Burma's economic relations with China
Individual Documents
Description:
"Three ethnic Kachin political parties said on Monday they sought the “permanent suspension” of the multi-billion dollar Myitsone Dam, discrediting a Chinese embassy statement that implied support for the divisive project among the state’s political leaders.
Manam Tu Ja, chair of the Kachin State Democracy Party, told Frontier that the statement, which was signed by the KSDP, the Kachin Democratic Party and the Unity and Democracy Party, is a clarification of their position aimed at the Kachin people. It could also help the Chinese embassy to understand the wishes and policies of the three parties, he said.
“We have no plan yet to respond directly to the Chinese embassy because some [other] parties in Kachin could have said that they support the project,” he said.
The embassy’s statement on January 13 concerned a December visit by Chinese ambassador Mr Hong Liang to Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital, where he held discussions with political leaders and social organisations on the peace process and IDP resettlement, the anti-drug campaign in northern Myanmar, and investment.
Kachin political leaders and social organisations had a “positive attitude” towards the 6000-megawatt Myitsone Dam, the statement said. It said they assured Hong Liang that “local people of Kachin State do not oppose the Myitsone hydropower project; It is some individuals and social organizations from outside that oppose the project”.
But Reverend Hkalam Samson, chair of the Kachin Baptist Convention, who met Hong Liang during the visit, told Frontier that the statement was untrue..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar"
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Kachin State, Assessment of hydropower projects in Burma/Myanmar, Dams and other hydropower projects (global, regional), Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Kachin (economic, social, cultural, political), Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
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Summary:
" Thousands of people in northern Myanmar took to the streets on Monday to protest against the proposed reinstatement of a Chinese-backed mega-dam they say will cause huge environmental damage and...
Description:
" Thousands of people in northern Myanmar took to the streets on Monday to protest against the proposed reinstatement of a Chinese-backed mega-dam they say will cause huge environmental damage and bring little benefit to the country.
The protest came just days ahead of a trip by civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to Beijing for a summit on China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Myanmar's former military junta signed a 2009 deal with Beijing to construct the Myitsone dam in Kachin State.
But public anger rose to the surface as the country started to transition towards democracy and the US$3.6 billion project was mothballed two years later.
If the 6,000 megawatt dam were built on the country's famed Ayeyarwady River, it would flood an area the size of Singapore, displacing tens of thousands.
Now China is increasing pressure on its southern neighbour to revive the controversial project.
On Monday protesters marched through the Kachin town of Waingmaw, some 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the proposed site of the dam, brandishing banners reading "No Myitsone Dam" and calling for the river to "flow freely forever".
"Myitsone is our inheritance from our ancestors and we cannot lose it," protester Tang Gun told AFP by phone.
He said more than 4,000 people took part in the march while several thousand more had signed a petition pledging their support for the protest..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar" via AFP
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-09
[field_licence]
Type:
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, Burma's economic relations with China, Chinese investment, China-Burma relations
Language:
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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 entry/update:
2019-09-08
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Sub-title:
Beijing's attempt to kick-start Rohingya repatriation reveals lack of oversight
Description:
"The stand-off between Myanmar and Bangladesh over the planned repatriation of tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees continues. But things have just got a bit more complicated with China's intervention. Beijing -- with all good intentions -- is now trying to soothe the troubled waters, in part, a result of their earlier misjudged involvement, having proposed a trilateral meeting of foreign ministers in New York in the coming weeks -- sponsored by the UN secretary-general -- to try to find a way out of the growing impasse.
But it will only succeed if China takes a realistic approach to solving the problems and if the two countries directly involved are really prepared to compromise and not just pay lip service to cooperation. Of course, it can only move the process forward if the legitimate concerns and interests of the refugees are at the heart of any future repatriation plans.
The latest episode in this saga was last month's rushed attempt to start the repatriation process -- at China's persistent insistence -- which quickly turned into a fiasco when not a single refugee got in the buses that had pulled up in the camps to transport the returning refugees back to Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
"Bangkok Post"
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-08
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Internal displacement/forced migration of Rohingyas, Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Summary:
"Following Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s attendance at China’s Belt and Road Initiative forum on April 25, the government is working with Beijing to revive the Myitsone hydropower...
Sub-title:
The government of Myanmar is working to restart the controversial Myitsone dam project in Kachin State. It doesn’t bode well for the ongoing peace process.
Description:
"Following Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s attendance at China’s Belt and Road Initiative forum on April 25, the government is working with Beijing to revive the Myitsone hydropower project. Myitsone is a Chinese-backed dam proposed for the Irrawaddy River that was suspended in September 2011 due to popular opposition.
State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi originally opposed the US$3.6 billion dam. She supported a community campaign to stop the project due to its environmental and social impact. This opposition eventually caused then-president Thein Sein to suspend the 6,000 MW project.
Recently, Suu Kyi changed her rhetoric, encouraging local Kachin communities who would be impacted by the dam “to think [about the project] from a wider perspective.”
Local Kachin communities still oppose Myitsone – demonstrations against the dam drew thousands of supporters in February and again in April. However, China has continued its efforts to revive the project, claiming late last year that the Kachin population was supportive.
The Myanmar government is indicating that it may be willing to prioritize the dam, a key piece of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), over lasting peace and equitable development in Kachin.
Suu Kyi has shifted her stance on the economic, social and environmental disaster that is Myitsone..."
Source/publisher:
"ASEAN Today"
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-08
[field_licence]
Type:
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, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies)
Language:
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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 entry/update:
2019-09-08
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Tourism in Burma - articles and studies, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Summary:
"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...
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.
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 entry/update:
2019-09-08
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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Summary:
"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...
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.
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 entry/update:
2019-09-08
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-09-06
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-09-05
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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Description:
"The offshore fixed pilot station which was constructed by a Chinese engineering company opened in Myanmar's Yangon on Saturday.
