AFP – Myanmar, Japan to build vast industrial zone
AFP – Myanmar leader to visit Indian grave of last king
Asia News Network – Myanmar’s burgeoning telecoms sector
Asia News Network – Vietnam investors urged to forge neighbourly links
The Nation – Myanmar asks govt to release prisoners
Manila Bulletin – Myanmar Courts Port Project Investors
The Star Online – ‘Dialling in’ to Myanmar’s burgeoning telecoms sector
Scoop.co.nz – Myanmar: UN Envoy Meets Civilians Uprooted By Violence
Bangkok Post – Myanmar asks for NV extension
Bernama – Myanmar Man And Mother Held For Burglary
ANI – U.S. urges Myanmar gov’t to build trust with ethnic armed group
Business Times – Tokyo to help Myanmar on industrial zone
PRNewswire – New Investment Opportunities from Dawei Deep Sea Port and Industrial Zone
Chicago Tribune – Mom who left newborn son under bush in 2009 is freed from federal detention
New Straits Times – 4 held over spate of robberies
UNICEF – Urgent action needed to improve water and sanitation for displaced in Myanmar’s Rakhine State despite some progress
The Diplomat – Full Steam Ahead: The Burma Boom
ECN – Yamaha to set up sales company in Myanmar
The Irrawaddy – India Urges Swift Burma Road Build
The Irrawaddy – Lawyers to Help Letpadaung Protesters File Lawsuit
The Irrawaddy – KNU Elects Military Chief as New Chairman
Mizzima News -  Rangoon’s gold price falls as Chinese gold enters market
Mizzima News – World Bank predicts 6.3 percent growth in Burma in 2013
Mizzima News – Locals plan Shwe Gas pipeline protest
DVB News – What’s the price for peace in Kachin?
DVB News – Academics say anti-union campaign continues
DVB News – Assault on train leaves three injured in Kachin state
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Myanmar, Japan to build vast industrial zone
AFP – 16 hours ago

Myanmar and Japan agreed to start work next year on a huge industrial zone near Yangon, officials from the two countries said Friday, as the impoverished nation hungrily eyes foreign investment.

The 2,400 hectare (6,000 acre) Thilawa project will include a port and industrial park and be up and running in 2015, according to Japan’s Ministry for Economic, Trade and Industries (METI).

“It’s not an easy task but we will make no mistakes. Both of our countries share the common goal to set up the joint venture in 2013 and to launch the commercial operation in 2015,” said METI vice minister Nobuhiko Sasaki after signing a memorandum of understanding in Yangon.

Former junta-ruled Myanmar craves investment to spur growth and boost its dilapidated infrastructure, while export-reliant Japan is hunting new opportunities in the resource-rich nation to overset sluggish domestic growth.

Tokyo has already written off massive debts owed by Myanmar and Japanese media last month said it would pledge a fresh $615 million in loans, a significant portion for the Thilawa project — although no final figures have been released.

Myanmar’s deputy minister of national planning and economic development, Set Aung, said the zone would help his nation “leapfrog” its richer neighbours.

“There are enormous employment opportunities to be created,” he said, adding Japan had pledged to inject money and share environmentally friendly technology to bring the project into fruition.

Progress on Thilawa follows efforts by Myanmar to kick-start investment in a stalled multi-billion-dollar sea port project in Dawei on Myanmar’s southern Andaman coast which it hopes Japan will also support.

The huge Thilawa project will be led by a consortium of Japanese companies including Mitsubishi Corp., Sumitomo Corp. and Marubeni Corp., Japan’s Nikkei financial daily said last month.

A METI ministry official in Tokyo told AFP that Thilawa was its “priority” but did not rule out also investing in Dawei.

“We are aware that the (Dawei) project is significant and quite important for Japan, but I’m afraid it will take more time for Japan to be practically involved in it,” the official said.
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Myanmar leader to visit Indian grave of last king
AFP Updated December 22, 2012, 6:27 am

MUMBAI (AFP) – President Thein Sein will this weekend become the first of Myanmar’s leaders to visit the tomb of his country’s last king, who was exiled to India more than a century ago, officials said Friday.

King Thibaw’s reign ended in 1885 with his defeat by British colonial forces, who sent him and his family into exile in the Indian seaside city of Ratnagiri, where he died and was buried.

“The president will be the first leader to visit the late king Thibaw’s graveyard,” a government official in Myanmar told AFP, on condition of anonymity.

He said the Saturday morning trip by helicopter from Mumbai, about 330 kilometres (200 miles) from Ratnagiri, was part of “good diplomatic relations” with India.

Thibaw’s defeat in the Third Anglo-Burmese War marked the end of centuries of royal rule, and the country — also known as Burma — remained part of the British empire until 1948.

Thibaw and his wife Supayalat were allowed an impressive residence in exile with staff and a car, although they could not venture far beyond the house, said Thant Myint-U, author of “The River of Lost Footsteps”, a history of Myanmar.

The former monarch died aged 57 in 1916, shortly after a heart attack when one of his daughters eloped with a man he found unsuitable.

Thant Myint-U said Thein Sein’s visit was symbolically significant.

“It’s wise of the president to bring attention to a somewhat neglected, but incredibly important chapter of Myanmar’s history,” he told AFP.

“The king was the very centre of the old state. It was the overthrow of a thousand-year-old monarchy but also the complete destruction of the old system of governance and aristocracy.”

After the king’s death, some of the family eventually returned to Myanmar while others remained in India — one of Thibaw’s grand-daughters ended up living in a slum.

The president will pay homage at the tomb at 9:00 am (0330 GMT) and also plans to meet the king’s descendants in the area, Ratnagiri’s district administrator R.R. Jadhav said.

Myanmar came under military rule in 1962, with subsequent army leaders evoking the power of pre-colonial kings.

In 2005, former head of state Than Shwe suddenly shifted the capital — a habit of earlier rulers — from Yangon to Naypyidaw, meaning “abode of kings”.

In a tale mirroring Thibaw’s fate, India’s last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled by the British to Yangon in Myanmar, where he died in 1862 aged 87 and was buried.

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited his tomb on a landmark visit to Myanmar earlier this year.

Despite talk of a possible exchange of the royal relics, the Myanmar official said that there were no plans for Thibaw’s remains to be returned.

The Indian government is however planning to take up major renovation of Thibaw’s run-down grave, Myanmar’s Eleven Media website reported on Wednesday, citing discussions between the two countries in Mandalay this month.
Former general Thein Sein, who since becoming civilian president in 2011 has overseen a huge reform drive in Myanmar, will visit the grave following two days in India for a summit and meetings in New Delhi and Mumbai.
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Asia News Network – Myanmar’s burgeoning telecoms sector
B.K. Sidhu, The Star
Publication Date : 21-12-2012

Myanmar, the last bastion of green field investment in Asean, is heeding the call of development and the global investing community is all excited.

Big boys from everywhere are jostling to be a part of this unfolding growth story, wielding huge shiny blank cheques as large as their gleeful capitalist grins.

In this race towards modernisation, the country’s telecoms sector is set to be the first major sector to be liberalised and open to foreign investment. The question on everyone’s mind is then: Do local players have big enough clout and coffers to take on the global players?

The good news is that the country is duplicating Malaysia’s Communications & Multimedia Act (CMA) (1998) as its new law for the telecoms sector. The categories of licences will be about the same, although there are some subtle changes, especially where terminology is concerned.

Incidentally, they also have Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s very own version of Putrajaya.

