Saturday, May 31, 2014

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

New European Residents in Ne Win’s Old Neighborhood of Villains

Posted: 30 May 2014 07:30 PM PDT

The sumptuous village on Ady Road 19B is being rented by the EU Ambassador Roland from the family of the late Burmese dictator Ne Win. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

The old Ady Road, where Burma's late dictator Gen Ne Win once lived, has witnessed ups and downs during the country's history. During his rule, the grand and leafy residences on Rangoon's famous Inya Lake were heavily guarded and soldiers wouldn't allow any visitors in the area.

After Ne Win's fall from power and his death in 2002, the area lost much of its allure, but access remained largely restricted and even today parts are closed off with a stop sign and a police checkpoint. The former strongman's relatives and daughters continue to live there and own several properties on Ady Road, which has since been renamed May Kha Road.

With the opening up of Burma the once quiet and secluded area has quickly become an upmarket villa neighborhood, as a growing number of international companies, UN agencies, Western governments and embassies rushing into the country are seeking suitable office space and residences. A shortage in quality housing and Burma's expected economic growth has set property and rent prices skyrocketing, and these days Ady Road residences are valued in millions of US dollars.

Last year, at one of the residences in a block of properties owned by Ne Win's relatives (numbers 19 to 30) large-scale renovations began. Burmese workers at the site said they had been instructed to upgrade a house next to the late general's home to international standards.

The new neighbor and renter of the Ne Win family was someone little known in Burma at the time, but important to the government in Naypyidaw: Roland Kobia, a Belgian, who was recently appointed as the European Union's ambassador to Burma. A lawyer by training, his last posting was in Azerbaijan. One of his missions, according to a press briefing, was to advance Burma-EU relations in the coming years and to establish a lasting relationship.

The EU opened a permanent mission in Burma in April 2012, following the relaxation of restrictions against the country and the international community's rapid embrace of President Thein Sein's reformist government.

Aung Zaw is founder and editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at aungzaw@irrawaddy.org.

The house next to the EU Ambassador's home was where Ne Win received state visitors, held numerous parties and from where he ordered armed forces to clamp down on the 1988 streets protests.

In the late 1950s, then-Burma Army Chief Ne Win and his wife Khin May Than decided to live on Ady Road, an area which had many rich and prominent local and foreign residents. The house he built was made with tiles, furniture and an in-house stereo system imported from Hong Kong since only international quality would do for his wife.

After his 1962 coup, he ordered his feared spy unit to screen all residents and forced the eviction of those not considered loyal to the new regime. When he expelled all foreigners from Burma, Ady Road residents John Sydenham Furnivall (better known in Burma as J.S Furnivall) and G.H. Luce, both British historians, also left.

Only Ne Win's most trusted ministers and aides were ultimately allowed to live there. After his fall from power in 1988, Ne Win continued to live on Ady Road where he and his favorite daughter Khin Sandar Win stayed under house arrest until his death in 2002. His three grandsons were put in prison.

All were gradually freed, three of Ne Win's grandsons were released last year, and we can be sure that Burma's former first family still controls much wealth and property—the latter undoubtedly rising in value as a result of Burma's opening up.

The extensive renovations and sumptuous residence of the EU Ambassador Kobia on Ady Road have not gone unnoticed and raised questions among those familiar with the extremely high rent rates in Rangoon.

Some expats and Burmese working with the United Nations and international NGOs have remarked on the costs of renting the lakeside mansion, where monthly rent fees are believed to hover between US$80,000 and $100,000, or more

A foreign journalist familiar with the EU and its growing relations with Burma's reformist government said, "The regulations at the EU headquarters set a cap on rental fees but these had to be rewritten in order to accommodate the cost of the new ambassador's residence [in Rangoon] because it was so high. This was the first time that the EU had done this."

An expat who visited the residence said, "The EU ambassador’s house, is beautiful, but I don't think anyone did due diligence on that. I do not even think they can say it was 'under market price."

The xenophobic strongman Ne Win, who expelled all foreigners after his 1962 coup, would surely be baffled to hear that his relatives are renting properties around his old home to foreign diplomats for a million dollar per year.