Managed by the Myanmar Port Authority under the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Yangon Offshore Fixed Pilot Station project which is the second of its kind in the world, following the one built in Thailand, started in March 2017 and construction of the station by China Harbour Engineering Co., Ltd. completed in February this year.
At the project opening and handover ceremony, Union Minister U Thant Sin M for Transport and Communications praised the successful completion of the project in line with the international quality standard, saying that the station plays an important supportive role to the country's economic development.
Chinese Ambassador Hong Liang assured that the project could support the better transportation through Yangon port, the main trading hub of the country.
The pilot station is located at 20 nautical miles away from the mouth of the Yangon River..."
Source/publisher:
"Global Times" via Xinhua
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-05
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-09-05
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-09-05
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Sub-title:
Myanmar ethnic group wants greater role for China
Description:
"As the political reconciliation is underway in Myanmar, Shan State Army-South (SSAS) chair, Lieutenant General Yawd Serk, hopes China will play a greater role in the process of achieving peace in the country.
The general, who is also Chairman of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), told the Global Times that he has had talks with China's Asia affairs special envoy. "I hope China can participate in Myanmar peace process at a greater width. China and Myanmar have a long border and China's boundary with Shan State is also very long."
Despite the Myanmar government's optimism that peace will prevail across the country, Yawd Serk said that he had almost "lost confidence."
"The cease-fire agreement has not brought any changes, the whole situation has worsened," he told the Global Times.
Since October 2015, Myanmar's government has signed the landmark Nationwide Cease-fire Accord (NCA) with 10 ethnic armed groups including SSAS, which was viewed as an important step in resolving the country's conflicts.
On February 12, Myanmar President U Win Myint said the government is currently in negotiations with ethnic armed organizations which have not yet signed the NCA in an effort to realize a final peace deal, Xinhua reported.
It's been reported that military conflicts in Myanmar occur to 200 to 300 times a year..."
Source/publisher:
"Global Times"
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-05
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Peace processes, ceasefires and ceasefire talks (websites, documents, reports and studies), Armed conflict in Shan State - general articles, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-09-05
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, Canada-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Sub-title:
A Border Guard Force and a Chinese company have teamed up to build a hi-tech city on the border north of Myawaddy, with seemingly little regard for Myanmar law and the livelihoods of the local Karen.
Description:
"THE ROAD north from the busy trading town of Myawaddy, on the border with Thailand, passes through bucolic Karen villages. The road is flanked by fields of maize and rubber plantations, with trees stretching as far as the eye can see. The area is severely under-developed; villages lack electricity and the road is in such poor condition the 16-kilometre drive north to Shwe Kokko can take about two hours.
Shwe Kokko was once a village like the others in this area: sleepy, peaceful, inviting. It is now a massive construction site home to thousands of workers. Chinese investors are partnering with a local warlord to pump billions of dollars into the project, which is already reshaping this once quiet corner of the Thai-Myanmar frontier.
When it comes to the Shwe Kokko project – a self-described “special economic zone” that has already been dubbed the “Chinatown of Kayin State” on social media in Myanmar – sorting fact from fiction can be difficult. But one thing is certain: the developers have big plans.
But who is behind this project, and why would they choose this corner of Myanmar to develop a megacity from scratch?
Shwe Kokko is being developed on a sweeping bend of the Moei River controlled by the Kayin State Border Guard Force. Formerly known as the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, the group was rebranded as a BGF in 2010, when it came under Tatmadaw control. In exchange for its loyalty, the BGF has been allowed to develop significant economic interests, including a mix of licit and illicit businesses. Shwe Kokko would be the largest of the lot..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar"
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-05
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Chinese investment, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-09-04
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Chinese investment, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-09-04
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-09-01
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma-US relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"Non-governmental organizations, political parties, and environmental experts from every state and region in Myanmar have been invited to come together in opposition to the China-financed Myitsone Hydropower Dam project, Frontier Myanmar magazine reported.
So far, only 44 percent of households in Myanmar have access to electricity. Addressing a nationwide power shortage, Myanmar's government has set a target to increase the figure to 50 percent by the end of 2019 and 75 percent by the end of 2025.
According to rough estimates, the design installed capacity of the dam was 6,000 megawatts, with the annual generation capacity tripling the annual power consumption of Myanmar in 2011. That means initially Myanmar's domestic market could not consume the total generation capacity of the dam. But as the domestic demand for power consumption rises in Myanmar, it is likely the Myitsone Hydropower Dam project would supply 100 percent of its electricity to the Myanmar market.
Relevant research shows that the building of the Myitsone Hydropower Dam will improve the traditional way of living of locals who rely on agriculture and hunting and contribute to ecological protection.
The protest against the Myitsone Hydropower Dam is not conducive to reaching these goals.
Some politicians and environmental experts who have participated in the campaign enjoy priority use of electricity, but their protests against the dam leave many others to live in the dark..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Rivers Network" via Global Times
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-01
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other hydropower projects (global, regional), Assessment of hydropower projects in Burma/Myanmar, Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma-US relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-30
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-30
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-30
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-30
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-29
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
more
Sub-title:
China also plans to restrict exports
Description:
"China is likely to trim imports of rare earths from Myanmar starting next month, which an analyst said will help relieve oversupply in China. The country will also tighten its exports in the future because of the increasingly high environmental costs.
China imported 26,000 tons of rare earths carbonate from Myanmar in 2018, accounting for 25 percent of total domestic demand, financial news site jrj.com.cn reported Wednesday, citing an industry study.
Among the imports, heavy rare earths from Myanmar accounted for about one-third of China's consumption in 2018, the report said.
Amid a crackdown on illegal mining, China strengthened efforts to reduce illegal rare-earth capacity and halted approval for new mines after the end of 2016. Due to a relative domestic shortage of heavy rare earths, China increased imports from Myanmar and became a net importer of rare earths for the first time in 2018, according to the report.
