Top Story: Thein Sein not preparing for 2015 Presidential Bid
Top Stories:
- LOOKING AHEAD: Briefing & Discussion with Michael Hogge, Burma (Myanmar) Desk Officer, U.S Department of Commerce; 3:00 - 4:00 PM, Thursday, August 1st. Click Here to RSVP.
- Thein Sein not preparing for 2015 Presidential Bid: Myanmar President Thein Sein said Friday that he is not preparing to run in elections in 2015 and that he would not oppose opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi vying for the top post. Speaking in a television interview in France, the visiting reformist leader said it is up to Myanmar’s parliament to decide whether it will amend the country’s 2008 constitution, which bars Aung San Suu Kyi from the presidency. He said he was not making plans for a bid in the next general election. “As of now, I have not prepared myself to run in the upcoming 2015 presidential election,”
Defense and Security
U.K Military to Offer Tatmadaw Training | Irrawaddy, July 15
Britain will offer military assistance to Burma’s armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, in an effort to help the country handle ongoing ethnic tensions, The Daily Telegraph reports. “We don’t underestimate how much needs to be done in Burma but it is critical we are engaged in helping the Burmese undertake changes,” said Hugo Swire, a British Foreign Office minister. Training from British military personnel will focus on human rights and a defense attaché will be appointed to Rangoon. The announcement comes as President Thein Sein embarks on a four-day visit to Europe, where he will visit Britain and France.
Economics
Is Myanmar’s currency in crisis? | MyanmarTimes, July 22
The dramatic fall in the value of kyat in recent months has raised alarms and left many baffled. The irony is that it was not so long ago a strong kyat caused exporters and those with earnings in foreign currencies to grieve. Apparently neither a strong nor a weak kyat is pleasing and it is not an easy task to keep people on both sides happy. Nonetheless, wide fluctuations in exchange rates erode confidence and harm growth, something Myanmar cannot afford. Meanwhile, some of the most important questions remain largely unanswered. What factors contributed to this decline? What is the future of the kyat? And what are the policy implications?
Best Western plans further expansion after Nay Pyi Taw opening | MyanmarTimes, July 22
Best Western, the world’s largest hotel chain, has signed an agreement to open its second hotel in Myanmar. The project will see the company cooperate with Eden Palace Company to open what it is billing as the first five-star luxury hotel in Nay Pyi Taw. Best Western’s vice president, who was in Yangon last week for the signing ceremony, said his company also has its eye on a third property, in Yangon’s Chinatown area. It also plans to eventually open hotels in Mandalay and the tourism hotspot of Bagan. Glenn de Souza, Best Western’s vice president of international operations for Asia and Middle East, told The Myanmar Times on July 18 that the company saw plenty of opportunities in Myanmar, particularly in Yangon.
Property Boom Fuels Yangon’s Skyward Climb | Irrawaddy, July 21
The sweltering midday heat and choking cement dust are no hindrance as sandal-clad laborers shoulder bags of cement up five, six, seven flights of stairs, yelling as they go at slower-moving and less-weighed-down colleagues to move aside. On the way up, they pass half-finished floors where men—and a few women—lay bricks and slap layers of plaster on half-done walls, bantering as lunch hour approaches. Two years in the making, the 10-storey building will be ready to welcome its first tenants by the end of 2013, says site manager U Naing Win Aung. When completed, the pricy new property—complete with the obligatory gym and pool—will overlook the verdant purlieu of Yangon’s Kandawgyi Lake. It's a stellar location, just a mile from Shwedagon pagoda, the gilded centerpiece of worship for Myanmar’s majority Buddhists. But for now, the site is still very much a work in progress, as the builder, construction company Yadanar Myaing, works at full speed to complete the latest addition to Yangon's rapidly changing cityscape.
Wealthy Burmese Shun Rangoon’s Property Boom to Invest in London | Irrawaddy, July 19
Burma’s richest citizens are taking their money out of the country and investing in upmarket property in London. While foreign investors queue to get into Asia’s so-called “last economic frontier,” millions of dollars are flowing out and into bricks and mortar in the capital of the former colonial rulers, a survey has disclosed. The volume of investment in London and elsewhere in Britain by Burmese in the 12 months or so is equal to that made by the wealthy of Hong Kong and Switzerland, said the survey published by PrimeResi, a journal covering the top-end of the UK residential property sector. “Buyers from Burma accounted for just shy of 1% of all £2million-plus (US$3 million) properties bought in the UK in the 12 months to April 2013. That’s in the same range as buyers from Switzerland and Hong Kong,” said the journal, citing research carried out by London-based global real estate consultancy Knight Frank in its latest “Wealth Report.”
