the country is at a fraught stage in its democratisation, set into motion in 2010 when it pivoted to form closer ties with countries like the United States and Japan in order to reduce economic over-dependence on China..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News"
Date of publication:
2019-06-21
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Other Special Economic Zones, Burma's economic relations with Japan, Burma's economic relations with the USA, Japan-Burma relations, USA-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"The Route has been finalised for the Muse-Mandalay high-speed railway line to be built by Myanmar and China, according to Myanmar Railways.
The project is part of Myanmar’s cooperation in the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC). The railway will begin near Myitnge in Amarapura township in Mandalay, and will pass through 11 townships, said U Htay Hlaing Deputy General Manager of Myanmar Railways.
“The route is nearly confirmed, but the environmental assessment is still under way, and we will survey residents’ opinions along the line. It will pass through Patheingyi, Pyin Oo Lwin, Nawngcho, and Thibaw. There will be a station in Nam Ohm, and it will pass through Lashio, Theinni, Kutkai and Nam Hpet Kar before reaching Muse,” he said.
Myanmar is participating in China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
Myanmar Railways, under the Ministry of Transport and Communications, and China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding in October 2018 to conduct a feasibility study for the Muse-Mandalay high-speed railway project as part of the CMEC. Now the railway’s route has been decided, said U Myo Win, general manager of Myanmar Railways for upper Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News" via Business Reporting Desk
Date of publication:
2019-08-22
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"This week, 37 heads of state and government, as well as 5000 participants from over 150 countries, converged on Beijing for the second Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Forum for International Cooperation. The mammoth gathering of dignitaries and policymakers is crucial for the five-year-old BRI to gain wider recognition and power to move onto the next cycle with new lessons learned and adjustments made. For President Xi Jinping, it will be a moment of truth for his leadership and China’s dream.
All ASEAN leaders, comprising one-quarter of top global leaders, were to attend the forum, which is a testimony to each member’s support and commitment to the global scheme and ongoing projects in their own countries.
Since Thailand is also an early BRI backer and one of its recipients, increased attention has begun to focus on its marathon negotiations with China over the US$12 billion (K18.2 trillion) high-speed railway project, which began with much fanfare at the end of 2015. China watchers are eager to know what challenges and prospects both sides faced over the past four years with their unsettling deal and ever-changing criteria.
Are there lessons to be drawn from the Sino-Thai negotiations? From the beginning, repeated criticism has been heaped on China’s continent-wide BRI. Among key allegations was the toxic “debt trap” for recipient countries and Beijing’s desire to expand its geopolitical influence to challenge the West. Examples from Africa and South Asia were highlighted as the BRI’s dark side..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times"
Date of publication:
2019-04-26
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma-US relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Though Myanmar officials have expressed their appreciation for the benefits of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese analysts noted that more practical outcomes should be delivered apart from optimistic plans, as some BRI projects still face uncertainty in the Southeast Asian country. A positive momentum to further promote the implementation of the China-proposed initiative in Myanmar has been seen recently, analysts said.
During a visit to the China-Myanmar border in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province from Saturday to Monday, Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed that the stability of border areas is directly related to joint efforts to promote cooperation under the initiative.
Also on Monday, Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said BRI could bring opportunities to Myanmar and the region, at the first meeting of the steering committee for the implementation of tasks relating to the initiative, the Xinhua News Agency reported..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News"
Date of publication:
2019-02-23
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Assessment of hydropower projects in Burma/Myanmar, Dams and other hydropower projects (global, regional), Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"The Myanmar Government is ready to sign a framework agreement with China on the establishment of cross-border economic cooperation zones, paving the way for the implementation of Beijing’s grand infrastructure plans in the country as part of its Belt & Road Initiative (BRI).
The assistant permanent secretary and spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, U Khin Maung Lwin, told The Irrawaddy, “The related Government Ministries have already reviewed a framework agreement proposal submitted by China.”
“We received comments from the related Ministries. We also reviewed the proposal with experts. We will send the proposal back to China. Our side is preparing to sign [a framework agreement] very soon,” he said.
According to U Khin Maung Lwin, the framework will cover a number of major agreements, particularly on the formation of a bilateral joint committee for the implementation of the cross-border economic cooperation zones; the assignment of management roles for the zones; and types of incentives for investors..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News"
Date of publication:
2019-08-16
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"In a significant new development, China has proposed initiating an economic corridor with Myanmar to advance bilateral trade links, creating a central intersection for the Belt and Road Initiative between Southeast Asia and China.
Addressing the media while on a recent visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh, Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced, “China and Myanmar have great potential for cooperation as they are highly complementary in economy. To further enhance China-Myanmar comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, China has proposed building the China-Myanmar economic corridor.”
Starting from Yunnan in southwestern China, the corridor would proceed south to Mandalay in Myanmar, eastward to Yangon and then westward to the Kyaukpyu special economic zone. This would boost connectivity and facilitate development throughout Myanmar.
Three branches of this network would operate along with a proposed $1.5 billion oil pipeline through the Bay of Bengal. Deepening economic cooperation with these new projects under the BRI, China has also backed a $7.3 billion deepwater port in Rakhine state..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News"
Date of publication:
2019-02-15
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies), Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"India, being a peninsular country, considers oceans as a global common. So how can it neutralise China’s over lordship and policing of waters given the latter’s growing military presence?
President Ram Nath Kovind may have sought to deepen our civilisational links and hoped to build on a shared anti-colonial narrative with Myanmar during his visit to that country but semantics cannot paper over the fact that our neighbour has signed the Kyaukpyu deep sea project with China in November and that could pose a security threat to India.
This is particularly worrying considering the Chinese are attempting to ring the Indian Ocean with its “string of pearls diplomacy” and hem India in, already acquiring strategic depth with the Pakistani port of Gwadar and the Sri Lankan one at Hambantota.
Yes, the President did emphasise on strengthening bilateral cooperation through increased connectivity, capacity-building and growing commercial and cultural exchanges. And it is true that Myanmar is also unhappy about China’s economic imperialism by creating debt traps for smaller states in the region as part of its Belt and Road Initiative..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News"
Date of publication:
2019-01-09
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"The Second Belt & Road Forum for International Cooperation in April was followed by Myanmar and China inking three bilateral agreements: an agreement on economic and technical cooperation, an MoU on a five year economic and trade development cooperation plan, and an MoU on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) Plan spanning 2019 to 2030.
However, caution has gradually emerged over the BRI, as shown by Myanmar’s recent approval of only nine of China’s 38 proposed “early harvest” projects.
State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s comment at the forum that projects need to “not only be economically feasible but also socially and environmentally responsible” and be fully supported by local communities, is an example of Myanmar’s growing wariness in dealing with China. Significantly, the MoU for the CMEC included provisions to allow Myanmar to seek financing from international financial institutions when implementing projects, invite international tenders for investment, and choose projects to maximise mutual benefit..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News" via Current Correspondent East Asia
Date of publication:
2019-08-03
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"China’s Kunming Steel has entered into an initial agreement to build a 4mn t/yr steel plant in Myanmar (Burma), which, if completed, will be the country’s first integrated mill.
Yunnan-based Kunming Steel plans to build the blast furnace-based plant in two phases of 2mn t/yr each, along with sintering, coking and power generation facilities. The product profile of the mill will include hot-rolled coil, rebar and wire rod.
The plant will aim to supply steel into the import-dominated Myanmar market and export any surplus to neighbouring countries. Steel imports into Myanmar have been around 2mn-3mn t/yr since 2014. The project is part of China’s Belt and Road initiative in southeast Asia and part of efforts to expand links between Yunnan and southeast Asia.
Myanmar’s steel demand is forecast to be around 3mn t in 2020 and 5mn t in 2025, driven by construction sector demand, according to the South East Asia Iron and Steel Institute. The bulk of the country’s steel demand is for rebar..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News" via Business Reporting Desk
Date of publication:
2019-06-26
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Blessed with a strategic location between India and China in the centre of Southeast Asia, as well as direct access to the Indian Ocean, Myanmar is a source of envy for neighbouring countries.
It should come as no surprise that the region’s most powerful players like China and Japan are competing with each other to establish three major South and Southeast Asian economic corridors in the country from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean, while
India is pushing for a cross-border transport system and sea route project with Myanmar. Make no mistake: None of those corridors would be complete without Myanmar due to its geographical importance.
In the meantime, from the country’s west in Rakhine, to the south in Yangon and Tanintharyi, north in Kachin, central region in Mandalay and areas on the Chinese border in Shan State, 10 mega-infrastructure projects worth billions of dollars that are related to these corridors and India’s cross-border project are on their way for Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News"
Date of publication:
2019-08-11
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Dawei (Tavoy) Special Economic Zone, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"The Myanmar Government recently agreed to begin work on key projects under the China Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) agreement which is part of Chinese’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. Experts, including voices from the World Bank, have pointed out that Myanmar’s growth will largely depend on major BRI infrastructure projects that get underway this year.
The 1,700-kilometre-long CMEC will start in China’s Yunnan Province, go through Myanmar’s major economic cities – Mandalay in central Myanmar, the commercial capital of Yangon—and reach the coast at Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Rakhine State. The proposal includes upgrades to three major roads through Mandalay and Muse on the Myanmar side of the border with China, and some other roads in Shan State.
An estimated $2 billion will be spent in the initial stages of the project which is expected to be made up of 24 projects in total..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News"
Date of publication:
2019-01-26
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"As buildings after buildings spring up in Shwe Kokko, a remote Karen border town bordering Thailand, many wonder if this mega-project real estate development is just an ordinary undertaking spearheaded by the Jilin Yatai Group of China, together with Colonel Saw Chit Thu, chief of the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF).
The Jilin Yatai Group was registered with the Ministry of Planning and Finance under the name Myanmar Yatai International Trading Co Ltd in February 2017.
Shwe Kokko, a former garrison town of Karen National Liberation Army formerly known as Kawmoora or Wangkha, is controlled by Saw Chit Thu, who is the chief of Karen BGF recognized by the government and affiliated to the Myanmar Army or the Tatmadaw.
Myanmar Times of September 18, 2018 reported the signing of agreement between Saw Chit Thu and the Chinese company in September 2017, organized by the China Federation of Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs.
This project, dubbed as “Chinatown” by the locals is in fact so ambitious that it is touted as an equivalent of being second only to Hong Kong, China’s special administrative region under one country two system. Reportedly, a 70-year lease from the Myanmar government has been secured, which may be extended up to 99 years..."
Source/publisher:
"BNI Multimedia Group"
Date of publication:
2019-06-28
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, Thailand-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Reading news reports coming out of Myanmar, I am always taken with the debate over the impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Of particular interest are the new China-Myanmar economic corridor and the debate over its winners and losers, as well as the nature of China’s intentions behind the ambitious infrastructure project.
Some commentators point out the sovereign risk associated with allowing China to build and participate in key infrastructure development in Myanmar. I argue that the BRI should be viewed as a “win-win” rather than as a threat or a form of predatory economics by which the Chinese can export their infrastructure construction model, which heavily relies on state-owned enterprises.
This article is written by Andre Wheeler, a CEO of Asia Pacific Connex, with more than 25 years of experience in international business and he is working on his doctorate on the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on infrastructure and logistics in Asean. It first appeared on Myanmar Times under a Creative Commons License and is reproduced here with the author’s permission..."
Source/publisher:
"AEC News Today"
Date of publication:
2019-01-25
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Shwe Kokko, a remote town along Myanmar’s Moei River, is the latest odd and bold outpost of China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Description:
"The town is still under construction but it already has a distinct Chinese flavor. There are Chinese restaurants, beauty salons and karaoke parlors. Chinese residents live in temporary barrack-style buildings while waiting for new apartment blocks and villas to be completed.
Other buildings resemble huge warehouses and what could be offices for businesses or administration. Even the armed security guards outside some of the houses where the migrants live have Chinese characters on their armbands. But this is not yet another construction project in China.
Rather, it is all happening at Shwe Kokko, an enclave on the Myanmar side of the Moei river that forms the border with Thailand some 500 kilometers northwest of Bangkok and 420 kilometers east of Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial capital.
The border enclave is controlled by a local ethnic Karen warlord, Chit Thu, who has made peace with the Myanmar military and converted his armed units into an officially recognized Border Guard Force (BGF)..."
Source/publisher:
"Asia Times"
Date of publication:
2019-03-01
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"China’s new ambassador to Myanmar said he would push for deeper “practical cooperation” on Beijing’s grand infrastructure projects in the country while working to advance bilateral relations.