China is the largest producer and exporter of rare earths in the world, but because of its relative shortage of heavy rare earths, it increased imports from its neighbor, said Lin Boqiang, dean of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University.
An industry insider who preferred to be anonymous told the Global Times Wednesday that the price advantage was another factor driving China to import rare earths from the ASEAN country. It's possible that a cut in imports may be driven by concerns that illegally mined material was smuggled into Myanmar and then returned to China as imports from Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
"Global Times"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-29
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-29
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-29
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-27
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"The matters relating to promoting economic and trade cooperation between Myanmar and China and the use of Chinese currency in bilateral trade, were discussed at the 5th meeting of the Joint Committee for Myanmar-China Economic, Trade and Technical Cooperation, according to the Ministry of Planning and Finance.
The meeting also focused on the establishment of Myanmar-China economic corridor, the use of the Chinese government’s buyer loans and soft loans, the joint implementation of five-year development program for economic and trade cooperation, cooperation in Kyaukphyu deep seaport project, industrial zone project, train and expressway, trans-national power lines and others, the establishment of Myanmar-China border economic cooperation zone and cooperation in substitute crops.
The first meeting of its kind was held in Myanmar in 2005, the second in China in 2008, the third in Myanmar in 2014 and the fourth in China in 2017 and the fifth in Myanmar in 2019..."
Source/publisher:
"Eleven Media Group"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-27
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-26
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, Thailand-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"U Soe Htet, a minister of municipalities and spoke person of Chin State, told to media the construction of comprehensive project of Kalardan Port which became the main route of economic and military of India and China and with regard to the project, the activities of AA had been supported by both countries at the news conference.
U soe Htet said “We have already conducted field trips over the East - Looked policies of India. The project has been turning into elven years. The field trip has been conducted after Aung San Su Kyi has met the prime minister of India. Geographically Chinese depending on voyage uses Kyauk Phyu deep-sea port project and India uses Sittwe and Paletwa deep-sea port project. Frankly speaking, both economic and military of the two-big countries were located on the route. The territory was not stable due to the military activities of AA. These activities also were interrelated with the support of the two big countries”.
Military activities of AA delayed bridge and road projects. Despise challenges, the projects were expected to implement as soon as possible to be convenience for trading..."
Source/publisher:
"BNI Multimedia Group"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-26
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Arakan (Rakhine) State - reports etc. by date (latest first), Burma's economic relations with China, Burma's economic relations with India, China-Burma-India relations
Language:
Local URL:
more
Sub-title:
While Tatmadaw and Kachin Independence Army soldiers face off in a long-running conflict, a company owned by the Kachin armed group has been profiting from the sale of power to government-controlled Myitkyina and Waingmaw townships.
Description:
"This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
For nearly two decades following its 1994 ceasefire, the Kachin Independence Organisation built up a business empire that intertwined formally with the state.
The vehicle for many of these businesses is Buga Co Ltd, which the KIO’s economic department registered with the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration in early 1995.
But after the resumption of conflict in June 2011, many of Buga’s businesses unraveled or were forced into the black economy. A sugar factory in Namatee, Mogaung Township, was forced to stop operations later in 2011. A tourism office at Laiza, where the KIO is based, that sought to encourage visits by Chinese and Myanmar tourists has long ago shuttered. The company has also been forced to scale back its mining concessions, including at jade-rich Hpakant.
But one Buga business has continued to prosper: electricity production and distribution. Since 2007, it has been selling electricity to government-controlled areas of the state under a 20-year agreement struck with the former military regime.
While a cascade of China-backed megadams has been planned for Kachin State, the projects have been stalled by local opposition and the conflict between the Tatmadaw and KIO.
As a result, the Ministry of Electricity and Energy produces only minimal amounts of electricity in Kachin State and there is little transmission capacity to import power produced elsewhere in Myanmar. Other regions are also facing their own supply shortages, particularly during hot season..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-26
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other hydropower projects (global, regional), Armed conflict in Kachin State - ceasefires and ceasefire talks, Burma's economic relations with China
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-26
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"An economic zone will soon be built in Kanpaiktee at the Myanmar - China border, according to Ministry of Commerce.
At the zone there will be truck parking, warehouses, and modern equipment to check installed.
The President Office has ordered the central and working committee concerning building of Myanmar-China border economic cooperation zone to perform coordinated tasks and they have been carried out, claimed Deputy Minister for Commerce Aung Htoo.
He continued saying that there will be basic infrastructure such as staff housing, weighing machines, and X-ray machines will all be a part of the economic zone.
As China is Myanmar’s largest border trade partner, the economic zone, when complete, will help substantially in promoting local goods and services as well as create job opportunities for Myanmar citizens. It will offer a wider scope for bilateral trade cooperation including schemes to invest in factories and mills as well as develop a more robust tourism sector. Over a longer term, the economic zone is also expected to help raise exports across the border, helping to reduce the country’s trade deficit..."
Source/publisher:
"Eleven Media Group"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-25
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, Border Trade with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-25
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"The confluence of the Ayeyarwady River and the Mali and the N'Mai rivers. The Myitsone dam was to be located a mile downstream of this point. Photo: Yu Jincui/GT
A campaign aimed at putting an end to the Myitsone Dam project is reportedly to be held in Myanmar's Yangon on Monday, which Chinese experts said will exert a negative influence on the Southeast Asian country's economic development.
Politicians and activists, as well as civil society representatives will gather in Yangon on Monday to protest against the Myitsone Dam, Frontier Myanmar magazine reported.
In an interview with Frontier Myanmar, U Aung Soe Myint, a leader of the movement, said that they had invited NGOs, political parties and environmental experts from every state and region of Myanmar to join the protest. The group will also form an executive committee to devise strategies to campaign against the dam.
