Stop Patronizing Dawei Project, Stop Public Debt Hikes

uesday 18 September 2012 

10.30-11.30 am 

At the meeting room on 2^nd floor | Student Christian Centre

The Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited (ITD) has been in difficulty re: the Dawei Deep Sea Port and Industrial Estate Project (Dawei Project) since it was contracted to develop this project in 2008. Apparently, it has since failed to make a significant progress as planned. For instance, it is incapable of building infrastructures other than the temporary Thai-Myanmar road link. Or it is unable to secure long-term funding for the entire project development.

 












Thai government now plans to support the ITD in the development of the Dawei Project. Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has scheduled to visit Myanmar from 19-21 September 2012 to follow up progress of the joint development of the Project following the Thai-Myanmar MoU signed during Myanmar President Thein Sein’s visit to Thailand in last July.

The Dawei Project is in certain ways comparable to Thailand’s Map Ta Phut industrial estate which has over the last many years been in deep trouble in term of environmental pollution. Given that the scale of Dawei Project is 8-times larger than Map Ta Phut industrial estate, the extent of its environmental consequence is unimaginable. Moreover, in Myanmar context, there are complicated social issues associated with the Dawei Project such as non-transparency, lack of local participation and human rights violation. Even in context of Thailand, the government’s decision to support the Project poses a serious question about legitimacy for spending public money to shoulder risks associated with this massive investment.

Concerned Thai civil society groups that have monitored the Dawei Project see Thai PM’s visit to Myanmar next week for talk on Dawei Project as inappropriate and unethical. Environmental problem associated with the Project will be massive while the host country lacks legal and institutional mechanisms to cope with it. Besides, exploiting public resources in what can be seen as patronizing private investor is fallacious and will put more burdens on the public in the long run.

In light of the above, concerned Thai groups will hold a press conference on 18 September 2012 from 10.30-11.30 am, at the meeting room on 2^nd floor of Student Christian Centre. The panel speaker will be;

• Mr. Veerawat Dheeraprasart: Chair of Foundation for Ecological Recovery (FER)
• Ms. Penchom Tang:  Director of Ecological Alert and Recovery, Thailand (EARTH)
• Mr. Sulak Sivaraksa: Social Thinker and Public Intellectual

Thai-English translation will be provided.

For more information please contact:

Montree Chantawong (TERRA/FER) 08 1950 0560

Luntharimar Longcharoen (TERRA/FER) 08 9489 9489

Foundation for Ecological Recovery (FER) /

Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA)

Website: www.terraper.org

Email: fer@terraper.org

  



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Yingluck to follow up on Dawei deep sea port during upcoming Myanmar visit

August 22, 2012 3:51 pm

File photo : Myanmar's President Thein Sein visited Lam Chabang deep sea port in July.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will travel to Myanmar next month to follow up on the joint deep sea port project, Foreign Minister Surapong Tohvichakchaikul said on Wednesday.

During her two-day official visit, Yingluck will meet Myanmar's President Thein Sein at the new capital of Nay Pyi Daw.

The visit, which will start on September 13, will see Yingluck follow up progress of bilateral cooperation following Thai-Myanmar MoUs signed during Thein Sein's visit to Bangkok in July.

Surapong said the joint development of the Dawei deep-sea port project in Myanmar as well as the plan to connect the Dawei project to Thailand's Laem Chabang deep sea port project, will be a major topic for discussion during the visit.

The three MoUs have reaffirmed the two countries’ cooperation on the project that will not just be key to development of southern Myanmar but also its link with Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard.

The MoU, particularly on Dawei, has sent a strong signal to foreign investment that the two governments are committed to development of the strategic economic corridor that would give a boost to this impoverished region in Myanmar.