Burma's $8.5 Billion Port Project Facing Hurdles | VOA, July 11
When Burma's planned Dawei deep-sea port and special economic zone are finished, a highway, railway and pipeline will connect Southeast Asia's largest industrial zone to Thailand’s primary commercial hub. Although major construction has yet to begin, the planned $8.5 billion project on Burma’s southern coast is already being heralded by the company leading the project, Bangkok-based Italian-Thai Development, as the largest industrial estate in the region. According to company engineer Suphap Satthatham, the Dawei project would offer everything from a steel mill and oil refinery to automotive assembly and petrochemical facilities. "The factory will be for the computer part, for the garment, for the cosmetic, for the food processing," he said. "This will be light industry."
Energy
Tests begin on Shwe Gas pipeline as NGOs cry foul | Mizzima, July 17
Gas extraction has begun this week at the Myanmar-China natural gas pipeline, China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) announced on Wednesday, marking a milestone in the project’s trial period after weeks of delays. The valves at the Kyaukphyu gas station, the pipeline’s starting place, in Rakhine State in western Myanmar were opened on Monday morning, state-owned CNPC said. But a new report released the same day by a Thailand-based NGO, Shwe Gas Movement, highlights “glaring weaknesses” in Myanmar’s legal framework regarding the extractive industries that, according to a statement, are “resulting in human rights abuses, environmental damage and poor revenue distribution.”
Food and Agriculture
U.S. to help Myanmar with fish farming | Xinhua, July 21
The United States will provide technical assistance to Myanmar to help the country farm fresh water Tilapia fish, local press reported Sunday. As part of the efforts to promote Tilapia fish farming, a U.S. team comprising experts would give advice and farming technique to Myanmar to enable it to export high quality fish and fish products, the New Light of Myanmar quoted Myanmar Fisheries Federation as saying. The U.S. team would also help Myanmar ensure organic fish farming, it added. Currently, Myanmar exports over 120 items of fishery products. Myanmar has over 100 marine product factories but only some of them can produce quality products. According to the report, in the 2012-13 fiscal year which ended in March, Myanmar exported over 37,000 tons of marine products.
Foreign Affairs
US engagement in Myanmar: Easing the way towards democracy | Dawn, July 22
After five decades of brutal military rule, hopeful signs have emerged in Myanmar. The military has partially opened up the political system and released Aung San Suu Kyi, the iconic leader of the country’s democracy movement, after 15 years of house arrest. Since September 2011, cease-fire agreements have been signed with 11 ethnic groups, contributing to national political reconciliation. Yet, ending the military’s dominance is just one challenge. The daunting task is constructing a durable democracy in a country with limited civil society traditions and a complex ethnic and religious mix. The difficulty is underscored by the experiences of other multiethnic and multi-religious societies that have struggled to build democratic institutions after overthrowing a military dictatorship, with democratically elected leaders disregarding the rule of law.
President Thein Sein Returns from UK and France | ElevenMyanmar, July 21
President Thein Sein who paid a state visit to UK and France on July 14 returned to Myanmar yesterday morning. The President arrived at Yangon International Airport transited from Bangkok and Yangon region Chief Minister Myint Swe, Union Ministers and government officials welcomed the president and delegation. Thein Sein oversees a series of political reform since he took over as president in 2011 and made effort enhance Myanmar standing in the international community while paying visit to European countries. He arrived to UK on July 15 and during his trip in UK, he met with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Secretary of State for Defence, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Secretary of State for International Development in addition to meeting with Former Prime Minister, Tony Blair and Speaker of House of Commons.
UN Plans to Expand Arakan Aid to Thousands of Villagers | Irrawaddy, July 19
The UN announced that it plans to expand aid operations in Arakan State to another 36,000 people in 113 isolated villages. These communities, which are most Rohingya Muslim, have seen their livelihoods destroyed by inter-communal conflict, while government security measures have restricted their access to healthcare and other basic services. The new UN aid plan, however, does not include support measures for Aung Mingalar, the isolated Muslim neighborhood in Sittwe town where authorities are confining some 6,500 people. The proposed aid measures, which are yet to be formally endorsed by the Burma government, would raise the total number of UN aid recipients in Arakan to 176,000 people. So far, the UN response in Arakan has focused on 140,000 people, mostly Muslims, who are living in crowded camps in the countryside. They were displaced by last year’s violence between Rohingya Muslims and Arakanese Buddhists.
