Ports in Myanmar - Dawei Deep Seaport

[AsianDragons]

will update later

[AsianDragons]

update is available in the neighbouring thread in the thai forum

[AsianDragons]

Dawei deep-sea port, SEZ gets green light

By Thein Linn
November 15 - 21, 2010

DAWEI port in Tanintharyi Region is set to become a major international communications and trading hub as a multibillion-dollar project takes shape.

Mr Anan Amarapala, vice-president of Italian-Thai Development, Thailand’s biggest construction company, signed a US$8.6 billion contract with Myanmar’s government to build a deep-sea port and industrial estate at Dawei, Bloomberg News reported on November 4.

Eventually, Dawei could be at the hub of trade connecting Southeast Asia and the South China Sea, via the Andaman Sea, to the Indian Ocean, receiving goods from countries in the Middle East, Europe and Africa, and spurring growth in the whole ASEAN region, industry sources say.

Italian-Thai Development signed the framework agreement to develop the project with the Myanmar Port Authority, under the Ministry of Transport, in Nay Pyi Taw on November 2.

The project involves the development of Dawei as a deep-sea port and a 250-square-kilometre industrial estate with sea, road and rail links with Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The proposed industrial estate will contain a steel mill, fertiliser plant, power plant, petrochemical industries, an oil refinery, shipbuilding and ship maintenance yards and other utility services, as well as a pipeline linking Dawei to Pu Nam Ron in Thailand’s Kanchanaburi Province.

There will also be residential and commercial developments, a tourist resort and a recreation complex, the company said.

The 60-year agreement can be extended by mutual consent.

The first step is to build a cross-border road from Dawei to Pu Nam Ron. The rest of the project will then be implemented in three phases over the next 10 years.

The Dawei project is the first-ever Special Economic Zone in Myanmar, the state-run The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said on November 3.

A total of 25 vessels ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 tonnes will be able to berth at 22 wharfs simultaneously in the north and south ports, which together will be able to handle 100 million metric tonnes of goods a year, the newspaper said.

A power station that can generate 4000 megawatts will be built as part of the project, which will also include a dam that can store 219 million cubic metres of water and a purifying plant that can supply 975,000 cubic metres of water a day.

The 170km eight-lane highway and rail link from Dawei to the Thai border will eventually be extended through the Greater Mekong sub-regional southern corridor to Vung Tau and Quy Nhon in Vietnam via Sisophon, Cambodia, and Bangkok.

Oil and natural gas pipelines will be laid parallel to the road and railway, the report said.

The planned project would be 10 times bigger than Thailand’s main port and industrial estate, according to Mr Tanit Sorat, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. According to Bloomberg News, Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest steel maker, and PTT, Thailand’s largest energy company, are among the companies considering investing in the project. Mr Sorat said last month: “Many Thai and foreign companies would like to be involved in the Dawei project as developers or investors.”

At a special meeting of ASEAN Foreign Affairs Ministers held in Singapore on May 19, 2008, the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Myanmar and Thailand signed an agreement to go ahead with the Dawei project.

“This project will profit traders from Myanmar and Thailand. Because of the link to the ASEAN highway system, Myanmar’s raw materials can flow to regional market smoothly and quickly,” said a senior official from the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

http://www.mmtimes.com/2010/business/549/biz54901.html

[AsianDragons]

pictures are available in the Thai, myanmar thread

[AsianDragons]

http://myanmarports.com/2011/12/04/port-of-dawei/

[napoleon]

[napoleon]

Originally Posted by mikion01

มาร์คพิกัดไว้

..

[napoleon]

[napoleon]

Dawai port project set to start

The Nation Published on September 20, 2010


Thailand continues to get more serious about the Dawei deep-sea port project as the Strait of Malacca - which it uses for import and export of goods - has a growing problem with shipping traffic jams. If completed, the project would reduce logistical and labour costs for the Kingdom as well as create job opportunities for Burma.