Officials there have combed through every part of the CMA to make sure they have the best of the Act. The Act allows flexibility for Myanmar to issue as many licences and have as many players as it sees fit.

It was the International Telecommunications Union that had recommended Myanmar to use the CMA, speaking volumes of what Malaysia has achieved with it. Under the new Act, Myanmar will also include the CASP (content application service provider) category to ensure it is in sync with the new demands for content in the market place.

Adopting something proven will help Myanmar push ahead its agenda faster as it is in a rush to push its tele-density to 75 per cent by 2015 from 20 per cent now.

The attractiveness of Myanmar as a market is understandable enough, considering it has a population of more than 60 million and its economy is only now opening up.

While it is laudable that our Act has been replicated, the question is: Do the Malaysian telcos have a fleeting chance of succeeding in that market, especially when the global bigwigs have deep pockets and are unabashed about investing big in that country?

Players already positioned there include some of the well-known names from China, Japan, Europe, Thailand and even Singapore, and they have been working around the clock to land something in this new green field which promises big returns.

Out of all the local players, five have been shown the way and they are Axiata Bhd/Celcom Axiata Bhd, Maxis Bhd, MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd, REDtone International Bhd and Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM).

TM is said to be keen on fixed-line connectivity, REDtone on WiMax replication, MEASAT on application and content since satellites are not something Myanmar is looking at right now, and Axiata and Celcom on mobile business.

No doubt the law has not been enforced and the tenders are not out yet, but if these players are serious about wanting a slice of Myanmar’s wealth, then no amount of calling or e-mailing or even short trips is going to help. As someone put it, “You have to be physically there to understand and feel the pulse of the market … that’s the name of the game now.”

In short, only those with solid proposals will be considered, as the fight is on a global playing field now and only the serious stand a chance of reaping any rewards.

B.K. Sidhu is deputy news editor, The Star.
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Asia News Network – Vietnam investors urged to forge neighbourly links
Business Desk
Viet Nam News
Publication Date : 21-12-2012

Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar present many new business opportunities for Vietnamese investors, according to speakers at a business forum held in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday.

Julien Brun, general director of Cel Consulting for Supply Chains and Operations in Southeast Asia, said the three countries were very different and investors should examine their individual characteristics carefully.

Myanmar, with 75 million consumers, limited competition, and an area rich in natural resources, has the highest potential of the three at the moment, he noted.

In Laos, besides the forestry and agriculture sector, mining is also a promising industry.

‘More textile companies are moving from Vietnam to Cambodia because of cheap labour costs, making it a platform for basic manufacturing, Brun said.

“Look at overall, construction materials would be important to these countries,” he said.

Because Vietnam now has an oversupply of construction materials, he suggested that Vietnamese companies do business in the three countries in building housing, infrastructure and facilities.

Jean-Christophe Ngo, an infrastructure and value chains consultant, also urged Vietnamese companies to study the markets and act quickly to take advantage of trade and investment opportunities, especially in Myanmar.

In Myanmar, telephones, tables, furniture, pharmaceutical goods and consumer goods are all promising areas since most of those items are now imported from China.

However, China and Thailand have an advantage in this market because they share a border with Myanmar.

Despite many poten-tials, investors would face challenges when doing business in these countries, delegates agreed.

Brun said the top challenges in all three countries were a poor legal framework, corruption and underdeveloped transport infrastructure.
It would take from five to 10 years to improve, he added.

In Myanmar, the lack of trained human resources, various ethnicities, religions and low incomes also present challenges for investors, according to Ralf Matthaes, regional managing director of TNS.

“Despite obstacles, opportunities exist. Finding the right partners is key,” Brun said.

“A lot of investors are focusing on profits right now, but sometimes these investments have a bad impact on people and the environment,” he said. “Vietnamese companies should avoid these pitfalls and have a fair and transparent approach in these markets.”

According to the Foreign Investment Agency, Vietnamese companies had 222 projects with a total investment capital of US$3.79 billion in Laos and 124 projects worth $2.56 billion in Cambodia.

The forum was organ-ised by the Vietnam Supply Chain.
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The Nation – Myanmar asks govt to release prisoners
December 21, 2012 5:01 pm

Yangon — Myanmar’s ambassador to Thailand has requested that the government release tens of thousands of Myanmar citizens currently jailed in the Kingdom.

U Tin Win sent the formal request to Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul on December 6.

Most Myanmar nationals serving time in Thai prisons were convicted of illegal migration. Many were trafficked into Thailand.

About 1,500 Myanmar nationals are imprisoned in Thailand for murder and drug offences. Serious drugdealing offences carry the death penalty.

The Kingdom transfers inmates serving long sentences to their country of origin after eight years in prison, provided they exhibit good behaviour. However, previous governments in Myanmar failed to lobby for their citizens’ release.
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Manila Bulletin – Myanmar Courts Port Project Investors
Thu, Dec 20, 2012

YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar sought to drum up investment in a stalled multi-billion-dollar sea port project at the heart of the former junta-ruled country’s efforts to revive its impoverished economy.

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and a host of Thai business leaders flew to Dawei on Myanmar’s southern Andaman coast for talks with President Thein Sein and other officials about the joint development.

In July the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to create a special economic zone for Dawei, with Bangkok agreeing to provide assistance in areas including security, infrastructure and logistics.

The huge project – led by Thai industrial giant Ital-Thai – would bring foreign investment for Myanmar as it emerges from decades of military rule, and provide Thailand with a gateway to the Indian Ocean and Western markets.

But it has faced funding difficulties and resistance from local villagers.

“Thai investors are afraid and hesitating about Myanmar’s political policies and the funding,” Ital-Thai marketing manager Pravee Komolkanchana told AFP in Bangkok ahead of the visit.

“Thai banks are less likely to lend money if it is to invest in other countries, especially in Myanmar.”

He said a number of Japanese investors were also due to join the trip, which the company hopes will put the project back on track.

Potential Myanmar investors are also wary, according to a businessman in Yangon who did not want to be named.

“We dare not invest there because of the costs,” he said. “We would have to pay Thai salary rates.”

“The project won’t benefit Myanmar much but mainly Thailand,” he added.

Work has yet to progress far beyond the construction of new homes for the thousands of villagers due to be resettled.

Next year the developers hope to begin work on infrastructure and factories in a planned industrial zone.

Opponents to the plan were emboldened by Thein Sein’s decision last year to suspend construction of a $3.6 billion Chinese-backed hydropower project in the northern state of Kachin in a rare response to public outcry.

But local resistance to Dawei appears to have eased, although some villagers are still reluctant to move despite the offer of new homes.

“We understand that we cannot stop the whole project,” said a local environmental activist who did not want to be named, adding that campaigners had instead vowed to oppose any coal-fired plant or chemical factory.
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Friday December 21, 2012
The Star Online – ‘Dialling in’ to Myanmar’s burgeoning telecoms sector
Friday Reflections - By B.K. Sidhu

MYANMAR, the last bastion of green field investment in Asean, is heeding the call of development and the global investing community is all excited.

Big boys from everywhere are jostling to be a part of this unfolding growth story, wielding huge shiny blank cheques as large as their gleeful capitalist grins.

In this race towards modernisation, the country’s telecoms sector is set to be the first major sector to be liberalised and open to foreign investment. The question on everyone’s mind is then: Do local players have big enough clout and coffers to take on the global players?

The good news is that the country is duplicating Malaysia’s Communications & Multimedia Act (CMA) (1998) as its new law for the telecoms sector. The categories of licences will be about the same, although there are some subtle changes, especially where terminology is concerned.

