Myanmar Weekly News
18th January 2014
Vol.1 No.3
MYANMAR WEEKLY NEWS Vol 1, No.3
18th January 2018
www.myanmar.com
Table of Contents NEWSMAKERS
U.S. urges Myanmar to probe attacks on Muslim minority
Bangkok Post compares BBS to violent 969 group of Myanmar
Myanmar still uses rape as weapon of war
Calm restored after murder in Meikhtila
Shangri-La Residences Open In Yangon
Myanmar fiefdom openly selling illegal ivory
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Thailand's Protests Hit Tourism to Neighboring Myanmar
Buddhist mob kills more than a dozen Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar: rights group
KIA releases two Tatmadaw soldiers following clashes
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Crown Princess Mary talks sex in Myanmar
In Myanmar, Buddhist Mob Group Kills Dozens of Muslims
Aung Thaung's family firm involved in Kachin dam deal
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POLITICS U.S. urges Myanmar to probe attacks on Muslim minority By Jared Ferrie YANGON Fri Jan 17, 2014 6:33am EST
(Reuters) - The United States on Friday urged Myanmar to investigate reports that security forces and Buddhist mobs attacked members of the Rohingya Muslim minority this week, killing as many as 60 people. Rights groups reported attacks by security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs against Rohingya in a village in the Maungdaw township of western Rakhine state over the past three days. "The United States is deeply concerned about reports of fresh violence in Rakhine state, including reports that security forces may have committed abuses," a U.S. embassy official told Reuters. "We urge the government to thoroughly investigate such reports." Chris Lewa, director of Rohingya advocacy group Arakan Project, said the numbers of unconfirmed dead ranged from 10 to 60. She said the violence appeared to have started when Rohingya villagers clashed with police on the evening of Jan 13. Rakhine state government spokesman Win Myaing denied anyone was killed.
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Incidents in Maungdaw township and other parts of Rakhine state are difficult to verify independently, as they are off limits to journalists and the government strictly controls access by international aid groups. Aung Win, a Rohingya activist based in the state capital of Sittwe, told Reuters his contacts were unable to reach the village because it had been "encircled" by security forces, preventing anyone from checking for dead bodies. Medecins Sans Frontieres, which runs a nearby clinic, said it was concerned that residents who fled the area may need medical care. "MSF confirms that on Wednesday it saw two wounded people suffering from injuries inflicted as a result of violence - one from a gunshot wound and the other exhibiting injuries consistent with a beating," said Myanmar head of mission Peter-Paul de Groote. Any deaths this week would add to the tally of at least 237 people killed in religious violence across Myanmar since June 2012, which has also displaced more than 140,000 people. Most of the victims were Muslims and the most deadly incidents happened in Rakhine state, where about one million Rohingya live under apartheid-like conditions, denied citizenship with their movements tightly restricted and with little access to health care, jobs or education. Rohingya have been fleeing Myanmar in droves, crowding into dangerously overloaded boats, with many dying at sea. The exodus has created problems for neighboring countries dealing with the flood of illegal immigration. Myanmar's government said on Thursday, however, it would not discuss the issue at meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional political and economic bloc it will chair through 2014. "This Bengali issue is our internal affair so we wouldn't discuss it, even if other countries demanded at the ASEAN meetings while our country is the chair," government spokesman Ye Htut told reporters. Like many in Myanmar, Ye Htut used the term "Bengali" to refer to the Rohingya, who reject the designation, which they see as underscoring an assertion that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many families have lived in western Myanmar for generations. (Editing by Jason Szep and Clarence Fernandez) Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/17/us-myanmar-violenceidUSBREA0G0L920140117
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Myanmar state mouthpiece promises ‘independent’ future Published on Jan 15, 2014
NAYPYIDAW (AFP) - The New Light of Myanmar, the state mouthpiece known for fiery juntaera pronouncements against international media, will be ―editorially independent‖ when it is reborn as a partly private newspaper this year, a spokesman said. Myanmar has sought to shed its image as an enemy of a free press by scrapping draconian censorship and allowing private daily newspapers as it implemented stunning political reforms since the end of outright military rule nearly three years ago. The English-language New Light has also toned down its bombast in recent years, replacing rhetoric against critics and foreign media – such as accusing the BBC of ―killer broadcasts‖ and ―sowing hatred‖ – with celebrity gossip and sports. It has been partly spun off by the state, with a Myanmar company taking a 49 per cent stake in what the newspaper says will mean a new broadsheet style, more colour pages and a ―people‘s interest‖ focus. Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/se-asia/story/myanmar-statemouthpiece-promises-%E2%80%98independent%E2%80%99-future-20140115
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Bangkok Post compares BBS to violent 969 group of Myanmar [TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 January 2014, 16:14 GMT] In an editorial opinion titled ‗Unacceptable intolerance' the Bangkok Post on Tuesday said that the Buddhists across the globe should be dismayed at the abuse of their religion by the Sri Lankan Bodu Bala Sena and Myanmar's 969 group, which are opposed to other races and faiths. The ideology, actions and speeches of both these groups are virtually identical, the Bangkok Post observed.
The BBS in Sri Lanka has attracted thousands of followers, who have staged numerous intimidating and provocative acts to harass the island nation's minority Muslim community, the paper said. The founder of the BBS, 37-year-old Galagoda Atte Gnanasara, summarises his beliefs and bias concisely: "This is a Buddhist nation," he says of Sri Lanka. "Not everyone can live under the umbrella of a Buddhist culture." Both the BBS and 969 are opposed to Muslims. The Sri Lankan group is yet to commit killings, the paper observed. In Myanmar, the 969 group has been accused of inciting and then supporting attacks which have killed hundreds of Muslims, and burnt down villages and homes across the country. As in Thailand, a large percentage of Sri Lanka's Muslims are ethnically different to the Sinhalese majority, and speak Tamil among themselves.
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The difference, of course, is that in Thailand virtually every Buddhist not only believes that the nation can shelter those of other races and faiths, they are proud of it, the editorial noted. Source: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=36978
Myanmar still uses rape as weapon of war: Women's group 14 January 2014| last updated at 04:02PM WASHINGTON: A women's group says the military in Myanmar is still using rape as a weapon of war, with more than 100 women and girls raped by the army since a 2010 election brought about a nominally civilian government that has pursued rapprochement with the West. The Thailand-based Women's League of Burma said in a report made available to Reuters that 47 of the cases documented were gang rapes and 28 of the women were either killed or had died of their injuries. It said several victims were as young as eight. The group said the situation showed the need for legal reform in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and for changes to a 2008 constitution to ensure that the military is placed under civilian control. No one was immediately available for comment at Myanmar's presidency or Defence Ministry. In the past, the military has rejected similar accusations.
Photo: Myanmar military personnel. Image used for representational purposes only. AFP.
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the women's group comes less than a month after a bipartisan group of senators, Bob Menendez, Marco Rubio Ben Cardin and Bob Corker, saying that no funds made available to the Pentagon in 2014 should be Myanmar government until there is such reform and rights abuses are
The bill, which makes an exception for human rights and disaster response training for the military, also calls on the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department to present a report on U.S. strategy for military-to-military ties with Myanmar, including an assessment of the Myanmar military's rights record and the link between a deepening of such ties and reform. The women's group said most of the rape cases it and its member organizations had documented were linked to offensives by the Myanmar military in the northeast of the country against ethnic minority Kachin and Shan insurgents. It said that in the past three years, the Kachin Women's Association Thailand had documented 59 cases of sexual violence by Myanmar government soldiers. The Shan Women's Action Network reported another 30 cases involving 35 women and girls, it said. The women's league said the attacks were more than random isolated acts by rogue soldiers. "Their widespread and systematic nature indicates a structural pattern: rape is still used as an instrument of war and oppression." The league said more than 38 different army battalions were implicated in the cases it had documented. It said the incidents took place in at least 35 different townships and that it believed the reported cases were only the "tip of the iceberg" as many cases went unreported. "The use of sexual violence in conflict is a strategy and an act of warfare that has political and economic dimensions that go beyond individual cases," the report said. "Sexual violence is used as a tool by the Burmese military to demoralize and destroy ethnic communities." The group said the abuses were potential war crimes and crimes against humanity and called for a thorough independent investigation. The report highlighted one case in which an 8-year-old girl living with her grandparents was raped by a soldier in Hsipaw Township in northern Shan State, on April 14, 2013. In another case, soldiers raped three women and a 12-year- old girl in Shan State's Ke See township on July 5, 2011. It said the girl was raped in front of her mother and one of the women was nine-months pregnant. The 2012 State Department human rights report on Myanmar referred to rapes by both government forces and ethnic minority insurgent groups in Shan and Kachin states. It said that when government soldiers committed rape in ethnic minority areas, the army rarely took action to punish those responsible.