In the wake of Brussels' embrace of President Thein Sein's government, the European Commission's expanding mission in Burma has also required new office space and the commission has moved into the sixth floor of the Hledan Centre in Rangoon.

Here, the EU also struggled to avoid handing money to influential figures from Burma's dark past, as the center is owned by Asia World, a conglomerate founded with drug money by Lo Hsing Han, an ethnic Kokang Chinese warlord who once controlled one of Southeast Asia’s largest heroin trafficking operations.

He passed away in Burma last year and his son Steven Law and Singaporean wife, Cecilia Ng now run Asia World. As one of Burma's largest conglomerates with interests in property, construction, transportation, retail, the company no doubt has very close links to former regime members and current government leaders.

Controversy also surrounded the construction of the center as former landowners complained that they were never given the promised compensation for vacating the 1.5 acre site in 2003. The Myanmar Times reported last that Asia World has still not offered the former owners apartments in the center.

Some foreign NGOs workers told me they were dismayed to learn that the new EC office was in Hledan Centre.  One told me, "It’s EU tax payer money meant for the Myanmar people and where is the transparency here?"

The post New European Residents in Ne Win's Old Neighborhood of Villains appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Left Behind, Elderly Find an Advocate in Burma

Posted: 30 May 2014 05:30 PM PDT

Than Myint Aung, deputy chairman of Free Funeral Service Society at her office (Photo by Jpaing/The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Burmese philanthropist Than Myint Aung has carried hundreds of coffins since co-founding the Free Funeral Services Society (FFSS). But more recently, she has focused on assisting another group of people: those who are left behind after their loved ones pass away.

In 2001, Than Myint Aung, now 60 years old, co-founded the FFSS along with ex-actor Kyaw Thu, the late writer Thu Kha and philanthropist Myint Myint Khin Pe. The Rangoon-based nonprofit organization offers free funerals for families who cannot afford to pay for services.

As part of her job with the FFSS, Than Myint Aung would visit the homes of families after deaths were reported. In many cases, she found something that troubled her: elderly family members who had been dependent upon the deceased prior to his or her passing. Without a caretaker, she says, many were left to struggle on their own.

"They were just waiting for their own day to die," she says, adding that some neighbors and relatives even asked her to "abandon" the elderly relatives along with the corpses.

"There was an 80-year-old woman who had suffered from a stroke, and her 50-year-old son had been taking care of her. The son was the one who died, and she was left alone, with flies around her body as she wet herself," the philanthropist recalls.

After seeing many similar cases, in 2010 she decided to found the Twilight Villa (See Zar Yeik), a home for the elderly in Rangoon. The home cares for about 70 people who are suffering and on the verge of death, with about 50 others still on the waiting list.

"There are emergency cases, including a 95-year-old woman who was living in the shed of someone's home. We needed to bring her here," she says, adding that a second home for the elderly is currently being constructed.

She says she received her philanthropic gene from her mother, who "was very helpful to others." From her father she inherited a love of reading, which she says prompted her to become a writer, and an award-winning one at that, after taking home Burma's National Literature Award in 2002.

As a child she read books that motivated her to work for the benefit of her people. "Burmese creative literature makes the mind gentle and full of sympathy," she says. "For example, take this line from a novel by the writer Khin Hnin Yu: 'What distinguishes humans from animals is their selflessness and sacrifice for the public good.'"

In addition to her work with the FFSS and the elderly, Than Myint Aung founded a private school in Rangoon that offers free education through high school, and she co-founded an orphanage for children with HIV, also in Rangoon. The orphanage, Thukha Yeik Myone, has cared for 116 children since its establishment in 2005, with an emphasis on providing regular health care. Last year, a second orphanage for children with HIV opened in Mandalay.

"I try to alleviate social problems when I can, supporting projects that others have already started. If a service does not exist, I cooperate with friends and donors who are like-minded to help," she says.

After a doctor offered his own home to her as a residence, she turned it into a foundation that teaches youths about capacity building and philanthropic work.

"She is honest, optimistic and a role model in philanthropic work," Tun Lwin, a famous meteorologist and a board member of her youth philanthropy foundation, told The Irrawaddy.

She also founded a blood donor group in Malaysia. "I want every youth to save lives with clean blood. I want to see every youth become a blood donor when they turn 18," she says.