One day after President U Win Myint accepted the credentials of Ambassador Chen Hai in Naypyitaw, the Chinese Embassy issued a statement on Wednesday regarding their discussion in the Credentials Hall at the Presidential Palace.
Chen said China and Myanmar currently maintain good relations but said he expected many new opportunities to improve it would arise.
The 20th Chinese ambassador to Myanmar vowed to advance mutual trust between the two countries and deepen “practical cooperation” on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), under which it plans to implement more than three dozen projects, including mega-infrastructure projects, in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy"
Date of publication:
2019-06-19
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Topic:
BRI corridors in Myanmar, Development opportunities for Myanmar, Substantial risks to natural capital
Topic:
BRI corridors in Myanmar, Development opportunities for Myanmar, Substantial risks to natural capital
Description:
"The report recommends: 1. The need to ensure that the BRI follows a sustainability criteria or standard based on ‘Guidance on the Building of the Green Belt and Road’ released from the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, global sustainability standards or nationally developed standards for sustainable infrastructure development.
2. More assessments to better understand risks related to for example floods, erosion and biodiversity, and for this information to be incorporated into road plans and designs as well as high quality Environmental Impact Assessments and Environmental Management Plans (EIAs).
3. Avoid negative environmental and social impacts through assessing multiple costs of road location and planning.
4. The BRI design should enhance environmental, social and economic benefits, including buffer zones, re-vegetation of slopes and wildlife corridors.
5. Myanmar civil society should be included at all levels and stages of project planning to avoid negative social and environmental impacts and optimise benefit sharing of the BRI in Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
"Mekong Eye" via Myanmar Times
Date of publication:
2018-02-22
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, Natural Disasters - General, Biodiversity - Burma/Myanmar-related
Language:
more
Description:
"China and Myanmar have developed fruitful cooperation in the infrastructure construction of China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
China has been supporting Myanmar in advancing the transportation infrastructure construction including railways, roads, airports, ports, electricity and telecommunication, to inject strong impetus for Myanmar's economic development.
It is noted that an offshore pilotage stand in Myanmar under the CMEC was completed recently, which is of considerable significance to Myanmar's economic development.
The pilotage stand, located about 20 nautical miles in southwestern of the Yangon River estuary in Myanmar, can provide safer and more efficient pilotage services for all types of ships entering and leaving the port.
As for capacity cooperation, the two countries have jointly built a gas-fueled power plant in Myanmar under the CMEC, to relief the power supply issues in Myanmar.
It is noted that the gas-fueled power plant is capable of generating an estimated 1.274 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually, feeding power demand of 2.7 million Burmese.
The Myanmar government reveals that the country will continue to develop power construction to achieve full coverage of electricity across the country by 2030..."
Source/publisher:
"Xinhua Silk Road Information Service"
Date of publication:
2019-07-31
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Trade disruption from recent attacks by armed groups along the Myanmar-China border may last longer than the attack on the 105th mile camp that occurred in late 2016.
Description:
"The 105th mile camp trading post, which comprises checkpoints and other government offices, lies near the town of Muse in Northern Shan State just across the border from Ruili in China’s Yunnan province.
Observers including political analysts and traders said it could last longer than the 10 day suspension when the 105 camp trading post was attacked.
Insurgents from the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army (AA) under the umbrella of the Northern Alliance launched coordinated attacks on a military academy in Pyin Oo Lwin on the Mandalay-Muse trade route as well as a toll gate and the Gote Twin police post on the Nawngcho trade route on August 15, which also saw the Gote Twin bridge blown up.
Insurgents also destroyed or damaged several other bridges at Chin Shwe Haw southeast of Muse along the border with China on August 17. Trading activities along the border has also been disrupted.
As of August 21, the border trading posts in these areas have not been reopened while no traffic has been allowed on the Mandalay-Muse and Theinni-Kunlong-Chin Shwe Haw routes that lead to these trading posts..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News"
Date of publication:
2019-08-24
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Border Trade with China, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"A seminar on China-Myanmar sustainable development and cooperation under the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor was held in Myanmar’s Yangon Monday.
The seminar was jointly hosted by the Center for Myanmar Affairs Studies, Myanmar and the Institute of Myanmar Studies, China’s Yunnan University.
The Monday seminar featured discussions under the topics Green Energy Technologies and Sustainable Development, Governance: Problems and Challenges, and Progress of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, respectively.
During the discussions, Zaw Aung, an independent researcher, said that the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) is a two-way connectivity between Myanmar and China and is mutually beneficial to both countries from bilateral trade and investments.
The CMEC is an important impetus for the sustainable development of Myanmar’s economy through attracting the investment of the neighbor countries, mainly China, ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and East Asia, he added, stressing that the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor which is a part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will play a significant role in the logistic and trade infrastructure investments in next decade..."
Source/publisher:
"Xinhua"
Date of publication:
2019-07-08
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"A recent political talk-show on Radio Free Asia (RFA) on the topic of China’s political influence in Myanmar mentioned the Arakan Army’s (AA) endorsement of China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It was taken as a remarkable testimony of bowing to a regional power.
In fact, it is not only the AA that is kowtowing to China but also the seven-member Federal Political and Negotiation Consultative Committee (FPNCC) has also been staunchly behind it. The FPNCC is made up of United Wa State Army (UWSA), National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP), Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and AA.
Generally, China employs a government-to-government and party-to-party two-pronged relationship with Myanmar as it usually does with the other countries. But lately, with the ambitious BRI mega project, it seems to have added another channel which is military to military.
The FPNCC relies heavily on China for arms, munitions, uniforms, food supplies, and also two-way trade which involves exporting natural resources and mineral extraction, among others, from the EAOs’ side and importing needed consumer goods from China.
One outstanding example of Chinese influence was China’s pressure on the Tatmadaw, which is bitterly against some FPNCC members, to invite the FPNCC to the second (May 2017) and third (July 2018) 21st Century Panglong – Union Peace Conferences (21PC-UPC). The FPNCC was also not too keen to attend the conference as it has its own approach to handle the peace process..."
Source/publisher:
"BNI Multimedia Group"
Date of publication:
2019-08-05
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Non-Ceasefire Groups, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"If China wants to fish in Myanmar’s troubled waters, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)-linked Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Rakhine State is a good place to cast a line; those projects will face as much controversy and objection as did the Myitsone dam near Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital, said Kyaukphyu Rural Development Association (KRDA) coordinator U Tun Kyi.
“Whoever accepts Chinese projects, if those (projects) do not bring positive impacts to the Arakanese people, then we will definitely oppose them, as was done in the Myitsone campaign,” he said.
His message comes after a three-day visit to Kyakphyu in July by Chinese ambassador Chen Hai, who was appointed ambassador to Myanmar just a few months ago. The Kyaukphyu visit was his first to a BRI-related project in the country.
Conflict between the Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar’s military (or Tatmadaw) has racked Rakhine State for months, displacing more than 50,000 so far and killing more than 70 local Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims since the beginning of the year.
Eight townships in the north of the state—home to more than a million people—have been living without internet access since June 21 under the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government’s internet shutdown.
With the human rights situation in Rakhine State sharply deteriorating, the Chinese diplomat’s decision to visit Kyaukphyu raised eyebrows among Arakanese business circles and with observers and lawmakers, who wondered if the visit had a hidden agenda behind it..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy"
Date of publication:
2019-08-10
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other hydropower projects (global, regional), “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones
Language:
more
Description:
"A series of recent clashes between the Myanmar Army and an alliance of ethnic armed groups in northern Shan State has raised concerns over the feasibility of Beijing’s push to implement the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), part of its region-wide Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). They have also raised questions about the wisdom of the strategy embraced by both the Chinese and Myanmar governments to move ahead with the scheme before Naypyitaw has reached peace deals with rebels in the region.
In a three-day period last week, Northern Alliance members the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) blew up four major bridges along the main route to the two most important trade hubs on the Myanmar-China border. As a result, two major border gates in Shan State—in Muse (across the border from Ruili, in China’s Yunnan Province) and Chinshwehaw in Laukkai Township (part of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone)—have been shut down.
The two locations play important roles in China’s infrastructure plan for Myanmar and in the BRI, Beijing’s grand plan to build an infrastructure network through Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Russia to foster trade. Since the CMEC was officially announced in 2017, China has prioritized cross-border economic cooperation zone projects in Muse and Chinshwehaw..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy"
Date of publication:
2019-08-20
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Non-Ceasefire Groups, Armed conflict in Shan State - ceasefires and ceasefire talks, Burma's economic relations with China
Language:
more
Description:
"At a fruit market in Wanding, Ruili, a county on the China-Myanmar border, workers are transferring watermelons and muskmelons from Myanmar to heavy trucks which will soon leave for Beijing, Shanghai and other cities in China.
"Burmese fruit tastes good and enjoys great popularity among Chinese people," Said Liu Hongfang, a manager of the market. "About 400 Burmese trucks (3,000 tons) of fruit come and go in the market every day."
Thanks to closer cooperation between China and Myanmar, the company has expanded its scale and business, built refrigeration houses in Wanding and worked with locals of Mandalay to grow watermelon.
There are only about 400 km from Mandalay to Myanmar's border town of Muse, next to Ruili in southwest China's Yunnan province, but it would take the truck drivers two days because of the narrow and zigzag roads, according to Liu..."
Source/publisher:
"Xinhua"
Date of publication:
2019-02-23
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-19
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Five years have passed since China’s President Xi Jinping announced the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative
(BRI), originally called One Belt and One Road. One could argue that the BRI has become China’s most
important geopolitical tool to build soft power and implement its plans, and its content and nature could be
evolving over time (Dadabaev, 2018).
With the massive financing that China is bringing to Belt and Road countries to build infrastructure, the
recipients, especially the less-developed countries, should, in principle, view China’s grand plan very positively.
In fact, the Belt and Road Initiative has officially included 661
countries. However, there is no systemic
evidence of how successfully this project has been fulfilling its aims in the recipient countries and, more
generally, globally.
Empirical analyses have already quantitatively gauged the potential gains for the Belt and Road countries. For
example, García-Herrero and Xu (2016) estimated how trade would be generated thanks to the improvement of
transport infrastructure in the Belt and Road geographies. The authors found that gains are 6 percent for Europe
and 3 percent for Asia, while the rest of the world suffers a 0.04 percent reduction in trade. A good example is
Nepal. Massive Chinese infrastructure investments in Nepal aim to link the economic activities of China and
India, providing new momentum for Nepal’s development (Shrestha, 2017). Initially, this initiative made Russia
worried because of its effect on the Trans-Siberian Railway. However, two international transport corridors
(Primorye-1 and Primorye-2) under the BRI have linked Russia with the Asia-Pacific region, providing a new
opportunity for Russia to develop (Li, 2018). Similarly, Breuer (2017) shows that the BRI will bring benefits
also to Africa through its massive construction scheme..."
Source/publisher:
"Google Scholar"
Date of publication:
2018-11-00
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-17
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
446.65 KB
more
Sub-title:
The Belt and Road Initiative, China’s mega-plan for global infrastructure, will transform the lives and work of tens of thousands of researchers.
Description:
"On a freezing November morning, Ashraf Islam is 3,000 kilometres from his family in balmy Bangladesh, but the weather is far from his mind as he gushes about the science opportunities he has encountered in Beijing.
“We have good facilities at home, but the facilities here are nothing like what I’ve used before,” says Islam, who is working towards a PhD in China researching techniques to remove organic matter from wastewater, an acute problem in Bangladesh.
Htet Aung Phyo, a PhD student from Myanmar, is using his Chinese-funded fellowship in Beijing to develop ways to use bacteria to extract copper from low-grade ore. If his project succeeds, it could help to extend the lives of copper mines in Myanmar, some of which are operated by a Chinese company. A breakthrough would also mean more jobs in his own country. “This is why I am here,” he says proudly.
Phyo and Islam are two of 1,300 graduate students from dozens of countries who are spending up to four years in Beijing carrying out research to help solve scientific problems back home. Two hundred positions are funded each year by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in conjunction with The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in Trieste, Italy. But this is no ordinary fellowship scheme. Each of the 200 is a small part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the world’s largest programme of loans and investments, including some grants, which China is brokering with 126 countries..."
Source/publisher:
The Belt and Road Initiative, China’s mega-plan for global infrastructure, will transform the lives and work of tens of thousands of researchers.
