Ko Min Aung from the NLD who attended the public meeting said that mining minister U Aung Than Tin and Social affairs minister U Aung kyaw Min came to the town to explain the government’s plan of selling rocks to a Vietnam company, named Myanmar SIMCO Song Da  Limited.The public meeting of two ministers come out after a threat from local social groups to stage a demonstration against the plan to sell rocks to the foreign company if there is not any public awareness regarding the project.

“Such pubic meetings are very rare in our state and I have never seen such a meeting before throughout my life. It is a good step from the government but the ministers did not talk about the project openly. It caused the attendees to leave unsatisfied,” U Min Aung said.

The ministers confessed in the meeting that the rock mountain in Taungup Township has been sold by the Mining ministry to the Vietnamese company to produce marble rocks for 25 years.
However some of the minister answers to questions were unclear in the meeting. They could not answers questions like how are the projects contributing to regional development and how much revenues are to be allocated to Arakan state from the project.

The ministers are also absent in the meeting to publicize the agreement between government and the company.

The rock mountain is very precious and it is 500 acres wide. The marble rocks are expected to produce 80 million tons from the mountain.

Arakan state lawmaker U Aung Mra Kyaw opposes the project in the Arakan state parliament. He told the parliament not to sell the mountains to the foreign company before further testing because there may be valuable minerals in the Rock Mountains.

Arakan social Network will also threaten the government to protest the project if there are not any benefits for the local people.