"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..."