Japanese Firm Closes China Factories, Relocates to Cheaper Rangoon

Japanese Firm Closes China Factories, 

Relocates to Cheaper Rangoon

Japan is gearing up to make Burma the new sweatshop of Asia, said a report by The Economist citing the case of Famoso Clothing, which is closing its factories in China and moving operations to Rangoon.

Famoso is part of Daiei Ready Made Clothes Corporation, based in the Japanese city of Nagoya, and makes men’s suits for the Japanese market and others.

Until recently, most of its production was at three factories in China, where it employed thousands of workers.

“Three years ago two of the factories in China were closed and the plant in [Rangoon] was rebuilt at a cost of US$7 million to become the company’s new Asia hub,” The Economist reported.

“The company’s last Chinese factory will close within a year and the [Rangoon] operation will triple its output, from 170,000 suits a year to half a million,” the magazine quoted Famoso managing director Kazuto Yamazaki as saying.

The reason for the switch is simple, said The Economist: Famoso can hire Burmese workers for US$100 per month—just 25 percent of what it has been paying its Chinese workforce.

Famoso’s factory is in Mingaladon Industrial Park in Rangoon. This month it will beginning shipping its first consignment of suits to Britain for the famous Marks & Spencer chain.

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Myanmar: Suu Kyi’s Presidential Ambitions Raise Security Fears

Suu Kyi’s Presidential Ambitions Raise Security Fears

After publicly announcing her desire to be Burma’s next president, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been urged by supporting politicians and activists to take special safety precautions.

The Nobel Peace laureate and parliamentarian—who was only released from house arrest under the former military regime in 2010—announced last week what Burma observers have long suspected: that she wishes to be president after the country’s next elections in 2015.

Peter Lin Pin, who was elected as a lawmaker in the 1990 election, which was annulled by the former military regime, said he worried Suu Kyi might be targeted in an assassination plot by those who wished to retain power as the country transitioned from nearly half a century of military rule.

“As she has expressed a desire to get power, I’m worried she might be assassinated by those who are mad for power,” Peter Lin Pin said. “Those who are crazy for power can get rid of her at any time.

“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should be careful,” he added, referring to the opposition leader with a title of respect. “Even though it’s said that our country is now a democracy, military dictators are still behaving as they please.”

During the former military regime, which ceded power to a nominally civilian government in 2010, several plots targeted the democracy icon and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party. In the 2003 Depayin affair, a motorcade of Suu Kyi and her entourage was attacked by a pro-junta mob, leaving about 70 people dead.

Phone Myint Aung, a lawmaker from the New National Democracy Party, said law enforcement and security measures in Burma today were inadequate to protect Suu Kyi.

“A public idol and political figure like Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who aims to be president should be careful about her security,” he said. “The present situation is such that even ordinary citizens aren’t safe.”

Mya Aye, a leader of the 88 Generation Students Group, said the 2015 elections would likely be competitive, and that security should be provided for all presidential candidates.

“Threats to life and safety are not only important for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but also for all leaders of the state,” the activist said. “I hope there will be no cheating and it [the 2015 election] will be fair.”

Win Tin, a patron and co-founder of the NLD, said he was also concerned about Suu Kyi’s safety because she frequently goes out to meet with member of the public. The government, he said, should be responsible for protecting the democracy icon from any assassination attempt.

“Public leaders need to go among the public,” Win Tin said. “They know it’s dangerous, but that doesn’t discourage them, and there are no special arrangements for safety.”

Still, he said Suu Kyi had managed to take care of herself since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, that her political opinions were well known and firmly established, and that he trusted she would continue to take precautions to stay safe.

“It’s right to worry about her safety, but it’s impossible for her to stay away from the public over fears that it could be a danger to her life,” he said.

Soe Win, a senior politician from the NLD, said hard-liners continued to hold positions in the new government and that he worried they could stir up trouble ahead of 2015.

“There has been unrest in this democracy,” Soe Win said. “If it continues like this, the 2015 elections might not even happen.”

He said he believed religious clashes, including in west Burma’s Arakan State, were organized with political motives.

“This unrest has been stirred up systematically, with a specific purpose, and instigators must be behind it,” he said. “

NLD lawmaker Phyu Phyu Thin said recent clashes between Buddhists and Muslims—and the slow response of law enforcement—indicated that security standards in the country were weak.

