Dawei project infrastructure funding again underway

Tuesday, 14 August 2012 14:43 Mizzima News


Funding for infrastructure in the Dawei Special Economic Zone project in southern Burma is being lined up,  according to government officials who spoke to members of Parliament last week.

The Ital-Thai construction camp base on Thai-Burma border at Ban PuNamRon Photo:daweiproject.blogspot.com

The funding, which will involve the main contractor, the Italian-Thai Development Company of Thailand, and six contractors, is in progress, a senior official was quoted as saying on Saturday in the domestic media.

Deputy Minister of Rail Transportation Thuang Lwin told Lower House members on Friday that Max Myanmar company, which has a 25 per cent share in the Dawei Development Company, plans to withdraw its investment and will be replaced by local companies or investors from abroad.

About US$ 8.6 billion is needed for investment in the infrastructure project prior to the creation of the Dawei project proper, which will provide jobs for more than 1,000 Burmese workers, he said.

For now, he said, negotiations with local companies are suspended, as the government negotiates for a large share of the profit.

“It would be resumed after Italian-Thai company agrees to the signing of a new framework agreement,” he said.

He said that the state would receive a land premium of $30.675 million in five installments for 204.5 square- kilometers of special economic zone at the rate of $150,000 dollars per square- kilometer.

The Dawei deep sea-port, industrial zone and road and rail link to Thailand includes construction of the Dawei deep sea-port, buildings for shipyard and maintenance work, establishment of zone, petrochemical industries, oil refinery, steel plant, power stations and a Dawei-Bangkok motor road and railroad and laying of oil pipeline along the motorway and railroad, according to the framework agreement.

The project, to be completed by 2018, will feature steel mills, refineries, a petrochemical complex and power plants and the strategic Dawei deep-sea port, which is designed to bypass the Malacca Strait and shorten the transportation route to Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Burma and Thailand recentluy  agreed to establish connectivity between the Dawei Special Economic Zone in the southernmost part of Burma and the Laem Chabang Industrial Estate of Chonburi south of Bangkok, in talks concluded in July.


Original Link  : http://www.mizzima.com/business/7753-dawei-project-infrastructure-funding-again-underway.html