Than Myint Aung has received several literary and humanitarian awards. Most recently, she was awarded with US$10,000 from the Citizen of Burma Award Organization, based in the United States. She says she plans to invest the money into her charity work.

The post Left Behind, Elderly Find an Advocate in Burma appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Burma to Grant Foreign Banks Licenses by End of September

Posted: 30 May 2014 05:02 PM PDT

Banks

The headquarters of Asia Green Development Bank, one of Burma's local banks, in downtown Rangoon. (Photo: Sai Zaw / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Burma will grant foreign banks limited operating licenses by the third quarter of this year, in a bid by the country's semi-civilian government to attract foreign investment into an economy just emerging from decades of military rule.

An official document sent to more than 30 foreign banks with representative offices in Burma, and seen by Reuters, shows that as many as 10 foreign banks will be allowed to set up one branch each to provide restricted services, including granting loans to foreign corporates.

Lending to local companies will require the foreign banks to cooperate with local institutions, the document shows.

Foreign banks with representative offices in Burma include Standard Chartered, Thailand's Siam Commercial Bank, Singapore's Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, the Korea Exchange Bank, and Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Group.

"Licensees are expected to contribute to the development of the domestic banking sector, notably but not exclusively by participating in the interbank market, by lending to domestic banks to support their financing activities of domestic corporates," the document added.

A licensing panel will review applications by July 6 and award five to 10 licenses by the end of September, the document says. Consulting firm Roland Berger will oversee the process.

Based on a recommendation from the World Bank, a minimum paid-in capital of US$75 million will be required by selected foreign banks, the document showed.

Domestic Concerns

Burma's banking sector was crippled by decades of mismanagement under military regimes and cut off from much of the global economy due to Western sanctions.

The European Union, Australia and other countries have lifted sanctions in response to widespread political and economic reforms initiated by the reformist, semi-civilian government that took over from a military junta in March 2011.

A senior government official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject, said foreign banks would help spur economic development as well as modernize the domestic banking system.

"It's definitely going to require foreign banks to give capacity building to local banks," the official said.

The tender has triggered concerns among domestic banks and lawmakers, who say the domestic financial sector is too immature to deal with foreign competition.

The government official said a "strong parliamentary committee" had already said it was opposed to allowing foreign banks to operate in Burma, but added that the process was unlikely to be derailed.

"Local banks are not to be marginalized," he said.

Last year, a group of parliamentarians tried unsuccessfully to intervene at the last moment to prevent telecommunication licenses from being awarded to Norway's Telenor and Qatar's Ooredoo.

The post Burma to Grant Foreign Banks Licenses by End of September appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (May 31, 2014)

Posted: 30 May 2014 05:00 PM PDT

Yoma Increases Investment Grip on Burma's Mobile Phone System

Burmese-owned conglomerate Yoma Strategic Holdings has increased its interest in Burma's nascent mobile phone network.

Yoma's subsidiary YSH Finance raised its stake in Digicel Asian Holdings from 8 percent to 25 percent, media reports said this week.

The stake increase would make Digicel Asian Holdings an associated company of Yoma, said The Edge business news in Singapore.

Yoma is registered in Singapore but controlled by Burmese businessman Serge Pun and has interests in real estate, agriculture, vehicles and tourism, as well as telecommunications.

Digicel Asian Holdings was created as a joint venture by Pun and Irish businessman Denis O'Brien, chief of global telecommunications firm Digicel, after their bid for one of the two mobile phone network licenses in Burma failed. It has secured a contract with network developer Ooredoo to build and lease a network of mobile phone masts in Burma.

Digicel has spent more than US$25 million "assembling its network of mast sites" in Burma, a recent Irish Times report said.

Business, Govt Leaders Put Infrastructure Top of Forum Agenda

Tackling Burma's infrastructure problems such as poor roads and railways and a general lack of electricity will be a main theme of a business leaders' conference to be held in July.

The conference, chaired by President Thein Sein, will be the first under the auspices of the newly formed Myanmar Business Forum, which is to receive assistance from the International Finance Corporation, said local media reports.

A venue and date for the forum have yet to be announced, but the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry suggested it would be at the end of July.