Date of publication:
2019-05-01
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
2.86 MB
more
Sub-title:
China is leading the effort to create the world’s largest economic platform
Description:
"More than 2,000 years ago, China’s imperial envoy Zhang Qian helped to
establish the Silk Road, a network of trade routes that linked China to Central
Asia and the Arab world. The name came from one of China’s most important exports—
silk. And the road itselfinfluenced the development of the entire region for hundreds of
years.
In 2013, China’s president, Xi Jinping, proposed establishing a modern equivalent,
creating a network of railways, roads, pipelines, and utility grids that would link China
and Central Asia,West Asia, and parts of South Asia. This initiative, One Belt and One
Road (OBOR), comprises more than physical connections. It aims to create the world’s
largest platform for economic cooperation, including policy coordination, trade and
financing collaboration, and social and cultural cooperation. Through open discussion,
OBOR can create benefits for everyone.
The State Council authorized an OBOR action plan in 2015 with two main components:
the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (exhibit)..."
Source/publisher:
"Google Scholar" via McKinsey & Company
Date of publication:
2017-04-19
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
2.72 MB
more
Description:
"China and Myanmar have developed fruitful cooperation in the infrastructure construction of China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
China has been supporting Myanmar in advancing the transportation infrastructure construction including railways, roads, airports, ports, electricity and telecommunication, to inject strong impetus for Myanmar's economic development.
It is noted that an offshore pilotage stand in Myanmar under the CMEC was completed recently, which is of considerable significance to Myanmar's economic development.
The pilotage stand, located about 20 nautical miles in southwestern of the Yangon River estuary in Myanmar, can provide safer and more efficient pilotage services for all types of ships entering and leaving the port.
As for capacity cooperation, the two countries have jointly built a gas-fueled power plant in Myanmar under the CMEC, to relief the power supply issues in Myanmar.
It is noted that the gas-fueled power plant is capable of generating an estimated 1.274 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually, feeding power demand of 2.7 million Burmese.
The Myanmar government reveals that the country will continue to develop power construction to achieve full coverage of electricity across the country by 2030..."
Source/publisher:
"Xinhua Silk Road Information Service"
Date of publication:
2019-08-01
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
Five years since it was announced, China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has yet to materialize on the ground as promised.
According to Chinese officials, the BRI includes six economic corridors that will carry goods, people, and data across the Eurasian
supercontinent. But a statistical analysis of 173 infrastructure projects finds that Chinese investment is just as likely to go outside
those corridors as within them. The BRI appears to be less coordinated than Beijing hopes and some critics fear. Since President Xi Jinping announced it five years ago,
China’s BRI has been equally captivating and frustrating
for analysts. Its sheer scale demands attention. Spanning
roughly 80 countries, it can claim to cover more than twothirds of the world’s population. It could include Chinese
investments approaching $1 trillion, seven times what the
United States spent under the Marshall Plan. It intends
to strengthen hard infrastructure with new roads and
railways, soft infrastructure with trade and transportation
agreements, and even cultural ties with university
scholarships and other people-to-people exchanges. In
all these ways, when much of the West is looking inward,
China is connecting with the world..."
Source/publisher:
"iberchina"
Date of publication:
2018-09-00
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
more
Description:
"In late April, Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi visited Beijing to take part in the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. There China and Myanmar signed three bilateral cooperation agreements, discussed the extensive promotion of their relations and conducted constructive consultations on Myanmar's peace process and stability in the border areas.
However, no agreement was reached on the Myitsone dam project, despite public fears in Myanmar that construction of the dam, in limbo since 2011, would soon be revived.
For weeks leading up to the forum, the Myitsone controversy had dominated local media headlines and spurred protests. On February 7, about 10,000 Kachin locals held a rally in the state capital of Myitkyina to oppose the Myitsone project they said would devastate the environment and displace families. On April 1, about 200 anti-Myitsone environmental activists and writers held a meeting in Yangon and established a national committee to oppose it..."
Source/publisher:
"South China Morning Post"
Date of publication:
2019-05-01
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories
Language:
more
Sub-title:
The US and its allies must engage more directly with Myanmar, lest China’s influence derail its democratic potential.
Description:
"Kachin and Shan states are home to two of the country’s longstanding ethnic conflicts. Fighting between Myanmar’s military and the ethnic militias creates security concerns for Beijing as the conflict sends a rising tide of refugees into China and negatively affects China-Myanmar trade through the border states. In 2011, renewed fighting between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army drove thousands of Kachin to flee to China, seeking refuge in Yunnan province. These refugee flows across the border draws unwanted international attention to China. Such publicity puts spotlights on China’s own human rights abuses, whether it be against ethnic minorities like the Uyghurs or the forced repatriation of North Korean escapees.
China also sees Myanmar’s geographic location and rich natural resources as strategic economic opportunities. As part of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative, to connect China with Asia, Europe, and Africa, the Chinese are injecting billions of dollars into Myanmar, developing a deep-water port, high-speed railways, natural gas pipelines, and Chinese-style special economic zones.
Beyond these security concerns and economic interests, China is trying to increase its political and social influence in Myanmar as well. China has supported Myanmar at the United Nations Security Council throughout the Rohingya crisis, which has forced more than 700,000 Rohingyas — a Muslim ethnic minority group — to flee to neighboring Bangladesh to escape military atrocities.
By supporting Myanmar’s government on the Rohingya crisis, Beijing increases its popularity among the Burmese, most of whom refer to the Rohingyas as “Bengalis,” illegal immigrants that do not belong in their country. While China has given the government a pass for its scorched earth policies, the United States and other democracies have condemned Myanmar for its wide-scale human rights violations and systematic legal and social discrimination against the Rohingya people..."
Source/publisher:
"The Diplomat"
Date of publication:
2019-05-17
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Burma's economic relations with the USA, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma-US relations
Language:
more
Description:
"If Myanmar is to break an addiction to methamphetamine production that has seen it become one of the world’s largest suppliers there is one country above all others that must act: China.
That’s according to a report released on Tuesday that highlighted how complexities in the relationship between the two countries are being exploited by armed separatists who are producing thousands of tonnes of the drug in the “Golden Triangle” of Myanmar’s Shan state, an area that is already the world’s second-largest heroin-producing region.
Chemicals used in the production of the drug have been flowing over the state’s border with China, according to the NGO International Crisis Group (ICG), which says China should take a tougher line against the drug-producing armed separatist groups seen as being under its influence.
China has a complex relationship with the groups, many of which arose out of the splintering of the Communist Party of Burma and claim an ideological and cultural kinship with the People’s Republic of China. As Patrick Winn, an expert on organised crime in Southeast Asia, says: “You can see the fallout from the Chinese civil war written into the landscape of the drug trade today.”..."
Source/publisher:
"South China Morning Post"
Date of publication:
2019-01-08
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) - Myanmar, Burma: opium and heroin, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones
Language:
more
Topic:
We should not play down the geopolitical consequences of the Chinese-led globalization that BRI v.2.0 represents.
Topic:
We should not play down the geopolitical consequences of the Chinese-led globalization that BRI v.2.0 represents.
Description:
"Last week, China hosted the second Belt and Road Forum (BRF) for International Cooperation in Beijing. This was an occasion to take stock, as well as introduce course corrections into the process of unrolling the six-year old Belt and Road Initiative.
37 countries and 29 international organizations participated in the event, with notable presence of Russian President Putin, President Pinera of Chile, President Ueli Maurer of Switzerland, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Prominent India’s neighbors who marked their presence over there were President Bindiya Bhandari of Nepal, Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, State Counsellor Aung San Su-Kyi of Myanmar. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and managing director of the IMF Christine Lagarde also attended the event.
The first phase of BRI was an unfolding of China constructing connectivity hardware — railway lines, highways, ports and pipelines. The emphasis now is to improve the software — international cooperation, trade agreements, customs and taxation procedures and financial processes, which is to be linked with China’s overall plans for transforming its domestic economy to emphasize “quality construction” based on innovation and science and technology. On the other hand there is a conscious effort to connect it to a new phase of Chinese global policy which seeks to expand China’s geopolitical reach by assisting developing countries to overcome poverty and joblessness..."
Source/publisher:
"Observer Research Foundation (ORF)"
Date of publication:
2019-05-02
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Myanmar’s government is hungry for the investment boost, but the costs must be weighed as well.
Description:
"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..."
Source/publisher:
"The Diplomat"
Date of publication:
2018-08-29
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"China has sought to defend its ailing “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) from mounting international criticism ahead of an important summit in April to fine-tune the multibillion-dollar infrastructure investment programme.
National People’s Congress spokesman and former foreign affairs vice-minister Zhang Yesui refuted concerns that the project, estimated to be worth US$900 billion, lacks transparency and creates debt traps for participants, especially developing countries.
“China attaches great importance to the problem of debt sustainability and will neither force others to cooperate on projects nor create any traps,” Zhang said at the second session of the 13th National People’s Congress in Beijing on Monday.
“Obviously, like other international cooperation initiatives, there will be some difficulties, problems, risks and challenges during the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative..."
Source/publisher:
"South China Morning Post"
Date of publication:
2019-03-05
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Beijing warns that investment will halt unless Myitsone Dam project is restarted
Description:
"While Aung San Suu Kyi's government has a strained relationship with the West over its handling of the Rohingya crisis, China has shielded Myanmar from international pressure and punitive action from the U.N. Security Council.
Beijing is now pressing Myanmar to revive the Myitsone Dam project, which has been suspended for seven years, in exchange for its diplomatic protection.
Work on the US$3.6 billion project in Kachin State started in 2008 but the military-backed government of then-president Thein Sein suspended its construction in September 2011 following protests and widespread environmental concerns. The issue became a major thorn in relations between the countries as China agitated for resuming work.
The hydroelectric dam would be the 15th largest in the world. The 6,000 megawatts of electricity it would produce is more than Myanmar's entire power grid produces at present. However, the majority would be used by China despite Myanmar being chronically short of power.
Renewed Chinese pressure came when Chinese ambassador Hong Liang visited Kachin in December and met with political parties and social organizations..."
Source/publisher:
"UCAnews"
Date of publication:
2019-01-21
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Chinese investment
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Myanmar needs to enact a series of measures to ensure that Belt and Road Initiative projects benefit the nation and its citizens as much as they do big Chinese companies.
Description:
"“As a rule, the police are soft on the tough and tough on the soft,” recalled the veteran Chinese democracy activitist, Mr Zha Jianguo, of his time behind bars in China.
In a New Yorker piece by his sister, Ms Zha Jiangying, published in December 2018, Zha said: “If they sense a weakness in you, it will bring out the bully in them.”
It would be wise for Myanmar’s leaders from both the government and civil arenas to heed the implications of Zha’s observation. The Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in April was followed by Myanmar and China inking three bilateral agreements: an agreement on economic and technical cooperation, an MoU on a five year economic and trade development cooperation plan, and an MoU on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) Plan spanning 2019 to 2030.
However, caution has gradually emerged over the BRI, as shown by Myanmar’s recent approval of only nine of China’s 38 proposed “early harvest” projects. State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s comment at the forum that projects need to “not only be economically feasible but also socially and environmentally responsible” and be fully supported by local communities, is an example of Myanmar’s growing wariness in dealing with China. Significantly, the MoU for the CMEC included provisions to allow Myanmar to seek financing from international financial institutions when implementing projects, invite international tenders for investment, and choose projects to maximise mutual benefit.
These moves point to a shift in Myanmar’s approach to China that involves treading more gently and is a welcome development in bilateral relations. However, there are still many issues that need to be addressed. The public has not been told about where negotiations stand on the future of the much-despised Myitsone Dam – a situation not helped by a condescending comment from the outgoing Chinese ambassador, Mr Hong Liang, that “foreign forces” were involved in opposing the resumption of work on the project..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar"
Date of publication:
2019-08-02
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Topic:
Foreign investors are still showing interest in Rakhine State despite sanctions and international pressure applied due to the political unrest. And now that the state has better access to electricity, conditions are looking better for businesses to enter the state or expand.
Topic:
Foreign investors are still showing interest in Rakhine State despite sanctions and international pressure applied due to the political unrest. And now that the state has better access to electricity, conditions are looking better for businesses to enter the state or expand.
Description:
"Projects related to China’s One Belt, One Road initiative remain a focus, with the Kyaukphyu special economic zone (SEZ), which comprises a deep-sea port, industrial park and housing, being a major pull of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the state. The industrial park will support businesses involved in aquaculture, livestock and garment industries while the deep-sea port and its facilities will connect Myanmar with a regional network of economies including China, India and Asean.