The project was mooted 10 years ago with a study by the Thai government of possible alternative routes to the Strait. And in May 2008, Thailand and Burma signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to launch it, with Italian-Thai Development as a potential site operator.


The Burmese government and the Myanmar (Burma) Port Authority (MPA) have also signed an MOU, said Tanit Sorat, vice-chairman of the federation of Thai industries and board member of the joint standing committee on commerce, industry and banking (JSCCIB).


The total project, estimated at Bt350 billion, was revealed during a conference between business operators and government sectors under the project Westgate Landbridge, organised by the JSCCIB. The four investors are PTT, Nippon Steel, Egat and Petroleum National Berhad (Petronas).


The Landbridge is in two phases: the first commencing early next year to construct a four-lane road; and the second, the building of eight-lane roads. These two phases are expected to be finished by 2015.


Italian-Thai Development project manager Surin Vichian said the highway route would begin from Phu Nam Ron in Kanchanaburi province to Dawei in the Tanintharyi region of Burma - a distance of 160km.


Currently 100km have been cleared to mark the road's unsealed route from Dewei and Phu Nam Ron. Work on the forestry area is to be left to the last as there are problems negotiating with the Burmese military, but the road planned by the Thai and Burmese governments does not cut through any village or community.


Within the Dawei project, plans are for deep-sea ports and industrial estates.


Its area is said to be much bigger than Laem Chabang and Map Ta Phut put together.


In January next year, the deep-sea port will begin construction, together with roads for industry and public utility as the first phase. Completion is expected in five years.


Tanit said the cost of the deep-sea port is estimated at Bt100 billion.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home...-30138322.html

[napoleon]

ITD firms Dawei project Steel mill estimate runs to B300bn

Published: 13/12/2011 at 02:22 AM

Italian-Thai Development expects to allot 40,000 rai of industrial land in Burma's Dawei project next year, with plans calling for a 300-billion-baht steel mill, says ITD president Premchai Karnasuta.

The industrial estate will also comprise a fertiliser factory and petrochemical refineries. The basic infrastructure for industrial use is expected to be completed and ready to operate in 2015.

Mr Premchai said the steel mill would sit on 12,000 rai of land, with an investment of as much as 300 billion baht, and ITD would have a Japanese partner.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/...-dawei-project

[napoleon]

Yingluck to push Dawei project at GMS summit in Naypyidaw

The Nation December 19, 2011 1:00 am

Six countries from the Mekong basin will kick off a summit in Burma's new capital Naypyidaw today to try to boost economic growth, narrow development gaps, strengthen regional links and integrate cooperation schemes.

Under the theme of "towards a new decade of Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) strategic development partnership", leaders from China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam will discuss and adopt a strategic program for the next 10 years (20122022).

Sponsored by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the GMS program was established in the mid1980s to build infrastructure for development and link economic activity in the Mekong basin. As of September this year, the GMS had implemented 55 investment projects for a total project cost of $14 billion. These included subregional roads, airports and railway improvements, plus hydropower projects for crossborder power supply and tourism.

During the summit, leaders are likely to praise successes from their cooperation for boosting tourism, agriculture and the environmental sector. They are due to witness the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for joint action to reduce HIV vulnerability related to population movement, plus an MOU on cooperation to accelerate the building of an "information superhighway" and its application in the GMS. There will also be an agreement for the GMS Freight Transporters Association (Freta).

Leaders will also hear a report from the private sector on the progress of the GMS Business Forum and outcome of the GMS Business and Investment Conference, which is due to be held in parallel. The private sector from six countries under the GMS Business Forum umbrella will have an input, and a chance to share their views on the cooperation scheme, problems and challenges.

Industry reps from Thailand will propose boosting transport links, to be economic links. They hope to transform the NorthSouth route from China to Thailand and EastWest from Burma to Vietnam into economic corridors to boost business and integrate Mekong region economies. Under this plan, countries would have logistical integration, with crossborder trade through transport and transshipment, special economic zones at border towns and crossborder tourism.