“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should be more alert than ever,” she said. “She won’t stop going places because of security reasons—if she needs to go, she will—so we need to work together for her security.”

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Myanmar: Yangon airport arrivals up almost 44pc

Myanmar: Yangon airport arrivals up almost 44pc

From January 1 to the end of April, 253,136 foreign visitors arrived at Yangon airport, a 43.88pc increase on the 175,930 recorded during the same period last year. Of the total, 64pc were tourists, including 108,168 free independent travellers, known as FITs, and 55,584 package tourists. Most of the 35.5pc growth in tourist arrivals came in the FIT sector.

There was also a 42.2pc rise in business travellers to 46,871, along with a 23.3pc rise in social visa holders to 15,276. Another 27,237 arrived on other types of visas, up almost three-fold on the same period in 2012.

The increase in visitors has largely been attributed to political and economic reforms undertaken by the government since 2010, with the stage appearing to be set for rapid and continuous growth in the industry.

More than 60 pc of visitors were from Asian countries (149,407), including about 37,333 from Thailand – the largest single group by nationality – followed by Japan with 21,779, South Korea with 18,813 and China with 16,041.

European nationals accounted for 67,460 visitors, led by France with 15,251, followed by the United Kingdom (13,119) and Germany (11,289).

Dr Aung Myat Kyaw, chairman of the Union of Myanmar Travel Association (UMTA), said the tourism industry was expecting another strong year.

“Last year more than a million tourists visited the country [through all entry points]. Since Myanmar is an increasingly popular destination, I believe arrival numbers will be 50pc more than last year.”

Mr Frank Janmaat, managing director of the Light House Hospitality Consultancy, told The Myanmar Times that for years the tourism industry had suffered because of negative reports in international media.

“There has been an enormous increase in foreign arrivals in the country over the past two years. Until a few years ago people thought that Myanmar was not ready for tourism. This had everything to do with all the negative reports in the international press written by reporters who had never visited and just took their information from the various anti-government campaigns without checking,” he said.

However, Mr Janmaat cautioned hoteliers against “killing the goose that lays the golden egg” by overcharging. “I understand that this is difficult after so many years of frustration and hardship but I hope that all involved work for long-term sustainability over short-term gain,” he said, noting that recently room rates had dropped slightly.

Yangon received the overwhelming majority of international air arrivals. Other significant gateways included Mandalay, Bagan and Nay Pyi Taw. Overland entry is permitted to tourists from Thailand, China and India with pre-arranged border passes.

Resource from:

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/travel/6807-arrivals-up-44pc-at-yangon-airport.html

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Myanmar:Chinese-Made Plane Model Has 2 Bad Landings in Same Day

Chinese-Made Plane Model Has 2 Bad Landings in Same Day

A domestic Myanma Airways flight swerved off the runway during landing on the same day that an Indonesian flight involving the same Chinese-made aircraft made a hard landing. Neither accident caused any deaths.

Monday’s accident in Burma was the third there since late December and comes as tourism booms in the country as it opens to the world after a half-century of military rule.

Burma state television showed the scene of the bad landing in Kawthaung in southeastern Burma. National police said on Facebook that the aircraft, a Chinese-made Xian MA60, was carrying four crew members and 60 passengers on a flight that originated in Rangoon, the country’s biggest city.

The report said the state-owned airline’s plane swerved off the runway and came to a stop in bushes about 200 feet to the west of the runway, with smoke coming from the left side propeller housing. It said the propellers on both wings were damaged. It said there were no injuries. Civil Aviation Department Assistant Director Nwe Ni Win Kyaw confirmed the accident but said she could not yet provide further details.

In Indonesia, aviation authorities said an MA60 operated by state-run Merpati Nusantara Airlines landed hard at the airport in the East Nusa Tenggara provincial capital of Kupang, slamming both engines into the runway. Airport authority head Imam Pramono said there were several people injured but no fatalities on the domestic flight carrying 50 people.

On May 16, another Myanma Airways MA60 shot past the end of the runway at Monghsat in northern Shan State when its brakes reportedly failed. A wing and a wheel were damaged, and two passengers suffered broken arms.

In December, a Fokker aircraft belonging to privately-owned Air Bagan crash-landed in a rice field in Burma’s Shan State, killing two and injuring 11.

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Thein Sein rejects Suu Kyi's constitutional reform demands

Myanmar's president Thein Sein has rejected a demand from opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to use his influence to open up a pathway for her to take the country's top job.