Plans to develop the SEZ was first announced in September 2013 and a consortium led by Beijing-based CITIC Group Corporation Ltd that included Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group Co Ltd was awarded the project at the end of 2015. However, it was not until November last year that a framework agreement was signed between the Myanmar government and CITIC, which also saw the original price-tag of US$7.5 billion reduced to US$1.3 billion.
Rakhine State chief minister U Nyi Pu said among the projects within the SEZ, Forging The Future Co Ltd and Myanmar Bright Prospect International Logistics Co Ltd have proposals to set up prawn farming, support a jetty project on Made island and build a five-star hotel on Ramree island..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times"
Date of publication:
2019-08-12
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Myanmar’s government signed two memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and an agreement letter with China at Beijing’s Belt and Road Forum on Thursday, detailing strengthened cooperation between the countries on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), trade and technology.
According to the Ministry of Information, Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China Li Keqiang were present to witness the signing of the documents.
The ministry’s statement said that a China-Myanmar Economic Corridor cooperation (2019-2030) MOU was signed by Myanmar’s Ministry of Planning and Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planning agency.
In September, a 15-point MOU for the CMEC was signed. The economic corridor is set to be part of Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which aims to construct basic infrastructure connecting key economic centers in Myanmar. Under the MOU, the governments agree to collaborate on projects in a number of sectors including basic infrastructure, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, transport, finance, human resources development, telecommunications, and research and technology..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy"
Date of publication:
2019-04-26
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"An office of China-Myanmar Economic Corridor of the China Enterprises Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar (CECCM) was inaugurated in the Myanmar capital on Friday.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the office in Zabuthiri town, Myanmar Deputy Minister of Commerce U Aung Htoo expressed his belief that the office could help offer better job opportunities for the trade link between the two countries.
The 1,060-km pipeline that carries crude oil and natural gas from the Middle East to China and links Myanmar's coastal town Kyaukphyu with southwest China's Kunming city, is part of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor.
Chinese Ambassador Hong Liang said the branch office in Nay Pyi Taw promotes communication and cooperation between the CECCM and relevant Myanmar government departments. It also helps the Chinese embassy better implement its work and benefits companies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.
Secretary-General of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) U Aung Kyi Soe said the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor Office will help entrepreneurs of the two countries run their business transparently and smoothly and also help create job opportunities for the people..."
Source/publisher:
"Xinhua Net"
Date of publication:
2019-05-17
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Sub-title:
The Chinese-backed Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone is shaping Myanmar’s conflict with the Arakan Army. Rakhine communities will benefit little from the project while bearing many of the costs, and it ignores their calls for control over the area’s natural
Description:
"Resource-rich Ramree Island, on the coast of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, has remained on the sidelines of recent violence as fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) continues to intensify. But the Myanmar government’s relations with the AA are now increasingly shaped by pressure from Beijing to advance the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ), a US$1.3 billion Chinese-backed development project based on Ramree.
The Myanmar government and Chinese state-owned CITIC Group are pushing the Kyaukphyu SEZ ahead despite public opposition. There has been limited transparency and inadequate public consultation with communities affected by the project.
The movement for Rakhine autonomy and federalism calls for local control of natural resources as a key tenet. If the National League for Democracy (NLD) government moves ahead with the Kyaukphyu projects without addressing these issues, it risks prolonging the conflict with the AA, making repatriation for the Rohingya increasingly risky and unlikely.
“The communities hope to have their own laws, their own management, their own regulation of natural resources and government – that’s why the Rakhine people support the AA, because they want their rights,” Tun Kyi, a spokesperson for the community-based organisation the Kyaukphyu Rural Development Association, told ASEAN Today..."
Source/publisher:
"ASEAN Today"
Date of publication:
2019-05-17
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Armed conflict in Rakhine (Arakan) State, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma-US relations
Language:
more
Sub-title:
A Shanghai blockchain company claimed it intended to set up a special economic zone in a rebel-held border area of eastern Shan State where it would issue digital currencies and IDs to the local population.
Description:
"Executives from Shellpay Internet Technology Co, in a Channel News Asia (CNA) broadcasting programme aired last December, said that the firm was granted a piece of land by the general office of “Peaceful Liberation Alliance of 7 States” in April 2018 as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to issue digital coins and e-citizenship.
Jane Zhang Hong, CEO of Shellpay and who identified herself as the director of the SEZ’s digital economy bureau, said the objective is to “improve" the "dirt-poor" locals and develop the region.
She told CNA that she wanted to create “the world's first digital economy experiment with 40 million people [in Myanmar] who are dirt-poor” through a “Yongbang SEZ”.
The disputed area, covering 220 square kilometres, is located within the Mong La Special Administrative Region 4 in eastern Shan. Run by the rebel group known as the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), the enclave bordering China’s Yunnan province is known for being a infamous hub for prostitution, gambling and crime. The rebels signed a Union-level ceasefire agreement in December 2011.
Despite legally under Nay Pyi Taw’s sovereignty, Mong La functions more as an integral part of China than of Myanmar, with Chinese business people, linked to business activities in Yunnan, running hotels, restaurants, shops, brothels and casinos, catering for the thousand of Chinese customers visiting Mong La every day. Chinese language and Chinese yuan are used..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times"
Date of publication:
2019-02-24
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations, “One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
more
Description:
"At the second Chinese Belt and Road Forum (BRF) attended by Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in April 2019, three MoUs were signed to strengthen cooperation on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) integral to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This was the latest in a series of MoUs reached between China and Myanmar on the CMEC in recent years.
Myanmar’s increasing dependence on China in dealing with internal and external challenges and Beijing’s ability to leverage Naypyidaw’s strategic compulsions to its advantage has been a defining featuring of the current bilateral relationship. China has been extending political and financial support to the Myanmar government in managing the country’s ethnic conflicts along their shared borderlands and protecting it at the United Nations for atrocities against the Rohingyas.
China-Myanmar relations entered a difficult phase soon after Myanmar initiated political reforms in 2011. Suspension of the Chinese-backed Myitsone dam and outflow of refugees into China as ethnic conflicts intensified along China-Myanmar borders sparking tensions between the two countries. Concerns over increased involvement of Western countries in Myanmar’s ethnic peace process in the following years and the desire to push forward the BRI motivated Beijing to improve ties with the Myanmar government.
Subsequently, relations improved when Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s party the National League for Democracy (NLD) came to power in early 2016. This coincided with increasing international condemnation of Myanmar over the handling of the Rohingya crisis, particularly after August 2017. China aligned itself with the Myanmar government’s interests on the Rohingya crisis and the ethnic peace process. This allowed Beijing to minimise the role of other external players, on the one hand and obtain strategic projects in Myanmar, on the other.
China and Myanmar signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation within “the Framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative” in May 2017 when Aung San Suu Kyi attended the first Chinese BRF. Five months later, the CMEC was proposed and an official agreement on the “Y-shaped” corridor was signed September 2018 to connect China’s Kunming to Mandalay and then extending east and west respectively to Yangon and Kyaukpyu..."
Source/publisher:
Observer Research Foundation (ORF)
Date of publication:
2019-05-15
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, “One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Behind closed doors, Myanmar has moved a step closer to approving the ambitious, multi-billion dollar China-Myanmar Economic Corridor.
Description:
"then Minister for Planning and Finance U Kyaw Win arrived at the State Guesthouse in Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan Province, to meet Mr Ning Jizhe, vice chairperson of China’s National Development and Reform Commission.
Kyaw Win was three days into a visit to China with a delegation of 56 businesspeople from the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the country’s peak business body.
That morning, he negotiated a draft Memorandum of Understanding for the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, a wide-reaching initiative that was formally announced by China’s foreign minister Wang Yi in November 2017.
The CMEC agreement is two things. First, it is a physical corridor that would connect China’s landlocked Yunnan through Mandalay to Kyaukphyu and Yangon, on new roads and a high-speed railway, in what Wang called a “three-pillar giant cooperation pattern”.
Second, it is a conceptual corridor. The overall aim is greater economic integration through initiatives such as industrial zones, trade quotas and tax breaks, but the CMEC can also include cooperation in areas not directly connected to the economy, such as disaster mitigation and public health.
The CMEC agreement is likely to see tens of billions of dollars of investment funnelled into Myanmar from private and state-owned Chinese firms under the One Belt, One Road initiative.
Despite the significance of the agreement for Myanmar’s future, the talks have taken place behind closed doors and with almost no public consultation. State media did not report on Kyaw Win’s trip to Kunming, and details of the February talks were not made public..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar"
Date of publication:
2018-09-26
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"China’s hurry to revive the Myitsone dam projects has renewed concerns among ethnic Kachin and Myanmar’s people. Last week thousands of people in Kachin state protested, calling once again for a permanent stop to the projects.
This latest demonstration follows several discussions about the resumption of the projects. For example, at an investment summit in Naypyitaw on 29 Jan, U Thaung Tun, the minister for investment and foreign economic relations, said the government wants to find a solution for the projects because the government values its relationship with China.
So far, none of the leaders has given a clear answer to the public concerning the projects. When meeting with religious leaders and representatives from ethnic groups on the Kachin State Day on 10 Jan, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi did not give a specific answer on whether Myanmar will continue the projects. Likewise, the commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing also did not give a clear answer on whether the project would be stopped when a group of religious leaders met him in Myitkyina on 5 February.
Then who can give the answer that people deserve? The answer is China. There are threefold things that China should do.
First, China should publicly reveal the contract of the Myitsone dam projects which was signed with the previous military regime in 2006. In late January, Dr Zaw Myint Maung – Vice Chairman of NLD party and Chief Minister of Mandalay region said ‘we do not know the detailed information of the contract.” It implies that even some leaders do not know the information written on the contract. Thus, China should now reveal detailed information about the contract.
Second, China should disclose the full list of people, if any, who have allegedly taken bribes from China Power Investment Corporation (CPI). Unsubstantiated rumours have spread that some prominent leaders, religious leaders, high officials from the Border Guard Force (BGF) and militia have received bribes.
Last but not least, China should heed the voices of Myanmar’s citizens. It is understandable that China wants to push the project forward in order to help meet the power demands of its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, China should not neglect people, particularly those who were forced to relocate due to the dam project in the Myitsone. Their request is simple: permanently stopping the project. Furthermore, China should respect the Pawkhpaw – brotherhood – relation with Myanmar, as they have many more investment projects across the country..."
Source/publisher:
"BNI Multimedia Group" via Mizzima
Date of publication:
2019-02-18
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, “One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Myanmar has been part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) development strategy since its adoption by the Chinese government and it is willing to continue participating in beneficial projects, State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said on Wednesday.
Description:
"The state counsellor made the remark in a meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping, according to Voice of America’s Myanmar service.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was in Beijing to attend the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, which started Thursday and ends Saturday.
Before the official start of the forum, she paid a call on the Chinese president to express her appreciation for the strengthening of bilateral relations between China and Myanmar as well as future cooperation under the BRI.
President Xi said he desired the strengthening of mutually beneficial cooperation with Myanmar within the BRI framework.
According to a statement from the Office of the State Counsellor, the heads of state also discussed the acceleration of cooperation between the two countries to improve the lives of their citizens.
Observers said that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to sign agreements for more projects under the BRI at the forum.
Minister of Transport and Communications U Thant Sin Maung, Minister of Electricity and Energy U Win Khaing, Deputy Minister of Commerce U Aung Htoo, and Deputy Minister of Planning and Finance U Set Aung are also attending the forum.
Of the 40 projects under the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor initiative, Myanmar will prioritise nine of them in power, roads, bridges, communications, construction, agriculture, research, and technology.
Besides national-level projects, China’s Yunnan province is proposing smaller projects in Myanmar.
Also, Guangdong Province Deputy Administrator Qu Yang said during the Guangdong- Myanmar Commerce and Investment Conference earlier this year that the province will cooperate with Myanmar in four sectors under the BRI.
The meeting on Wednesday also discussed China’s continuing help for Myanmar’s efforts to achieve peace and national reconciliation, ensure border stability and law enforcement, repatriate refugees in Rakhine State, cooperate on international relations, and promote tourism.
Next year will mark 70 years of diplomatic relations between China and Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times"
Date of publication:
2019-04-26
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday ahead of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation to be held from April 25 to 27 in Beijing.