Other development issues to be discussed by the forum will be agriculture, fishery, forestry, banking and finance, hotels and tourism, said Eleven Media.

Tourism is major foreign revenue earner for Burma and is one of the fastest growing business sectors, but it is also hampered by poor infrastructure, said the travel trade magazine TTR Weekly.

"Tourism experts say due to poor infrastructure and a shortage of suitable transport, ecotourism tours are more expensive than similar tours sold in neighboring countries," reported TTR Weekly.

Oil Imports Grow as Burma's Refineries Fail to Cope

Burma is importing record volumes of refined fuels such as diesel and petrol, and the actual amount might be much higher than official figures suggest because of smuggling, a report said.

Demand in the financial year to March was 40,700 barrels per day (bpd), according to Ministry of Energy figures. That's a rise of 5 percent over the previous year, but Reuters quotes unnamed fuel traders saying last year's increase could have been up to 25 percent if smuggled imports via Thailand are included.

Burma's three small refineries in theory have a combined capacity of about 56,000 bpd, but two of them are so decrepit they "barely function," said Reuters.

The rising demand is coming not only from the country's growing numbers of car owners but factories dependent on diesel for electricity generators and to operate machinery.

More than 50 percent of official imports are handled by Chinaoil, a subsidiary of China's state-owned PetroChina, and Hin Leong of Singapore, said Reuters.

But the recurring problem of poor infrastructure hampers fuel distribution, said Reuters, and also limits volumes coming into Burma by sea.

"Only smaller tankers carrying about 6,000-10,000 tonnes of oil can enter the shallow [Rangoon] River estuary to reach [Rangoon] and Thilawa ports designated to receive oil," said Reuters.

Renewed Interest in Salween Dams May Result From Thailand's Coup

Thailand's military coup is expected to trigger renewed efforts by Thai business interests to build hydroelectric dams on Burma's Salween River, an industry report said.

The Bangkok energy ministry's permanent secretary has put forward a set of proposals to the military-run National Council for Peace and Order to re-start a clutch of energy projects which have been stalled by recent political turmoil and government paralysis, said Platts energy agency.

The proposals include opening up to international bidding a new batch of onshore and offshore oil and gas blocks and electricity expansion projects, especially hydroelectric schemes in Laos and Burma.

The state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has backed controversial dams in Laos being built mainly to provide electricity to Thailand, and has shown interest in hydropower projects on Burma's Salween, which runs close to Burmese-Thai border.

"The energy ministry had been working on an energy reform plan over the past months, although this has been delayed by the political instability," Platts said.

The coup will also provide the stability to encourage Thai oil refineries to raise exports again, said Platts. Thailand has been a major source of fuel oils for Burma.

UN Bid to Replace Poppies Stalled by Lack of Access in Shan State

Despite a big surge in opium production in 2013, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said it still being refused access to some poppy growing areas of Shan State.

The UNODC program to assist poppy farmers in southern areas of Shan State to develop other marketable crops and help improve market access with new roads is stalled because UN teams have not been given permission by the Naypyidaw government, the agency's country manager Jason Eligh told Mizzima.

There was a 26 percent increase in the production of opium in Burma for making heroin in 2013, the UNODC said.

UN development assistance provides alternatives to earn income. Poppy farmers in Shan State lack access to markets outside the drug trade, Eligh said. "Developing regional markets or creating access to existing markets by building roads can provide farmers with opportunities to sell different crops," Mizzima said, quoting the UN official.

"I don’t know if there is a disagreement between the Tatmadaw and government. I don’t know if there's a disagreement between elements in Shan State," Eligh said of the stalled access.

Firms From 11 Countries Show Interest in Investing in Thilawa Zone

More 40 foreign companies have expressed interest in acquiring factories or warehouses in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone outside Rangoon, a government minister said.

The companies come from 11 countries, the Deputy Minister for National Planning and Economic Development Sett Aung was quoted by Eleven Media saying. Permits to build factories will be made available soon, but it's not clear who will actually invest.

The zone site is being developed by Japanese construction firms backed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Several Hong Kong-based garment and textile companies are reportedly among the most definite investors in factories.

The post The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (May 31, 2014) appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.
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