Saturday, April 12, 2014

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

Campaigners urge Thingyan revellers to avoid unruly behaviour, drunkenness

Posted: 12 Apr 2014 12:10 AM PDT

Six Rangoon-based youth organisations this week launched a campaign urging revellers celebrating the Thingyan Water Festival to avoid unruly behaviour, drunkenness and dressing inappropriately as a measure to protect Burma's image.

The six youth groups, including Myanmar Youth Capacity Building Network (MYCBN), Myanmar Youth Initiative and Think for Future, unveiled the campaign on 10-11 April with promotional information delivered to passers-by at busy areas in Rangoon such as Inya Lake, People's Square and downtown shopping malls.

Aung Zin, chairperson of the MYCBN, said that due to the extra attention focused on the country as ASEAN chair this year, Burmese people should seek to promote their cultural image on the international stage.

"At the moment, Burma is receiving a lot of attention from the international community as well as our ASEAN neighbours," he said. "If we behave in the same way as previous years – getting drunk and wearing inappropriate clothing – it could lead them into believing that we are not so culturally sensitive."

Meanwhile, the Myanmar Film Association (MFA) has also issued a statement urging film stars to celebrate the festival in appropriate fashion after photographs of scantily clad celebrities taking part in last year's Thingyan circulated on the internet.

"As we become more globalised, we see more and more pictures of scantily clad celebrities on the internet – we are issuing this statement to remind the young generation to consider their cultural values," said Aye Kyu Lay, vice-chairman of the MFA.

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China Closes Border as Thousands Flee Kachin War

Posted: 11 Apr 2014 10:44 PM PDT

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who have already been displaced twice and some even trice, have to flee once again as battles rage in southern Kachin State and northern Shan State between Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burmese Government troops.

Mass evacuation began as fighting continues to rage in Nawng Luk, Nawng Lum, Lahkum Pa, Nam Hka, Lagat Daw, Kyak Hpra, and Gawng Ngu Yang areas in Mansi Township.

A local official said on Thursday that about 1,000 IDPs living in Lagat Yang IDP camp, about 1,000 Shan villagers and Kachin civilians living in Ulang Pa District have fled to Man Win Gyi and the Chinese side of the border – Nam Gu and Nong Dao. Some IDPs have been relocated to Nawng Mun, a Shan village close to the China border, by KIO's IDP and Refugee and Relief Committee (IRRC) and some have been moved to Man Win Gyi area under Burmese government control. Mungmau Baptist Association and Karuna Social Service have been helping IDPs who have fled to Man Win Gyi with bedding and foods.

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Mary Tawm, coordinator of a local aid group Wunpawng Ninghtoi (WPN) said, "I am very worried about the IDPs because some of them fled from Namlim Pa in November 2013. Those IDPs include Kachin, Palaung and Shan nationalities. IDPs had no time to take their belongings, they had to run immediately and could not even finish their dinner". She said, "On the other side of the border, Nawng Dao, there are many Chinese soldiers watching along the border and it's difficult for IDPs to go there too".

Heavy fighting continues in southern Kachin State this morning and the sound of heavy artilleries can be heard from the Chinese side of the border, said an aid worker who has fled to Nong Dao. He said, "Fully armed Chinese soldiers are patrolling along the border and border crossing at Bang Hkam Gate has been suspended."

Despite the unwelcome by Chinese authorities, more IDPs and local residents are expected to cross the border as fighting has intensified in areas close to Man Win Gyi IDP camp, Hka Hkye IDP camp and a few villages located along China-Burma border.

This article was first published in Kachinland News on 11 April 2014.

Anti-Corruption Commission tackles Regional Administrations

Posted: 11 Apr 2014 10:16 PM PDT

Regional Administrations have been the focus of a third of the cases lodged by the newly formed Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and verified by the Ministry of Home Affairs, according to a Burmese lower house MP.

Thein Nyunt, a parliamentary representative for Rangoon Division, says that over 300 complaints have been submitted by members of the public to the ACC, headed by vice-president Sai Mauk Kham.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has ratified 90 of those complaints – including 25 directed against regional government administrations, 11 against the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, 10 against the Ministry of Home Affairs and three cases against the Supreme Court.

Thein Nyunt said he was surprised that there were only three complaints verified against the Supreme Court, amid widespread public criticism of corruption among judicial authorities.

In a statement released on Wednesday and reported by state-run paper The New Light of Myanmar, the ACC warned that legal action will be taken against those who lodge a complaint without "concrete evidence".  The ACC maintained that those who can prove that they have suffered "loss due to bribery and corruption" are invited to appeal.

The 15-member ACC was established by presidential decree ahead of the legislation that enables it, and signed into law on 7 August 2014.

Accusations of corruption from domestic and international critics have been a constant thorn in the side of Thein Sein's quasi-civilian reformist government.

The extent of corruption in Burma is "really quite stunning", Sam Zarifi, regional director of the International Commission of Jurists, told DVB in early April, in relation to alleged misconduct in the timber industry.

Literally every sector, Zarifi said, is and will for some time remain dominated by government cronies, especially in the booming extractive sector, where profit margins are high.

ACC findings have, however, lead to arrests. Late last month, a former government administrator of Pwintbyu, Magwe Division, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of embezzling over 260 million kyat (US$260,000) from funds designated to buy fertiliser for farmers. That sentence was the harshest levelled against a corrupt government official in Burma to date and lent legitimacy to the ACC and the Anti-Corruption Law.