Noting the profound "Paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship between China and Myanmar, Xi said China is willing to carry forward the traditional friendship of the two sides, increase mutually beneficial cooperation and push forward bilateral relations constantly.
In light of the celebrations next year that will mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Myanmar diplomatic relationship, the two sides should actively conduct interactions at all levels and people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and focus their pragmatic cooperation more on areas related to people's livelihood, so as to continuously consolidate public support for bilateral friendship, Xi said.
China supports Myanmar in developing its economy and improving people's livelihood, and appreciates the efforts of the Myanmar's government to advance domestic peace and reconciliation, Xi said.
China is willing to work with Myanmar to safeguard the security and stability in China-Myanmar border areas and ensure the safety and normal order of border residents, he said.
China highly appreciates the establishment of a steering committee by the Myanmar's government for implementation of tasks related to the Belt and Road Initiative, which is chaired by Aung San Suu Kyi, Xi said.
China is willing to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with Myanmar under the Belt and Road framework, and accelerate the development of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, so as to bring more concrete benefits to the two peoples, he said.
Noting that China is a close and friendly neighbor of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi expressed gratitude to China's efforts to support the peace, stability and development of Myanmar.
Myanmar has supported the Belt and Road Initiative since the very beginning and has been active in expanding cooperation with China, and it believes joint construction of the initiative will lead to greater well-being in the world and the region, enhance Myanmar-China friendship and cooperation, and bring concrete benefits to the two peoples, she said.
Myanmar is willing to work with China to safeguard the security and stability in border areas, she said.
Myanmar appreciates China's position in upholding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with China on multilateral affairs, she added..."
Source/publisher:
"Xinhua Net"
Date of publication:
2019-04-24
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"နိုင်ငံတော်အတိုင်ပင်ခံပုဂ္ဂိုလ် ဒေါ်အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်ဟာ တရုတ်နိုင်ငံမှာ ဒီကနေ့ ဒုတိယနေ့အဖြစ် ကျင်းပနေတဲ့ ခေတ်သစ်ပိုးလမ်းမစီမံကိန်းဆိုင်ရာ ထိပ်သီးညီလာခံကိုတက်ရောက်နေပါတယ်။ ဒီနေ့ ညီလာခံနဲ့ စီမံကိန်းအကြောင်း RFA ဝိုင်းတော်သား ကိုကျော်မင်းထွန်းက စုစည်းတင်ပြထားပါတယ်။..."
Source/publisher:
RFA Burmese လွတ်လပ်တဲ့အာရှအသံ
Date of publication:
2017-05-15
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma-US relations
Language:
more
Description:
"China-Myanmar cooperation under" Belt and Road"
တရုတ်-မြန်မာ Belt and Road အစကောင်းတစ်ရပ်..."
Source/publisher:
China Embassy in Myanmar
Date of publication:
2019-04-29
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Lowy Institute East Asia Research Fellow Aaron L Connelly speaks to the BBC's Sharanjit Leyl about the purpose and implications of a new China-Myanmar oil pipeline..."
Source/publisher:
BBC World News
Date of publication:
2017-04-18
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma-US relations
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Frontier Services Group (FSG), founded by former US military contractor Erik Prince, says it is moving into Myanmar to provide security services to Chinese and other foreign investors.
Description:
"Blackwater, a now-defunct private military contractor founded by Mr Prince, was condemned internationally after its employees allegedly opened fire on a Baghdad street in 2007, killing at least 14 civilians. Mr Prince later sold Blackwater, which then changed its name. While FSG focuses on logistics and security instead of paramilitary operations, the HK-listed firm sparked controversy earlier this year when it released and then deleted a statement on plans to build a training camp in west China’s Xinjiang region.
“As a Hong Kong-listed company, FSG has established a joint-venture security company in Myanmar and obtained a security licence to provide international-standard security services to international investors in Myanmar, including those from China, Japan and Thailand,” a FSG spokesperson told The Myanmar Times. He declined to comment on the specifics of the operations in the country.
FSG (Myanmar) Security Services Co Ltd is registered as a foreign services company, according to the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA). Last month it advertised for 30 security personnel in Myanmar. DICA’s company profile of the joint venture lists Daw Sandar Win (Myanmar), Shi Yi (China), Zhang Huagang (China), Tan Qing (China) and U Si Thu (Myanmar) as directors. Daw Sandar Win is believed to be the sister of U Kyaw Win, who owns Shwe Than Lwin Media, the parent company of SkyNet.
FSG’s 2017 annual report also stated that the Myanmar venture is “overseen by Shi Yi, John”, while the 2018 interim report added that the Myanmar subsidiary provides logistics and security services..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times"
Date of publication:
2019-03-18
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title:
The environmental and social impact assessment process for the China-backed port project in central Rakhine has started but questions arise whether developers are using the right legal framework.
Description:
"State-owned enterprise CITIC, in charge of the proposed US$1.3 billion Kyaukphyu port, kick-started the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) and preliminary geological survey this month.
The company said Canadian firm Hatch was hired as project manager to supervise the process and recruit the ESIA project consultants and contractors.
On July 2, CITIC held the first stakeholder meetings at the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Management Committee office in Yangon, and made site visits to the Madae Island.
It said it would “develop participation mechanisms for all stakeholders of the project in order to take extensive and adequate consultation” as part of the ESIA process. The preparation work will be carried out “in a rigorous, open and transparent manner.”
The idea of building a port and an industrial park in Kyaukphyu was mooted by the U Thein Sein government in 2015, which greenlighted the consortium led by CITIC to come up with a plan to establish a $7.5 billion SEZ in central Rakhine. A corporate promotional video suggests the scheme will create an investment and logistics hub akin to Hong Kong and Singapore. The government last November signed a “framework agreement” with CITIC. Myanmar will own 30 percent of the stake and the project will cost $1.3 billion. European and Japanese investors are unlikely to set up shop in the port or the industrial park, Yangon-based sources said.
However, confusion arises over the legal framework currently adopted by the developers. Myanmar’s environmental law demands a site-wide environmental impact assessment for a project of this size and scope, which should include an assessment of both environmental and social impacts.
CITIC’s latest press statement suggests that its current ESIA process is specifically for the port and not an SEZ.
If there’s to be an SEZ, that must be incorporated in the site-wise assessment, according to ICJ legal adviser Sean Bain. If the SEZ plan is scrapped and only a port project is planned, then it’s likely CITIC is operating under the wrong legal framework because the Investment Law would apply instead of the SEZ Law..."
Source/publisher:
Myanmar Times
Date of publication:
2019-07-19
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Other Special Economic Zones, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma-US relations
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Chinese investment and tourism are rising fast in the country at a time the US and EU pull back in revulsion at new rights abuses
Description:
"Myanmar’s ethnic turmoil and political uncertainties are keeping Western investors and tourists away, as the Rohingya refugee crisis has once again made the country a pariah byword for grave human rights abuses.
At the same time, China has emerged as the largest investor in Myanmar’s commercial center Yangon, accounting for 65 of 113 approved foreign invested projects in fiscal 2018-19.
Chinese tourist arrivals, guided in part by Beijing’s control of tour groups and Myanmar’s new relaxed visa rules for Chinese visitors, have also skyrocketed, making them far and away the largest national group to visit the country in 2018.
According to a July 26 report in The Irrawaddy, the surge in new Chinese investment has been concentrated in Yangon but is also growing fast in other parts of the country. The report said: ”China is planning to implement multi-billion dollar projects, including a deep seaport, new cities, industrial parks, border economic cooperation zones and high-speed railroad lines under its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.”
In November, Myanmar signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China which officially established the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), a transport artery that will connect China’s southwestern Yunnan province with the Bay of Bengal, thus giving China an alternative trade route to the congested Malacca Strait..."
Source/publisher:
Asia Times
Date of publication:
2019-07-31
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Canada-Burma relations, Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burmese refugees in Bangladesh
Language:
more
Description:
"With Myanmar being an important country under the Belt and Road Initiative, Yoma Strategic Holding’s Melvyn Poon says the company is putting much investment into local consumer products and services. Speaking beside the Belt and Road Summit 2018, he sees trade opportunities arising between Myanmar and the Chinese mainland particularly in agriculture and processing while Hong Kong is a supply chain and finance centre for new infrastructure and investment..."
Source/publisher:
HKTDC
Date of publication:
2018-08-27
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Lowy Institute East Asia Research Fellow Aaron L Connelly speaks to the BBC's Sharanjit Leyl about the purpose and implications of a new China-Myanmar oil pipeline..."
Source/publisher:
BBC World News
Date of publication:
2017-04-18
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"A huge petrochemical facility is up in Kyaukphyu, in Rakhine State in Myanmar. Built by China National Petroleum Corporation as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, it poses threat to the logistical flows of oil and gas supplies to China, and affects petrochemical industries across the Straits of Malacca, including Singapore..."
Source/publisher:
CNA Insider
Date of publication:
2018-09-13
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"China's president and premier met world leaders in Beijing on Wednesday ahead of the opening of the Belt and Road conference showcasing a Chinese initiative to help build ports, railways and other infrastructure in the developing world.
Chinese President Xi Jinping shook hands with Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi at the Great Hall of the People and extended his welcome.
"China and Myanmar should promote traditional friendship and close cooperation," Xi said, noting that this was Myanmar's second planned appearance at the Belt and Road conference.
Aung San Suu Kyi praised the Belt and Road, saying it would help strengthen friendship between the two countries.
"We have been involved in BRI since its inception, and we wish to be part of the process by which it will prove to be of great benefit," she said.
Xi also met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the Secretary General of Japan's ruling Liberal Democrats, Toshihiro Nikai, to discuss the Belt and Road initiative.
Also on Wednesday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met the leaders of Chile, Mongolia, Ethiopia, and the International Monetary Fund at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.
The meetings and conference are casting a spotlight on complaints the projects leave some countries with too much debt.
Asian and African leaders plan to press for relief from politically volatile debt burdens at the Belt and Road conference that begins on Thursday in Beijing. That could bring a note of tension to an event meant to be an official celebration of President Xi Jinping's signature foreign policy initiative.
The Belt and Road has stirred anxiety in Washington, Moscow and Tokyo about Beijing's strategic ambitions as well as how projects are devised, managed and financed.
The meeting will bring together leaders or envoys from three dozen countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Serbia, Myanmar and Kenya..."
Source/publisher:
AP Archive
Date of publication:
2019-04-29
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"For some villagers along Myanmar's border with Thailand, the promise of a new road is a threat to life as they know it.
But others see it as an opportunity.
Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom reports on how a Chinese construction project is threatening a fragile peace in Myanmar's Kayin state..."
Source/publisher:
For some villagers along Myanmar's border with Thailand, the promise of a new road is a threat to life as they know it. But others see it as an opportunity. Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom reports on how a Chinese construction project is threatening a fra
Date of publication:
2019-05-12
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Foreign investment in mining, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Interview on the implications of China’s Belt and Road Initiative for Myanmar and its people.
China’s BRI is a large infrastructural undertaking that seeks to reactivate the legendary Silk Roads. Myanmar is China's closest link to the Indian Ocean, which makes the country strategically important for the maritime segment of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, especially with the two countries propelling the China-Myanmar economic corridor in 2017.
Former Ambassador U Nyunt Maung Shein and Chariman of the Myanmar Institute of Strategic and International Studies replies during a regional workshop in Myanmar on the security implications of BRI’s maritime segment..."
Source/publisher:
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
Date of publication:
2018-02-27
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-31
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"The New Silk Road is a mammoth project intended to connect China with the West. It's a gigantic infrastructure project that Beijing says will benefit everyone. But this two-part documentary shows China’s predominant self-interest and geopolitical ambitions.
The old Silk Road is a legend, whereas the New Silk Road is a real megaproject. China wants to reconnect the world though a network of roads, railways, ports and airports between Asia and Europe. A team of reporters travels by sea and land along the New Silk Road and shows how China, with the largest investment program in history, is expanding its influence worldwide. Their journey begins in Shenzhen on the Pearl River Delta. This is where China's legendary rise to an economic superpower began 40 years ago. The private market economy experiment unleashed forces that allowed Shenzhen to grow into a mega-metropolis.
The team takes a container ship towards Southeast Asia. Its first stop is the port city of Sihanoukville in Cambodia. A joke is making the rounds there these days: you can now travel to China without a passport and without leaving your own country. Sihanoukville is now almost part of China itself! The Chinese have financed practically everything built here in the recent past: the extension of the port, new roads, bridges and factories. Many Cambodians are unhappy and feel like losers in the boom. Rising prices and rents are making the poor even poorer. But for land and house owners, on the other hand, it’s a bonanza.