Gu Xiaosong, an expert on Southeast Asian studies at the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday that the protest is driven predominantly by political reasons.
"Some organizations are incited by certain Western forces which are trying to damage China-Myanmar relations. It is not really out of concern for the environment as they have declared," Gu said, adding that most ordinary citizens who were instigated to join the protest have no idea of the real situation.
The dam, which was suspended in 2011, has cost Chinese financiers and contractors dearly. It is one of the key issues to be addressed between the two countries..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Rivers Network" via Global Times
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-25
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other hydropower projects (global, regional), Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-25
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
more
Summary:
"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...
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 entry/update:
2019-08-24
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-24
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-24
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Border Trade with China, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-22
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-22
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Non-Ceasefire Groups, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-22
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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Description:
"Following the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang’s Myitkyina visit that took place from 28 to 29 December 2018, where he met leaders of political parties and social organizations in Kachin State, news have been making the rounds that the ambassador has been bossy and even intimidating when interacting with the Kachin leaders during his visit.
Reportedly, during the visit, ambassador Hong Liang met with chairman of the Kachin State Democracy Party (KSDP) Manam Tu Ja, chairman of the Unity and Democracy Party of Kachin State (UDP-KS) U Hkyet Hting Nan, chairman of the Kachin Democracy Party (KDP) Gumgrawng Awng Hkam, chairman of the Lisu National Development Party U Si Phar Lar Lu (U Shwe Minn), chairman of the Shan Ethnic Affairs Society (Northern Myanmar) U Sai San Wae and chairman of the Kachin Baptist Convention Hkalam Samson.
According to the The Irrawaddy report on January 9, when the Chinese ambassador met Gumgrawng Awng Hkam and Rev. Hkalam Samson respectively at Palm Spring Hotel in Myitkyina, he warned them not to be so cordial and friendly with western diplomats, otherwise they would face serious consequences. Both claimed that the ambassador briefed them in a bossy manner, warning them not to oppose Chinese projects in Kachin State, including the controversial Myitsone hydro-power project.
The meeting with the Chinese ambassador came after the US and UK ambassadors visited Kachin State. During their meetings in Myitkyina with Kachin political leaders and other prominent members of the Kachin community, both ambassadors discussed the peace process, the safe return of internally displaced persons (IDPs), promotion of education and health and free and fair elections. Both Gumgrawng Awng Hkam and Rev. Hkalam Samson attended those meetings. Consequently, Kachin politicians invited the ambassadors to open liaison offices in Myitkyina in order to promote relations..."
Source/publisher:
"BNI Multimedia Group"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-21
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Dams and other hydropower projects (global, regional), Assessment of hydropower projects in Burma/Myanmar, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-21
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
more
Sub-title:
Japan-backed Thilawa Special Economic Zone is one of nation’s few economic and infrastructure success stories
Description:
"Every morning hundreds of cars, trucks and other vehicles carrying factory workers squeeze into a two-lane bridge across Yangon’s Bago river.
The buzz of industrial activity results in often nightmarish traffic jams, a rare phenomenon for Myanmar’s still nascent and in many ways hamstrung manufacturing sector.
Initiated by then-president Thein Sein in 2013, the Japan-backed Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is widely viewed by business leaders as Myanmar’s foremost economic success story.
It also has advocates in high political places, with de facto national leader Aung San Suu Kyi repeatedly hailing Thilawa as a “crowning success” that “highlights the type of positive partnership that can be achieved between our respective public and private sectors.”
The 2,500-hectare Thilawa has so far secured over US$1.6 billion in approved investment, including from multinationals such as German retail group Metro AG, US aluminum can manufacturer Ball and Japanese automaker Toyota..."
Source/publisher:
"Asia Times"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-20
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Other Special Economic Zones, Burma's economic relations with Japan, Burma's economic relations with China, Japan-Burma relations, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Sub-title:
Seven years after it was suspended, the Chinese developer of the Myitsone Dam is ramping up efforts to lobby residents amid a strengthening of China-Myanmar relations.
Description:
"MUNG RA stands on stage, looking out over the thousands of anti-dam protesters who have come to the confluence where the Ayeyarwady River originates on October 1 to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the suspension of the Myitsone Dam.
At the edge of the crowd are English signs with the words “No Dam” and “Free Streaming the Ayeyarwady”. Many people in the audience have pinned badges to their clothing with anti-dam messages.
Mung Ra waves a book: Answering Questions on the Extraction of Hydroelectricity from the Ayeyarwady Myitsone, Upper Reaches and River Valley.
Published by the dam’s investor, China’s State Power Investment Corporation, it includes a wide range of information on the series of dams the company wants to build on the Ayeyarwady and its tributaries, the N’mai and the Mali rivers, including the structure and potential environmental impact of these dams, and the financial and other benefits for Myanmar. It also explains the company’s investment in the project to date, including the support it has provided to communities displaced by the 6,000 megawatt Myitsone dam project.
“The book mentions our resettlement and the health and livelihood assistance [the company gave] but it’s just full of fake information. We never received this [assistance] in the past and we are not receiving it now,” Mung Ra tells the crowd.
Mung Ra should know. Originally a resident of Daung Bum, a village located near Myitsone, in 2009 he was forced to move with his family to Maliyang, one of two model villages build by SPIC (then known as China Power Investment Corporation) to house people displaced to make room for the mega-dam, which would flood an area the size of Singapore..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-20
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, The impact of natural disasters on the environment and people of Burma/Myanmar
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-19
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
more
Sub-title:
Some worry that despite financial and social costs, much of the electricity proposed dam will generate will be exported.
Description:
"Myanmar government officials claim a hydroelectricity project along the Tanintharyi River could significantly benefit the Southeast Asian nation. But new research by a trio of human rights organisations offers a dark contrast to that bright picture. Almost 7,000 people could be displaced if a dam is built along the river, according to a joint report, Blocking a Bloodline, by Candle Light, Southern Youth, and the Tarkapaw Youth Group.