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The January 2013 Human Rights Watch report on Myanmar said sexual violence by the military remained a serious problem. In October, 133 civil society organizations representing ethnic groups in Myanmar, including the women's league, wrote to U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to express concern about their military engagement with Myanmar. --REUTERS Source: http://www.nst.com.my/latest/myanmar-still-uses-rape-as-weapon-of-war-womens-group-1.462177
Keep an Eye on the People with the Guns in Myanmar’s Transition By: Lex Rieffel I fear that Myanmar’s transition to better governance could start to go off the rails in 2014. While a serious train wreck seems unlikely, the mood in the country could sour as problems pile up, which could make the national election expected at the end of 2015 a messy affair. As a result, the new government that will likely take office in early 2016 might be less effective than the current one. A breakdown in the peace process is the problem most likely to push the transition off the rails. The efforts being made by the Thein Sein government to negotiate a durable peace with the country‘s ethnic minorities, after more than six decades of civil war, are serious and commendable. By some accounts, agreement has been reached on 80 per cent of the issues. It is not unusual in such delicate negotiations, however, for the last 5 per cent of the issues to be as difficult to resolve as the first 95 per cent. Standing in the way of success in the peace process — as well as most other aspects of the transition to better governance — is the government‘s apparent inability to control the guns. Has there ever been a successful transition in which the government does not have authority over the military and the police? As it stands, there is little evidence that the Thein Sein government has real control over the arms in the hands of the Tatmadaw (Myanmar‘s armed forces) or the police. In the successful transitions in Asia over the past 50 years, the guns have been controlled by a reformist commander-in-chief of the armed forces or a party (communist, in most instances). Rent-seeking activities by gun-bearing units have been curtailed and budgets for weaponry have been constrained. But it has taken a generation or more in these countries to develop professional military and police structures that do not rely on off-budget sources of revenue. What is the basis for believing it will take any less time in Myanmar? Three related problems also have the potential to derail the transition. First is the issue of constitutional amendment. The Thein Sein government is publicly committed to amending the 2008 Constitution to make the political system more democratic
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and to strengthen basic human rights. The issue with the highest visibility is removing provisions that might prevent Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president. But a more fundamental issue is the devolution of power from the central government to the seven Bamar-majority ‗regions‘ and the seven ethnic minority ‗states‘, plus several special administrative areas. Even the nomenclature is divisive. An arguably more ‗nationalist‘ solution would be to label all of the first-level areas ‗provinces‘, redraw the existing boundaries, and create as many as 10 new provinces (Cambodia has 23 with a quarter of the population). Ironically, the rapidly rising flows of foreign aid and foreign investor interest in Myanmar may also contribute more to derailing the transition than advancing it. Getting the Constitution amended before the 2015 election would be a great step forward, but it requires a nation-wide referendum and there may not be enough time left to reach a consensus on the amendments and hold the referendum. Given the cost, a case can be made for scheduling the referendum concurrently with the election of union-level and lowerlevel representatives. Second is the census. The last census in Myanmar was in 1983, but it did not fully meet international standards. The last credible census was in the 1930s when Myanmar (Burma) was still a British colony. The Thein Sein government decided two years ago to conduct a new census and it has been working closely with experts from the UN, other multilateral institutions, and a number of donor countries to design and carry out a census over 12 days beginning 30 March 2014. However, there are potentially explosive aspects of the census process, especially a question that requires respondents to select one ethnic identity among the 135 official ‗national races‘ and an ‗other‘ option. Given the controversy this provision has already created, a more sensible approach might be to eliminate the question in the census and then after the 2015 election do a sample survey of ethnic identity with a shorter and less controversial list of options (including ‗mixed‘). Third is the problem of land grabbing. Without any or only token compensation, millions of acres of land were taken away from longstanding owners by rich and powerful people under the military junta that ruled Myanmar from 1988 to 2011. Such land grabbing has continued under the Thein Sein government despite its commitment to the principles of due process and just compensation. Very few low-income countries have been able to stop socially destabilising land grabbing. Even authoritarian regimes like China‘s struggle with this problem. It is simply not feasible for Myanmar to establish a trustworthy land registration and transfer system before the 2015 election. The Tatmadaw and the police have strong interests in all three of these problems — interests that are more likely to delay solutions than advance them. Ironically, the rapidly rising flows of foreign aid and foreign investor interest in Myanmar may also contribute more to derailing the transition than advancing it. Foreign visitors are pre-empting too much of the time of senior officials in the Thein Sein government. While the general thrust of the government‘s policies has been close to brilliant, they will only improve lives if they are implemented effectively. Effective implementation requires a monumental cultural change in the bureaucracy, and right now it looks as though the government‘s ministers and director generals are not spending enough time on implementation.
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Myanmar‘s friends around the world want the transition to succeed. They tend to focus on the good news and discount the bad news. There is plenty of good news on the surface, but there are some underlying realities that may be intractable in the near term. Source: http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2014/01/13-myanmar-transitionrieffel
Calm restored after murder in Meikhtila
The situation in the central Burmese town of Meikhtila is calm after the murder of a man on Saturday provoked fresh rumours that an outbreak of communal violence was imminent. According to Pol-Maj Maung Shwe, commander of Meikhtila Township Police, the murder of Pho Pyu by his brothers in law was fuelled by a family dispute and was in no way linked to racial or religious background. ―The murder was the result of a family dispute between various brothers in law,‖ said the police chief. ―The victim used to be a Muslim but he converted to Buddhism, while the assailants are Muslim. They got in a fight after one of the men‘s wives left home following a row with her husband.‖ Pol-Maj Maung Shwe confirmed that the three brother-in-laws had been arrested.
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―We are charging the three brothers – Aung Zaw Htwe, who stabbed the victim; Zaw Myo Htwe, who witnesses say shot at him with a catapult; and Pho Ni – for murdering the victim, known as Pho Pyu.‖ He said the situation in the town was normal although some residents had voiced concern that the incident may fuel further unrest in the town, which saw bloody anti-Muslim riots last March, leaving dozens dead and over 10,000 homeless. The senior police officer added that measures had been prepared to deal with any resumption of violence. Burma‘s state-run New Light of Myanmar confirmed the story on Sunday, though it reported that Pho Ni had in fact been stabbed by Pho Pyu after the former intervened in to stop the quarrel. Pho Ni is currently being treated at Meiktila Hospital while Aung Zaw Htwe and Zaw Myo Htwe have been detained at Meiktila Prison, the report said. The New Light report concluded: ―The local authority said it was just a case happened in the family [sic] and requested not to believe the rumors created by those who wish to resort to violence, according to the officials.‖ Source: http://www.dvb.no/news/calm-restored-after-murder-in-meikhtila-burmamyanmar/36020
Underwater arms race looms between Asean and China The Nation January 12, 2014 1:00 am Neighbours need to sit down together and with Beijing to calm security fears A quarter of a century ago it was easy for policymakers in charge of defence policy to talk about threat perception. The world was engaged in the Cold War where the line between the two opposing forces was clearly drawn and threat perception was neatly presented.
Many of the wars on the ground were proxy in nature - a fight between Russia and the United States. And in some way it was easy for the defence planners to sell whatever ideas to the public, no matter how outrageous it may be, because ordinary people had also buy into the official explanation as to who or what was said to be a national security threat.