A GMS economic development master plan will be implemented together with the Asean connectivity plan, as part of an integrated Asean community by 2015.

Tanit Sorat, vice chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, who is also chairman of the GMSBusiness Forum Thailand, said the Thai private sector wants to see a new model for border economies that links Thai border towns with neighbouring countries.

Paired bordertown economies, such as Chiang KhongHuay Xai, Nakhon PhanomKhammuan, MukdahanSavannakhet, KanchanaburiDawei and Mae SotMyawaddy should be made into special economic zones with unique characteristics for special purposes, he said. KanchanaburiDawei, for example, should be model border towns for the seafood industry, rubber plantations, logistics for international sea transshipment, Tanit said.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra would tell GMS leaders at the summit tomorrow that the GMS program would be a core cooperation scheme for the Mekong region and Thailand was ready to contribute to development projects with financial support and technical assistance. As a country sitting in the middle of Mekong basin, Thailand could link to all neighbours and become a regional hub for rail links.

Yingluck would emphasis the mega project at Dawei special economic zone under bilateral cooperation, a government official familiar with the GMS strategy said. After the meeting in Naypyidaw, Yingluck would ask her Cabinet to voice full support for the Dawei project, the official said.

Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul, who accompanied Yingluck to the GMS meeting, said Dawei would be a core cooperation project between Thailand and Burma to enhance the two countries' economic development. Surapong plans to visit Dawei early next month together with ministers of finance, industry, energy and transport in a bid to speed up development of the project, which is overseen by Thai construction firm ItalianThai.

In the GMS summit, Prime Minister Yingluck will also address issues related to the EastWest Economic Corridor to enhance economic activities along road links across the Mekong basin from Burma to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. She will also mention environmentally friendly investment projects in the context of weather change, which drastically affected Thailand and other countries in the region this year.

With the Mekong region now getting attention from various parts of the world, notably East Asia, leaders will assign the ADB, as GMS secretariat, to coordinate with countries with joint development schemes, such as the MekongJapan and MekongSouth Korea arrangements, to avoid any overlap and efficient utilisation of resources.

The GMS has regional powerhouse China as a member. Other economic powers such as Japan and South Korea, which are not in the Mekong basin, used to have and wanted more roles in the region.

And development partners, notably from western countries, also wanted deals with the region. Leaders of the Mekong hope to facilitate business with all of them.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nati...-30172150.html

[napoleon]

Dawei project developers seek KNU cooperation

Thursday, 05 January 2012 17:33
.
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – For the past three months, Karen National Union officials have blocked construction on a road linking the Dawei Development Project to Thailand, after concerns over environmental impacts and complaints from residents who were forced to relocate.

Officials and environmental impact experts representing the Italian-Thai Development (ITD) group met with KNU officials on December 28 to try to restart the road construction, according to KNU Myeik-Dawei District chief Pado Saw Gwe Htoo Win.

KNU officials halted the construction because of overall environmental concerns about the massive deep-sea port project near Tavoy in southern Burma, and about the process of the forced relocations and confiscations of plantations and gardens, which have been purchased at lower-than-normal prices, residents said.

The KNU, which controls an area near the project, has been engaged in skirmishes in its control area. In July, road workers were forced to flee to Thailand after fighting broke out between the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), and government troops. Fighting flared again last month near Myitta, on the road’s route, highlighting the dangers to construction workers.

The projected road will link up to Kanchanaburi, Thailand. The ITD company wants the KNU to allow road construction to resume and to provide security for the project.

KNU Mega Project Research Committee chairman General Pado Saw Mutu Sayo, secretary Pado Dadomu and member Pado Saw David Taw attended the meeting held on the Thai-Burmese border. Pado Saw Gwe Htoo Win attended the meeting as a KNU regional official.