In Myanmar, resistance is already growing. Locals in Kachin have successfully blocked a new dam project, asking how the Chinese could produce energy for their own country whilst leaving the locals themselves without electricity? The Myanmar government pulled the emergency brake and the huge Chinese dam project did not get beyond the first concrete piers in the river.
The Karakorum Highway from Kashgar in China across the Roof of the World to Islamabad in Pakistan is one of the most difficult and dangerous roads in this breathtaking mountain world. Once the road is finished, it often disintegrates again, and rock falls and landslides block the highway as if the Karakorum Mountains are trying to deny China strategic access to the Arabian Sea. The first part of the report ends in Islamabad..."
Source/publisher:
DW Documentary
Date of publication:
2019-07-20
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
more
Description:
"The New Silk Road is a mammoth project meant to connect China with the West. It’s a gigantic infrastructure project that Beijing says will benefit all. But this two-part documentary shows another side: of China’s self-interest and geopolitical ambitions.
China's path to global power leads through the legendary trade road. Our authors travel west on two separate paths: One team follows the sea route, along which China is expanding its support bases, while the other follows the ancient Silk Road through Central Asia. Their journey takes them through stunning landscapes and to magical places with ancient caravanserais, where the lore of the old Silk Road lives on. At the same time, they observe China’s overwhelming new influence in immense construction sites and shipping hubs. People everywhere are hoping the new trade will bring them and their children work and prosperity, just as the old Silk Road did hundreds of years ago. But others fear that a future dominated by China will bring them no good at all. "Clean water, the mountains and nature are much more important than the money they give us," the filmmakers learn in Kyrgyzstan. Chinese investment has not only bestowed the country with better roads, power lines and railway lines, but also with environmental pollution, corruption and crippling debt. Oman is another stop on the line, where Beijing has taken over large parts of a new Special Economic Zone in the desert city of Duqm. You can still see traditional Arab dhows in the old harbor at Sur, but they no longer have a place in today’s international trade. Instead, the horizon is dotted with huge container ships, many of them flying the Chinese flag. Meanwhile, the French port city of Marseille is aiming to become the New Silk Road’s European bridgehead. A small container village in the hills above the city is the first step. Cheap textiles from the Far East are delivered here to the "Marseille International Fashion Center”. MIF 68 for short - 68 is considered a lucky number in China - is geared towards distributing China’s products throughout Europe. The two-part documentary shows the breathtaking dimensions of this gigantic project - one where, it would seem, no stone will be left unturned..."
Source/publisher:
DW Documentary
Date of publication:
2019-07-20
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
more
Description:
"A cross the river from Myanmar’s colonial-era old capital of Yangon, low-slung shanties dot rice fields that extend into a bucolic rural distance.
But that could soon change if local property developers and their deep-pocketed Chinese backers build the Yangon New City Project, an ultra-modern design with glass tower high rises some here are already referring to as “Chinatown.”
The first phase of the mega-project will reportedly cover 8,000 hectares of land west of the Yangon river and will be led by the New Yangon Development Company Limited (NYDC).
The new company was incorporated in March 2018 as a public-private partnership with Serge Pun, one of Myanmar’s wealthiest tycoons. Pun, a Sino-Myanmar who was born in Yangon and spent the 1960s in China, serves as NYDC’s chief executive.
Pun returned from exile in 1991, the darkest years of military rule, and with the help of high-level connections was able to acquire lands which he developed into housing estates and business zones. His vast wealth stems from investment in real estate development, manufacturing, and banking. In May last year, NYDC signed a US$1.5 billion framework agreement with China’s state-owned China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), which will build infrastructure including bridges, roads, a power station and water treatment plants for the new city.
In return, CCCC has been granted by the Yangon regional government rights to 28 square kilometers in the new city for unspecified purposes.
The lack of transparency and CCCC’s dubious reputation in the region has stirred controversy around a project that, if completed, will dramatically and immutably change Yangon’s old-world look and feel.
The deal is widely seen by observers in Yangon as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Other BRI projects in Myanmar include a high-speed railroad designed to connect the Chinese border with the western Myanmar port of Kyaukphyu and hydropower projects in Kachin and Shan states..."
Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher:
Asia Times
Date of publication:
2019-06-02
Date of entry/update:
2019-06-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
more
Description:
"This really matters in Myanmar, where the economy has become greatly reliant on Chinese capital and labour, to say nothing of the waves of people and goods that cross the vast, mountainous borderlands.
Millions of words have already been spilled on the big strategic dilemmas related to China in Southeast Asia: the Straits of Malacca; the South China Sea; String of Pearls; One Belt, One Road.
And yet it is not through these top-tier considerations that the most important story will be told.
What is often forgotten is the extent of everyday connections between Southeast Asia and its giant neighbour to the north. While this might be most obvious in Singapore – and across the region in the bustling urban neighbourhoods where Chinese migrants have found their homes and fortunes – the fact is that “Chineseness” is everywhere.
For most Southeast Asian governments this presents a confused mix of risks and opportunities. They certainly benefit from the talent and energy of the Chinese in their midst. In some cases, their assimilation into the national mainstream is almost complete.
Thailand, as an example, was astonishingly successful in the way that it absorbed millions of Chinese. Their descendants have the great advantage of taking Thai names to go with their accents, mannerisms and ideologies. It would be hard to imply that many remain“foreigners”: The simple fact is that they have melted in.
The same cannot be said for Chinese in some other parts of the region. They often tend to be marked apart by cultural, linguistic and religious differences that have the tragic potential to antagonise their neighbours. The region has a long and ignominious history of anti-Chinese sentiment, which sometimes ignites short-lived violent episodes.
Attacks on Chinese in Indonesia in the late 1990s show how political instability can go hand-in-hand with violence targeting an obvious minority. Anti-Rohingya campaigns in Myanmar take a similar tone. Sadly, at times of crisis there are often too few voices of moderation and inclusion.
For it is such inclusion, and a moderate vision of national belonging, that will keep the balance in China’s relationship with Southeast Asia. The Chinese government, increasingly bold in projecting power beyond its borders, appreciates the great significance of the Chinese population across this region. Even where they no longer speak their ancestral language and have few current ties to their old country, it makes sense to keep them on-side.
What about the Chinese in Myanmar today? Most are yet to be absorbed to quite the same extent as their cousins across the border in Thailand. Their assimilation has come later, and has been slower.
In living memory there were anti-Chinese movements in the country, all heavily politicised at a time when the Burmese Socialist government was going toe-to-toe with its Communist foes..."
Nicholas Farrelly
Source/publisher:
Myanmar Times
Date of publication:
2015-08-31
Date of entry/update:
2019-06-01
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Work on a high-speed rail line linking Yangon to China’s Yunnan province, as well as Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, is expected to start within two months, China Daily newspaper reported on November 21.
Should the plan come to fruition, the 1920-kilometre (1200 miles) Yunnan-Yangon line will be able to carry trains travelling at up to 240 kilometres an hour (km/h).
China scholars told The Hindu newspaper that the lines were part of a wider effort to deepen engagement with its Southeast Asian neighbours, officials said last week. According to Wang Mengshu, a consultant for the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said studies are also being conducted to link Yunnan’s capital – Kunming – with Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. In August, the Ministry of Railways also sent a team to Thailand to explore investing in a US$25.6-billion, 240km/h high-speed railway and rail network.
Mr Wang, who is a professor with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told The Hindu in an interview earlier this year that construction had already begun on a line connecting Kunming with Singapore. The Southeast Asian network, he said, could be completed as early as 2020. Beijing’s increased infrastructure investment in Southeast Asia, analysts say, is part of a larger effort to expand economic and strategic influence in the region. Beijing hopes the investment will also ease anxieties among its ASEAN neighbours over the impact of China’s rising economic influence.
China ratified the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) pact with the regional bloc but in the process has created a fast-widening trade imbalance in its favour, in part fuelled by the flooding of the ASEAN market with Chinese goods. This has led to strains in commercial relationships with many ASEAN countries. The trade deficit grew to $21.6 billion last year. A number of countries have also voiced concern over the pattern of Chinese investments, which have generally targeted resources such as oil and minerals..."
Kyaw Hsu Mon, agencies
Source/publisher:
Myanmar Times
Date of publication:
2010-11-29
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, “One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Construction of the China-Myanmar railway is expected to speed up as a vital segment within Myanmar saw a positive breakthrough during the just-concluded Belt and Road forum in Beijing.
During the opening day of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on Thursday, Li Changjin, chairman of the China Railway Group Company (CRGC), handed over a feasibility report on the Muse-Mandalay Railway project to Myanmar's Minister for Transport and Communications U Thant Sin Maung.
The railway starts from Muse, a major land port of Myanmar that borders the southwestern Chinese city of Ruili, and stretches southward to Mandalay, the second largest city of the country. The 410 kilometer-long project will connect the Chinese rail network through Ruili and serves as an important part of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor.
In October 2018, representatives from both countries signed a memorandum of understanding, kicking off the feasibility research on this project. Following the agreement, the China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group (CREEC), a member of CRGC, conducted a geological survey and analysis in Myanmar..."
Yang Jinghao
Source/publisher:
China Global Television Network (CGTN)
Date of publication:
2019-04-28
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
more
Description:
"China Railway Eryuan Engineering Corporation (CREEC) has started a partial survey for the Muse-Mandalay-Kyaukphyu railway line, part of the China –Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) and the larger Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Myanmar signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the project, expected to be one of the largest road and railway projects in the country, last October.
The project calls for the building of a high-speed railway line from Kunming, China, to Muse on the Myanmar-China border and from there to Mandalay and terminating in Kyaukphyu in Rakhine. The survey project Muse to Mandalay the 430km line is expected to support trains travelling at up to 160kmh and will feature seven cargo stations and five passenger stations.
China is said to view the project to connect the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone and deepwater port in Myanmar as something that will benefit both countries under the larger CMEC umbrella,.
“CREEC, at their cost, has started a ground survey for the project and wants to proceed with the construction, but Myanmar hasn’t given any commitment beyond signing the MOU,” U Htaung Shan Khan, general manager of planning and administration of Myanmar Railways told The Myanmar Times.
“They want to construct the railway and run trains, but we have to consider Myanmar’s own interests and policies and the surveying for the project in Mandalay has been allowed,” he said.
However, former Thibaw MP U Ye Tun, whose township is located along the projected route of the railway, says the survey should be conducted for the entire route instead of just from Muse to Mandalay..."
Chan Mya Htwe
Source/publisher:
Myanmar Times
Date of publication:
2019-02-01
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Workers in southwest China’s Yunnan province recently finished laying the tracks down for a section of two major railways in southwest China. One railway will connect Yunnan to the neighbouring Tibet. The other connects Yunnan to the neighbouring country of Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
South China Morning Post
Date of publication:
2018-04-04
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-27
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
more
Description:
"WHEN THE Chinese embassy in Yangon posted a Xinhua article about State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s meeting with Chinese Premier Mr Li Keqiang to Facebook on April 26, the solitary comment below the post was, “How about Myitsone dam?”
It summed up the singular lens through which many in Myanmar have come to view bilateral relations over the past six months, and the growing concern that the Myanmar government, under pressure from China, might agree to proceed with the US$3.6 billion megadam in Kachin State, which was suspended in September 2011.
These concerns reached a crescendo on April 20 when hundreds of civil society leaders gathered at Yangon’s Novotel Hotel and announced a “one dollar campaign” aimed at collecting $1 from every citizen to raise funds to compensate China for scrapping the Myitsone Dam. They also addressed an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping saying that a dam on the Ayeyarwady River was unacceptable to the people of Myanmar.
This civil society event was held just four days before Aung San Suu Kyi left for the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, from April 25-27. The forum brought together dozens of world leaders to discuss Xi’s signature – and controversial – foreign policy, the Belt and Road Initiative.
But when Aung San Suu Kyi returned from Beijing, the tone had clearly shifted. Media coverage trumpeted the 1 billion yuan ($148 million) grant that China had promised for economic and technical assistance. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement released on April 29 said this would be for “livelihood improvement, feasibility study for major projects and humanitarian assistance for the IDPs in northern part of Myanmar”. Three memoranda of understanding were also signed, but they appeared to cover broad areas of cooperation rather than individual projects.