Financial Services
Ayeyarwady Bank Limited Offers Western Union® Services in Myanmar | MarketWatch, July 22
Ayeyarwady Bank Limited (AYA Bank) and The Western Union Company, a leader in global payment services, jointly launched Western Union Money TransferSM services at all of the 38 AYA Bank branches in Myanmar. Consumers can receive their Western Union transactions at over 280 locations (Note 1) in Myanmar, covering 13 of the 14 states and divisions, within minutes (Note 2) after it is sent. As part of the agreement, AYA Bank will add 60 bank branches to its retail network within two years, with all of them offering the Western Union Money Transfer services. "We welcome AYA Bank and are delighted to have this fast-growing financial institution joining and expanding our global Agent network to help bring the world to every corner of Myanmar," said Chris Cruzado, regional vice president, Oceania & Indochina, Western Union. "Together, we will allow millions of Myanmar citizens here and overseas to access remittances with speed, reliability and convenience."
UK govt, Standard Chartered Bank look to build Myanmar’s financial sector | Mizzima, July 19
The UK Trade and Investment Minister announced on July 16 that the British government and the Standard Charter Bank will work together to support Myanmar develop its financial services and technology. The announcement was released during the visit of President Thein Sein to London and a meeting with Trade and Investment Minister Lord Green. According to an announcement, new measures will include the provision of credit, and developing effective education, training and qualifications to build capacity in Myanmar’s financial sector. The Vice-chairman of Kanbawza Bank, Than Lwin said, “I am glad to hear that Standard Chartered Bank, an international bank, is helping our country. Myanmar was left behind for about 50 years in financial service sectors and even ATMs are new to the country. The more help we get, the better.”
Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
Low-cost SIM-cards with actual price to be available next seventh month | ElevenMyanmar, July 20
It will take six to seven months to get low-cost SIM-cards in line with market price as the basic infrastructure is still being built, according to Thein Swe of Lower House Transport, Communication and Construction Committee. “Even if the draft on communication bill is completed, the companies who already won license need six to seven months to construct its basic infrastructure to make progress,” said Thein Swe. The move came from the meeting of Myanmar Journalists Network members, Lower House Speaker Thura Shwe Mann, Lower House MP Aung San Suu Kyi and Thein Swe of Lower House Transport, Communication and Construction Committee held at the hall of Lower House on July 18.
Exile Ethnic Myanmar Media Groups Wary of Returning | RFA, July 13
Ethnic exile Myanmar news groups are reluctant to establish their operations inside the country despite government reforms that have drawn other foreign news outlets, saying they still consider the journalism environment stifling. New media rules implemented over the past two years have largely allowed press groups, including the once-banned foreign and exile media outlets, greater freedom to operate in Myanmar. But the ethnic media groups, mostly founded in exile, face greater obstacles to reporting, their representatives said Thursday at a forum in Chiang Mai, Thailand on Myanmar’s reforms hosted by the non-profit Human Rights Education Institute of Burma.
Infrastructure
Race protection law will be considered if submitted by MP’s-House Speaker | ElevenMyanmar, July 22
Myanmar’s Lower House speaker said a national race protection law would be considered only if the issue was raised by members of Parliament and union level organizations. Speaker Thura Shwe Mann was replying to the question of a reporter during a meeting with members of Myanmar Journalists Network in Parliament Building in Nay Pyi Taw on Thursday. Also together with Shwe Mann at the meeting were MP’s Aung San Suu Kyi and Thein Swe. “Parliament is responsible for legislative affairs. To make a law, the union government has to draft a bill first. Likewise, MP’s can submit a bill. Then, MP’s also have to discuss that bill. This is why we will consider (any proposed law) according to the parliamentary procedures if it is submitted by those concerned,” said Speaker Shwe Mann.
Myanmar Is Now Home To An Increasing Number Of International Law Firms | IBTimes, July 19
Following major investments flowing into Myanmar, international law firms are now scrambling to get into the country for a piece of the action in the rapidly developing economy, as foreign investors and businesses building their presence in Myanmar will certainly require legal counsel. Myanmar represents a new market for lawyers, not just investors. Before 2011, when the current government took over from the former military junta, the country was closed off culturally and economically, and remained stagnant in terms of development. “The country needs power, roads, railways, telecommunication infrastructure, sophisticated oil refineries and a modern financial system among many other things,” said Alastair Henderson, a partner of the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills Singapore, according to the Lawyer, a legal news website based in the United Kingdom. “By the same token, this means there are tremendous opportunities for foreign engagement which didn't exist until last year"
Infrastructure for New Myanmar: Better run through the jungle | Economist, July 12
Thailand is rare in its region for having a shrinking population and nearly full employment—and so the need to look abroad to maintain long-term growth. Its politicians and businessmen have their eye on at least one magnificent-seeming source of wealth, just beyond the country’s borders. Their vision is to build a $50 billion industrial megalopolis and deep-sea port at Dawei in Myanmar, on the shores of the Andaman sea. It would be the biggest in Asia. Even as the crow flies, Bangkok and Dawei are a good 350km apart. But then they lie opposite one another across the Tenasserim range—a malarial jungle that is hopping with armed insurgents. There has never been any man-made structure to connect the two sides. Until very recently. Thailand’s largest construction company, Italian-Thai (Italthai), has just finished cutting a road through the jungle. It took five years; once it’s paved with asphalt, the road will have cost them $1m per kilometre.