In an exclusive interview with the ABC, the president acknowledged Ms Suu Kyi's claim on his country's highest office, but says the parliament is to decide if the constitution should be changed and it is not his place to interfere.

"The constitution was written by the approval of the people," he said.

"So if the parliament authorises it and the people agrees for her to become the president, I don't have a say."

Ms Suu Kyi made the high-profile demand during the World Economic Forum East Asia, a gathering of global business and government leaders in the Myanmar capital, Naypyidaw.

The forum has been a launching pad to promote Myanmar's impoverished economy, but it also proved to be an opportunity for the opposition leader to voice her demands.

"For me to be eligible for the post of the presidency, the constitution will have to be amended," she said.

Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy dominated elections in Myanmar a year ago, but the constitution currently prevents the Ms Suu Kyi from running for the presidency because it bars anyone whose children are overseas citizens from holding the office.

Many Burmese believe the provision was specifically designed to block her from running for the position, as her two sons are British.

Changing the constitution requires a 75 per cent majority in the Myanmar parliament, where one-quarter of the seats are reserved for the military.

Thein Sein, a one-time general, is adamant he is not in a position to lobby for constitutional reform in order to pave the way for Ms Suu Kyi.

"There are three main pillars in our country," he said.

"That is the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch.

"So I do not have authority over the parliament."

Resource from:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-08/an-thein-sein-rejects-suu-kyi-demand/4742094

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Myanmar : Suu Kyi Urges Job Creation After World Economic Forum

Myanmar : Suu Kyi Urges Job Creation 

After World Economic Forum

MANDALAY—Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi raised the issue of unemployment during a rally near Burma’s second-biggest city this weekend.

“Official polls say 4 percent of the country is unemployed, but I think it’s more than that, because in Kawhmu, my constituency, more than 4 percent of the youth are unemployed,” the Nobel Peace laureate told a crowd of hundreds of supporters in the town of Pyin Oo Lwin, east of Mandalay, on Sunday. “This is the biggest problem at present and for the future of the country.”

“If a man is without a job, his well-being will suffer,” she said. “High unemployment will discourage development. We need to focus on this unemployment.”

Suu Kyi made the statement following the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Naypyidaw, which concluded on Friday. At the forum of business executives and political leaders in Burma’s capital, the democracy icon told reporters that job creation was a top priority as the country transitions from nearly half a century of military rule.

Speaking over the weekend near Mandalay, she said foreign investment would be key to creating new jobs, but highlighted lingering challenges to attracting capital from abroad.

“Foreign investors are afraid to invest in the country because there’s no guarantee for them, because we still lack rule of law and infrastructure here,” she said. “That’s why rule of law is fundamental to development in this country.”

She said poor rule of law had also encouraged religious violence and land grabs in the country.

“Without rule of law, land is seized from farmers and families are displaced,” she told the supporters who had come from as far away as east Burma’s Shan State to hear the democracy icon speak. Many farmers and displaced land owners in the crowd carried placards reading, “Mother Suu, please help people who have lost their land,” “Help us have rule of law,” and “We support Mother Suu to be president in 2015.”

The parliamentarian said lawmakers from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party had made progress since being elected to the legislature last year, but added that the fruits of their progress had yet to reach most Burmese people.

“We have made good progress even though we only have 43 seats in Parliament. But I have to admit, the citizens are still far from benefitting from the results of that progress,” she said, calling for further education and health reform as well as improvements in electricity supply.

She called on her supporters to actively participate in the reform process.

“Everyone, not only the government, has a responsibility to create a democratic country,” she said. “Everyone must know their duties and follow the rules.”

Suu Kyi last week publicly announced for the first time her desire to be president in 2015.

“If Daw Suu becomes president, we believe there will be rule of law and no more oppression or land confiscations,” Khin Maung San, a farmer whose land in Naung Cho, Shan State, had been confiscated in a land grab, told The Irrawaddy. “She is our only hope.”

“But we doubt she will be president because of the 2008 Constitution,” Khin Maung San added, referring to an article in the Constitution which bans Suu Kyi from running for president because her late husband was British and her children are foreign citizens. “If we can’t repair the Constitution, we must fight strong so Aung San Suu Kyi can lead us.”