Representing ITD were Vice Chairman Anan Amarapala, a project assessment team from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and environmentalists, who explained the project at the meeting.

“They talked about the company’s plan, the impact on the natural environment and how they’ve conducted the environmental assessments. They also explained how they would pay compensation for the social impact,” Pado Saw Gwe Htoo Win told Mizzima.

Based on a 2010 impact report, ITD said that while the project would adversely affect the natural environment, the company would minimize damages and pay compensation for loss of homes, businesses and land, according to Pado Saw Gwe Htoo Win.

Estimates of displaced residents range from 30,000 by activists to 10,000 by company officials. ITD showed designs for small, medium and large homes for relocated residents. Residents told Mizzima that ITD planned to build 1,000 homes valued at about 15 million kyat each (about US$ 19,000) in Bwa Village, one of the four new villages to serve residents of 21 villages that will be relocated. The cash compensation for more than 100,000 acres of confiscated plantations or gardens was three times lower than current prices, residents said.

The KNU didn’t make a decision during the meeting, but said it would gather more information from residents and discuss the issue.

In May 2008, the foreign ministers of Burma and Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding on the US$ 58 billion project. The Dawei Development Project includes construction of industrial zones, a new city, deep-sea ports, a chemical fertilizer plant, a coal-fired power plant, a steel plant, chemical fuel plants, oil refineries, ship maintenance buildings, a railroad, roads and oil and natural gas pipelines. The environmental impact on the overall area will be massive, say environmentalists.

http://www.mizzima.com/business/6358...operation.html

[napoleon]

Originally Posted by mikion01

..

[Wisarut]

The website of Dawei Deep Sea port project is here:

http://www.daweidevelopment.com/index.php/en

[AsianDragons]

Dawei Port in Doubt with Bangkok Hub Plan

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By WILLIAM BOOT / THE IRRAWADDY Friday, March 9, 2012



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The Dawei project in southern Burma has been thrown into doubt as neighbor Thailand looks at other options. (Photo: Reuters)




Shaky plans for a US $50 billion oil port and industrial complex on Burma’s southeast coast at Dawei (Tavoy) are looking even more uncertain after Thailand disclosed that it is re-appraising its strategic trade transport infrastructure to look at domestic ports.

The change in focus was outlined by a senior government planner at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) conference in Bangkok. The meeting was to map out transport links as the 10-nation bloc moves closer to creating a single market.

The news comes after Burma’s government blocked proposals by Bangkok construction giant Italian-Thai Development to build a huge 4,000-megawatt coal power plant to fuel the Dawei project.

Thailand now plans to develop Laem Chabang, its port near Bangkok at the top of the Gulf of Thailand, as a regional hub for “upper Asean”—comprising Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Burma.

Thailand is also examining the possibility of an oil “land bridge” south of Dawei.

It is a role that was being earmarked for Dawei where Italian-Thai Development is supposed to be spearheading a large oil shipment port at the heart of a new special economic zone approved by the Burmese government.

“This represents a huge shift in [Thai] government thinking, effectively closing down the idea of Thailand's Western gateway being Dawei,” said the UK-based industry magazine Port Strategy this week.

“A port at Pakbara on the Andaman coast is now being considered, a move which puts the land bridge notion back on the long term agenda,” the magazine commented.

Thailand’s government recently called for a feasibility study on developing a crude oil pipeline land bridge across the narrowest section of Thailand linking the Indian Ocean in the west with the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea in the east.

Pakbara is in southern Thailand near the Malaysian island of Langkawi. From there is it only 100 km across Thailand to the gulf coast at Mueang Songkhla.

The new ports hub plan was presented by the inspector general of Thailand's Ministry of Transport, Chula Sukmanop, at the Bangkok conference on Feb. 29 under the theme “Connecting Asean to the World.”