Incidentally, they also have Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s very own version of Putrajaya.

Officials there have combed through every part of the CMA to make sure they have the best of the Act. The Act allows flexibility for Myanmar to issue as many licences and have as many players as it sees fit.

It was the International Telecommunications Union that had recommended Myanmar to use the CMA, speaking volumes of what Malaysia has achieved with it. Under the new Act, Myanmar will also include the CASP (content application service provider) category to ensure it is in sync with the new demands for content in the market place.

Adopting something proven will help Myanmar push ahead its agenda faster as it is in a rush to push its tele-density to 75% by 2015 from 20% now.

The attractiveness of Myanmar as a market is understandable enough, considering it has a population of more than 60 million and its economy is only now opening up.

While it is laudable that our Act has been replicated, the question is: Do our telcos have a fleeting chance of succeeding in that market, especially when the global bigwigs have deep pockets and are unabashed about investing big in that country?

Players already positioned there include some of the well-known names from China, Japan, Europe, Thailand and even Singapore, and they have been working around the clock to land something in this new green field which promises big returns.

Out of all the local players, five have been shown the way and they are Axiata Bhd/Celcom Axiata Bhd, Maxis Bhd, MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd, REDtone International Bhd and Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM).

TM is said to be keen on fixed-line connectivity, REDtone on WiMax replication, MEASAT on application and content since satellites are not something Myanmar is looking at right now, and Axiata and Celcom on mobile business.

No doubt the law has not been enforced and the tenders are not out yet, but if these players are serious about wanting a slice of Myanmar’s wealth, then no amount of calling or e-mailing or even short trips is going to help. As someone put it, “You have to be physically there to understand and feel the pulse of the market … that’s the name of the game now.”

In short, only those with solid proposals will be considered, as the fight is on a global playing field now and only the serious stand a chance of reaping any rewards.
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Scoop.co.nz – Myanmar: UN Envoy Meets Civilians Uprooted By Violence
Friday, 21 December 2012, 3:41 pm
Press Release: UN News

On Myanmar Visit, UN Envoy Meets Civilians Uprooted By Rakhine Violence

New York, Dec 20 2012 1:00PM A United Nations envoy, Vijay Nambiar, has wrapped up a visit to Myanmar during which he was able to meet with people displaced by the inter-communal violence this year in Rakhine state, as well as discuss with the Government how to address the problems facing the communities there.

Several waves of clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, the first of which occurred in June, have left 115,000 people displaced, as well as more than 100 dead, according to UN estimates.

Mr. Nambiar, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Myanmar, accompanied the Minister for Immigration and Population Affairs, U Khin Yi, on a visit to Rakhine state, located in the Asian nation’s west.

“This visit helped the Special Adviser see the current conditions of the internally displaced persons from both communities in the area and also allowed him to participate in the discussions which the Minister was holding with the representatives of the two communities, together and separately,” said a news release issued in Yangon.

During those discussions, the Minister presented some ideas on the way forward, especially on a framework for addressing the problems afflicting the communities there.

In his comments to the communities, Mr. Nambiar underlined his initial impression that the Minister’s outline of his proposal was “forward-looking and realistic, while taking into account the dignity and essential interests of the affected communities.”

Mr. Nambiar’s visit, which began on 16 December, was at the invitation of the Myanmar Government, which has pledged to take measures to address the violence in Rakhine.

Last month, President Thein Sein wrote to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that his Government was prepared to address “contentious political dimensions, ranging from resettlement of displaced populations to granting of citizenship.”

It would also look at “issues of birth registration, work permits and permits for movement across the country for all, in line with a uniform national practice across the country ensuring that they are in keeping with accepted international norms.”

In addition, the President underlined the commitment of the Government to meet the humanitarian needs of individuals and communities in the affected areas of Rakhine state and sought wider international assistance and cooperation in this regard.
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Bangkok Post – Myanmar asks for NV extension
Published: 22/12/2012 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

Myanmar’s Labour Ministry has urged its Thai counterpart to extend nationality verification (NV) for migrant workers, claiming that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra had promised it during her visit to the neighbouring country.

Myo Aung, director-general of the ministry’s Department of Labour, insisted that the Thai premier had vowed to extend NV for three months during her visit to Dawei.

Ms Yingluck travelled to Myanmar on Monday to address the cooperation on the Dawei deep-sea port project.

Business demands: One-stop migrant centre

Myo Aung raised the issue Friday during the “Thai-Myanmar Technical Meeting” with Pravit Khiengpol, director-general of the Department of Employment, at the Pullman Hotel in Bangkok.

The process must be carried on so that Myanmar workers can undergo NV and have their rights protected in the same way as Thai employees, he added.

Myo Aung also urged Thai authorities to speed up the NV process so that most or all migrant workers will be able to proceed with it.

Mr Pravit, however, insisted the NV process had definitely ended on Dec 14.

He said that migrant workers who failed to undergo the process will be considered illegal. They must be apprehended and deported, he added.

However, Mr Pravit said the ministry is considering a new legal channel for importing labour under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which Thailand has signed with neighbouring countries.

The MoU will allow migrant workers to enter Thailand through legal channels in order to meet specific skills shortages and employers’ demands.

Mr Pravit said the method will pave the way for Thai employers to bring in migrant workers in line with the MoU.

Employers who want to hire migrant workers in future must lodge their requests following the MoU procedure, he added.

Yesterday’s meeting also agreed to enable Labour Minister Padermchai Sasomsap and his Myanmar counterpart Myint Thein, who will meet today, to jointly decide whether NV or the MoU should be implemented, he said.

According to Mr Pavit, more than 300,000 migrant workers are expected to be deported now the NV deadline has ended. Of those facing deportation, 150,000 are Cambodians, 99,000 are Lao and 60,000 are from Myanmar.
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December 21, 2012 17:50 PM
Myanmar Man And Mother Held For Burglary

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 (Bernama) — Police have detained a Myanmar man and his mother believed to be involved in several cases of house burglaries around Ampang area near here.

Ampang Jaya deputy police chief Supt Nazri Nawawi said the man and his mother aged between 20 and 40’s were nabbed in a raid at a house in Lembah Maju, Ampang at 12.20pm on Monday.

He said in the raid, police seized goods valued at RM50,000 believed to be from house burglaries including 11 mobile phones, 13 watches, an IPOD, 20 necklaces and a bracelet as well as several pendrives and a broadband modem.

“Investigation found that the man, who is unemployed, has previous criminal records for snatch thefts and burglaries in Dang Wangi and Klang,” he told reporters here.

Nazri said initial urine screening on both suspects found the man to be positive for methamphetamine but the mother was negative for drugs.
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U.S. urges Myanmar gov’t to build trust with ethnic armed group
ANI – Thu 20 Dec, 2012

Yangon, Dec. 20 (Xinhua-ANI): The U.S. government urged Myanmar government and ethnic Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in ongoing conflict in Myanmar’s northernmost Kachin state to take immediate steps to establish a dialogue process that will build trust, according to a press release issued from the U.S. embassy here Thursday.

U.S. Ambassador Derek Mitchell and Special Representative and Policy Coordinator (Acting) W. Patrick Murphy visited Myitkyina and Waingmaw in Kachin State for two days starting from Monday to speak with the government and security officials, internally- displaced persons (IDPs), and civil, political and religious leaders about the ongoing conflict in Kachin State, the release said.

Mitchell and Murphy focused on the challenges stemming from ongoing conflict and the prospects for halting violence and advancing national reconciliation.