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Myanmar Tourism :Tourism Plan Envisages 7 Million Visitors a Year by 2020

Myanmar Tourism :Tourism Plan Envisages 7 Million Visitors a Year by 2020

Burma could be inundated with more than 7 million foreign tourists a year by 2020—or 700 percent more than this year—according to proposals put forward in a joint study by Norway, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Burma’s Minister for Hotels and Tourism.

The planners said Burma could cope with such a surge without overburdening the country’s rickety infrastructure. Minister Htay Aung said it could be achieved “without threatening our unique cultural heritage or endangering pristine environments.”

The ADB said the massive expansion of Burma’s tourism industry, still trying to cope with inadequate accommodation and transportation, would cost US$500 million to implement but would create 1.4 million jobs and generate revenue of $10 billion.

“Tourism will be a pillar of [Burma’s] economy, and it has the potential to create meaningful job opportunities for the country’s people,” said Stephen Groff, an ADB vice president.

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Myanmar Investment : Unilever Plans Second Plant in Burma With First Barely Open!

Myanmar Investment : Unilever Plans Second Plant in Burma With First Barely Open!

Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever has drawn up plans for a second factory in Burma, an executive said on Thursday, showing its confidence in the newly emerging market even before production starts at its first plant there.

International companies are lining up to enter Burma now that Western countries have lifted or suspended sanctions following the end of nearly half a century of military rule in 2011.

Coca-Cola Co said on Tuesday that it had begun bottling in the Southeast Asian country for the first time in more than 60 years and Unilever said the same day it was opening its first factory since its operations were nationalized in 1965.

“We’ll open up a second one later this year,” Bauke Rouwers, chairman of Unilever Thai Trading, told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum being held in Burma’s capital, Naypyidaw, in recognition of the dramatic reforms under way.

After re-entering the country three years ago, Unilever already supplies 100,000 outlets with hygiene products including shampoo and toothpaste as well as the chicken seasoning powder that it will make at its new factory.

Production is due to start in a few weeks, with a number of the Burma nationals currently working in its factory in Thailand returning home to work at the plant in the commercial capital, Rangoon.

The company says it will invest 500 million euros (US$654 million) in Burma over the next decade.

Peter Ter Kulve, president of its Southeast Asia and Australia region, said the money will be spent recruiting and training staff, building up a distribution system, expanding its manufacturing base and marketing the brand.

“Eventually it is going to be an affluent country,” he said. “They have resources, people, agricultural land, oil and gas, a lot of tourism.”

Capital Abuzz

The World Economic Forum is the biggest event ever seen in Naypyidaw, a new capital that was built from scratch by the former junta a decade ago.

The city is buzzing with business people, foreign officials and academics, debating how to develop the economy and ensure all its people benefit after decades of isolation.

“There has been quick change, good momentum. Now it has to be sustained,” said Heang Chhor, a senior partner with the McKinsey Global Institute.

In a report at the end of May, consultancy McKinsey forecast that Burma’s economy could more than quadruple from $45 billion in 2010 to $200 billion in 2030.

The number of consumers with “discretionary spending potential” could grow from 2.5 million of Burma’s 60 million population to 19 million, it said.

Economic growth would be driven mainly by agriculture, mining and energy, infrastructure development and manufacturing.

Heang Chhor said manufacturing was the most important of those and could grow from about 15 percent to one third of the economy, creating 6 million jobs, as manufacturers move in from China and other Asian countries, attracted by low labor costs.

But the report warned that Burma desperately needed to increase the productivity of its workforce.

A worker in Burma “adds only $1,500 of economic value in a year of work, around 70 percent less than the average of seven other Asian economies” including Thailand, China and Indonesia.

Other analysts caution that democracy is still fragile and the military remains a force both in politics and the economy.

But Unilever’s Ter Kulve said he was not worried about the possibility his company might be nationalized once again. “We believe the country has embraced being an open trading partner of the world,” he said.

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Aung San Suu Kyi says she wants to run for president

Aung San Suu Kyi says she wants to run for president

Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is blunt and unapologetic.

"I want to run for president and I'm quite frank about it," she told a panel during the first day open discussion at the World Economic Forum in Myanmar on Thursday.

"If I pretended that I didn't want to be president, I wouldn't be honest and I would rather be honest with my people than otherwise."

Suu Kyi's determination to drag her country free from the stifling restraint of an military regime is finally being realized more than two and a half years after her release from years of house arrest.