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But in the aftermath of the Cold War the line in the sand is not as clear as it used to be. Foes have become friends and no-go areas are now investment opportunities. Moreover, the Killing Fields in Indochina have been transformed into a market-place. The same could be said for Communist China, as well as Russia. And while threats or threat perceptions are still part of national planning, leaders and policymakers cannot be as blunt as they used to for fear that a frank assessment may offend newfound friends. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the ongoing race in procurement of military weapons, namely the submarines, in Southeast Asia is picking up at an unprecedented rate. Military strategists can claim that modernisation requires strategists to look decades ahead to assess what the security situation would be like and make their plans accordingly. Policy for submarine procurement is no different. In today's security challenge, defending a coastal area is no longer adequate; a nation must be able to project its authority far away from one's territorial water into the distant ocean to protect international sea lanes, resources and, if needed, to flex one's muscles to show others that "We mean business". Incidentally, this appears to be the case between a number of Southeast Asian countries and China, because of territorial disputes, although no one country would admit that their naval modernisation is aimed at containing or countering Beijing's assertiveness over the contested areas. Vietnam just received its first of six Russian Kilo-class submarines, while Thailand is expected to follow suit. Myanmar is planning to establish a submarine force by next year while Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia plan to add more submarines to their existing fleets. The Philippines, which needs to build up its naval forces because of its vast water area, has not acquired any new submarines. But it's unlikely that ongoing modernisation of naval and military weapons in Southeast Asia will halt the China's expanded military projection in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. If anything, China is likely to beef up its anti-submarine capabilities. Japan's advanced submarine fleet has done nothing in terms of curbing China's assertiveness. Needless to say, expansions are often countered by counter expansion, thus, adding to the regional suspicion. Asean nations must work together on this and act collectively before the situation gets out of control and the region finds itself in an unwanted arms race with China. Military modernisation is a natural phenomenon. But when a nation builds its defence capability in response to another, it becomes a cause of concern. Source:http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Underwater-arms-race-looms-betweenAsean-and-China-30224043.html
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As Myanmar reopens, so does its universities Closed following student unrest in 1988, undergraduates again in a sign of change.
Yangon
University
is
accepting
Hereward Holland Last updated: 10 Jan 2014 11:42
Photo:Yangon University was reopened in December and plans to educate 1,000 students this year [Al Jazeera]
Yangon, Myanmar - Once a hotbed of political subversion, the old foundations of the Rangoon Student Union now sustain a grove of trees that sway sleepily in regimental rows. A student sits on a wall nearby, leafing through a text book. The old building was blown up in 1962 by the first of Burma's secretive military juntas that steered the country through decades of misrule and eviscerated its once-prestigious higher education system. Half a century and a name-change later, the leafy avenues of Yangon University are crawling with the first crop of undergraduates to study a curriculum free from the interfering hand of the military. Until recently the word "poverty" was banned, alongside any discussion of domestic politics at the University.
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After an outburst of student-led protests in 1988, the political science department was shuttered. Further protests ten years later led to the shut-down of all undergraduate teaching, but things are now changing. "We have full autonomy," says a beaming Kyaw Naing, a rector at the school, two weeks after the university re-opened its gates to undergraduates in December. A government largely composed of retired generals took power in 2011 and, to the surprise of many outsiders, began a radical political and economic reform programme they called a transition to "disciplined democracy". They ended pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest and began releasing hundreds of political prisoners. As a result, the West suspended or lifted most of their trade and economic sanctions, heralding a cascade of frontier investors sniffing fresh opportunities. US President Barack Obama made an historic speech at the university in November 2012, hailing the country's "remarkable journey". Observers say the government's objective was to yank the South East Asian country out of isolation, away from an increasingly overbearing Chinese influence and into the 21st century. Student dissent Founded in 1920, Rangoon University became known as one of the best in Asia, commensurate with Burma's former position as a regional powerhouse, but the institution's misfortunes have matched that of the country. The campus has long been a hive for nurturing political dissidents and intellectuals, beginning with those striving for independence from Great Britain in 1948. In 1988 the student uprising broke out because they were unhappy with the educational system and economic development Chaw Chaw Sein, head of the international relations department Aung San Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, rose from the ranks of the Student Union to lead the charge for sovereign rule, but was assassinated six months before realising his goal. "He wanted our country to become the most developed country and he wanted democracy. After he died the country was not democratic," says Kyin Ya Mone Zawa, a 17-year-old international relations student. She is one of an initial intake of 15 students in each class, but the university has now decided to re-open the campus dormitories to allow 50 students in each major, bringing total enrolment to 1,000 for the year. Fearing unrest, the junta closed the dormitories in the 1990s and forced students to attend classes dispersed on campuses across town.
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As one of the first batch of new undergraduates, Zawa says she wants to become a politician or an ambassador, fulfilling the hopes of both her father and that of the reformist government seeking to foster a new generation of intellectuals. "One of the plans is to nurture outstanding students," said Zaw Myint, deputy director general at the Ministry of Higher Education. "This is a great change at Yangon University." In 1962 the revolutionary council led by President Ne Win began to dismantle the academic establishment, replacing political science with study of the disastrous "Burmese Path to Socialism", a programme that ran the country into the ground. Once the largest rice exporter in the world, Myanmar is now one of the poorest countries in East Asia with a per capital income of $1,200, according to the World Bank's most recent data. Under the generals the faculty system collapsed and foreign professors stopped visiting. "The education system wasn't very good," says Chaw Chaw Sein, head of the international relations department and an artist of understatement. She proudly announces she was part of the 1988 generation, a student group who spearheaded the wave of pro-democracy demonstrations which culminated in a bloody military crackdown that left hundreds, possibly thousands dead. "In 1988 the student uprising broke out because they were unhappy with the educational system and economic development," she says, resplendent in an indigo skirt and blouse, the colour worn to identify lecturers. Lost generation Despite its abundant academic failures, the socialist experiment wasn't devoid of virtues, Sein says. She credits a socialist literacy program for helping cultivate a nation of bookworms.
Average annual income in Myanmar is about $1,200 [Al Jazeera]
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Second-hand bookshops spill into the streets across Yangon and, according to World Bank figures, Myanmar has an adult literacy rate of over 90 percent, on par with Turkey, a country with a per capita income almost nine times larger. Even so, decades of Western isolation and a vandalised education system will make it difficult to execute the government's democratic rebranding. "There is a generation gap between those talented ones and (us), the new students with a new government system," says Ye Yint, a political science undergraduate. "We are changing and developing gradually... we will have to watch what happens in the long-term." Sai Khaing Myo Tun, secretary of Yangon University Teachers' Union, says people in Myanmar profess a desire for democracy, but don't understand the ingredients of liberalism. "We were taught to memorise things, not to categorise them, to analyse them, or criticise them. It's let our younger generation be left behind other countries," he says. "We were taught to believe what is in the text book and that has a great effect on the society." Although the education budget has tripled since 2011, Myanmar's expenditure remains far lower than its Asian peers. As a journalist, freedom to stroll around the University would have been impossible a couple of years ago and it is a mark of progress made. But an attempt by Al Jazeera to walk around the grounds of the former Student Union is cut short with a shrill whistle and frantic gesticulation from security guards. Disciplined democracy, it seems, has some way to go. Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/01/as-myanmar-reopens-sodoes-universities-201418104157420377.html
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BUSINESS Shangri-La Residences Open In Yangon
Situated in Yangon's prime residential area in 15 acres of greenery overlooking the serene Kandawgyi Lake and sacred Shwedagon Pagoda are 240 elegantly appointed apartments that make up the Shangri-La Residences. Shangri-La Just opened to offer the brand's signature level of luxury and legendary hospitality, the apartments are housed in twin towers and range from two-bedroom units to four-bedroom penthouses with rooftop terraces. Exclusive residential facilities include a lounge and function room, gourmet shop, well-equipped gymnasium, tennis courts, swimming pool and covered car park. Shangri-La Residences, YangonMinutes from the central business district, tenants will appreciate the convenience of a gated community and apartments measuring between 156 square metres and 209 square metres. The penthouses are the largest units with 295 square metres to 434 square metres of space and unobstructed views of the city from the roof terrace. All residential quarters are built-in with a well-equipped kitchen, laundry area with dryer, large backyard with a live-in area for a domestic helper, complimentary Wi-Fi and high speed internet access. "Shangri-La Residences, Yangon is a sanctuary with extensive lifestyle services. As more corporate travellers set up homes in Yangon, it is a natural progression for Shangri-La to provide residential facilities and to serve as an extended family to new members of the Yangon community," said Phillip Couvaras, general manager of Shangri-La Residences, Yangon. Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, one of the world's premier hotel companies, currently owns and/or manages more than 80 hotels under the Shangri-La brand with a room inventory of over 34,000. Over four decades the group has established
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its brand hallmark of 'hospitality from the heart'. The group has a substantial development pipeline with upcoming projects in mainland China, India, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka and United Kingdom. Logos, product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Š 2014 Hotel News Resource
Event organiser adjusts strategy WATCHIRANONT THONGTEP, THE NATION January 16, 2014 1:00 am ALTHOUGH the event industry has endured postponements due to the disruptions of antigovernment protests and an economic slowdown, Index Creative Village still believes that it will achieve its target of Bt2 billion revenue this year. "As far as I am aware, events planned for this month have been postponed, but not be cancelled yet," co-chief executive officer Kriangkrai Kanjanapokin said yesterday. Though so far the political demonstrations in Bangkok have been mostly peaceful, local businesses are waiting to see how things develop, and so have decided to postpone their planned events to make sure the situation is calm enough. To cope with this, Index Creative Village has revised its business plan and strategies for achieving its Bt2-billion revenue target. Kasikorn Research Centre predicts that the event industry will grow by about 2-5 per cent to between Bt14.3 billion and Bt14.7 billion this year, lower than its previous estimate, because of the sluggish economy and political uncertainty. The research centre also suggested that the big companies should expand their business into neighbouring countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Kriangkrai also suggested that competition this year would continue to be fierce because new players keep entering this market, particularly small and medium-sized event organisers that offer lower-budget service. The company will focus more this year on creating its own events for the domestic market along with more activity in such places as Myanmar and Vietnam. He added that the Thai event business was saturated, and awaiting mega-events from overseas. Index Creative Village and its partner Forever Group in Myanmar invested Bt200 million in the Myanmar Event Park on 20,000 square metres in the heart of Yangon's business district. The venue is built for MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) events in that city, aiming to capitalise on increasing demand from overseas investors.