To date, the United States has provided approximately 5 million U.S. dollars in assistance to IDPs in Kachin State, including funding for food, water and sanitation, shelter, psycho-social trauma counseling and protection and empowerment training. (Xinhua-ANI)
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Business Times – Tokyo to help Myanmar on industrial zone
Saturday, December 22, 2012, 11.53 AM

YANGON: Myanmar and Japan agreed to start work next year on a huge industrial zone near Yangon, officials from the two countries said yesterday, as the impoverished nation hungrily eyes foreign investment.

The 2,400 hectare Thilawa project will include a port and industrial park and be up and running in 2015, according to Japan’s Ministry for Economic, Trade and Industries (METI).

“It’s not an easy task but we will make no mistakes.

Both of our countries share the common goal to set up the joint venture in 2013 and to launch the commercial operation in 2015,” said METI Vice Minister Nobuhiko Sasaki after signing a memorandum of understanding in Yangon.
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PRNewswire – New Investment Opportunities from Dawei Deep Sea Port and Industrial Zone
Press Release: The Board of Investment (BOI) – Thu, Dec 20, 2012

BANGKOK, Dec. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Board of Investment (BOI) has stated that the Dawei Deep Sea Port and Industrial Estate in Myanmar will become an important drive for economic growth in this region, offering a shortcut for logistics and bringing new business opportunities and foreign investment to Thailand.

After conclusion on signing of Memorandum of Understand between Thailand and Myanmar to construct Dawei Deep Sea Port, Chanvit Ammatamatuchat, Deputy Secretary of General Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) said that the industrial zone and the deep sea port in Dawei will be a new drive for the economic growth in the region, serving as new logistic shortcut connecting trading market between western and eastern side of Indochina region. The project will serve as economic land bridge connecting Andaman Sea on the Myanmar side through Thailand and out to South China Sea creating great opportunities for expanding up-stream industries and linking supply chain in Thailand and in the region.

BOI is offering assistance in terms of consultation on the investment and upstart of the business related to this new mega project for both local and international investors. Dawei Deep Sea Port and Industrial Estate project will generate major investment and help drive the growth of the economy in Southeast Asia and the surrounding regions. Investors who are interested in investing in Thailand to take advantage of this development can consult and ask for assistance and tax privileges from the BOI.
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Chicago Tribune – Mom who left newborn son under bush in 2009 is freed from federal detention
Myanmar immigrant allowed to remain in U.S.
By Clifford Ward, Special to the Tribune
8:37 p.m. CST, December 21, 2012

The Myanmar immigrant who gave birth to her son outside a Wheaton apartment building more than three years ago, then fought an unsuccessful custody fight, has been released from federal detention.

Attorneys said Nunu Sung, 28, has been living quietly with relatives in the Chicago area since mid-November, when federal immigration authorities declined to appeal a court ruling that allows her to remain in America but blocks her path to citizenship.

“She wants to improve her English, get a job and learn how to drive,” Dayna Wheatley, a West Chicago immigration attorney, said recently.

Sung’s future will not include a life with her son. A DuPage County judge terminated her parental rights this year, a decision affirmed by an appeals court in July. The Illinois Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.

In June 2009, Sung delivered her child outside the apartments where her cousin lived and where Sung had been staying in the final days of her pregnancy.

Sung, who declined to be interviewed, had come to America via Malaysia from her native Myanmar in 2007, seeking relief from the oppression that members of her Chin minority group face in the former Burma. She settled in Texas and became pregnant by a man who would not acknowledge his paternity, she said.

Keeping her pregnancy secret out of what she said was shame, Sung traveled to Wheaton. She delivered her son outside and alone, placing the infant under a nearby bush, then returning to her cousin’s apartment.

A neighbor found the child, suffering from hypothermia; police quickly determined that Sung was the mother.

She later pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for initially denying that she was the mother and received a prison sentence. The boy, who required a 12-day hospital stay, was placed with a foster family.

While Sung was serving her sentence, a court-appointed attorney for the child initiated proceedings to end Sung’s custody.

That sparked a legal fight by her lawyers, who said her parental rights were protected by the terms of her guilty plea. At the hearings, Sung said she planned to retrieve her son, and her lawyers argued that her actions were mitigated by extensive blood loss during birth and her cultural dishonor of being an unwed mother.

But two courts ruled against Sung.

Sung was released from prison in January but was immediately taken into custody by federal immigrations officials while the courts determined whether she should be deported.

On Oct. 31, a judge ruled that Sung, who was in America legally, qualified for a status that would allow her to remain in the U.S. indefinitely. The ruling blocks her from ever becoming an American citizen.

The foster family that has raised the boy, now 31/2 years old, is in the process of adopting him, their attorney, Chuck Rohde, said this week.

“He’s looking forward to Christmas with his parents like any other child his age might be,” Rohde said.

Rather than the condemnation she once feared, Sung has found support from her Chin community. The Chin church in Wheaton recently held a service to celebrate Sung’s release, said one of her lawyers, Jennifer Wiesner.

Sung, Wiesner said, is a different person from the frightened young woman who gave birth alone.

“She’s learned a lot about shame and how in America you can get help if you ask — that shame comes second to asking for help,” Wiesner said.
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22 December 2012 | last updated at 12:46AM
New Straits Times – 4 held over spate of robberies
2 CASES: Cops detain two drug addict brothers, and Myanmar mum and son

AMPANG JAYA: POLICE arrested two brothers, believed to be drug addicts, for their alleged involvement in nine wayside robberies here.

The brothers, aged 40 and 30, were arrested at 3.45pm on Wednesday along a road here, when a police patrol saw them behaving suspiciously.

The older brother has 16 convictions, mostly drug-related.

Ampang Jaya district deputy police chief Superintendent Md Nazri Zawawi said the motorcycle they were riding was stolen in Butterworth, Penang in September.

“We took them in for investigations and found out they were also responsible for a spate of wayside robberies in the district,” said Nazri at the district police headquarters, yesterday.

“Checks on the siblings also showed that the elder brother had been arrested numerous times for various offences, mostly drug-related, since 1999.

“He had been arrested for criminal intimidation and possession of a stolen vehicle.”

Checks on the younger brother revealed that he had six previous convictions. Both tested positive for drugs.

Nazri said with information from the two, police went to a house in Taman Tasik Tambahan and seized a laptop, four handphones, three SIM cards, two Touch-n-Go cards and gadgets used during the robberies.

“We also found out that they would not hesitate to use weapons when robbing their victims.

“We believe the brothers would wait for the right time and operated during peak hours. Their targets were people walking alone,” said Nazri, adding that the two had stolen RM30,000 worth loot in the nine cases. He said both had been remanded until Tuesday.

In an unrelated case, Nazri said police solved 12 house break-ins reported since January with the arrest of a Myanmar refugee on Monday.

The suspect, who was registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, refused to stop his motorcycle when asked to by patrolling police.

“Police gave chase and apprehended him. The suspect was responsible for 12 break-ins in the district.”

Police went to the suspect’s home and found several items believed to have been stolen.

“We seized the loot from his house, worth about RM60,000,” said Nazri.

The suspect, he added, operated alone and would go for small valuables like jewellery, watches and handphones.

He said police arrested his mother, 40, to facilitate investigations. She was believed to have helped the suspect in disposing of the stolen goods. Both have been remanded until Dec 30.
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UNICEF – Urgent action needed to improve water and sanitation for displaced in Myanmar’s Rakhine State despite some progress

Sittwe, Myanmar, 21 December 2012 – Tens of thousands of people displaced by conflict in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state and living in temporary camps have inadequate sanitation, poor hygiene conditions and limited access to safe water, increasing health risks to people in and near the sites.