The Dawei project has been in limbo since the 4,000-megawatt coal plant was blocked and the Naypyidaw government cast doubt on using gas as an alternative fuel. Without a means to generate large volumes of electricity, the port development—including oil storage and shipment, a petrochemicals complex and other industrialization—would be difficult to implement.

Italian-Thai Development said in February that it would need three months to look at alternatives for powering Dawei, designated as Burma’s first special economic zone under the new government.

Thailand’s Energy Policy and Planning Office is now examining the oil land bridge proposal and is due to make recommendations in six months.

Both this idea and the Dawei port project are aimed at improving trade and oil transportation links between East and South Asia, and farther afield to the oil fields of the Middle East by avoiding the long and congested journey via the Malacca Straits at the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia and Singapore.


http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=23176

[napoleon]

NESDB to submit Dawei proposals

THE NATION March 30, 2012 1:00 am

The Thai and Burmese governments have a lot of work to do to facilitate investment in Burma's Dawei special economic zone, including the construction of a highway linking Thailand's Eastern Seaboard to Dawei, Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Board, said yesterday.

He said the NESDB would soon propose many measures related to the deep-sea port and industrial park in Dawei to the Cabinet for consideration.

In the short run, the two governments need to facilitate trade at the Baan Namphuron crossing and then establish a permanent checkpoint there, Arkhom said at a conference.

He said the NESDB was studying the proposed highway, which would be about 300 kilometres long.

Thailand needs to find another port because of the congestion at the port in Singapore, he said, adding that Dawei would serve as a western gate for Thai exports to Europe.

Dawei would also accommodate key clusters of industries, such as steel, auto parts and electronics, he said.

"It may take another 10 or 15 years to complete the development of Dawei, which was begun five years ago," Arkhom said.

Development of the deep-sea port is expected to be completed in 2015, while power generation, water works and the industrial park will be completed in later phases, he said.

Another key issue facing the Burmese economy is the exchange rate, Arkhom said.

He urged the two governments to hold further discussions on investment protection, take steps to harmonise their tax systems - such as through a double-taxation agreement - and fully demarcate the border to prevent disputes.

Asean countries - in particular the Lower Mekong Subregion - have committed to creating road and rail links with Dawei. The Chinese government has also expressed interest in using the Dawei seaport in the future.

Dawei Development Co, a subsidiary of the Italthai Group, needs of lot of funding to develop the project, and must have a clear plan spelling out where the funding will come from, Arkhom said.

In the long run, Thailand has to think about how to develop Kanchanaburi province, next-door to Dawei, he said.

Apirath Vieanravi, a former Thai ambassador to Burma, expressed confidence in that country's political stability. "Burma is unlikely to reverse its openness policy," he said.

He is worried, however, about the continuity of democratisation in Burma after President Thein Sein leaves office.

"Thein Sein, a former army general, is a man who can compromise with other parties and who does what he says he will do," Apirath said.

Myo Thet, secretary-general of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said Thai investment in Burma was second only to China's. He said food, palm-oil plantations and supporting industries had good potential for Thai investment.

At a separate event, Internet provider True International Gateway, owned by True Corp, announced that it would invest about Bt50 million to create a fibre-optic link with Burma.

Construction is expected to be complete by the middle of this year, said the executive product manager for business development, Rungkiet Kamondetdacha.

The company already has fibre-optic links with Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

True International Gateway provides data and Internet gateway services for both domestic and international markets. It targets revenue of about Bt1 billion this year, up from about Bt800 million last year.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/busi...-30179028.html

[AsianDragons]

http://www.daweiport.net/

lots of interesting stuff here

[napoleon]

Doubts over Italian-Thai's Myanmar plans may scare off ADB

The Nation April 12, 2012 1:00 am

The Asian Development Bank will find it hard to lend money for Italian-Thai Development's US$8.6-billion (Bt267-billion) plan to build a deep-sea port and industrial estate in Myanmar, Craig Steffensen, its Thailand country director, said yesterday.