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Under this project, Index Creative Village manages and operates the new venue and earmarks some money for marketing and promotion of the venue. Source:http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Event-organiser-adjusts-strategy30224402.html
Will an Integrated ASEAN Region Challenge China?
Jan 15, 2014 China‘s status as the global darling for foreign investment and trade is facing some competition these days from Southeast Asian nations that, while small, are forming an increasingly important economic bloc. Though the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, comprises a market of 610 million people — less than half the size of China‘s — the bloc‘s more affluent consumers are looking increasingly attractive, especially to Japanese companies wary of risks stemming from escalating territorial disputes with Beijing. While most Japanese companies remain committed to their investments in China, the proposed formation of the ASEAN Economic Community — an economic integration of the 10 member countries, similar to the European Union — by 2015 is especially tantalizing. From a demographic and production cost point of view, the ASEAN bloc – which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam — is nudging China aside as the Chinese labor force begins to
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shrink and wages rise. Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia are attracting foreign manufacturers as well as financial and other service companies drawn by the region‘s quickly growing, and relatively big spending, middle class. Japan‘s investment expansion into ASEAN is expected to persist for at least the next few years, as other countries, including China and the U.S., also pour resources into the region. For the time being, however, China remains ahead in terms of FDI: China‘s incoming foreign investment from the world in 2012, totaling US$121.08 billion, was still bigger than ASEAN‘s US$111.29 billion, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Japan‘s direct investment in ASEAN from January through June 2013 increased sharply, up 88.7% at 998.6 billion yen, while its FDI into China fell 18% from a year earlier to 470.1billion yen, according to the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). ―It‘s not just because of the deterioration of China-Japan relations; there are other important factors,‖ notes Koichi Ishikawa, an ASEAN economy specialist at Asia University in Tokyo. ―ASEAN is becoming a bigger consumer market, as its middle class is growing rapidly and consumption was very strong in 2011 and 2012 in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.‖ Affluent consumers are crowding into newly built shopping malls, and car and motorcycle sales hit new records in Indonesia in 2011 and 2012. Though ASEAN also includes relatively poor countries like Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, the region‘s potential purchasing power is huge. ―The biggest reason for the increase in FDI into ASEAN is that ASEAN has become a very attractive market as well as a manufacturing base,‖ says Isamu Wakamatsu, director of the Asia and Oceania division and an ASEAN trade specialist at JETRO. China‘s Troubles Despite all the noise about China‘s ultra-wealthy nouveau riche, there is a big gap between the rich and the rural poor populations in China. ―Not every one of China‘s 1.3 billion people can afford to buy much,‖ notes Murray Hiebert, a senior fellow and deputy director of the Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. Apart from the promise of its own markets, ASEAN‘s growing competitiveness as a manufacturing base has emerged as an important factor for multinational companies. China‘s once seemingly limitless legions of rural laborers are a thing of the past, thanks to increasing urbanization and the low birth rate enforced through China‘s one-child policy. The working population began shrinking in 2012, falling 3.45 million to 937.27 million, according to the China National Statistics Bureau, while ASEAN‘s working age population continues to expand at a healthy speed: At nearly 390 million in 2012, it will not peak until 2042, at about 472 million, according to a report on ASEAN FDI by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. ―This is quite a contrast to a decade ago, when there were widespread fears that FDI into ASEAN would be marginalized and crowded out by China‘s rise,‖ Hak Bin, ASEAN economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said in the report. He added that China‘s higher wage increases, labor shortages and reminbi appreciation have made ASEAN, by comparison, more attractive for investment. China‘s manufacturing wages are now some 30% higher than those in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. ASEAN‘s lower wages are a draw for Chinese manufacturers, as well as those in the West and Japan. ―If you compare wages in major cities in China and ASEAN from 2005 and 2012,
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wages in Vietnam are about one-third of China‘s,‖ says JETRO‘s Wakamatsu. For example, workers‘ wages in Ho Chi Min City averaged US$148 a month in 2012, only 37.5% of the average wage of US$395 in southern China‘s Guangzhou, according to a JETRO survey. (In 2005, wages in both places were roughly the same.) Japanese investment into Vietnam increased to 230.6 billion yen in the first six months of 2013 from 142.1 billion yen a year earlier. ―I would not be surprised if this trend … continued for a few years,‖ notes Wharton finance professor Franklin Allen. China‘s economy is expected to slow down, but it remains a huge market, so service industries and retail will continue to invest in China. Wakamatsu notes that Japanese companies by no means are likely to drop China from their global strategies. However, they are adopting a ―China plus one‖ strategy to help balance the increasingly apparent risks of only investing in the Chinese mainland. Such risks were driven home by the virulent antiJapanese protests in China a year ago, after Japan nationalized islands in the East China Sea that are claimed by both countries. ―Japanese companies became aware of the risks in China more acutely after the demonstrations and destruction in 2012, so they think they need to diversify their investments,‖ Wakamatsu says. Allen agrees: ―The risk has gone up for Japanese companies. If the islands issue goes bad again, Japanese companies will be at risk.‖ In fact, according to some China experts, the decline in FDI in the first half of 2013 mainly reflects a ―boom‖ in 2011 — when it climbed 60% — and a more modest increase in 2012. Moreover, looking at only a half-year trend may not accurately reflect the future outlook, says Tomoo Marukawa, a professor at the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Tokyo and a specialist on the Chinese economy. Most Japanese companies investing into ASEAN added production capacity in Southeast Asia, rather than shifting production lines away from China. ―Virtually no Japanese companies withdrew from China and then moved to ASEAN,‖ says Wakamatsu of JETRO. ―In the past, everyone used to invest only into China, but now more and more Japanese companies first compare conditions in China with those in ASEAN countries and then decide where they will invest.‖ China still has the advantage when it comes to good infrastructure and supply chains, though Thailand is catching up in terms of automotive-related industries. Vietnam is gaining ground and has lower labor costs, experts note, but Cambodia and Laos lag behind, especially in terms of electricity supply. ―The risk has gone up for Japanese companies. If the islands issue goes bad again, Japanese companies will be at risk.‖–Franklin Allen ―With the possible exception of Myanmar, about which it is too soon to be at all certain, I have very dim expectations regarding Cambodia and Laos,‖ says Bernard Gordon, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of New Hampshire. Cambodia, he points out, still suffers from the disastrous legacy of the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s. ―Sadly, its economy so far has shown few of the necessary ingredients for becoming active in the modern world of manufacturing,‖ he says. Trading Places The trade front shows similar trends when it comes to Japan‘s dealings with China and ASEAN. Japan‘s total trade with China fell 10.8% in the first six months of 2013 to US$147.27 billion from the same period a year earlier, according to JETRO. The organization forecasts that total trade with China will decline in full-year 2013 after slipping 3.5% in
