Asian Nikkei Review-7 Nov 2017
Nearly two years ago, Myanmar chose a Chinese consortium led by the state-run Citic to develop a $10 billion port and industrial park that could turn into the country’s largest foreign investment.
With Beijing pledging to create 100,000 jobs and transform a poor region, the Kyaukpyu port plan potentially represents a huge win for Myanmar.
But long delays in bringing it to fruition suggest that the authorities are having doubts about the financial, political and security implications.
Before the project can move forward, more discussion is needed to prevent disputes like those that plagued China’s long-suspended Myitsone Dam project in Myanmar’s northeast.
Moreover, the two sides have to take account of Kyaukpyu’s location on the west coast of Rakhine State, and the mass exodus of more than 700,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees from northern Rakhine State since October 2016. Although the troubled area is far north of Kyaukpyu, the refugee crisis and reports of military brutality have provoked international outcry.
It was only in early October, two years after announcing the original deal, that China and Myanmar reached agreement over ownership of the deep sea port, the project’s key element. The long process and the lack of other concrete developments suggests underlying disagreements.
China has a clear interest in a new deep sea port that would be linked overland to its poor southwestern regions as well as giving it a strategic outpost on the Indian Ocean.
But observers in Myanmar are questioning the megaproject. Burmese concerns have focused on the security implications and the potential financial burden.
