The Kyaukpyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) slated to be developed in the villages of Sit Taw and Si Maw in Arakan State’s Kyaukpyu Township may be shifted to another location because authorities have discovered a mud volcano in the area, said U Aung Kyaw Than, a senior Burmese official working on the project.
“The advisory group SEZ International, which was invited by the government [to consult on the SEZ], suggested shifting the location and the authorities are actively considering a new, safer location,” he added.
The new location might be somewhere near Kani Village, which is also under the jurisdiction of Kyaukpyu Township but closer to the Bay of Bengal. Kani has been suggested as a good location because it has a deep sea port.
“Although a mud volcano wouldn’t create problems that would affect the SEZ, foreign executives might object to the location and avoid investing there. We need foreign investment for Burma’s economic development, so we decided to leave the original location,” said the SEZ official.
Although the SEZ project was launched and has been managed by Burma’s government, the actual development and operation of the SEZ might be handled by corporations from foreign countries such as China or Japan.
At the moment, details of the SEZ project haven’t been made public by the government, but it’s understood that the US $109 billion project will be jointly developed by China’s CITIC group, Japan’s Nippon Koei, and Burma’s Htoo Trading.
The project is also expected to be the starting point for an 800km road and railway corridor that will run from Arakan State to China’s Yunnan Province. Chinese corporations are planning to construct the railway track and operate it for 50 years before handing it over to the Burmese government.