"These approximately 7,000 people will lose everything they know, including their way of life, community and kinship, ancestral history, local use of natural resources, and their lands," Human Rights Watch's Asia Deputy Director Phil Robertson wrote in an email to Al Jazeera. "If this [project] goes forward, [the villagers] will mark the first day of their displacement as the start of the worst period of their lives, when their rights were trod on by the Myanmar government and they were shuffled off to a wholly inadequate resettlement area where quality land, water, services, and support are entirely lacking."
The reports suggest the project will alter the livelihoods of the Karen, the area's indigenous people. This dam could "irreversibly alter the lives of up to 32,000 people living along it," the authors write. They predict that not only could up to 32 upstream villages be displaced, but 58,500 hectares of land would likely be destroyed..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-18
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Human Rights and international relations, Land rights, Dams and other hydropower projects (global, regional), Assessment of hydropower projects in Burma/Myanmar, Burma's economic relations with China
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-15
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-15
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-15
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-15
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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Summary:
"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...
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 entry/update:
2019-08-14
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-14
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-14
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
more
Summary:
"Myanmar has seen numerous violent
uprising in recent decades (Smith, 2007;
Sadan, 2016). Ceasefire agreements have
been struck with a number of armed actors
but these have been focused on...
Description:
"Myanmar has seen numerous violent
uprising in recent decades (Smith, 2007;
Sadan, 2016). Ceasefire agreements have
been struck with a number of armed actors
but these have been focused on economic
development, rather than on resolving
political grievances. The underlying notion
guiding this strategy has been that weak
economic development rather than poor
governance or lack of political inclusion lies
at the heart of local opposition (Brenner,
2017). Incentivised by the plentiful natural
resources present in conflict-affected,
minority-ethnic dominated states, Chinese
ventures have dominated investments in
these areas. One of the more spectacular
infrastructure projects funded by a Chinese
company is the Myitsone Dam in Kachin
State, on which work was suspended in 2011
following public protest (Kiik, 2016b;
Kirchherr, Charles and Walton, 2017)..."
Source/publisher:
"UI Paper"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-14
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, Armed conflict in Kachin State - ceasefires and ceasefire talks
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
2.06 MB
Local URL:
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Description:
"Myanmar is sandwiched between two very large neighbours – China and India. Relations with China are not currently cordial, especially among the Myanmar people, who retain memories of numerous undue political and economic interactions and incidents.
Historically, China is seen as an intruder rather than an equal partner, and even investments from China have unfair terms. In addition, regular border conflicts add to the already growing suspicion and negative image of China. India, on the other hand, plays a much smaller role. Its biggest investment in Myanmar is through the Kalaton project which is worth just US$ 8.5 million. The previous government tried a two-prong strategy – one prong to develop ties with pro-west India and another to facilitate China’s goal of having access to the Indian Ocean.
China is implementing the One Belt, One Road initiative. Three interesting observations can be made about the current geopolitical situation here:
First, China’s One Belt, One Road appears to exclude Myanmar. Secondly, United Wa State Army (UWSA) is taking a lead over other seven Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs), and is trying to replace the Myanmar government-sponsored Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with another ceasefire agreement. Thirdly, the UWSA’s Pangsang Summit declared that the One Belt, One Road strategy of China might have positive direct impacts on Myanmar’s ethnic regions.
The Pangsang Summit was held on February 22, organised by UWSA and Mongla Army/ National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA). NCA non-signatory groups – Arakan Army, Kachin Independence Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, Ta’ang National Liberation Army, Shan State Army and two special guests – also attended the summit.
Some attendees to Pangsang Summit are also members of United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC). The UNFC is currently negotiating with the government in order to sign the NCA. Meanwhile, the Wa group and its partners have demanded a new ceasefire agreement instead of the NCA..."
Source/publisher:
Mekong Eye
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-14
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-08-12
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
more
Sub-title:
While national attention remains focused on the Myitsone dam, Frontier visits one of the six other mega-dams north of the Ayeyarwady River confluence that could resume if conflict between the Tatmadaw and Kachin Independence Organisation is resolved.
Description:
"This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
The fuel station is bigger and more modern than anything I’ve seen in Kachin State. It’s also completely abandoned.
A fuel nozzle lies on the cracked, overgrown concrete, its hose trailing across the ground to a dispenser that has been reduced to a skeleton. Above the dispensers is a steel frame that would once have held up a roof. The adjacent concrete office is a mess of rubbish and broken glass. Gaping doorways let in the dull monsoon light.
The fuel station was built to supply construction vehicles on the 3,400-megawatt Chipwi hydropower project on the N’Mai River. The dam would be the second largest in a cascade of seven that a Chinese-Myanmar joint venture, Upstream Ayeyawady Confluence Basin Hydropower Co Ltd, plans to build on the upper reaches of the Ayeyarwady River in Kachin State.
Work began in December 2010 with a targeted completion date of 2020. Just six months later, fighting erupted between the Kachin Independence Organisation and the Tatmadaw, ending a 17-year ceasefire. In April 2012, soldiers of the Kachin Independence Army, the KIO’s armed wing, pushed into the area of the dam project and captured it from a Tatmadaw-aligned Border Guard Force. Fearing for their lives, hundreds of Chinese workers fled for safety in nearby Chipwi town, and the developer was forced to suspend work..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-12
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Armed conflict in Kachin State - economic factors associated with the conflict, Burma's economic relations with China, Chinese investment
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"Just a few months before 2012 by-elections, a group of concerned citizens worried about the fate of Myitsone gathered together at a location overlooking the confluence of three rivers in Myitkyina, Kachin State. A man walked to a podium with the assistance of a friend and said, with tears in his eyes, that the Ayeyarawady River was the lifeline of the whole of Myanmar and it’s endangered and near extinct flora and fauna would be diminished forever if and when the planned Myitsone hydropower dam was built there. The man was U Ohn an eminent environmentalist who loves his country.