Instead of Myitsone or the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone in Rakhine State, the state counsellor’s meeting with Xi focused on other issues of importance to the bilateral relationship, such as import quotas on rice, combating illegal border trade and human trafficking, supporting the peace process and defending Myanmar at the United Nations and other international fora.
So, what happened? Ma Khin Khin Kyaw Kyee, a lead researcher at the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar in Yangon who focuses on Myanmar-China relations, said most observers had expected that detailed discussions would be held on specific projects, including Myitsone, in bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum.
In response to growing criticism of BRI, China wanted to use the forum as an opportunity to “show that BRI is mutually beneficial and to be implemented at the comfort level of the receiving countries”, she said. In the context of Myanmar, that meant avoiding any rhetoric on the need to proceed with Myitsone or other major infrastructure projects. Government spokesperson U Zaw Htay has said that Myitsone was not discussed in bilateral meetings.
“I think many observers in Myanmar are relieved that the agreements they reached do not seem to be binding,” Khin Khin Kyaw Kyee told Frontier. “But it is important to note that the detailed project discussions will take place with individual ministries, which can be much more low profile. Thus, we also need to keep our eyes on to the negotiation of these individual projects as well.”
Another close observer of China-Myanmar relations, U Maung Maung Soe, said the documents signed at the forum did not appear particularly significant..."
Thomas Kean
Source/publisher:
Frontier Myanmar
Date of publication:
2019-05-08
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma relations, Burma's economic relations with China
Language:
English
more
Description:
"The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) could bring opportunities to Myanmar and the region, Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi said here on Monday.
At the first meeting of the steering committee for implementation of tasks relating to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, Aung San Suu Kyi also stressed the need to work on the projects under the BRI in harmony with the country's national priorities and said that the welfare of the people will be counted while implementing the projects.
The BRI could promote cooperation in all sectors including infrastructure, the state counselor added.
Vice-President U Myint Swe called for the engagement between respective ministries and regional governments for better implementation of projects under the framework of BRI and highlighted the need to choose the right projects which can promote the development of the country and its people.
The steering committee which was formed in the end of September, 2018, is chaired by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi. Vice-President U Myint Swe serves as vice chairman and other ministers and regional chief ministers are the members..."
Source/publisher:
Asia & Pacific
Date of publication:
2019-02-19
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
more
Description:
China’s influence in Myanmar manifests on three different levels. At the bilateral level, the government and the military establishment of Myanmar receives diplomatic dividends for maintaining good ties with China. At the domestic political level, China’s relations with the country’s ethnic organizations makes it an important stakeholder in the ongoing reconciliation process. Finally, at the economic level, a lack of alternatives makes Naypyidaw reliant on Chinese investments, thereby ensuring favorable policies towards China over the longer term, notwithstanding regime changes.
Despite Myanmar’s increasing outreach to the outside world, Chinese engagement with the military and political elites in the country is still strong. Although Aung San Suu Kyi’s relationship with China has been complicated given her stature as a pro-democracy leader, in her more recent political career as State Counsellor she has a pragmatic route with regard to foreign policy. Her official visits to China have been viewed as largely fruitful, resulting in a greater understanding between the two countries, and helping shield Myanmar from international ostracism.
Source/publisher:
The Diplomat
Date of publication:
2019-05-07
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-25
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies), Other Special Economic Zones
Language:
English
more
Description:
"PRECIOUS little information has emerged about the agreements that Myanmar signed late last month at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing.
Myanmar signed a handful of agreements at the forum, including two memorandums of understanding, an economic and technical cooperation agreement, and an “early harvest” project list. Neither government has released detailed information on the contents of these agreements, including whether they are binding in any way.
The bigger story from the Belt and Road Forum, which fell April 25-27, appears to have been what Myanmar didn’t sign.
Sources within and close to the government, as well as in the diplomatic and business communities, have told Frontier that China had been pressuring Myanmar before the forum to sign a number of project-specific agreements, including for some “controversial” projects.
The Myanmar government refused to sign the agreements at the Belt and Road Forum, citing the need to conduct further assessments on the proposed projects, and instead committed only to more general MOUs.
The sources were unable to confirm the number, indicating it could have been four to six additional agreements.
China responded to this rejection by “dipping into its pocket”, as one government source put it, and instead proposing the economic and technical cooperation agreement with the grant.
Before the forum “all sorts of hand grenades were being thrown around, on Myitsone for example”, said Mr Sean Turnell, an economic adviser to State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. “Maybe it is just part of the usual thing you do before a big meeting – get all the ambit claims out there. But in the meetings themselves [in Beijing], the atmospherics were good.”
Turnell described it as a “fantastic” outcome for Myanmar. “The Chinese essentially agreed with the position here – that a lot of these projects are good but it’s up to the governments to negotiate them project by project,” he said..."
Thomas Kean
Source/publisher:
Frontier Myanmar
Date of publication:
1970-01-01
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Three years after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) was elected to power, temporarily ending the nation’s decades-long pariah status under military rule, Naypyidaw is already back in the world’s bad graces.
But that hasn’t stopped Asian governments from pragmatically supporting Suu Kyi’s controversial regime, now accused of genocide by the UN and others for its violent expulsion of over 700,000 Rohingya, in the form of strengthened defense ties.
As de facto leader, Suu Kyi and her government has failed to stop a fresh spate of violence instigated by its Buddhist majority population on the Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim group.
Its inaction on the humanitarian issue has resulted in economic sanctions from the West, with the United States, European Union and Canada imposing arms embargoes and penalties on Myanmar military officials.
Its inaction on the humanitarian issue has resulted in economic sanctions from the West, with the United States, European Union and Canada imposing arms embargoes and penalties on Myanmar military officials.
In contrast, Asia has ramped up security relations with the NLD administration and autonomous military, which controls the powerful defense, home and border affairs ministries..."
NYSHKA CHANDRAN
Source/publisher:
Asia Times
Date of publication:
2019-05-17
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-17
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Discrimination against the Rohingya, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies)
Language:
English
more
Description:
"The country is likely to see an economic rise due to abundant low-cost labour compared to other countries in the region. Myanmar has suffered from international sanctions for years, as well as severe import restrictions imposed by the former junta. Many economists say there is likely to be huge economic growth in Myanmar after joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The Belt and Road initiative or the New Silk Road is a modern initiative put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, which aims to expand China’s transport and communication network and connect China with many of the world’s economies under the umbrella of “joint profit”. This initiative is cross-border and not limited to the Asian region, reaching many geographically distant countries. Of course, neighbours have the largest share of the projects raised by this initiative. It is logical that the nearest countries are the first beneficiaries of such a huge project.
When dealing with the special relationship between the Chinese and Myanmar and the political and economic relations that bring them together, more emphasis should be placed on the economy. Chinese investor plays a key role in supporting Myanmar’s economy.
Today, many Chinese companies in Myanmar are investing in natural resources and introducing advanced technology to the country. For its part, the Chinese government attaches great importance to the promotion of investment in Myanmar because of the great benefit to China, based on the economic studies that push the Chinese government to move towards this neighbouring country.
China is an important political and economic player in Myanmar, through China’s projects to build bridges, roads, ports and many other vital projects, which serve the Belt and Road Initiative. But the truth is, if China had not been this huge economic giant, the relationship between the two countries would not have been so remarkable.
Today, China, through projects in Myanmar such as the Belt and Road Initiative, creates many job opportunities for the people of Myanmar and makes the government of Myanmar welcome China in its territory..."
MOHAMAD ZREIK
Source/publisher:
Myanmar Times
Date of publication:
2019-05-17
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-17
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
more
Description:
"ON OCTOBER 30, 2018, Mottama Holdings invited journalists to a high-profile “topping-out” ceremony for its M Tower project, a 26-storey office building near Hledan junction in Yangon that used prefabricated steel structure from the company’s factory in the city.
After putting in place the final steel beam – complete with gold-coloured bolts – more than 100 metres above Pyay Road, company chair U Yang Ho hailed a “new era” for Myanmar’s construction industry, one in which steel would replace reinforced concrete as the building material of choice for high-rise projects. M Tower, he added, “will become a prominent landmark in Yangon”.
Behind the scenes, though, there was less rosy news. Twelve days earlier, one of Mottama’s key partners, Chinese firm Sino Great Wall, had received notice from regulators in China that it was under investigation for suspected violations of information disclosure rules.
Sino Great Wall won the US$80 million engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for M Tower in January 2016, shortly before its share price peaked at 14.4 yuan, giving it a market capitalisation of 23 billion yuan ($3.4 billion). At the time, Sino Great Wall was winning billions of dollars of foreign EPC contracts and billing itself as a “leading private enterprise along the Belt and Road” – a reference to President Xi Jinping’s signature trade and investment initiative launched in 2013.
Today Sino Great Wall’s share price is just 2.29 yuan. The company’s debt-to-net-asset ratio is more than 120 percent, and it is facing litigation from nearly a dozen creditors due to 2.7 billion yuan of overdue loans. Rather than a poster-child for BRI, Sino Great Wall has become a cautionary tale of debt-fuelled overexpansion.
Since the company’s financial problems came to light in the second half of 2018, Sino Great Wall has been forced to scale back its international ambitions considerably. It is unclear whether this has affected M Tower, which is due for completion in 2020. A crane atop the building’s steel frame sat idle earlier this month and there were few workers at the site, but Mottama did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Sino Great Wall’s Yangon office – just 100 metres from M Tower – was locked when Frontier visited, but nearby residents said the office was more of a dormitory, and staff were still living there and working at the M Tower site. The company also did not respond to emailed questions.
However, the Chinese firm’s problems appear to have affected several other projects in Myanmar, including Min Residences, a high-end condominium development in Yangon’s Mayangone Township comprising more than 600 apartments.
Sino Great Wall corporate filings show that it won a $120 million EPC contract from Mottama and Singapore-listed Oxley Holdings to build the project’s three towers in January 2016, at the same time as the M Tower contract. Despite assurances from Mottama and Oxley that work would begin in September 2017, little progress appears to have been made.
Sino Great Wall has also won three contracts from Oxley totalling nearly $500 million for property projects in Cambodia.
But the three firms had even bigger plans in Myanmar..."
Thomas Kean
Source/publisher:
Frontier Myanmar
Date of publication:
2019-05-14
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-16
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma relations, Burma's economic relations with China
Language:
English
more
Description:
"The Myanmar government recently agreed to begin work on key projects under the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) agreement which is part of Chinese’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. Experts, including voices from the World Bank, have pointed out that Myanmar’s growth will largely depend on major BRI infrastructure projects that get underway this year.
The 1,700-kilometer-long CMEC will start in China’s Yunnan Province, go through Myanmar’s major economic cities—Mandalay in central Myanmar, the commercial capital of Yangon—and reach the coast at Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Rakhine State. The proposal includes upgrades to three major roads through Mandalay and Muse on the Myanmar side of the border with China, and some other roads in Shan State.
An estimated $2 billion will be spent in the initial stages of the project which is expected to be made up of 24 projects in total.
Among the 24 proposed CMEC projects, Myanmar has agreed to speed up the process of nine major projects, which include the Kyaukphyu SEZ in the west, the New Yangon City Development in Yangon and the border economic cooperation zones in Kachin and Shan states..."
Nan Lwin
Source/publisher:
The Irrawaddy
Date of publication:
2019-01-24
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, arrived in Beijing on Wednesday (April 24) ahead of the second Belt and Road Forum. Suu Kyi is expected to sign agreements on numerous belt and road projects during his trip.
While Suu Kyi tries to maintain good relations with China by attending the summit and calling on the public to uphold foreign investment projects signed by previous administrations, domestic backlash against the China-backed Myitsone Dam Project has grown stronger.
Thousands of protesters rallied in northern Myanmar on Monday (April 22) against revival of the suspended project, citing potential environmental damages and human displacement, according to Radio Free Asia.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday (April 21) that China should respect human rights and commit to transparency when pushing and implementing its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), citing some BRI projects’ failures to complete adequate environmental and social impact assessments.
Suu Kyi has faced strong criticism after she defended the imprisonment of two Reuters journalists Wa Long and Kyaw Soe Oo, who investigated the Myanmar military’s massive execution of the Rohingya community, a Muslim minority group living in the country’s Rakhine state.
Myanmar’s Supreme Court rejected the journalists’ final appeal on Tuesday (April 23) and sentenced Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to seven years in prison. Their in-depth reporting of Rohingya crisis won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting..."