However, two years into the presidency of Thein Sein, she says that the vast majority of Myanmar's people are not seeing the benefits of reform.

"If you talk to the man on the street, if you talk to people in villages, the great majority of them would say that their lives have not changed since 2010. "

'This is a transformation time'

Her assertion was backed by a number of people in the busy Bogalay Market in downtown Yangon.

Win Shwe stood in a long coat at the market entrance, raising his hand every now and then as if to bless passersby. The 72-year-old was begging for a note or two of the local currency, the kyat

"This is a transformation time. But for poor people, nothing's changed. The government mechanism is corruption," he said.

Sitting beside her daughter nearby at a flower stall, Khin Than Win, 52, said: "I agree that this is a transformation time. But I see that the streets and the roads are wider than before. That's the only change."

People "want to feel that they have been included in the process of change," Suu Kyi told the panel.

"And that's nothing to do with the number of cars that you now see in Rangoon (Yangon) or the number of magazines that you can buy because the vast majority of our people have no access to those."

Suu Kyi: Amend constitution

To clear the way for her presidency, Suu Kyi said the country's constitution had to change.

As it stands, the former political prisoner is ineligible to contest the presidency because of a clause that bans anyone with a foreign spouse or child.

Suu Kyi's late husband, Michael Aris, was English and her two sons have British passports.

Asked whether she was reasonably optimistic that those changes would be made, Suu Kyi said, "I don't believe in indulging in optimism. Let me put it this way. I've always said hope has to be backed up by endeavor.

"So, rather than being optimistic or hoping that the constitution will be amended we're going to work for the constitution to be amended."

But while many see Suu Kyi as the country's best chance for the future, she's been criticized for not being vocal enough in defense of the rights of Rohingya Muslims in the western Rakhine State.

Human Rights Watch has accused the Myanmar government of the "systematic and wide ranging persecution" of the Rohingya who it also says have been the target of ethnic cleansing.

Minister: Change needs time

Suu Kyi says she has been speaking out "but it's just that they're not hearing what they want to hear from me."

"I cannot doctor my answers to please everybody. I have to say what I believe in. And I believe that the rule of law is the first step towards any kind of solution to the problem in Rakhine State and other parts of the country."

"We must get to the point of reassessing the law to see if it comes up to international norms or not."

She added, "I would like all of the world to understand that we are aware of the difficulties in our country and we're doing our best to cope with it. When I say 'we,' I'm not talking about the government, I'm talking about ordinary people in Burma."

A government minister also on the panel said he agreed that the constitution had to change, but stressed that decades of military rule had created binds that would take time to unravel.

"We need time. We are in the dark ages. The other system was in place about 60 years. We have an idea to arrange for everything we have to change, but we need time," said Union Minister Soe Thane.

"We have to untie the rope. It's very difficult but we must do it. We must think about the democracy. We must think of the economic development of 60 million people."

Resource From:

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/06/world/asia/myanmar-suu-kyi-presidential-aspiration/?hpt=hp_t2

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เมียนมาร์ 'ฮับพลังงาน' ประชาชนอาเซียน