Thanks to public awareness campaigns launched by environmentalists, protest campaigns launched by CSOs, and media coverage about the dangers of the dam, protests against it construction were launched. The Myitsone dam project consists of building seven dams with the main dam at the confluence (Myitsone) of the Maykha and Malikha Rivers, five more dams on Maykha and a dam on Malikha Rivers will also be built for power generation.
The estimated installed capacity of the project is 21,600 MW. According to 2015 statistics, Myanmar is currently generating just over 5,000 MW in the entire country so the installed capacity of the Myitsone dam will be over four times that of total power generation in the country. The then military regime and China Power Investment Corporation signed a MoU to build the dam in 2006.
After completion, 90% of the power generated will be sold to China and Myanmar will receive the remaining 10%.
At that time, the deafening sounds of protest against Myitsone and calls for ‘Save the Irrawaddy’ echoed throughout the entire country. As a result, in 2012, President Thein Sein made the stunning announcement that the project would be suspended during his five-year tenure and he won the hearts of the people..."
Source/publisher:
"Mekong Eye" via Mizzima
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-12
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Burma's economic relations with China, Chinese investment, China-Burma relations
Language:
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Summary:
"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...
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 entry/update:
2019-08-12
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-12
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-10
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-10
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-10
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations, “One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
Local URL:
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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 metric 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 kilometers 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.
"What's worse, if a traffic accident occurs, the fruit will rot on the road," she added..."
Source/publisher:
"Chinadaily"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-10
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Border Trade with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-10
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, “One Belt, One Road” initiative
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-10
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"In South Asia now, geo-economics seems all set to shape the region's geo-politics with Beijing's ambitious US$
50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), designed ostensibly to integrate economies of the restive
Xingian and western provinces with that of Pakistan. But its real strategic objective is to develop the sea ports
of Pakistan's Baluchistan to enable western China and the energy-rich Central Asian republics to gain
unfettered access to the Gulf and the Arabian Sea.
In this background, China’s reported move to build an economic corridor with Myanmar is cause for some
concern in India. The idea of a separate China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) was pushed through during
the recent visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Myanmar following his successful efforts to persuade
Myanmar and Bangladesh to discuss the Rohingya problem across the table and work out a framework of
agreement to a phased programme of their repatriation to Rakhine. The Chinese have apparently done a lot of
hard work to bring home to the Myanmarese Army the point that the global community and the UN system will
never accept the expulsion of Rohingyas as it violates human rights and the customary international law of
citizenship.
The significance of Chinese intervention, the first time in history in a long-drawn-out dispute involving two
states, which till 1935, were parts of the British Raj, cannot be missed by strategic analysts, as it has demonstrated growing Chinese influence in Myanmar and Bangladesh, both of which share borders with India and are
of vital importance to the success of India’s Act East Policy.
The CMEC might have come as a surprise as it runs parallel to the Bangladesh-China-India and Myanmar
Initiative (BCIM), but the fact remains that it has been a non-starter, especially after China launched CPEC,
which passes through the areas of Jammu and Kashmir under illegal occupation of Pakistan and is seen as a
China-led initiative..."
Source/publisher:
"Institut für Strategie- Politik- Sicherheits- und Wirtschaftsberatung (ISPSW)"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-10
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Other Special Economic Zones, China-Burma relations
Language:
Format :
pdf
Size:
158.21 KB
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Sub-title:
Three locations have been identified by Myanmar and Chinese officials under a memorandum of understandingfor the border economic cooperation core zones of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor.
Description:
"U Khin Maung Lwin, deputy secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, told the Myanmar Times that the country’s central committee for the Border Economic Cooperation Zone (BECZ), which met recently, decided on the areas for the core zones at Muse and Chin Shwe Haw in the northern part of Shan State and Kan Pite Tee in Kachin State.
He said the ministry would initiate a call for applications for expressions of interest (EOI) soon, adding that for the agreed upon Muse core zone, an export product manufacturing processing and warehouse area would be located at Panghsang (KyuKoke)-Wantain-Nwan Yin (Kyin San Kyawt)-Mantman (Shweli) while an import processing and warehouse area would be located at Salant (Manhiro)-Salin and Namkhang-Naungtaung.
The Chinese have also started processing works on their side of the border.
However, only Myanmar-owned companies will be allowed to participate in the bidding although foreign investors can still participate by holding up to a maximum 35 percent stake in such companies.
“We won’t allow 100pc foreign investment. It is important because it is border trade zone,” said U Khin Maung Lwin.
Local companies will have to present a detailed concept plan of their potential investment and source of their capital investment. “They will have to present EOI application on how they would implement projects,” he said..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-10
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
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Sub-title:
In 2011, construction work on a massive dam project in Myanmar's restive Kachin state was halted after large protests. China is now lobbying hard for the work to resume, but as BBC News Burmese's Soe Soe Htoon found, local people are still not convinced t
Description:
""I always cry every time I talk about the dam," says Jar Lie.
Eight years ago, she was forced to abandon her 40 acres of farmland and move to a resettlement village in Aung Myin Tha, around six miles (nine kilometres) away.
Her land was to be flooded by the vast reservoir created by the $3.6bn (£2.8bn) Chinese-financed Myitsone dam, at the source of the Irrawaddy river. Her new village has a market, a hospital, sealed roads and a school, all provided by the company building the dam, Beijing's State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC).
But Jar Lie says that without farming land, life here is very difficult.
"We could eat what we grew before; there was no need to buy anything. Here without land we can't do anything; we don't know how to earn money. I am very sick here."