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Eradicating corruption in Burma is inextricably linked to greater media freedom, Zarifi stressed to DVB  last week, as journalists, activists and citizens remain as watchdogs. Those freedoms took a hit this month, however, with the jailing of DVB correspondent Zaw Pe, which Human Rights Watch described as an attempt to "intimidate the press and curtail their ability to investigate corruption and malfeasance."

Zaw Pe's case, which ended in a one-year jail term for "disturbing a civil servant" as well as trespassing, was heard at local and high court levels in Magwe and Naypyidaw respectively, fuelling further speculation as to corruption within the Burmese judicial system.

BURMA BUSINESS WEEKLY

Posted: 11 Apr 2014 10:01 PM PDT

 

Ups and downs

The Burmese kyat is stable at: 961 kyat to the dollar, buying rate; and 963 kyat, selling rate. Gold is up in Burma from 665,300 kyat per tical last week to 674,200 kyat this week. The price of fuel remains unchanged: petrol is 820 kyat per litre; diesel 950 kyat; and octane 920 kyat a litre. Rice is up in price at Rangoon markets for the second week running, good-quality Pawhsanmwe selling in Rangoon for 1,300 to 1,600 kyat per basket.

 

MPE invites foreign bidders for refinery

State-owned Myanmar Petrochemical Enterprise (MPE) is inviting tender for foreign companies to enter into a joint-venture for the production of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) at a refinery in Nyaungdon in the Irrawaddy delta, a move the government says will help tackle the growing demand for natural gas in the country. Currently, there are three LPG refineries in Burma: one in Magwe division's Minbu, run by Japan's Mitsubishi Corp; and two Chinese-backed refineries in Nyaungdon and Magwe's Kyunchaung.

 

Awards for Burma's top 100 taxpayers

Burma's 100 top taxpayers will be presented honorary certificates on Monday by the Internal Revenue Department (IRD), according to an official from Rangoon Division tax office. The awards are based on tax payments for the 2012-13 financial year; Kanbawza Bank has been declared the highest taxpayer for that year. The IRD also announced that 8,000 companies which have failed to pay tax will be prosecuted.

 

Pepsi enters Burmese market

PepsiCo has reentered the Burmese soft drink market. Pepsi brand drinks had previously been manufactured and distributed in Burma, however economic sanctioning forced the American company out in 1997. Local Burmese firm MGS Co, in conjunction with Korean firm LOTTE Chilsung, is handling product distribution. Bottles of Pepsi now come at the cost of 200 kyat in Burma, as the brand competes with its chief rival, Coca Cola, who opened its first manufacturing plant in Burma in 2013.

 

Three Novotel five-star hotels to open in Burma

French hotel group Accor has announced the planned opening of three five-star hotels in Burma. The hotels will open in Rangoon, Naypyidaw and Inle Lake respectively. Accor, the company behind the famous Novotel hotel chain, runs hotels and resorts across 92 countries. Novotel Inle Lake is due to be open for guests before the coming November to February tourist season, with Naypyidaw and Rangoon to follow.

 

Singaporean consultancy firm branches out into Burma

Singaporean firm Surbana International Consultants Pte Ltd, which specialises in consultancy for large-scale construction projects, has opened a branch office in Rangoon. Surbana's president Liew Mun Leong, speaking at the launch ceremony in Rangoon on Sunday, said the consultancy firm will continue to look to expand in Burma. The firm is currently involved in two housing projects overseen by the Ministry of Construction, and hopes to be involved in a wide range of large construction projects. Transport infrastructure is to be a focus for Surbana, who will pursue links to future airport projects.

 

Myanmar Film Development Company publicly listed

The Myanmar Film Development Company (MDFC) has been floated as a publicly listed company with shares now available for purchase. The MDFC, founded by many well-known faces of the Burmese film industry, has already sold most of the 150,000 shares placed on sale, according to a company spokesperson. Shares were made available primarily to members of the film industry, although 5,000 are now available to the general public. The MDFC has announced that profit from the sale will be spent on the building a DVD factory in Rangoon.

 

ADB reaffirms support for Burma

Speaking with Burmese President Thein Sein on 4 April, Takehiko Nakao, president of Asian Development Bank (ADB), praised the social and economic reforms in the country and reaffirmed ADB's support to speed up development and poverty alleviation. Nakao also mentioned that ADB is keen to support investment in Burma's energy, transport, urbanisation, agriculture, education and health sectors.

 

Bank of India paves the way into Burma

The Central Bank of Myanmar has announced that the state-owned Bank of India (BOI) has been given permission to open a representative office in Burma, joining nearly 40 foreign banks which are waiting for the green light to open branches in the country, a move expected this year. Founded in 1906, BOI was nationalised in 1969. It currently has over 4,500 branches in India and across the world.

 

Burmese garment exports hit $1 billion

The total export value created by Burma's garment sector in the 2013-14 fiscal year hit a record high, amounting to over US$1 billion, an increase of about 25 percent from the previous year, according to an official from the Ministry of Trade and Commerce who also noted that he expected investment to pour into the garment sector in industrial zones such as the Thilawa Special Economic Zone, construction of which is currently underway.

 
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