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2012. Japan‘s trade with ASEAN rose by 4.9% to 10.97 trillion yen in the first six months of 2013 from the same period a year earlier, according to data from the Japanese Finance Ministry. ASEAN likely will replace China as Japan‘s biggest trading partner in the future, Gordon says. ―The reasons are two: first, because China‘s emphasis over at least the next 10 years will be to promote internal purchasing power and domestic economic activity — which is aimed at promoting internal political stability. Second, because ASEAN‘s prospects, especially in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines — and [eventually] Myanmar — are so bright and are accompanied by excellent demographic profiles.‖ Each of those nations, moreover, has internal and long-term historic reasons to keep its relationship with China at a manageable arms-length, and that factor will help smooth the way to growing JapanASEAN economic ties, he adds. Prospects of the launch of an integrated ASEAN Economic Community by 2015 are attracting Japanese financial institutions and other service industries, in addition to manufacturers. But the regional market is unlikely to be fully unified by 2015, analysts say. ―They [are aiming] to get rid of all tariffs in the region and [create a free trade agreement for] ASEAN, which will be a plus for the ASEAN economy,‖ says Ishikawa of Asia University. ―But they have issues such as unified product standards and infrastructure to deal with. How are they going to narrow the income gap among the member countries? There is a big gap between Singapore and Myanmar. It will take time to improve [that].‖ World trade talks also are likely to affect trade and investment into ASEAN and China. So far, China has not decided to join the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), perhaps because the TPP‘s standards will extend well beyond ―traditional‖ trade issues like tariff reductions. TPP members have to make commitments that will alter each member‘s domestic economic interactions in whatever ways that they affect foreign trade. China‘s prospective membership in a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with ASEAN is based on agreements between ASEAN and its other free trade agreement partners, including Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. Among ASEAN countries, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Brunei have joined the TPP. ―The TPP is likely to happen much faster and be more demanding than the RCEP. I think that China is not quite willing to go that fast, but they are certainly thinking about it,‖ says Peter A. Petri, a finance professor and international trade and investment specialist at Brandeis University‘s International Business School. While China experiments with reforms to satisfy TPP requirements, TPP countries like Vietnam, which exports high-tariff items like garments, and Malaysia, which is closely connected with North American supply chains, will gain the advantage. As a result, ―We do estimate faster trade and somewhat faster GDP growth in parts of the ASEAN region,‖ Petri notes. Other ASEAN countries, including the Philippines and Thailand, have shown interest in joining the TPP, and if the coalition grows, it could end up excluding China from free trade, Ishikawa says. ―China should join now, so that their arguments and the terms they would like may be reflected in the TPP agreement,‖ he notes. ―Unless China is incorporated into the TPP during the next five years or so … the future trend for FDI will favor ASEAN rather than China,‖ says Gordon. China would be wise to join and adopt important TPP requirements such as those pertaining to protection of IP (Intellectual Property) and state-owned enterprises, he suggests, adding that if Beijing were
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to make that leap, ―China‘s prospects for once again becoming the world‘s FDI magnet would greatly improve.‖ China‘s investment expansion so far has mostly focused on Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. Territorial disputes over the South China Sea have limited its commitment to expanding dealings with Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. ―Certainly, going forward the next few years, Japan will be a much bigger investor in ASEAN than China,‖ says Hiebert. The scale of most investment from China may remain limited. ―You see local provincial Chinese companies moving to Myanmar, Vietnam, and Cambodia for mining and agriculture,‖ he notes. U.S. Investment Despite President Barack Obama‘s vows to shift America‘s military and economic focus back to Asia and ASEAN, U.S. investment in the region is still limited, though it is increasing. The American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore released results in August 2013 from a poll of 475 senior executive at U.S. companies operating across the region, showing that 79% of the companies had increased trade and investment in ASEAN during the past two years. Among them, 91% expect those investments to grow over the next five years. ―ASEAN is going to become increasingly important to the U.S. and U.S. companies,‖ Allen said. Gordon does not anticipate a major surge in U.S. investment in Asia and ASEAN. The U.S. domestic market has strong growth prospects, and the traditional tendency to focus on Europe and the Americas means there is less of a push into Asia, he says. ―Indonesia, if it can maintain its recent economic growth, will remain an important U.S. FDI sector, but it is likely to be outshone by Vietnam, the Philippines and Myanmar,‖ he notes. U.S. FDI into ASEAN was US$6.9 billion in 2012, according to the U.S. State Department, up from US$5.78 billion in 2011. Ultimately, ASEAN will benefit from its recent growth spurt, but it is unlikely to ever eclipse China in importance, says Marukawa. Since both regions are vital for Japan‘s own economic well-being, ―we should engage with both markets with our best efforts.‖ Source: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/will-an-integrated-asean-regionchallenge-china/
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Myanmar fiefdom openly selling illegal ivory
A tiny fiefdom in northern Myanmar‘s Shan state could be one of Asia‘s ―biggest unregulated ivory markets,‖ researchers said on Monday. Wildlife group TRAFFIC announced finding more than 3,300 finished ivory pieces and close to 50 raw elephant tusks openly on sale in 27 shops in Mong La, the largest town in Special Region 4, an autonomous region on Myanmar‘s northern border with China. The ivory is believed to originate from Africa, passing through China – the World‘s biggest end market for elephant tusks – and on to Mong La, a casino town popular with visiting Chinese. ―Increasing volumes of ivory in an open cross-border market catering to Chinese consumers is a sure sign that international agreements are not being enforced and action to reduce ivory demand is not effective,‖ said Chris Shepherd, TRAFFIC's Southeast Asia director. The ivory market in Mong La likely ranks among the ―most openly displayed‖ in the region, said Professor Vincent Nijman of Oxford Brookes University who worked on undercover investigations with TRAFFIC. A Western visitor who travelled to Mong La this month said it was simple to buy smuggled ivory in the town. ―I was really appalled to see ivory tusks and animal parts from other endangered species being sold openly in the Mong La market,‖ said the source, who declined to be named. ―It‘s time the Mong La authorities did something about this.‖
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Myanmar has recently established an environmental crime unit but is yet to receive specialized training, while anti-wildlife smuggling capacity-building programs by the UN Office of Drugs and Crime in Shan State have only focused on the Thai border town of Tachilek – Mong La remains outside of Myanmar central government control. Run by a Shan ceasefire group that made peace with the former military regime in the early 1990s, Special Region 4 uses the Chinese yuan, and electricity and the internet are all supplied from neighboring Yunnan province. Mong La's reputation for lawlessness has been fueled by its location within the 'Golden Triangle.' Although authorities in Special Region 4 declared the end of opium production in 1997, reports of methamphetamine production have persisted in recent years.
Source: http://www.ucanews.com/news/myanmar-fiefdom-openly-selling-illegalivory/70078
Myanmar grants Telenor full foreign investment Published on Sunday, 12 January 2014 Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) has allowed the two license winners, Telenor and Ooredoo, the telecommunication giants from Norway and Qatar, with 100 percent investment, sources say. MIC gave the permission during the 1/2014 meeting held at Nay Pyi Taw on Wednesday. The proposals submitted by both companies are handed down to MIC by Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Both companies [Telenor and Ooredoo] have already opened branch offices in Myanmar. Qatar based Ooredoo announced to make more than US$15 billion investment and Norway based Telenor hasn‘t announced its investment yet. Ooredoo is planning to install 3G network in rural areas in addition to big towns and Telenor has also planned to construct telecommunication infrastructure across the country. Ooredoo has expanded its telecommunication network to Kuwait, Oman, Algeria, Tunisia, Palestine and Maldives in addition to Qatar. In 2012, they have 92 million subscribers using its network across the world and earned US$9.3 billion. Telenor Group is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia and has 161 million Telenor users over the world.
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Source: http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4702:m ic-allows-telenor-and-ooredoo-full-foreign-investment&catid=33:business&Itemid=356
Gunkul eyes Thai, Myanmar power sectors The Nation, Yangon January 13, 2014 1:00 am
Gunkul Engineering plans to invest more than Bt12 billion over the next two years to develop wind-power plants in Thailand and gas-powered plants in Myanmar. This is part of the company's strategy to transform itself from an importer and provider of electrical equipment into a power producer in Asean.
It aims to be producing at least 300 megawatts of electricity from both alternative energy and gas in Thailand and Myanmar by 2016, chairman Gunkul Dhumrongpiyawut told a news conference at its plant in Yangon this weekend.