Vulnerable groups, including children, are at greatest risk of diseases like diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases. Out of the estimated 115,000 internally displaced people in Rakhine, about 85,000 are currently housed in and around Sittwe.  About 5 per cent of them, predominantly ethic Rakhines, live in urban sites, while 95 per cent — mostly Rohingyas – are in rural sites.

“In spite of the progress made so far in providing humanitarian support for the people of Rakhine state, much more needs to be done, especially in rural areas, to protect children and their families from illnesses that result from unsafe water and a lack of adequate sanitation,” said Bertrand Bainvel, the UNICEF Representative in Myanmar.

While access and coverage of water and sanitation for people in camps in urban areas has improved, rural sites have much bigger numbers of internally displaced people and are in less accessible locations. A lack of space and congested living environments mean they have worse latrines and poorer hygiene. Surveys showed just over half of all displaced people have access to what is considered safe water.  About 70 per cent have access to some sanitation and 60 per cent have access to basic sanitary supplies.

Drainage and solid waste disposal are major challenges in both urban and rural sites, as the use of temporary accommodation is prolonged and the rainy season is looming.

According to rapid surveys earlier this year, water for domestic uses – washing and cleaning – is available, yet access to safe drinking water is limited. The surveys found that the large majority of internally displaced did not boil their water because of a lack of firewood and awareness about hygiene issues. Nearly 70 per cent of people did not have adequate water storage capacities or suitable containers.

Ground water lifted through hand pumps and rainwater stored in tanks serve as sources of drinking water for most of the displaced.

Some locations, including those with displaced who have arrived since October, do not have ground water sources, and stored rainwater supplies are expected to run out by late January 2013. The rainy season does not set in until May and there are no easy solutions to water shortages. Desalination and transportation of water are expensive and labour-intensive. Ensuring regular provision of alternative sources of drinking water will be a significant challenge unless people move back to their places of origin.

The sanitation situation also poses challenges. Temporary pit latrines are being used by large numbers of people and fill up rapidly – roughly every three months – without drainage and proper waste disposal. Space constraints, high costs and complex logistics make it impossible to relocate the latrines in many sites. About 35 per cent of people currently practice open defecation – a practice that predates the current conflict. Rakhine state traditionally has high rates of open defecation compared to other parts of Myanmar.

Once the rains start, overflow from pit latrines combined with flooding in areas where open defecation is normal could create intolerable environmental pollution and the spread of water and sanitation-related diseases. The absence of proper lighting in displaced sites raises security concerns and dignity issues for people, particularly women and children, who are obliged to use latrines in the evenings or at night.

To date, UNICEF and its water, sanitation, and hygiene sector (WASH) partners focused on distributing basic hygiene items, providing latrines and bathing areas, operating safe solid waste disposal and drainage systems, constructing safe water supplies, and hygiene promotion.

In Sittwe, WASH partners provide support in sites for the displaced, and increased access is resulting in steady improvements in the water and sanitation situation. About 60 per cent of displaced have received hygiene kits with basic items, such as bath and laundry soap, buckets, nail clippers and sanitary napkins.

UNICEF is committed to supporting the health, education, protection rights and prospects of all children in Rakhine State and across Myanmar, based on its humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality. UNICEF joins calls for a rapid resolution of the conflict and long-term social investment in Rakhine State.
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The Diplomat – Full Steam Ahead: The Burma Boom
Economy Region Southeast Asia Topic Burma
December 22, 2012
With Burma opening to the outside world, the opportunities for investors and its people are vast. The challenges may be equally daunting.

RANGOON – Khin Yu Waddy Myint is manager at Pyrex Trading and Distribution, a Burmese pharmaceutical company that employs 250 people across the country. Part of her job is to source and import medicines from India and Australia, a task she concedes she doesn’t know enough about.

“It is the first time for me to learn many of these things about how to tender,” she says, taking a break from some business training at the SME Center inside a Ministry of Commerce building in Rangoon, a short walk from where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest during Burma’s military government.

Now that military rule is a thing of the past, formally at least, and more donor-funded NGO work is being done in a country where Western aid was, until very recently, on ice for the most part as a part of sanctions imposed on the military junta.

And while eyes might roll at the notion of another NGO doing yet more training in a poor country, the group behind the course says that its work is all about boosting local business and creating jobs.

Yuki Kuronuma is Business Development Manager at Building Markets, an NGO that aims to bridge the business-aid divide. She says that “part of what we try to do is link local business and entrepreneurs with international suppliers and business opportunities. In Myanmar  the need for this is quite clear, given that the country has been closed to the much of the outside world for so long.”

Burma’s economic prospects are on the rise, now, with the World Bank saying on December 19 that “the Myanmar economy continued to accelerate in fiscal year 2011-12, with GDP growth at 5.5 percent, and expected to reach 6.3 percent in fiscal year 2012-13.”

But a lot of that growth might not be conducive to small businesses or job creation. Exports and inward foreign investment are almost entirely based on natural resources such oil, gas, hydropower — sectors that might bring in vast revenues but not a huge number of jobs for the country’s young.

7 out of 10 Burmese work in agriculture, much of which is low-tech, low-yield subsistence — while 32% percent of the population lives under the poverty line. The country has the lowest GDP per capita in Southeast Asia and only a quarter of the population has electricity.

Job creation is the cornerstone of economic policy for Aung San Suu Kyi, who described her country as sitting on an unemployment “time bomb” when speaking at the World Economic Forum in June, while urging investors to try provide jobs for young Burmese.

Similarly, the military-in-disguise civilian government headed by President Thein Sein, a former army man and Prime Minister of the old military dictatorship that formally ceded control after its proxy party won a rigged election in late 2010, is hoping that a new foreign investment law coupled with low labor costs will attract foreign business.

That’s a maybe, for now, and while companies such as General Electric and Coca-Cola have investments lined up for Burma, there’s little indication yet that Rangoon will play host to the sort of mass production job-hub industrial parks seen in neighbors such as Thailand and Vietnam — no matter what laws the government passes.

“The new foreign investment law isn’t perfect by any means, and gives a lot of discretion to the investment commission to rule on whether a proposed investment is valid or not, opening the way for possible corruption,” says Jared Bissinger, an economist who specializes on Burma.

“It does seem though that the law is geared towards job creation,” Bissinger says. But entrepreneurs want more than just words on paper. “There are other hidden costs that might counter the attractiveness of low wages for investors — be that a lack of skilled people, unreliable electricity, poor infrastructure,” warns Bissinger, who recently undertook a survey of 150 local businesses.

His findings so far indicate some growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Burma, something that SME Center director Aye Aye Win also believes to be the case.

“We have 40,000 SMEs listed,” she says, “but we estimate that there are maybe 300,000 such businesses in Burma altogether.”

The disparity in numbers is caused by some of Burma’s other main business hurdles — poor communications and a lack of reliable data.

“The communication process for us in Myanmar is so slow, that is probably the most difficult thing about doing business here,” says Khin Yu Waddy Myint. The country awaits the liberalization of the telecommunication sector — change that could in time bring Burmese people the type of cheap and fast mobile phone and internet services seen elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

For now, however, it has been estimated that 3-5 percent of the population have mobile phones, while internet penetration may be as low as 1 percent, both legacies of a paranoid military government. And despite its optimism about next year’s projected growth numbers, the World Bank warned this month that the country needs to improve its telecommunications if it is to maintain growth.