เมียนมาร์เตรียม เป็น “ฮับพลังงาน” แห่งเออีซี หลังจากท่อส่งน้ำมันและก๊าซ ยาว 800 กิโลเมตรจากท่าเรือน้ำลึกจ้าวผิ่วในอ่าวเบงกอลขึ้นเหนือผ่านพรมแดนจีนที่รัฐคะฉิ่นเข้าเมืองคุนหมิง เปิดเดินเครื่องส่งก๊าซเดือนมิถุนายนนี้ เผยเมียนมาร์เตรียมโกยเงินกว่าแสนล้านบาทต่อปี จากการขายก๊าซธรรมชาติให้จีนและไทย
      สื่อในกรุงย่างกุ้ง รายงานว่าโครงการท่อส่งก๊าซธรรมชาติและน้ำมัน จากท่าเรือน้ำลึกจ้าวผิ่วขึ้นเหนือไปที่ชายแดนเมียนมาร์ติดกับจีนที่รัฐคะฉิ่นเพื่อส่งน้ำมันและก๊าซให้ประเทศจีนโดยมีปลายทางอยู่ที่เมืองคุนหมิงมีความยาวในประเทศเมียนมาร์ 800 กิโลเมตร มีกำหนดเสร็จสมบูรณ์แล้วในวันที่ 31 พฤษภาคมที่ผ่านมาและกำหนดเริ่มก๊าซให้กับบริษัท ไชน่าปิโตรเลียม คอร์ปในเดือนมิถุนายนนี้ขณะที่การขนส่งน้ำมันจะเริ่มในเดือนธันวาคม
      โครงการดังกล่าวจะเป็นการขนส่งน้ำมันและก๊าซธรรมชาติ ผ่านท่อน้ำมันยาวรวม 1,500 กิโลเมตรและก๊าซมีความยาวรวม 1,700 กิโลเมตรจากท่าเรือจ้าวผิ่ว ไปถึงเมืองคุนหมิงมูลค่าลงทุน 2,500 ล้านดอลลาร์ (ประมาณ 75,000 ล้านบาท) เป็นโครงการยุทธศาสตร์ของจีนในการขนน้ำมันจากตะวันออกกลาง เข้าสู่ภาคตะวันตกเฉียงใต้ของจีนและก๊าซธรรมชาติจากเมียนมาร์ โดยไม่ต้องอ้อมแหลมมะละกา โดยท่อน้ำมันและก๊าซ สามารถขนถ่ายน้ำมันได้มากกว่า 22 ล้านตันและก๊าซ 420,000 ล้านลูกบาศก์ฟุตต่อปี

      ก๊าซธรรมชาติที่จะขนผ่านท่อเข้าประเทศจีนจะมาจากแหล่งก๊าซฉ่วย นอกชายฝั่งแถบอ่าวเบงกอล เป็นโครงการร่วมทุนระหว่างบริษัท แดวูของเกาหลีใต้ บริษัทของอินเดียและบริษัท เมียนมาร์ออยล์แอนด์ก๊าซของเมียนมาร์ โดยจะส่งขายก๊าซให้ประเทศจีนเฉพาะจากแหล่งนี้ปีละ 12,000 ล้านลูกบาศก์ฟุต
      การส่งออกก๊าซให้ประเทศจีน เมื่อรวมกับการส่งออกให้ประเทศไทย จะทำให้เมียนมาร์มีรายได้จากการส่งออกก๊าซธรรมชาติรวมกันปีละ 4,000 ล้านดอลลาร์ (ประมาณ 120,000 ล้านบาท) โดยเป็นรายได้จากการส่งออกไปจีน 1,500 ล้านดอลลาร์และส่งออกมาประเทศไทย 2,500 ล้านดอลลาร์
      โดยนอกจากรายได้จากการส่งออกแล้ว รัฐบาลเมียนมาร์ยังมีรายได้จากค่าใช้ถนนปีละ 13.8 ล้านดอลลาร์และการขนน้ำมันดิบผ่านแดนอีกตันละ 1 ดอลลาร์ ซึ่งคาดว่าจะทำรายได้ให้เมียนมาร์อีกปีละ 35 ล้านดอลลาร์
      อย่างไรก็ดี การที่ท่อก๊าซและน้ำมัน วิ่งผ่านรัฐคะฉิ่น ซึ่งยังมีกองกำลังรัฐฉานติดอาวุธ อยู่ใกล้ ๆ ทำให้เกิดความกังวลในเรื่องของความปลอดภัย ซึ่งมีผู้นำรัฐฉานและคะฉิ่น หลายรายออกมาระบุว่า ชาวคะฉิ่นไม่ได้ประโยชน์จากโครงการดังกล่าวและยังเป็นการชักนำทหารให้เข้ามา ในงานรักษาความปลอดภัยให้กับท่อน้ำมันและก๊าซอีกทั้งยังมีความเสี่ยงจากท่อก๊าซหรือน้ำมันระเบิด
      ทางด้านบริษัทบริษัท ไชน่าปิโตรเลียม คอร์ปฯ ระบุว่า บริษัทได้ใช้เงินกว่า 10 ล้านดอลลาร์เพื่อปรับปรุงคุณภาพชีวิตชาวคะฉิ่นในแถบที่ท่อน้ำมันและก๊าซวิ่งผ่าน โดยลงทุนเป็นเงิน 10 ล้านดอลลาร์สร้างระบบสายส่งไฟฟ้าสำหรับชาวบ้านและเงินอีก 14 ล้านดอลลาร์เพื่อใช้ในโครงการปรับปรุงชีวิตชาวบ้านทางด้านสุขภาพ การศึกษา ไฟฟ้าและโรงเรียนอาชีวะ

Resource from:

http://www.thanonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=185447%3A2013-06-03-04-06-31&catid=231%3Aaec-news&Itemid=621#.Ua2u-19XcRA.facebook
 

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ความขัดแย้งและจลาจลในพม่ายังคงดำรงอยู่ กรณี Lashio Myanmar in May 2013 !