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The company is also looking into developing a solar power plant in Japan in a joint venture with Thailand's largest energy firm this year, who also plans to expand the investment in Japan too. "We cannot reveal more details about the investment in Japan now but it will be finalised in the first half of this year," he said. Up to 30 per cent of the two-year investment budget, or Bt3.6 billion, will come from the company's cash flow, and the other Bt8.4 billion from bank loans. It may launch an infrastructure fund when the first phase of its wind-power project, which will have 60MW capacity, is completed this year. Chief executive officer Sopacha Dhumrongpiyawut said: "We now have a debt-to-equity ratio of only 0.5:1, which gives us room to borrow from the banks to support our investment plan. Now the company has an agreement with the commercial banks that the company has to control its debt-to-equity ratio, [making sure that is] not over 3:1." Managing director Somboon Aueatchasai added that the company would begin operating a 28MW solar plant this year. Meanwhile, it will invest Bt4.4 billion on the 60MW first phase of its wind-power project, Bt1.2 billion from the company's cash flow, with the rest borrowed. The second phase, also with 60MW capacity, will kick off next year under an investment of Bt4.4 billion, and another 60MW phase will be developed in 2016. This project is being developed by Wind Energy Development Co, in which Gunkul Engineering holds a 70-per-cent stake. This means Gunkul will have a 126MW share in the wind-power plant, or 70 per cent of total capacity. Including the 28MW capacity of its solar plant, Gunkul will be producing a total of 154MW from alternative sources by 2016. That year, it should also be producing 150MW in Myanmar both from gas and wind-power plants. The first project is a 51-per-cent joint venture with the operator of an electricity plant in Yangon that has acquired a private power purchase (PPP) agreement to provide 50MW to Myanmar's government. The plant began operating last year, producing 25MW. For this deal, the company has set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, Gunkul Myanmar Power (Hlawga) Pte, to hold 51 per cent of the joint venture in Myanmar, whose investment budget is about US$9 million (Bt300 million). The deal will be complete this quarter. Gunkul Myanmar Power (Hlawga) will also hold at least 51 per cent in the next 25MW produced by the Myanmar firm under a PPP by the end of this year or in 2015.
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Investment in further projects amounting to about 100MW, from both gas and wind power plant, in Myanmar is under study, Somboon said. "Up to 50 per cent of our net profit will come from electricity plants by 2016," he said. This year, the company is targeting growth in both revenue and net profit of up to 50 per cent compared with 2013 thanks to its solar plant starting operation and its backlog of other activities in Thailand worth Bt3.2 billion. Up to 20 per cent of revenue will come from the solar plant, and the rest from its construction of electricity plants and providing equipment to its customer, Somboon said. In 2012, the company reported revenue of Bt4.7 billion and net profit of Bt779.56 million, and in the first nine months of last year reported revenue of Bt2.4 billion and net profit of Bt746.17 million. Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Gunkul-eyes-Thai-Myanmar-powersectors-30224068.html
Vietnam pushes for Myanmar business link-up Friday, 10/01/2014 - 10:31 PM (GMT+7)
At the meeting
Nhan Dan/VNA - A leading Vietnamese legislator has proposed that Myanmar continue to facilitate the efforts of Vietnamese businesses to invest in the country, pledging that Vietnam will help Myanmar investors in return.
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National Assembly Deputy Chairman Huynh Ngoc Son made the proposal during a meeting with a delegation from the Myanmar-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarians‘ Group in Hanoi on January 10. Deputy Chairman Son said the delegation‘s visit, led by its head Nay Win Tun, is of great significance, as it takes place at a time when the strength of Vietnam-Myanmar relations has been mounting. He called for closer co-ordination between the two legislative bodies at regional and international inter-parliamentary forums. Deputy Chairman Son spoke highly of the friendship group‘s establishment, saying it would play an important role in consolidating the friendship and exchange between the two legislatures. Nay Win Tun said his delegation‘s visit aims to boost links between the two parliaments and to step up exchanges in agriculture, aquaculture, finance andbanking, aviation, telecommunications, oil and gas, mining and power generation. He expressed his pleasure at the socio-economic achievements made by Vietnam over recent years and affirmed that Myanmar always attaches importance to boosting its multifaceted ties with Vietnam. http://nhandan.com.vn/en/politics/external-relations/item/2256902-vietnam-pushes-formyanmar-business-link-up.html
TOURISM Thailand's Protests Hit Tourism to Neighboring Myanmar By Christina Larson January 15, 2014 For three days, thousands of antigovernment protestors have filled the streets of Bangkok, clogging intersections and calling for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down. The country‘s tourism industry is expected to take a major hit, with visitors from China projected to decline 70 percent in January and during the crucial Chinese New Year holiday, as my colleague Bruce Einhorn reported on Monday.
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But it‘s not only Thailand‘s tourism sector that‘s suffering. Neighboring Myanmar is also feeling the chill. ―Usually this time of year is a popular tourist season,‖ Aye Mra Tha, an official at state-run Myanmar Airways International, told the Democratic Voice of Burma media group. She said that passengers were down 40 percent on flights between Bangkok and Yangon (many international flights to Myanmar‘s capital are routed through Bangkok). Even as fewer tourists arrive in Myanmar, travel agencies based in Yangon also reported anemic business booking visitors to Thailand. Roughly three years after President Thein Sein kicked off Myanmar‘s political transformation and economic reform agenda, the country‘s growth record has been mixed. From April 2012 to April 2013, Myanmar‘s GDP grew at a fairly impressive 6.5 percent (pdf), largely fueled by increased exports of gas and commodities, according to official statistics (which some observers question). Yet significant barriers to investment remain. The World Bank‘s ―Doing Business‖ report for 2014 ranked Myanmar near the bottom: 182 out of 189 countries. Particularly thorny areas included ―starting a business,‖ ―enforcing contracts,‖ ―protecting investors,‖ and ―getting credit,‖ according to the report. Yet tourism in Myanmar has been a relative bright spot. Tourist arrivals in Myanmar doubled in 2013, to 2 million. It‘s still a small slice of the economy, but it‘s a fast-growing component of Myanmar‘s nascent service sector. Next month, when 300 or so hospitality professionals convene in Yangon for the second annual ―Myanmar Hospitality & Tourism Conference,‖ it‘s a near-certainty that one hot topic will be the state of affairs across the border in Thailand. Source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-15/thailands-protests-hit-tourismto-neighboring-myanmar
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IMMIGRATION Myanmar to introduce permanent residence system for foreigners YANGON, Jan, 15 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar will introduce permanent residence (PR) system this year for foreigners, parliament sources quoted Minister of Immigration U Khin Yi as saying Wednesday. Khin Yi made the disclosure at the ongoing parliament session in Nay Pyi Taw when making discussions on the tasks to be carried out in the fiscal year 2014-15. Khin Yi also said the government will promote the system of granting online visa. Since Myanmar introduced visa-on-arrival system on June 1, 2012, travelers from 51 countries have benefited from the system. Signing of memorandums of understanding is being planned for granting visa exemption to visitors from 16 countries including 10 ASEAN member nations in 2014-15, he further revealed. The 9th regular sessions of the two Houses of Myanmar's parliament -- House of Representatives (Lower) and House of Nationalities (Upper), began respectively in Nay Pyi Taw Monday with the Lower House discussing state budget bill for the 2014-15 fiscal year and other important laws. Presentations are also being made on national planning bill ( 2014-15), a number of taxation bills, media law in dispute and special economic zone bill to the union parliament comprising both Houses. Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-01/15/c_133047781.htm
Myanmar nationals are issued multiple-entry visas Japan has started issuing multiple-entry visas to Myanmar nationals as part of efforts to increase tourism and expand bilateral exchanges, the Foreign Ministry said. A multiple visa will be valid for up to three years, allowing a bearer to stay in Japan for up to 15 days in a single visit. Myanmar nationals had been required to obtain single-entry visas to enter Japan.
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The two countries are marking the 60th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations this year. In a meeting with Myanmar President Thein Sein in December in Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged about 짜63 billion in new loans to develop a special economic zone, upgrade a railway network and promote other infrastructure projects in Myanmar. The two governments also signed a bilateral investment treaty to boost Japanese investment in the Southeast Asian country. Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/15/national/myanmar-nationals-areissued-multiple-entry-visas/
HEALTH Crown Princess Mary talks sex in Myanmar Denmark gives 85 million kroner to help fund sexual health clinic in Myanmar
Crown Princess Mary said Myanmar's cultures and traditions made discussing sexual health difficult (Photo: Scanpix)
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Crown Princess Mary was in Myanmar over the weekend to mark the launch of a new Danish-funded health centre that will help woman receive information about family planning and contraception, as well as support HIV sufferers and young mothers. She visited the Southeast Asian country together with development minister Rasmus Helveg Petersen (R) who, on Friday, announced that Denmark was giving Myanmar 85 million kroner to help tackle unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and deaths during pregnancy. ―Their traditions and culture create barriers to talking about sexual health, which makes it even harder for them to understand their bodies and make informed decisions about the consequences of sexual relationships,‖ Mary told DR Nyheder. Promoting sexual health The 85 million kroner is being donated to the organisation Marie Stopes International, which runs a health clinic in the centre of Myanmar‘s capital, Rangoon.