The dam was due to be completed this year - but so far work has barely begun, and the project has exposed simmering tensions over the balance of power between China and the country it often refers to as its younger brother. The Myitsone was to be the largest of seven dams SPIC is promising to build in the region, to provide quickly-developing Myanmar with much-needed electricity.
By some estimates, the project would by itself generate more energy than the entire country produces now.
The full contract the former military government signed with SPIC has never been publicly released. But in a rare interview in May, with BBC News Burmese, the former deputy minister of Myanmar's state power company, U Maw Thar Htwe, confirmed the most provocative part of the deal - that 90% of the electricity the dam generated would go back over the border to China.
According to U Maw Thar Htwe, the government will get a 10% stake in the dam but will only see a return on its investment two decades after it starts operations..."
Source/publisher:
BBC News
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, The impact of natural disasters on the environment and people of Burma/Myanmar, Biodiversity - Burma/Myanmar-related
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Description:
" Environmentalists, scientists, writers and monks called for the cancellation of the Myitsone dam at a meeting in Yangon on Monday, at which a committee was formed to fight for the termination of the US$3.6 billion, China-backed project.
The meeting came amid pressure from Beijing for work to resume on the dam and followed State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s March 20 comment that the 6,000MW project needed to be considered from “a wider perspective”.
Work on the dam, on the Ayeyarwady River about 42 kilometres upstream from the Kachin State capital Myitkyina, was suspended by President U Thein Sein in September 2011 amid escalating and emotionally charged protests against the project.
A joint venture between China’s State Power Investment Corporation and a Myanmar conglomerate, Asia World, began work on the dam in 2009 under a memorandum of understand signed by the ruling military junta and the Chinese government three years earlier.
An agreement provided for most of the power generated by the massive dam, which would inundate an area as big as Singapore and displace thousands of people, to be exported to China.
Speakers at the April 1 meeting included retired government meteorologist and founder of Myanmar Climate Change Watch, Dr Tun Lwin, 71, who challenged one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s March 20 comments about the project.
The State Counsellor was quoted as saying that if her National League for Democracy government broke promises made by a previous administration, it would lose credibility with investors.
Tun Lwin said there were examples of governments not keeping promises for the sake of their people and the national interest, citing the decision by the Malaysian government to cancel China-backed infrastructure projects worth billions of dollars.
“I want the government to listen to the people and cancel the Myitsone project,” he said. “Otherwise I believe the future will not be pleasant.”
In his speech Tun Lwin said he did not support the Myitsone dam because the Ayeyarwady River was more important than Myanmar itself. Global warming was already leading to water shortages, he said, and blocking the flow of the river would endanger the country’s future access to water.
The former director-general of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology also expressed regret that his warnings about the impact of climate change on Myanmar were largely ignored.
“Sadly, no one has listened enough, especially government officials. This is the fate of our country,” said Tun Lwin, adding that the average temperature in Myanmar had risen by about 1.4 degrees Celsius over the past 50 years..."
Source/publisher:
"Frontier Myanmar"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, Climate Change - Migration Regional, The impact of natural disasters on the environment and people of Burma/Myanmar
Language:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-09
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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Description:
"In a rare concession to public pressure, Myanmar’s government on Friday ordered the suspension of a controversial hydroelectric project financed and led by a state-owned Chinese company.
The Myitsone dam project would have been the first to span the Irrawaddy River, the largest waterway in Myanmar, and was a showcase project for the previous military government. The halt in construction was a victory for dissidents in a country with a long history of stifling opposition.
A number of prominent people inside Myanmar, including writers, scientists and the Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, had opposed the project. The government’s announcement underscores the nascent stirrings of democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma, after a nominally civilian government took control from a military junta in March.
The dam’s suspension was a blow to China, long considered a benefactor to the government in Myanmar. China Power Investment, a state-run Chinese company, was leading the construction of the project, which would have delivered electricity to southern China. It is unclear how the suspension will affect six other Chinese-led hydroelectric projects in northern Myanmar..."
Source/publisher:
"The New York Times"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations, The impact of natural disasters on the environment and people of Burma/Myanmar
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Sub-title:
The Myanmar government, led by the National League for Democracy (NLD), has agreed with China to seek a solution to the controversial Myitsone dam project that will satisfy both sides, outgoing Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang said on Tuesday.
Description:
"“We are seriously concerned about the project. We agreed with the Myanmar government to find a solution that will not harm bilateral relations,” he said. “I firmly believe our relations will be better if we can solve this problem.”
Hong is set to leave his post at the end of the month. On Tuesday, he invited a select group of local journalists for a briefing at his residence.
The US$3.6 billion, 6000MW Myitsone dam in Kachin State is funded by China’s state-owned State Power Investment Corporation. Its construction was suspended by former president U Thein Sein in 2011 after widespread protests over social and environmental concerns.
People are wondering about the future of the project, as State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is under pressure from China to make a decision.
The State Counsellor has not revealed the details of the talks with China on the dam but she has promised to disclose any deal they reach.
The uncertainty has triggered speculation. Some say the dam would be re-sized or delayed until after the 2020 general election. Others say it would be stopped completely. “No need to worry about Myitsone,” Hong said. “When the results (of the negotiations) come out, cooperation between Myanmar and China will move forward”.
Hong admitted that the suspension of the project has been an obstacle to greater economic cooperation between China and Myanmar. He added that China suffered a big loss due to the suspension of the project for the past eight years.
