ကဲ.. ကိုယ္႔ဟာကိုယ္ဘဲ ဖတ္ယူၾကေတာ႕။
KIA က သစ္လိုခ်င္လို႕ တိုက္တာလား... အစိုးရက ေရကာတာ လုပ္ခ်င္လို႕ တိုက္တာလား ဆိုတာ အခုေတာ႕ ရွင္းရွင္း ေပၚျပီ ထင္ပါရဲ႕။By-Khonja
KIA က သစ္လိုခ်င္လို႕ တိုက္တာလား... အစိုးရက ေရကာတာ လုပ္ခ်င္လို႕ တိုက္တာလား ဆိုတာ အခုေတာ႕ ရွင္းရွင္း ေပၚျပီ ထင္ပါရဲ႕။By-Khonja
Chinese firm to build four hydropower projects in Kachin state
A Chinese company is planning to sign a contract with the Myanmar government to build four hydropower projects in northern Kachin State.
The projects are planned along the Nawchankha River, which flows into Maykha River, sources close to the Ministry of Electric Power said.
In 2010, YPIC International Energy Cooperation and Development Ltd, based in Yunnan province, signed an agreement with the government together with International Group of Entrepreneur (IGE), an unknown private entity from Myanmar, to construct hydropower projects on Nawchankha River.
The initial agreement, approved by the government’s Hydropower Administration Department, covers the establishment of five projects on the river, namely Laungdin, Htonshin Chaung, Wukyone Kyal, Gaw Lan and Kankan.
However, the public has been kept in the dark about these projects as the agreement was signed during the previous military government, which made numerous secret agreements with China.
Experts who have read the 2010 agreement said it was an "umbrella contract" that covers all five projects in the Nawchankha River basin. However, one has since been removed.
Govt left with 15%
According to the agreement, YPIC International from China and IGE will own a joint 85 per cent share, leaving the government with the remaining 15 per cent. However, IGE will only claim 2 per cent of the joint share, leaving YPIC International with a de facto 83 per cent ownership of the project.
Revisions have been made to prevent potential flooding, leading parties to sign a new contract to build the four hydropower projects - Laungdin (600 megawatt), Gaw Lan (120 megawatt), Htonshin Chaung (340 megawatt) and Kankan (140 megawatt).
While Myanmar is currently planning up to 67 hydropower projects, the government remains reluctant to explain how it plans to distribute the electricity or what the environmental impact will be.
Behind closed doors
Following the controversy of the Myitsone dam project, which was halted by President Thein Sein after public outcry, similar contracts are now emerging that were signed behind closed doors between military brokers, private companies and government officials.
Environmental and social concerns are often the most neglected by such large-scale development projects.
For example, the entire Htamathi forest in Sagaing Region was cleared within six years under the pretence of building a hydropower project.
Residents who were forcibly removed from the area are still facing difficulties reclaiming their land, while land brokers have become disproportionately rich.
The Latpadaungtaung copper-mine project is another case study. It has demonstrated the high-stake economic interests, again involving China, that have resulted in an iron-fisted response to the peaceful protests that oppose the project.
The meagre benefits of such projects for the general public who have long faced eviction, forced resettlement, as well as land-grabbing and lack of compensation, has led to even greater discontent.
The back-door deals with foreign companies that orchestrate these projects further increases the suspicions that development projects only benefit crony businesses at the expense of the public.
In the past, contracts signed with Chinese companies have sought to exploit the countries' natural resources, often leaving the government with a meagre 15 per cent share. This rarely translates in compensation for land or better public services.
The Nawchankha hydropower project is only the latest to come to light.
With growing transparency, the public can only hope for better accountability.
The projects are planned along the Nawchankha River, which flows into Maykha River, sources close to the Ministry of Electric Power said.
In 2010, YPIC International Energy Cooperation and Development Ltd, based in Yunnan province, signed an agreement with the government together with International Group of Entrepreneur (IGE), an unknown private entity from Myanmar, to construct hydropower projects on Nawchankha River.
The initial agreement, approved by the government’s Hydropower Administration Department, covers the establishment of five projects on the river, namely Laungdin, Htonshin Chaung, Wukyone Kyal, Gaw Lan and Kankan.
However, the public has been kept in the dark about these projects as the agreement was signed during the previous military government, which made numerous secret agreements with China.
Experts who have read the 2010 agreement said it was an "umbrella contract" that covers all five projects in the Nawchankha River basin. However, one has since been removed.
Govt left with 15%
According to the agreement, YPIC International from China and IGE will own a joint 85 per cent share, leaving the government with the remaining 15 per cent. However, IGE will only claim 2 per cent of the joint share, leaving YPIC International with a de facto 83 per cent ownership of the project.
Revisions have been made to prevent potential flooding, leading parties to sign a new contract to build the four hydropower projects - Laungdin (600 megawatt), Gaw Lan (120 megawatt), Htonshin Chaung (340 megawatt) and Kankan (140 megawatt).
While Myanmar is currently planning up to 67 hydropower projects, the government remains reluctant to explain how it plans to distribute the electricity or what the environmental impact will be.
Behind closed doors
Following the controversy of the Myitsone dam project, which was halted by President Thein Sein after public outcry, similar contracts are now emerging that were signed behind closed doors between military brokers, private companies and government officials.
Environmental and social concerns are often the most neglected by such large-scale development projects.
For example, the entire Htamathi forest in Sagaing Region was cleared within six years under the pretence of building a hydropower project.
Residents who were forcibly removed from the area are still facing difficulties reclaiming their land, while land brokers have become disproportionately rich.
The Latpadaungtaung copper-mine project is another case study. It has demonstrated the high-stake economic interests, again involving China, that have resulted in an iron-fisted response to the peaceful protests that oppose the project.
The meagre benefits of such projects for the general public who have long faced eviction, forced resettlement, as well as land-grabbing and lack of compensation, has led to even greater discontent.
The back-door deals with foreign companies that orchestrate these projects further increases the suspicions that development projects only benefit crony businesses at the expense of the public.
In the past, contracts signed with Chinese companies have sought to exploit the countries' natural resources, often leaving the government with a meagre 15 per cent share. This rarely translates in compensation for land or better public services.
The Nawchankha hydropower project is only the latest to come to light.
With growing transparency, the public can only hope for better accountability.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Junta-made-secret-dam-deals-30224470.html