The organisation runs 620 health clinics and 370 mobile clinics in 40 different countries and, in 2012, provided 13.6 million men and women with contraception. ―The health clinic will provide information about contraception to help women in Myanmar avoid unwanted pregnancies. This will lead to fewer illegal abortions that, in a country like Myanmar, often have terrible consequences,‖ Petersen stated in a press release. Earlier in the week, Petersen met with the Myanmar president Thein Sein and formally forgave 295 million kroner of debt owed to Denmark. Source: http://cphpost.dk/news/crown-princess-mary-talks-sex-in-myanmar.8306.html
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RELIGION Dispatches: Denying Freedom of Choice in Burma January 14, 2014, Aruna Kashyap
Buddhist women in Burma should not be stripped of their right to freedom of choice in lifechanging matters like marriage. Yet that is precisely what U Wirathu, a nationalist Buddhist monk, is pushing Burma‘s parliament to do. Wirathu is mobilizing about 5,000 monks for a meeting in Mandalay to discuss the proposal. Last year, Wirathu and his followers proposed that the Buddhist marriage law be amended to require that any Buddhist woman who wants to marry a non-Buddhist man get her parents‘ written permission and prove this to local authorities. The groom should also convert to Buddhism. Failure to comply could spell doom for the couple – the groom could face 10 years in prison and have all his property confiscated. He could also be prosecuted under the Burmese penal code. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement and the Myanmar Women‘s Affairs Federation should denounce the proposal as discriminatory. Article 22 of Burma‘s constitution guarantees everyone equality before the law without discrimination based on sex, race, or religion. Burmese should not be fooled by Wirathu‘s claims that this proposed law is for women‘s protection. It not only restricts women‘s rights, but directly targets religious and ethnic minorities as well. And it follows in the wake of the brutal ―ethnic cleansing‖ in Burma‘s western Arakan State, the so-called 969 nationalist movement to boycott Muslim businesses, and the discriminatory two-child policy imposed on Rohingya in parts of Arakan State. Women‘s rights groups in Burma have condemned the proposal. Some groups that did so last year faced threats and intimidation by Wirathu and his camp. Lower House representative Thein Nyunt is expected to submit the amendment to the marriage law in the parliamentary session that began this week. Burma‘s parliament, in which only 20 MPs out of 659 are women, hasn‘t exactly been a bastion of women‘s rights. But parliament should listen to the women‘s rights groups, reflect on the anti-discrimination provision of the constitution, and reject this proposal. It would be a lasting setback to adopt Wirathu‘s scheme to infantilize Buddhist women, curb their right to marry and start a family, and give official imprimatur to his campaign of ethnic and sectarian hate.
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International donors and governments building diplomatic and trade relations with Burma should insist that the country respect the basic right of all women and men to choose a partner, marry, and start a family. Source: http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/01/13/dispatches-denying-freedom-choice-burma
ETHNIC GROUPS In Myanmar, Buddhist Mob Group Kills Dozens of Muslims
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A Buddhist mob rampaged through a town in an isolated corner of Myanmar, hacking Muslim women and children with knives, a villager and a rights group reported Thursday, saying there could be more than a dozen deaths. A government official said the situation was tense, but denied any deaths. Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million people, has been grappling with sectarian violence for nearly two years. More than 240 people have been killed and another 140,000, mostly Muslims, forced to flee their homes.
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Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, an advocacy group that has been documenting abuses against members of the Rohinyga Muslim minority for more than a decade, said the violence occurred Tuesday in northern Rakhine state. Lewa said tensions have been building in the region since last month, when monks from a Buddhist extremist movement known as 969 toured the area and gave sermons by loudspeaker advocating the expulsion of all Rohinygya. A resident who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals said an initial flare-up followed the discovery of three bodies in a ditch near Du Char Yar Tan village by several firewood collectors. Believing they were among a group of eight Rohingya who went missing after being detained by authorities days earlier, they alerted friends and neighbors who returned with their cellphones to take pictures, said the man, who works as a volunteer English teacher. That night, five police went to the village to confiscate the phones and check family lists, but the crowd turned on the officers, beating and chasing them off, he said. The police returned at 2 a.m., saying one of their men had gone missing, he said. That triggered a security crackdown. Soldiers and police surrounded the village, breaking down doors and looting livestock and other valuables, the English teacher said. Almost all the men fled, leaving the women, children and elderly behind, he said. Lewa said her sources reported that Rohingya women and children had been hacked to death, but the numbers varied widely. Some put the toll as low as 10, others in the dozens. That some of the victims appeared to have been stabbed with knives, not shot or beaten, "would clearly indicate the massacre was committed by (Buddhist) Rakhine villagers, rather than the police or army," the Arakan Project wrote in a briefing Thursday. The English teacher, who spoke by telephone, said 17 women and five children were killed. Tensions have been reported for days, but getting information is difficult. Northern Rakhine — home to 80 percent of the country's 1 million Rohingya — runs along the Bay of Bengal and is cut off from the rest of the country by a mountain range. Rakhine state spokesman Win Myaing said police had surrounded the village because they were looking for the policeman who went missing, but that he was not aware that anyone had been killed. Khin Maung Than, a Muslim who lives in a neighboring village, said he visited Du Char Yar Tan and had seen no evidence of violence or deaths there. Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/16/mynanmar-buddhist-mob-killsmuslims_n_4610496.html?utm_hp_ref=world
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Buddhist mob kills more than a dozen Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar: rights group Robin McDowell, The Associated Press Published Thursday, January 16, 2014 9:14AM EST Last Updated Thursday, January 16, 2014 11:16AM EST
YANGON, Myanmar -- A Buddhist mob rampaged through a town in an isolated corner of Myanmar, hacking Muslim women and children with knives, a villager and a rights group reported Thursday, saying there could be more than a dozen deaths. A government official said the situation was tense, but denied any deaths. Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million people, has been grappling with sectarian violence for nearly two years. More than 240 people have been killed and another 140,000, mostly Muslims, forced to flee their homes. Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, an advocacy group that has been documenting abuses against members of the Rohinyga Muslim minority for more than a decade, said the violence occurred Tuesday in northern Rakhine state. Lewa said tensions have been building in the region since last month, when monks from a Buddhist extremist movement known as 969 toured the area and gave sermons by loudspeaker advocating the expulsion of all Rohinygya.
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A resident who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals said an initial flare-up followed the discovery of three bodies in a ditch near Du Char Yar Tan village by several firewood collectors. Believing they were among a group of eight Rohingya who went missing after being detained by authorities days earlier, they alerted friends and neighbours who returned with their cellphones to take pictures, said the man, who works as a volunteer English teacher. That night, five police went to the village to confiscate the phones and check family lists, but the crowd turned on the officers, beating and chasing them off, he said. The police returned at 2 a.m., saying one of their men had gone missing, he said. That triggered a security crackdown. Soldiers and police surrounded the village, breaking down doors and looting livestock and other valuables, the English teacher said. Almost all the men fled, leaving the women, children and elderly behind, he said. Lewa said her sources reported that Rohingya women and children had been hacked to death, but the numbers varied widely. Some put the toll as low as 10, others in the dozens. That some of the victims appeared to have been stabbed with knives, not shot or beaten, "would clearly indicate the massacre was committed by (Buddhist) Rakhine villagers, rather than the police or army," the Arakan Project wrote in a briefing Thursday. The English teacher, who spoke by telephone, said 17 women and five children were killed. Tensions have been reported for days, but getting information is difficult. Northern Rakhine -- home to 80 per cent of the country's 1 million Rohingya -- runs along the Bay of Bengal and is cut off from the rest of the country by a mountain range. Rakhine state spokesman Win Myaing said police had surrounded the village because they were looking for the policeman who went missing, but that he was not aware that anyone had been killed. Khin Maung Than, a Muslim who lives in a neighbouring village, said he visited Du Char Yar Tan and had seen no evidence of violence or deaths there. Source: http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/buddhist-mob-kills-more-than-a-dozen-rohingyamuslims-in-myanmar-rights-group-1.1641945
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KIA releases two Tatmadaw soldiers following clashes Wednesday, 08 January 2014 13:56
Written by Kachin News Group
Photo: The KIA soldiers checked the captured weapons from Burma government troops.