Source/publisher:
Taiwan News
Date of publication:
2019-04-25
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
more
Description:
"For Myanmar, the stakes couldn’t be higher. This will be one of the most important weeks for the National League for Democracy since it took office in March 2016. The decisions that it makes will have implications for the economy, domestic politics and international relations for years to come.
The Belt and Road Forum is primarily about improving the image of the Belt and Road Initiative. Asked about criticism of the BRI at a press conference on April 19, Chinese Foreign Minister Mr Wang Yi said the strong attendance list was a “vote of confidence” in the BRI.
The Chinese government under President Xi Jinping wants to be able to show the world that the BRI is moving forward. Accordingly, Myanmar has in recent months come under intense pressure from China to give the green light to a range of BRI-related projects, including the stalled Myitsone Dam in Kachin State.
State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will travel to Beijing for the forum, where she is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with Chinese leaders. It is likely that the two sides will announce agreements on several projects. The agreements may not necessarily cover the finer details, but they will be taken as a crucial signal of Myanmar’s willingness to move forward with these projects.
In Myanmar, all eyes will be on whether there is an announcement regarding Myitsone. Suspended in September 2011, the project epitomises the unhappy legacy of bilateral economic cooperation under Myanmar’s military junta, when deals were cut in secret with the generals and the wishes of the people of Myanmar were ignored.
Myanmar is increasingly dependent on China for political protection as a result of the Tatmadaw’s actions in Rakhine State, and also for its ability to influence the peace process. This would appear to give China the upper hand in any negotiations.
But it would be a mistake for China to railroad the Myanmar government into resuming the Myitsone project. Yes, there are signed agreements that need to be taken into consideration. But the success of the BRI in Myanmar will depend on China’s ability to tailor its approach to fit the Myanmar context, where there remains widespread mistrust of Chinese actors and their intentions..."
Source/publisher:
Frontier Myanmar
Date of publication:
2019-04-24
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
more
Description:
"The BRI is colossal infrastructure and connectivity initiative of the Chinese government, loosely based on two main routes: the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. In Chinese language the initiative is called “yidai yiliu”, translated as “one belt one road”. The English name has switched from the previous One Belt One Road or OBOR to the now widely accepted BRI.
The name is not the only moving piece. The BRI is fluid – a constantly evolving concept that has changed considerably since its first announcement in 2013. While large investment projects characterised the initial phase, it now focuses on high-quality development, mirroring China"s growth path from "high-speed" to "high-quality".
The very nature of BRI has also evolved as well. It started as a China-driven plan to connect the Eurasian region, but the Chinese government now aims to make this a "platform", open for all countries to take part, and for all interested investors to collaborate.
One challenge that many non-Chinese observers, especially in Europe and in the US, struggle with is the "vagueness" of the BRI concept. The BRI brand is broad enough to encompass many projects and ideas. While this makes the BRI flexible to evolve, it also makes it difficult to pinpoint its exact scope. What makes an infrastructure project a BRI project? And does it matter to be able to define it? To avoid potential misuse of the term, the Chinese government is moving toward developing a BRI project database..."
Source/publisher:
Myanmar Times
Date of publication:
2019-04-21
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
more
Description:
''The New Silk Road is China's grand trillion-dollar strategy to link up 65 countries and 4.4 billion people.
In this episode, we look at a massive Chinese petrochemical hub which has been built in Kyaukphyu, Myanmar, close to where the Rohingya crisis is still unfolding. How will this project shape Myanmar's economy?...''
Pearl Forss
Source/publisher:
CNA
Date of publication:
2018-09-25
Date of entry/update:
2019-04-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English, (Burmese with English Sub-title)
more
Description:
''When Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government approved $256 million to upgrade a section of a remote border road last month, few took notice.
Yet India’s decision to revive plans for the trilateral highway, part of an ambitious 1,360-kilometer (845 mile) crossing to link northeastern India with markets in Thailand and beyond, marks the next phase in the jostle between New Delhi and Beijing for economic and strategic influence in the region.
In the last two years alone, India has assigned more than $4.7 billion in contracts for the development of its border roads, according to government figures, including the highway which will run from Moreh in Manipur through Tamu in Myanmar to Mae-Sot in Thailand.
The construction has taken on new urgency as China pushes ahead with its own vast ‘One Belt, One Road’ infrastructure initiative, expected to involve investments worth more than half a trillion dollars across 62 nations. The intercontinental web of road, rail and trade links has raised concerns among strategic rivals India, Russia, the U.S. and Japan. Among the biggest showcases of the plan -- an economic corridor that runs through the Pakistan-administered part of disputed Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim -- has unsettled equations in the South Asian neighborhood, where border tensions often simmer.
“With China’s growing interest in the region, as its wealth grows, its influence is growing beyond its borders,’’ said K. Yhome, New Delhi-based senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. So while China is pushing for a north-south economic corridor under the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative, India is aiming to build links with its eastern neighbors, he said.
Neglected Infrastructure ::
Under the Modi government’s ‘Act East’ policy, India is investing in road and rail links on its north-east borders, where it rubs shoulders with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, and Myanmar.
But the plan for the India-Myanmar-Thailand highway is not a new one. It’s been on the drawing board since 2001 when it was called the India-Myanmar Friendship Road, according to Vijay Chhibber, India’s former roads secretary.
New Delhi has now proposed to further extend the Myanmar-Thailand link to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, shortening travel from Mekong River to India using water transport, in its bid to bind it closer to the Association of South East Asian Nations and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, according to Chhibber.
The road link will be funded by the Asian Development Bank under the South Asian Subregional Economic Cooperation program. Involving India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the program doubled investments on infrastructure to $6 billion since 2011 compared to $3.5 billion in previous decade, said Ronald Antonio Q. Butiong, Manila-based director at ADB’s Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division.
american foreign policy, china and india, china and japan, china and us, china foreign policy, china india, china india relations, china japan, china military, china us relations, foreign policy of china, india and china, india china, india china relations, india japan, india japan relations, india russia relations, india us relations, japan china, japan india, pak china relations, us and china, us china relations, us china relationship...''
Source/publisher:
Global Conflict
Date of publication:
2017-08-09
Date of entry/update:
2019-04-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
English
more
Description:
''In this story, we take a look at what China's Belt and Road bring to Myanmar society...''
Source/publisher:
New China TV
Date of publication:
2018-12-10
Date of entry/update:
2019-04-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
''Once stalled plans to build a high-speed railroad connecting China’s southern city of Kunming and Myanmar’s Kyaukphyu port on the Bay of Bengal are firmly back on track.
If completed, the 1,400-kilometer railroad will be a crucial link in a strategic economic corridor through which China’s imports and exports would bypass the congested Malacca Strait and contested South China Sea, both potential chokepoints in any conflict scenario.
There are already gas and oil pipelines in place running from Myanmar’s western coast and China’s southern Yunnan province which strategically bypass maritime bottlenecks and potential trouble spots...''
Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher:
Asia Times
Date of publication:
2019-02-21
Date of entry/update:
2019-02-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, “One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
English
more
Description:
''Against the backdrop of intensifying diplomatic and economic pressures from the West mainly due to the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State, Nay Pyi Taw’s engagement with Beijing improved significantly in the year 2018, reaching dramatic milestones that have not been achieved since Myanmar’s democratic transition began in 2010: an MoU on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) was signed as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); three ‘economic cooperation zones’ in Muse, Chinshwehaw and Kanpiketi were agreed to, with implementation of the Muse zone already in progress; an agreement on a feasibility study of the Muse–Mandalay Railway Project was signed; a framework agreement for the development of Kyauk Phyu Special Economic Zone was signed; the tender for the New Yangon City Project led by the Yangon Regional Government and the China Communication Construction Company will be open for invitation soon; and the State Counsellor formed and leads the One Belt One Road Implementation Committee.
Under the label of BRI Projects, 2018 saw China-Myanmar engagement becoming closer, deeper and wider. This piece is a summary of China-Myanmar relations in 2018, distilled into political aspects (including bilateral visits and issues that dominated the meetings), economic cooperation, China’s public diplomacy and development assistance. The data and information are based on the news covered by the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar, as well as other major news sources published in Myanmar and English languages...''
Myat Myat Mon
Source/publisher:
Teacircleoxford
Date of publication:
2019-01-31
Date of entry/update:
2019-02-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Industrial zones - general studies
Language:
English
more
Description:
''The Myanmar government recently agreed to begin work on key projects under the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) agreement which is part of Chinese’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. Experts, including voices from the World Bank, have pointed out that Myanmar’s growth will largely depend on major BRI infrastructure projects that get underway this year.
The 1,700-kilometer-long CMEC will start in China’s Yunnan Province, go through Myanmar’s major economic cities—Mandalay in central Myanmar, the commercial capital of Yangon—and reach the coast at Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Rakhine State. The proposal includes upgrades to three major roads through Mandalay and Muse on the Myanmar side of the border with China, and some other roads in Shan State.
An estimated $2 billion will be spent in the initial stages of the project which is expected to be made up of 24 projects in total...''
Nan Lwin
Source/publisher:
The Irrawaddy
Date of publication:
2019-01-24
Date of entry/update:
2019-01-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
''China and Myanmar have pledged to jointly push forward the building of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.
The pledge came as Ning Jizhe, deputy head of China's National Development and Reform Commission visited Myanmar from November 24 to 27.
Ning's visit was aimed at further implementing the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries at the end of 2017 on jointly promoting the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor.
During his visit, Ning called on Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, held working meetings with Myanmar Minister of Planning and Finance U Soe Win as well as officials from 11 other Myanmar ministries and departments including the Ministry of Commerce, and also met with the chief minister and the parliament speaker of the Yangon Region...''
Source/publisher:
Fudan Institute of Belt and Road & Global Governance
Date of publication:
2018-11-26
Date of entry/update:
2019-01-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
more
Description:
''Ning Jizhe, vice chair of China’s top planning agency National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), visited Myanmar from November 24 to 27. The visit is built on the consensus reached by State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and China’s leader Xi Jinping at the end of 2017, with regards to the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC).
Mr. Ning visited the sites of CITIC Group, China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC), China Railway Group Limited (CRG) and Yunnan Provincial Energy Investment Group Co., Ltd. (YEIG).
CITIC leads a consortium which was chosen by the government as the developer of a proposed deep-sea port in Kyaukphyu, central Rakhine. CCCC, a China state-owned company and was sanctioned by the World Bank for its fraud and corruption practices from January 2009 until January 2017, signed an agreement with a regional body to prepare a detailed infrastructure proposal for an ambitious new Yangon city project...''
Source/publisher:
Myanmar Times
Date of publication:
2018-11-30
Date of entry/update:
2019-01-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Industrial estates and other zones (excluding SEZs), “One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
English
more
Description:
''Ning Jizhe, vice chair of China’s top planning agency National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), visited Myanmar from November 24 to 27. The visit is built on the consensus reached by State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and China’s leader Xi Jinping at the end of 2017, with regards to the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC).
Mr. Ning visited the sites of CITIC Group, China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC), China Railway Group Limited (CRG) and Yunnan Provincial Energy Investment Group Co., Ltd. (YEIG).
CITIC leads a consortium which was chosen by the government as the developer of a proposed deep-sea port in Kyaukphyu, central Rakhine. CCCC, a China state-owned company and was sanctioned by the World Bank for its fraud and corruption practices from January 2009 until January 2017, signed an agreement with a regional body to prepare a detailed infrastructure proposal for an ambitious new Yangon city project...''
Source/publisher:
Myanmar Times
Date of publication:
2018-11-30
Date of entry/update:
2019-01-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Industrial estates and other zones (excluding SEZs), “One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
English
more
Description:
''Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi was appointed the chairperson of a panel to oversee Belt and Road initiative (BRI) projects on December 7. The steering committee with Vice President U Myint Swe, ministers, and regional chief ministers as members aims to implement the joint establishment of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) under BRI.
The committee not only signals the importance Myanmar attaches to BRI, but also demonstrates that the CMEC is an important part of the comprehensive strategic cooperation between China and Myanmar.
Such cooperation includes better control over the northern Myanmar situation and maintenance of peace and stability on the border between Myanmar and China through which the CMEC will pass. Construction of the corridor will help regional stability and could also be a key to breaking the logjam in the peace process...''
Ge Hongliang
Source/publisher:
College of ASEAN Studies via "Global Times"
Date of publication:
2018-12-20
Date of entry/update:
2019-01-23
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies), “One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
English
more