He expressed concern that some groups are using the impasse over the project to advance their political interests. “A group is spreading misinformation about the Myitsone project, as they want to disturb Myanmar’s democratic reform process and Myanmar-China bilateral relations,” Hong said, without elaborating..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-09
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
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Description:
"နိုင်ငံတော်အတိုင်ပင်ခံပုဂ္ဂိုလ် ဒေါ်အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်ဟာ တရုတ်နိုင်ငံမှာ ဒီကနေ့ ဒုတိယနေ့အဖြစ် ကျင်းပနေတဲ့ ခေတ်သစ်ပိုးလမ်းမစီမံကိန်းဆိုင်ရာ ထိပ်သီးညီလာခံကိုတက်ရောက်နေပါတယ်။ ဒီနေ့ ညီလာခံနဲ့ စီမံကိန်းအကြောင်း RFA ဝိုင်းတော်သား ကိုကျော်မင်းထွန်းက စုစည်းတင်ပြထားပါတယ်။..."
Source/publisher:
RFA Burmese လွတ်လပ်တဲ့အာရှအသံ
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-08
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma-US relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"The jade trade between Myanmar and China is worth an estimated US$30 billion a year - about half of Myanmar’s GDP. But jade mining is a bloodstained business built on drug addiction, slave labour and massive environmental destruction. Who should be responsible for the dark side of jade?.."
Source/publisher:
CNA Insider
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-07
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade, Burma's economic relations with China, Gems, The impact of natural disasters on the environment and people of Burma/Myanmar
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"China-Myanmar cooperation under" Belt and Road"
တရုတ်-မြန်မာ Belt and Road အစကောင်းတစ်ရပ်..."
Source/publisher:
China Embassy in Myanmar
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-07
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-07
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma-US relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-02
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Other Special Economic Zones, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma-US relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-08-01
[field_licence]
Type:
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:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-07-31
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"In Burma, workers are building one of the most lucrative foreign-funded development projects in the country's history. Twin oil and gas pipelines will stretch from Burma's west coast to its northeast border and into energy-hungry China. They are expected to earn Burma about $1 billion per year, but, as VOA's Daniel Schearf reports from Mandalay, not everyone is a supporter..."
Source/publisher:
VOA News
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-31
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"Voters in Myanmar will be going to the first elections in 20 years on Sunday, even as the military government faces severe international trade sanctions.
But China continues to invest billions of dollars, fuelled mostly by an appetite for natural resources.
Al Jazeera's correspondent, not being named due to Myanmar's reporting restrictions, reports from Mandalay where the signs of China's growing influence are clearly visible. (Nov 05, 2010)..."
Source/publisher:
Al Jazeera English
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-31
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-07-31
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
"Chinese products has been dominating the daily lives of Myanmar people for their lower prices and good qualities..."
Source/publisher:
New China TV
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-31
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Burma's economic relations with China, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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Description:
"Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has wrapped up a visit to Myanmar in which he met his counterpart and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. It was the first visit by a foreign official since the new government took office. What statement is intended with this visit, and what can be expected from the China-Myanmar relationship going forward? Suu Kyi will likely be appointed to a role similar to prime minister, although the bill was opposed by the country's remaining military powers. What should her priorities be? And will a strong relationship with China help her in the formidable tasks of stabilizing the country and boosting economic growth? Join us for a discussion with Mr. Victor Gao, one of the directors of the China-Myanmar Friendship Association; Mr. Alistair Cook, research fellow with the Center for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS) at Nanyang Technological University; and Mr. Murray Hiebert, deputy director and senior fellow, Chair for Southeast Asia Studies at CSIS..."
Source/publisher:
CGTN
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-31
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-07-31
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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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 entry/update:
2019-07-31
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-07-31
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Foreign investment in mining, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
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 entry/update:
2019-07-31
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
Local URL:
more
Description:
They say their crops and livestock have suffered.
Source/publisher:
Radio Free Asia
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-25
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Local URL:
more
Sub-title:
CITIC-led consortium this month started legally required impact assessments but the controversial $1.3 billion mega-project is still far from a done deal
Description:
"Myanmar’s US$1.3 billion Kyaukphyu deep-sea port project, a China-backed scheme under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is one small step closer to realization.
CITIC Group Corporation, the Chinese state firm leading the project, started this month a legally required environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) and preliminary geological survey, the first signs of on-the-ground progress for the mega-project.
The moves come eight months after Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government inked a framework agreement with a CITIC-led consortium. The agreement fell short of, but paved the way for, an actual concession-granting deal.
The CITIC-led consortium, comprised of four other Chinese enterprises and Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group, aims to develop the port as part of a special economic zone (SEZ) in Myanmar’s conflict-ridden Rakhine state.
Negotiations for the mega-project, green-lighted by previous president Thein Sein, stalled in the first two years of Suu Kyi’s government, either for reasons of red tape or lingering official unease over the scheme.
When contacted by Asia Times, a CITIC representative declined to speculate on when the two parties would conclude the ongoing talks..."
Source/publisher:
"Asia Times"
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-17
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Language:
Local URL:
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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
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
Local URL:
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
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
“One Belt, One Road” initiative, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
Local URL:
more
Description:
"A statement from the Chinese government on Sunday has renewed concerns among ethnic Kachin over the stalled Myitsone dam project. In the statement, the Chinese Embassy in Yangon claimed that Kachin political leaders and social organizations had a “positive attitude” toward the dam. It added that “local people of Kachin State do not oppose the Myitsone hydropower project; it is some individuals and social organizations from outside that oppose the project.”
Three Kachin political parties and community leader Rev. Hkalam Samson immediately issued a statement of their own to insist that China’s claims were false and misleading.
It is obvious that the people of Myanmar, and the Kachin in particular, have been opposed to the Myitsone dam projects even before it forced thousands of Kachin villagers to relocate.
Myitsone is hardly China’s only planned dam in Myanmar. It also hopes to build dams in Lasa on the Mali River and in Khaunglanghpu, Phizaw, Lakin and Pashe on the Nmai River. A dam on the Nmai in Chiphwi is already finished..."
JOE KUMBUN
Source/publisher:
The Irrawaddy
Date of publication:
2019-01-15
Date of entry/update:
2019-05-31
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
English
Local URL:
more