Lack of data and statistics is another hurdle, as Aye Aye Win suggested. There hasn’t been a census since 1983 (a new one is planned for 2014), and William Aung, a Burmese who returned from Canada after the country’s “glasnost” began, says that finding out business-relevant information – how many of what and where – can be difficult to impossible in Burma.

Mr. Aung is a director at Thura Swiss, a Rangoon-based business consultancy. “Information is hard to come by here, for many sectors, there is no official data available. We literally have to get out and walk the streets to find things out ourselves.”

As for Burma’s immediate economic prospects, Mr. Aung says that “the economy will grow, but little by little. But we have very poor infrastructure, land is expensive, office space is hard to come by.”

Land prices have been jacked up by a cabal of well-connected business crones that have grown wealthy from Burma’s natural resources. With the country’s limited banking and financial infrastructure many have put their money into property and land.

The result is office space rental prices of around U.S. $50 per square foot in downtown Rangoon — where the total floor space available is only 3 percent of that in Bangkok, an hour’s flight away.

Such scarcity and high prices are another deterrent to doing business — for Burmese and foreigners alike.

Nonetheless some ambitious companies are pushing ahead. Leafing through a glossy brochure, Ye Yan Naung Soe, marketing manager at the construction company Yadanar Myaing, tells me that one high-end high-rise condo block that is still under construction is almost sold-out.

Sitting on the edge of Kandawgyi Lake, a prize waterfront location in the heart of Rangoon, the as-yet-unfinished apartments are highly-sought after, it seems, amid a shortage of accommodation across the city.

“We have one room left to sell, out of 66 units in total,” he says. “People want to move here now as the economy develops, and many buyers are foreign, from Japan, Korea, Singapore.”

Simon Roughneen is a freelance journalist in Southeast Asia. His website
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ECN: Electronic Component News
Yamaha to set up sales company in Myanmar
Fri, 12/21/2012 – 9:36am
The Associated Press
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TOKYO, Dec. 21 (Kyodo) — Yamaha Motor Co. will set up a company in Myanmar soon to sell its motorbikes there, president Hiroyuki Yanagi said Friday, amid expectations for the country’s strong economic growth.

“Myanmar is a country very friendly to Japan and we think it is a suitable place to promote Japanese brands,” Yanagi said during an interview with Kyodo News.

Yamaha has been selling thousands of motorbikes a year in Myanmar through an agent, Yanagi said, adding it has already set up a local office and made preparations to set up the sales company in the country.

Yanagi also said, “We plan to sharply increase new models” of high-end products starting in 2013.

In recent years, Yamaha had cut the number of new products due to a sharp drop in demand in developed countries for high-end motorcycles after the 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Yamaha’s domestic factory focused on producing high-end motorcycles manufactured only about 160,000 units in 2011, falling short of the conventional profitable line of 200,000 units.

But Yanagi said, “We have come to be able to record profits even with 180,000 units by improving production efficiency.”

He added that the factory’s annual production will likely surpass 200,000 motorcycles given the planned launch of new products.

On the production of automobile engines, which Yamaha currently supplies to Toyota Motor Corp., Yanagi suggested a plan to further diversify its product lineup, saying, “We have put engines for hybrid cars in our perspective.”
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The Irrawaddy – India Urges Swift Burma Road Build
By ZARNI MANN / THE IRRAWADDY| December 21, 2012 |

RANGOON—The completion of the long-awaited India-Burma-Thailand highway connection should be a key priority for the three involved nations as it would boost trade links with Asean, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said during Burmese President Thein Sein’s visit to New Delhi on Friday.

“We should […] attach high priority to a quick implementation of the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and its extension to Lao PDR and Cambodia,” Singh said at the opening ceremony of the Asean-India Commemoration Summit in the capital.

“We should also launch the second track that would run from India through Myanmar, Lao PDR and Cambodia to Vietnam,” he added, referring to a second transport route through the Golden Triangle region that would connect India and Burma with the Indochina region countries.

Thein Sein was on a two-day visit for an event to highlight the 10th anniversary of the Asean-India summit-level partnership and he had bilateral meetings with his Indian counterpart on the sidelines of the event.

Talks had focused in part on finalizing a long-awaited memorandum (MoU) of understanding between Burma and India regarding the 3,200-km overland road connection, which runs from the Indian border town Moreh in Manipur State to Mandalay, Rangoon and Myawaddy, where it connects with Thailand.

During a visit to Naypyidaw in May, Manmohan Singh and Thein Sein discussed completing the road by 2016. Recently India loaned Burma US $500 million, part of which will be used to fund a section of the road running between Mandalay and the Indian border.

However, discussions about building the road—which India has called its “gateway to Asean”—have been ongoing since 2004 and no agreement has been signed.

Ahead of Thein Sein’s visit on Tuesday, India’s External Affair spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said bilateral discussions about the agreement had progressed recently, but Burma had asked for time to discuss the agreement internally.

“The MoU has not yet been finalized… [There] have been discussions and both sides have moved on from where they were in May,” he told a press conference.

“They have taken this [draft agreement] back and they require to complete some sort of internal processes before the announcements are made … Now we are in the final stages of that activity.”

On Friday, Asean and India also finalized a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) after discussions on investment and services chapters were completed.

“This is a historic step, and together with the conclusion of the negotiations on FTA in Services and Investments, defines a qualitatively new paradigm of our partnership. We are committed to achieving a target of USD 100 billion for ASEAN-India trade by 2015, and also expect tariff-free lines to increase,” said Singh.

During his visit Thein Sein also travelled to Mumbai to meet with Confederation of Indian Industry and was scheduled to visit Ratanagiri on India’s southwestern coast, where King Thibaw, Burma’s last monarch, died in exile.

Human rights activist held several protests during Thein Sein’s visit to urge the Indian government to ensure the transparency in its investments in Burma—such as the Kaladan Multi Modal Project—to prevent land confiscations and forced relocations, while also ensuring that weapons and ammunition are not provided to the Burmese military.
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The Irrawaddy – Lawyers to Help Letpadaung Protesters File Lawsuit
By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY| December 21, 2012 |

A Rangoon-based law firm has agreed to file a lawsuit against the two powerful partners behind the controversial Letpadaung copper mine in Sagaing Division on behalf of local residents opposed to the project.

The firm, called the Hygienic Legal Clinic, said it would file a civil lawsuit against the military-backed Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (UMEH) and Wanbao, a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned weapons manufacturer Norinco, to demand the closure of the mine and to win compensation for victims of a crackdown on protesters late last month.

“We will apply for a perpetual injunction and damages” on behalf of the villagers, said lawyer Robert San Aung, adding that the case would be taken directly to the Supreme Court in the national capital Naypyidaw.

“The Union Supreme Court must accept the civil suit under Section 11 of the 2010 Judiciary Law,” he told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

Villagers from 26 villages in the mine area have protested against the mine—a joint venture between UMEH and Wanbao—for months, gaining nationwide support. On Nov. 29, local authorities launched a pre-dawn raid on protest camps, injuring nearly 100 Buddhist monks and other demonstrators.

Ko Thet, a Letpadaung resident, told The Irrawaddy that local people had sought the lawyers’ help with their case. He added that the protesters are waiting to see the outcome of an inquiry by a government-appointed commission headed by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi before resuming protests. The commission is expected to release its findings in March.

The Hygienic Legal Clinic was formed in 2011 to assist ordinary citizens fight illegal land confiscation and other abuses by Burma’s military and companies close to the country’s former ruling generals. The lawyers said they would file the lawsuit against the Letpadaung mine no later than the second week of April.