Link : http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Yingluck-to-follow-up-on-Dawei-deep-sea-port-durin-30188841.html

Thailand, Myanmar agree to support Dawei economic zone

(Reuters) - Thai and Myanmar leaders on Monday offered a much-needed lift to the multi-billion dollar Dawei port and industrial zone in southern Myanmar that has been struggling to find private investors.
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Myanmar President Thein Sein told a joint news conference they had agreed to connect the strategically located Dawei Economic Zone with industrial areas along Thailand's eastern seaboard, including the Laem Chabang deep sea port.
But they gave few details except to say ministers from both sides would start regular meetings from August.
The $50 billion project led by Italian-Thai Development Pcl in southern Myanmar could be one of the most important projects for the country whose young quasi-civilian government is eager to revive a battered economy by attracting foreign investment previously held back by years of sanctions.
It was the first time the two governments have said they would together support the $50 billion project led by Italian-Thai Development Pcl.
The two leaders said they had agreed to connect the new zone, with its deep sea port, with industrial areas along Thailand's eastern seaboard, including the Laem Chabang port.
However, they did not say what level of support they would give the 250 sq km (97 sq mile) Dawei complex, a private initiative with plans to include steel mills, refineries, a petrochemical complex and power plants.
The deep-sea port, which would cost $2.5 billion and is due for completion in 2018, would bring in goods to be transported by rail or road from the Indian Ocean along a corridor that runs past Bangkok to its eastern seaboard.
The goods could either be used in Thai industrial estates there or shipped onwards to third countries, having bypassed the long and congested shipping lane through the Malacca Strait.
Ital-Thai president, Premchai Karnasuta, recently told Reuters he was in talks with companies from Japan and planned to build gas, coal-fired and hydropower plants after Myanmar's government scrapped a planned 4,000 megawatt coal-fired plant on environmental grounds.
Through its Dawei Development Company, Ital-Thai is in a rush to find new partners after Max Myanmar, owned by tycoon Zaw Zaw, decided to reduce its 25 percent stake in Dawei.
(Reporting by Martin Petty; Editing by Alan Raybould and Jonathan Thatcher)

Original Link:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/23/thailand-myanmar-idUSL4E8IN32A20120723?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews&rpc=401

Thein Sein, Yingluck focus on Dawei project

Monday, 23 July 2012 11:52 Mizzima News 

Burmese President Thein Sein quickly got down to business in Thailand during his three-day visit that started on Sunday, immediately visiting a huge Thai port and industrial zone south of Bangkok.

Burmese President Thein Sein, seated right, visits Laem Chabang deep seaport in Chonburi Province in Thailand on Sunday, July 22, 2012, while on a three-day visit to Thailand to discuss economic development projects. Photo: MJA

The Laem Chabang Port and Laem Chabang Industrial Estate in eastern Chon Buri is similar to Burma’s planned Dawei deep-sea port and industrial zone southeast of Rangoon, which will be largely developed by Thai companies.

During his visit, Thein Sein will meet with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on ways to develop the Dawei project and a planned transportation corridor connecting to Thailand.

Yingluck told The Nation newspaper that economic cooperation between Thailand and Burma, particularly the joint development of the Dawei port project and the link to the Laem Chabang port, would be a top priority in their discussions.

The two countries will sign three Memorandums of Understanding on development.

A Thai official said the Dawei-Laem Chabang link will benefit Thailand by shifting transportation from road to railways, which will reduce logistics costs and increase productivity by cutting travel time from Laem Chabang to India's Chennai from six to three days.

The initial investment in Dawei has been estimated at US$ 8.6 billion. Estimats of the total cost are up to $60 billion. The project includes refineries, power plants and shipping facilities designed to make Burma a key hub in transporting good into Southeast Asia and China.

A Thai official told The Bangkok Post that Thein Sein made the right decision when he postponed his trip to Thailand earlier this month because his visit might have received less attention, coming as it did at the same time as a visit by Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to Thailand.

The two governments will now have more time to discuss important issues, he said.

“President Thein Sein is the key person whom the international community should support to move reform and national reconciliation in Myanmar ahead,” the official told the Bangkok Post.

“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is important, of course, as the symbol of democracy in the country, but President Thein Sein is the person responsible for reform.”

Original Page:  http://www.mizzima.com/business/7575-thein-sein-yingluck-focus-on-dawei-project.html