Burma Rule-of-Law Reform: USIP Work in Progress | USIP, July 10
“Rule of law reform” is an abstract concept for most people, understood to be important, but hard to explain. This is especially true in Burma, where government officials and citizens alike are trying to grasp a relatively rapid transition from decades of authoritarian rule to democratic governance. USIP’s Burma Program has been working on rule-of-law issues in the country since January 2012 to help clarify the concept and support thoughtful reform at all levels of society, government and business. As part of that effort, we recently posted a report from a trip to Burma by four representatives from USIP’s Rule of Law and Religion and Peacemaking programs. The hope is that the report will spur further discussion and feedback that everyone involved can draw on to keep the conversation going and help guide progress.
National Affairs
Myanmar president urges prevention of turning communal conflict issue into racial, religious one | GlobalTimes, July 22
Myanmar President U Thein Sein has reiterated his call for prevention of turning domestic communal conflict issue into racial and religious one which is being even exaggerated as regional and international issues in an attempt to bring it to the United Nations, official media reported Monday. "If it happened, it could harm the image of the country and its reform," U Thein Sein told the Interfaith Friendship Group and Myanmar National Human Rights Commission at Yangon Regional Office Sunday, calling for cooperation with the government to protect the country's image.
Citing the constitution, U Thein Sein said the constitution gives protection to the four major religions including Islam, adding that Myanmar does not accept racial discrimination.
Radical Myanmar Buddhist monk unhurt in bomb blast | Reuters, July 22
A bomb exploded meters away from a radical Buddhist monk as he delivered a mass sermon in Myanmar, police said on Monday, the latest flare-up in tensions pitting Buddhists against minority Muslims. Wirathu, the prominent monk who heads a movement accused of stirring violence against Muslims, said he believed the blast on Sunday evening in Myanmar's second city, Mandalay, was intended to silence him. The home-made bomb went off inside a parked car, according to police and witnesses. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Tensions have been smoldering between radical elements of Myanmar's Buddhist majority and Muslims. Bouts of religious violence have killed at least 237 people and displaced 150,000 in the past year, testing the resolve of a two-year-old quasi-civilian government.
Myanmar Risks Getting Old Before Becoming Rich, OECD Report Says | Bloomberg, July 17
Myanmar may start aging earlier than its neighbors, increasing the urgency for its leaders to implement policies that optimize economic growth, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The Southeast Asian nation with an estimated 59 million people has a population structure like China’s in the 2000s, signaling it’s approaching the point where the share of working-age citizens starts declining, an OECD report showed. By contrast, Cambodia and Laos will probably see their proportion of workers continue to rise, it said. “Myanmar’s now comparatively young population will start aging in the next two decades,” the OECD said in a report released today. “If the momentum for development created by the country’s opening and internal peace process is not seized, Myanmar could get old before it gets rich.”
Myanmar Admits to Political Prisoners, Pledging Their Freedom | NYtimes, July 15
Myanmar’s president promised Monday that all remaining political prisoners would be freed by year’s end. It was an unusual guarantee as well as an acknowledgment that the country still incarcerated people based on their beliefs in the two years since his civilian government ended the military’s repressive monopoly on power. The president, U Thein Sein, also said he would show “zero tolerance” for ethnically driven violence in Myanmar, and he expressed hope that in coming weeks he would complete a cease-fire pact with the last of the major armed groups that have left the country in varying states of internal war for decades. The president made the assertions in a speech while visiting Britain, Myanmar’s former colonial power, where he met with Prime Minister David Cameron as part of a broader effort to stimulate trade and investment in his country, also known as Burma.
The Contenders | ForeignPolicy, July 12
The third event came in the form of a direct confrontation over the awarding of two telecoms licenses. Shortly before the government was due to announce the winners, the Lower House backed a motion to postpone the process until it could vote on a long-delayed telecommunications bill. The telecoms contest, Burma's first major tender to be opened to foreign bidders outside the natural resources sector, had been widely praised by foreign companies for its transparency and efficiency. But some parliamentarians claimed that the local (state-dominated) telecoms industry "risked being monopolized" in the license sell-off. Lawmakers insisted that the government had to heed their call. The government went ahead and announced the license winners anyway.