ความขัดแย้งและจลาจลในพม่ายังคงดำรงอยู่ : 

กรณี Lashio Myanmar in May 2013 !

Security forces struggled to control Buddhist mobs who burned Muslim homes on Wednesday for a second day in the northern Myanmar city of Lashio in a dangerous widening of ultra-nationalist Buddhist violence.

Scores of young men and boys on motorbikes and on foot marauded through the city of 130,000 people, some singing nationalist songs, a day after a mosque and religious school were torched.

One person was killed and four were wounded in fighting, Ye Htut, spokesman for President Thein Sein, said in a Facebook post. Police fired guns to disperse the crowds, he said.

The violence in this city in a mountainous region near Myanmar's northeastern border with China, about 700 km (430 miles) from the commercial capital Yangon, shows how far anti-Muslim anger is spreading in the Buddhist-dominated country.

The religious unrest erupted in western Rakhine State last year and spread into the central heartlands and areas near Yangon this year.

The unleashing of ethnic hatred since 49 years of military rule ended in March 2011 raises questions over whether the reformist Thein Sein has full control over security forces as Myanmar sees its most dramatic changes since a coup in 1962.

By early evening, Muslims shops and homes were still burning in one quarter of Lashio. There was no sign of Muslim residents.

"I don't know where the Muslims are. They all ran away," said Kyaw Soe Win, a Buddhist resident of the mixed neighborhood where motorbikes and household possessions lay burning in the streets. Nearby, a man with a sword and a stick combed through the remains of a burned-out shop.

In other regions, such as Rakhine State where hundreds were killed last year, and in the central city of Meikhtila where at least 44 people died in March, there have been signs of ethnic cleansing, and of impunity for those inciting it.

Lashio is a test of whether the government can bring the widening anti-Muslim unrest under control.

As in Meikhtila, journalists were attacked. Two freelance reporters working for The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) were beaten as a mob looted a restaurant, the Norway-based broadcaster said. Memory cards from their cameras were taken.

"I got beat up and left with a bleeding head and my colleague also took a hit on the back. We were just watching the situation with cameras around our necks when a large group of people arrived on motorbikes and started attacking us," one of the reporters was quoted by DVB as saying.

SHOPS GUTTED

State television said a mosque, a Muslim religious school and a number of shops were gutted by fires started on Tuesday by Buddhists who rampaged after hearing reports of a Muslim man setting a Buddhist woman on fire and badly wounding her. State media said calm had returned by Wednesday.

Myanmar, where Muslims make up about 5 percent of the 60 million population, has struggled with the unrest since June last year when fighting between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya erupted in western Rakhine State.

That was followed by organized Rakhine attacks on Rohingya communities in October that New York-based Human Rights Watch said amounted to ethnic cleansing. The government calls the stateless Rohingya illegal "Bengali" immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

British tourist Stephen Barker, 46, told Reuters he saw a group of about 100 machete and stick-carrying youths rallying around his hotel in the early afternoon, including four or five monks. Police and military moved them on and arrested half a dozen people.

"I got a light for my cigarette from one and he told me to kill all Bengalis while waving this 18-inch blade around."

Tuesday's unrest in Lashio was sparked by a quarrel between two people, named by state media as Aye Aye Win, 24, a Buddhist woman who sold petrol, and Ne Win, a Muslim man aged 48.

MRTV television said Ne Win poured petrol over Aye Aye Win and set her on fire. She was in hospital, it said.

After police detained Ne Win, Buddhists surrounded the police station and demanded he be handed over. When they refused, the crowd went on the rampage, attacking Myoma Mosque near Lashio market, residents said.

The authorities attempted to restore order late on Tuesday by banning unlawful assembly under a state of emergency. That's a faster response than in Meikhtila, where it took three days of fighting before such an order was imposed.

Resource from:

by Aung Hla Tun in Yangon; Editing by Jason Szep and Pravin Char

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/29/us-myanmar-violence-idUSBRE94S0JD20130529

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