They added that in the meantime, they would collect information and await the outcome of the government commission’s inquiry.
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The Irrawaddy – KNU Elects Military Chief as New Chairman
By SAW YAN NAING / THE IRRAWADDY| December 21, 2012 |

The Karen National Union (KNU) has elected military chief Gen Mutu Say Poe, who is believed to be a pragmatist keen on engagement with central government, as its new chairman to lead the group.

Zipporah Sein, who had been general-secretary, was elected as vice-chairwoman. The KNU has been holding its 15th congress in the Lay Wah area of Hlaing Bwe Township, southern Karen State, since Nov. 26.

Mutu Say Poe replaced outgoing KNU Chairman Tamla Baw, who voluntarily stepped down on Nov. 26, while Zipporah Sein has taken over from David Takapaw.

Karen sources in the Thai town of Mae Sot, Tak Province, by the Burmese border said that the negotiation process between the KNU and government will likely accelerate as Mutu Say Poe is a pragmatic leader keen to build move forward with cementing peace.

Similarly, sources close to the government suggest that Naypyidaw officials will be relieved by the appointment as Mutu Say Poe is seen as someone President Thein Sein’s reformist administration can work with.

Mutu Say Poe enjoys supported from the KNU’s military wing, Karen National Liberation Army’s Brigades 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7, while Zipporah Sein is supported by Brigades 2, 5 and the majority of the KNU’s central committee.

Hla Ngwe, who served as the KNU’s joint-secretary 1, has been replaced by Thaw Thee Bwe. Kwe Htoo Win, formerly chairman of Mergui-Dawei District, Tenasserim Division for the KNU, has now become the group’s new general-secretary.

The 1947-founded KNU is one of the major ethnic armed groups in Burma and has fought a civil war for greater autonomy against the Burmese government for more than 60 years.

Recently, rifts have appeared within its leadership over the peace deal that the group is negotiating with a government delegation led by the President Office’s Minister Aung Min. The KNU signed an initial ceasefire agreement with the government on Jan. 12, 2012.

Following internal disagreements, the KNU dismissed three leaders including Mutu Say Poe on Oct. 2 for violating the organization’s protocol—opening a liaison office in the Karen capital Pa-an without informing other KNU central committee members.

However, the two dismissed members, Mutu Say Poe and Roger Khin, head of the social welfare department at the time, were later reinstated. The third displaced member, former head of the justice department David Htaw, passed away recently and has yet to be replaced.
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Mizzima News -  Rangoon’s gold price falls as Chinese gold enters market
Friday, 21 December 2012 15:27 Khin Myo Thwe

Rangoon’s gold merchants say that the local price of gold has this week fallen alongside global prices following the arrival of imports of pure gold from China.

“The Yangon gold market is stable,” said a spokesperson from Myanmar Gold Entrepreneurs Association. “Depending on the market, the price of gold has decreased by between 400 to 500 kyat (US $0.50) per tical.”

According to a gold merchant from Rangoon’s Lanmadaw Township: “This week, both the prices of pure gold from China and Myanmar have fallen. On December 19, pure gold from China entered the Myanmar market and it continues to arrive.”

On December 19, the global opening price for gold was US $1,672 per ounce, closing at $1,666. In Rangoon, the opening price was 763,000 kyat per tical and in the evening, it closed just up at 763,800 kyat. (1 ounce= 1.14 ticals, 1USD=840Ks)

In the previous two days, the global price had been set between $1,691 and $1,701 per ounce, while gold was selling in Rangoon for between 766,300 and 768,000 kyat per tical.

“Retailers at the [Sino-Burmese] border have the capacity to buy as well as to sell,” said Thein Aung, a gold merchant from Ahlon Township in western Rangoon.

Rangoon merchants generally say that local demand is low, and that buying is limited.
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World Bank predicts 6.3 percent growth in Burma in 2013
Friday, 21 December 2012 11:34 Mizzima News

The World Bank announced this week that Burma’s economy continues to grow and is expected to reach 6.3 percent in the fiscal year 2012-13 despite the fact that the country has yet to realize its potential.

In its bi-annual East Asia and Pacific Economic Update released on December 19, the World Bank said that the economies of developing East Asia and the Pacific “remained resilient despite the lackluster performance of the global economy.”

It said the Asia-Pacific region remains one of the world’s “bright spots” with growth of 7.5 percent expected to rise to 7.9 percent in 2013.

“Another bright spot in the region is Myanmar’s reengagement with the international community,” it said in a press release. “The Myanmar economy continued to accelerate in fiscal year 2011-12, with GDP growth at 5.5 percent, and expected to reach 6.3 percent in fiscal year 2012-13.

“The government is moving ahead with reforms, but significant challenges remain for Myanmar to reach its potential, including addressing infrastructure constraints, improving financial and telecommunications sectors and sustainable management of natural resources,” it said.
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Locals plan Shwe Gas pipeline protest
Friday, 21 December 2012 16:54 Mizzima News

Residents on the island of Madae off Burma’s Arakan coast say they are planning to stage a protest on December 26 against the oil and gas pipelines that are scheduled to be built there next year, according to a report this week in local news agency Narinjara.

The report said a local group plans to protest outside the office of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which is the main contractor on the project.

“We have submitted our application for authorities’ permission to the police office of Kyaukphyu Township on December 14. We have applied for 300 people, but we do not know yet how many people will be allowed for our demonstration,” group spokesperson Tun Kyi is quoted as saying.

He said the demonstrators plan to begin a march from Preinkyaun Village and walk one and a half miles to the CNPC office on the island.

Many local landowners are demanding compensation saying their lands were seized by military officers in Rakhine State who in turn sold them on to the Shwe Gas Project.

Though not calling for a suspension of the project, the residents however plan to issue a list of demands to CNPC and the local authorities, including a guarantee of employment for locals, roads, electricity and fishing rights.
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DVB News – What’s the price for peace in Kachin?
By PANGMU SHAYI
Published: 21 December 2012

Burma’s quasi-civilian government has come up with yet another proposal to hold talks with the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO). This latest move comes off as just another ploy – offering an olive branch with one hand while unleashing weapons of destruction with the other. All indications on the ground are that the Burmese army is in a fight to the finish with the hope of bringing the recalcitrant Kachins to their knees once and for all.

To this end, they have brought in helicopter gunships and heavy artillery including the controversial Swedish made 84mm Carl Gustaf rocket launchers against an outnumbered and outgunned foe.

The Kachins, with their backs against the wall, have fought back ferociously –inflicting heavy government casualties. The government has never acknowledged these casualties, which are estimated to be in the thousands. Evidently their troops are being treated as expendables – human fodder to be sacrificed in the struggle for control of this resource rich region. The suffering and death of the ordinary foot soldiers or innocent civilians the army had pledged to protect apparently count for nothing when compared to the riches the generals will garner for themselves and their Chinese sponsors.

The government’s response to the escalated fighting is to come out with bold-faced lies. Just as President Thein Sein blatantly denied army abuses in ethnic areas despite mounting credible evidence during his US visit in September, a military representative in parliament said the the army is not attacking the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

The President’s Office echoed this by claiming that the current fighting is “not serious”. Even the problematic proof of possession of embargoed weaponry like the Carl Gustaf was blithely explained away as left overs from imports in 1982 – a time before the arms embargo which ignores the fact that the captured gun is clearly of a much later model. Swedish authorities have confirmed that the model was part of a larger shipment of arms sold to the Indian government in 2003. The Indians thus cornered had no choice but to corroborate the Burmese lie.