The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) freed two Tatmadaw soldiers shortly after they were captured during the latest fighting in southern Kachin state, a senior KIA official told the Kachin News Group (KNG). On Monday January 6th Lance Corporal Khin Zaw Oo (ID# t/270769) and his subordinate Aung Kyaw Moe (ID# t/420288) were handed over to their commander, Kyaw Thura, head of the Burma Army‘s Infantry Battalion No. 56. According to the commander of the unit that captured the soldiers, KIA battalion 12 chief Major Labang Jawn Awng, the handover was carried out on the orders of his superior, KIA 3rd Brigade chief Brig-Gen Tawng La. The soldiers were captured earlier on Monday following a 90 minute clash between IB No. 56 and KIA battalion 12 forces near Mung Ding Pa village in Bhamo district's Mansi township, commander Jawn Awng said. In addition to the soldiers KIA forces seized a car with rations, a bazooka and two MA rifles. They also seized more than 1,000 bullets. The guns were later returned to the army by the KIA as part of the arranged handover of the soldiers. Troops from IB No. 56 later withdrew from the Mung Ding Pa area on Tuesday. Army forces originally withdrew from the village on December 28 but on January 3 fresh troops reoccupied the village, located in KIA battalion 12 area. ―Fighting could break out at any time
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as long as government forces remain in the Mung Ding Pa area‖, Major Jawn Awng told KNG. State owned media and government spokespeople have so far yet to acknowledge that fighting has continued in southern Kachin state. Two government soldiers killed, two injured in fighting in Northern Shan state Two government soldiers were killed and two more injured following a brief half hour clash between KIA battalion 2 forces near Tamonye in northern Shan state's Kutkai township on January 4th, according to a KIA official based in Shan state. The dead and injured soldiers were from Infantry Battalion No. 290, under the Northeastern Regional Military Command, which has a series of posts located between Tamonye and Kutkai. According to the KIA official, the government troops retreated with the injured soldiers but two bodies were later buried on the battlefield, a common practice for the Tatmadaw. No fighting has happened in the area since last Saturday according to KIA 4th brigade officials. Source: http://www.kachinnews.com/news/2614-kia-releases-two-tatmadaw-soldiersfollowing-clashes.html
Aung Thaung's family firm involved in Kachin dam deal Thursday, 16 January 2014 18:49
Written by Kachin News Group
Aung Thaung, the head of Naypyidaw peace negotiator (left) met with Kachin Kachin Independence Organization's central peace negotiation group led by Sumlut Gam during the first talk in Jin Ching Hotel, Ruili, Yunnan province in China on Nov. 29, 2011. Photo: PCG
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A firm owned by the sons of Burma's former Industry Minister and current member of parliament Aung Thaung signed a deal in 2010 to construct hydro power projects on the Nawchankha River in Kachin state. The deal signed between YPIC International Energy Cooperation & Development Ltd., based in Yunnan International Group of Entrepreneur (IGE) was recently reported by the Rangoon based Eleven Media. The Eleven media article did not name the owners of IGE, however it is well known that the firm is controlled by Aung Thaun's sons Pyi Aung (also spelled Pye Aung) and Nay Aung . The brothers‘ business empire also includes UNOG Pte Ltd, (UNOG Co Ltd and United National Oil & Gas), a company involved in oil, gas and mining. Leaked US diplomatic cables detail the sons extensive businessman empire which grew while their father was Industry Minister (see here http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/what-does-the-future-hold-for-aungthaung-sons.html) According to Eleven Media the initial agreement for the dam which was approved by the government's Hydropower Administration Department and concerned the building of five separate dams on the river. Plans for one of the dams was later scrapped Eleven Media reported. The current plan calls for building dams at Laungdin (600 megawatt), Gaw Lan (120 megawatt), Htonshin Chaung (340 megawatt) and Kankan (140 megawatt). Eleven Media noted little was known about the deal up until now because ―the public has been kept in the dark about these projects as the agreement was signed during the previous military government which made numerous secret agreements with China.‖ Under the agreement YPIC International will own an 83% stake in the project with a Burmese government owned entity owning 15 %. IGE will hold a 2% share, which though small will still provide a lucrative windfall for the firm over the dams decades long expected lifetime of operation. Source: http://www.kachinnews.com/news/2617-aung-thaung-s-family-firm-involved-inkachin-dam-deal.html
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Burma Army Violates Ceasefire January 14, 2014 •
Author: Karen News
Government troops fired artillery shells into Karen village areas in Northern Papun Township, KNU sources told Karen News. No villagers were injured in the shelling. On January 7, Burma Army Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) #401 fired at least three artillery shells into civilian areas in Northern Papun Township, KNU sources from Papun District told Karen News. Karen News is led to understand that this is a serious violation of the ceasefire agreement reached between the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Burmese Government in 2012. KNU sources claim that this was the second incident in as many days. The KNU sources said that the day before the Burma Army shelling, fighting broke out between Government troops and military units under KNLA 5th Brigade after Government troops advanced into KNLA areas. There were no casualties in either incident. KNU sources confirmed to Karen News that LIB #401, under the control of Military Operations Command #8, fired 60mm artillery shells into the Boe Plaw village area in the afternoon. KNU sources told Karen News that Government troops fired the shells to scare villagers away and clear the route for the transportation of military supplies to a nearby army base. ―Currently, the Government troops are clearing the routes for their rations transportation. It was the security forces who were deployed to overlook the rations transportation that fired the artillery shells just before the road construction vehicles went through,‖ P‘ Doh Saw Lweh Gay, Joint Secretary of KNU in Papun district, told Karen News.
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P‘Doh Saw Lweh Gay said it was obvious that the shelling are tactics to provoke a reaction from the KNLA. P‘Doh Saw Thaw Thi Bwe, the KNU Joint Secretary, told Karen News that an official compliant has been submitted by KNU Brigade (5) to its Headquarter. ―As we have received official complaint from 5th Brigade, I have met with Major Kler Doh [of the KNLA‘s 5th Brigade] and discussed about the issue.‖ These incidents are not isolate. In June 2013 military jets fired live ammunition in Taungoo District the KNU‘s 2 Brigade as what was described at the time as ―jet bomber training‖. Regional military sources claim these incidents are tactics to provoke Karen soldier into retaliation. The current ceasefire agreement, signed between the KNU and the Government at Hpa-An, Karen State, in January 12, 2012, has been largely adhered to but sporadic fighting still breaks out between the KNU forces and Government troops. Source: http://karennews.org/2014/01/burma-army-violates-ceasefire.html/
Stimson Center Report Says Fighting Between Myanmar Government and Kachin Insurgents Likely to Continue WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2014 major disagreements between it unlikely that a cease-fire government forces and Kachin
/Emag.co.uk/ – A Stimson Center report issued today says Myanmar‘s government and the Kachin ethnic minority make will take hold soon to end the armed conflict between insurgents seeking independence.
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Sun writes that the fighting between Myanmar‘s military and the Kachin Independence Army in northern Myanmar‘s Kachin and Shan states is ―a major obstacle to Myanmar‘s national reconciliation and a challenging test for the democratization process.‖ The Kachin are an ethnic Christian minority, while Myanmar‘s majority Bamar ethnic group is overwhelmingly Buddhist. The Kachin contend that they are victims of ethnic and religious discrimination. Conflicts between the Kachin and the national government of Myanmar, which is dominated by the Bamar, have been a persistent problem since Myanmar (then known as Burma) won independence from Britain in 1948. The Kachin Independence Organization (the political arm of the Kachin Independence Army) places a high priority on a political dialogue with the central government, while the government wants a cease-fire to take effect first. This has left the two sides unable to end their decades-old civil war. ―While the government sees a cease-fire agreement as the precondition for substantive political negotiation, the Kachin worry that a cease-fire will be the end of any dialogue,‖ Sun writes. ―For the Kachin, a cease-fire agreement will generate more conflicts if it does not address their political and economic grievances. In addition, the momentum of the conflict is reinforced by vested interest groups from both sides that engage in illegal trade of jade and timber from the Kachin state to China.‖ Source: http://emag.co.uk/stimson-center-report-says-fighting-between-myanmargovernment-and-kachin-insurgents-likely-to-continue/30507
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LECTURE SERIES YANGON, MYANMAR Nehginpao Kipgen, a political scientist and researcher on the politics of South and Southeast Asia, with concentration on Burma/Myanmar, will be holding a two-day lecture series on "Current social and political Issues of Asia, Southeast Asia, particularly in Myanmar" When: February 6 (10:00 - 12:00 noon) and February 7 (02:00 - 04:00 pm) Where:  Myanmar Baptist Convention Seminar Room, Yangon (on February 6) (10:00 - 12:00 noon)  Myanmar Institute of Theology Seminar Room, Yangon (on February 7) (02:00 - 04:00 pm)
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