Even before the recent escalation in fighting, the government’s sincerity over peace talks with the Kachins has always been in doubt. The government’s side, led by smooth talkers like Aung Min, skirted serious political dialogue and focused instead on issues such as ceasefire agreements and economic development. The government, or rather the army’s main goal seems to be to continue their stranglehold on political power while protecting personal and institutional economic interests. For ethnic minorities like the Kachin, the priority is not to agree to shaky ceasefires and dubious economic deals but to have their rights, which were guaranteed during the creation of the Union, restored.

While the army steps up its assault on KIO/KIA strongholds, international pundits have been busy heaping accolades on President Thein Sein. The International Crisis Centre Group (ICCG) plans to honor the president in April 2013 for the “remarkable and unprecedented set of reforms” accomplished since taking office in March 2011.
“The Kachin conflict is a microcosm of all other ethnic struggles across the land”

The brutality with which the Kachin war is being waged, the crackdowns in Rahkine [Arakan state] and the Latpadaung Copper Mine have been conveniently swept aside. It is not too surprising that thus far, no movement has been undertaken either by the UN or any of the western countries to mediate or to call for a halt to the senseless killings, rather they continue to lavish funds on government-controlled peace initiatives.

So why should the international community concern itself with what goes on in this remote corner of the country, one might ask. The Kachin conflict is a microcosm of all other ethnic struggles across the land, where a myriad of complex issues such as ethnic rights, environmental protection and ethical economic investment converge.  Ethnic peoples comprise about 40 percent of the national population and inhabit 60 percent of the land including all borderlands abound with natural resources. How these issues are resolved will serve as a litmus test for the government, the NLD and other political parties to demonstrate their democratic credentials.

The wages of war

A by-product of the fighting is the human tragedy of the more than 100,000 civilians displaced by the fighting. A third of them have sought shelter in government- controlled areas while two thirds are being looked after in KIO/KIA area camps. These displaced populations lack even the most basic of human needs, especially in KIO-controlled areas where access by aid groups has been restricted by the government.

Languishing in makeshift camps for more than a year now, they need not only material support, but psychological and social support as well. These are people who have lost everything – homes, livelihoods, and for some, even family members. A great number of them are struggling to deal with the trauma of having experienced or witnessed the torture and brutalities inflicted by the advancing Burmese army. The prospect of a protracted stay in the confinement of camps, with little hope of a return to normal life, is only adding to their suffering.

Efforts are being made by UN agencies and international organisations to provide humanitarian assistance to displaced populations in government-controlled areas. The UN recently called for unrestricted access to camps in KIO-controlled areas as well. The US ambassador Derek Mitchell and his delegation have also made a trip to Kachin state in the past week, visiting camps in government-controlled areas and exploring ways how the US government might help the people affected by the conflict.

All this concern for the internally displaced and talk of providing much needed aid is well and good. But it seems the main issue is being side stepped here – how to put an end to the senseless fighting. It is high time the US and EU, as major donors, inject themselves directly into the peace process and provide a framework whereby meaningful political dialogue can take place. Third party unbiased mediation is the will and wish of the KIO/KIA as well as the Kachin population at large, as the only viable means to counter the government’s shenanigans of talking peace and waging war at the same time, and flaunting shaky ceasefire agreements.

The EU has poured millions of dollars to found the Myanmar Peace Center, supposedly to “serve as a platform for dialogue between all parties involved in Burma’s peace process”. In the meantime, a group of ethnic community and civil society organisations published a collective message to the Peace Donor Support Group (PDSG), which is made up of Norway, the EU, the UK, Australia, the UN and the World Bank, expressing their concerns regarding the governance of peace funds and the potential it has to do more harm than good.

What we need is more Bertil Litners among citizens of PDSG nations. The veteran journalist’s exposure of the Carl Gustaf issue led the Swedish government to conduct an investigation as to how the embargoed weapon came into the hands of the Burmese army. Further ramifications are in store, as a move to raise the issue in the European Parliament is reportedly in the works. PDSG citizens should be raising questions with their governments, putting their feet to the fire, asking whether the returns reaped justifies the amount of funds injected in the name of peace.

The opinions and wishes of ordinary Burmese seem to have no sway over a government/army with a “might is right” ethos. The onus then is now on PSDG countries with a stake in the country’s peace process. They should make use of whatever leverage they have as donors, to pressure the Burmese government to enter into meaningful dialogue with the Kachins and other ethnic groups and put an end to the cycle of violence.

The time to take action is NOW. Lasting peace in Burma is not possible unless a just and equitable relationship is cemented between all ethnic groups.

Pangmu Shayi is a native Kachin political analyst at Kachinland News

-The opinions and views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect DVB’s editorial policy.
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DVB News – Academics say anti-union campaign continues
By MIN LWIN
Published: 20 December 2012

Pro-union lecturers at Rangoon University are being transferred to different institutions across Burma in what the professors say is a deliberate move to undercut unions.

Rangoon University Lecturers’ Union member Kyaw Than Moe  said the union will continue to stand despite the transfers and is looking to appoint new leaders.

“The union will continue,” said  Kyaw Than Moe, who is being transferred to Arakan state. “They will appoint new Executive Committee members, while [former] Mandalay [University Lecturers’ Union] chair U Thet Lwin and I will be forming a lecturers’ union in Sittwe.”

Rangoon University Lecturers’ Union chair Okka Mya is set to move to Bhamo University in Kachin state while Sein Mi Mi, Kyaw Than Moe and Zaw Myo Htun were transferred to universities in Tenasserim’s Dawei, Arakan’s Sittwe and Pegu’s Taungoo respectively, according to Kyaw Than Moe.

In November, leading members of the University Lecturers’ Union in Mandalay were transferred to several institutions across Burma in what they claim was a deliberate move by education officials who dislike unions.

The move appears to undercut recent legislation that overturned former statutes that prevented the legal establishment of unions.

The enactment of the Labour Organisation Bill earlier this year brought an end to the draconian 1962 Trade Unions Act that effectively banned all trade unions in the country. Burmese workers can now legally go on strike, with the proviso that if they work in the private sector they give three days notice, and if in a public utility, 14 days.

The bill allows for the formation of unions with a minimum size of 30 people, which members can join or leave of their own desire. Workers can legally go on strike and protest for workers’ rights as long as it does not block transport or security infrastructure.
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DVB News – Assault on train leaves three injured in Kachin state
By MIN LWIN
Published: 21 December 2012

Three people were reportedly injured when the Mandalay-Myitkyina freight train was struck by an explosive and hit with gunfire in Kachin state’s Mohnyin township this morning.

A resident in Mohnyin told DVB the train was assaulted around 1:15am this morning close to Namma train station.

“First, we heard the mine explosion, and then gunshots followed. We are not sure whether the shots were fired from just one side or both. According to unconfirmed news, three people were injured and sent to Mohnyin Hospital,” said the resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A doctor at Mohnyin hospital said the injured arrived at the facility shortly after the attack.

“They had shattered glass fragments in their faces – one individual had it in his right eye and he was transferred to Myitkyina Hospital,” said the doctor.

Police in Mohnyin confirmed the incident occurred but were unable to disclose further details. It remains unclear who carried out the attack.

The Mandalay-Myitkyina railway route is currently closed down.

There’s been ongoing fighting in the restive state since a 17-year ceasefire broke down last year between the government and the Kachin Independence Army.
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