"If you look at their plans, with golf courses and hotels and steel mills and refineries, it scared a lot of people," Steffensen, who also oversees Myanmar for the ADB, said in an interview with Bloomberg.

"It'd make it very difficult for a group like ADB to ever get involved in a project like that given the concerns of everyone, including ourselves, about how this project should move forward."

Although it is predicting fast growth in Myanmar's gross domestic product - 6 per cent this year and 6.3 per cent in 2013 - the bank believes the country is unlikely to catch up with Thailand or Vietnam in the next decade because it is in an early stage of development.

For Thailand, the ADB forecasts GDP expansion at 5.5 per cent for both this and next year.

Myanmar's economic prospects are bolstered by recent political reforms and projected increases in gas exports, according to an ADB report released yesterday.

"Myanmar is making a lot of the right moves to revitalise its economy, laying a foundation for further foreign investment and commodity exports with currency changes, land reforms and tax incentives," Steffensen said.

The possible easing of economic sanctions by Europe and the United States would lead to even higher levels of trade and investment, he said.

The ADB report said the move to a managed float of the kyat, which took effect on April 1, was a promising reform towards exchange-rate unification and transparency. This measure will expose inefficiencies in state enterprises that dominate parts of the economy. However, it is necessary that the country undertake further reforms, including transparent subsidies and possibly privatisation.

As hotels in Myanmar and flights in and out of the country are fully booked now, income from tourism is expected to rise further, Steffensen said.

Tourist arrivals last year rose by 26 per cent to about 300,000 with combined spending of $300 million. Gas exports increased by nearly 15 per cent to an estimated $3 billion.

New pipelines from Myanmar linking with China and Thailand will increase gas exports.

Inflation in Myanmar is expected to be quite high, at 6.2 per cent this year and 6.3 per cent in 2013.

Despite the country's strong growth prospects, it is starting far behind Thailand or Vietnam.

"The gap of development is huge. Don't forget that Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in the world," he said.

The ADB estimates that per capita income in Myanmar is only $715 per year. Its population is estimated at about 60 million, of whom 26 per cent are poor. Poverty levels are much higher in some regions, such as 70 per cent in Chin State.

Only 25 per cent enjoy access to electricity. Human resources are not good. Myanmar's ranking on the United Nations Human Development Index is near the bottom of the list, at 149 out of 187 countries, according to the ADB report.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said her country's economic development will surpass other Asean members' in 10 years.

Thailand will see stable growth at 5.5 per cent until next year, thanks to post-flood reconstruction activities by both the private and public sectors, said Luxmon Attapich, the ADB's senior economist for Thailand. Downside risks for the economy are the euro-zone crisis, higher oil prices and the threat of natural disasters - floods or drought.

The ADB does not include political factors in making Thailand's economic projections, she sad.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/busi...-30179814.html

[SeeMacau]

Dawei developer seeks funding

http://mmtimes.com/2012/business/613/biz61309.html

Volume 31, No. 613
February 6 - 12, 2012

BANGKOK – The clay model of Myanmar’s ambitious Dawei deepsea port and special economic zone sprawls across a long table on the 43rd floor of the headquarters of ItalianThai Development Pcl. Glossy posters hail it as the “new global gateway of IndoChina”.

But moving ahead with the first phase of the project is proving slow, despite the dramatic reforms sweeping Myanmar and the gradual lifting in Western sanctions as the former British colony emerges from half a century of isolation a prospect underlined on January 23 by plans by the European Union to ease some punitive measures.

In a rare interview, a senior executive at ItalianThai Development outlined on January 23 the company’s far reaching plans for a project that would transform the wild scrubland of southern Myanmar into Southeast Asia’s largest industrial complex.

In a country where a third of its 60 million people live on less than US$1 a day, Dawei is striking in its ambition.

Superhighways, steel mills, power plants, shipyards, refineries, pulp and paper mills and a petrochemical complex are part of the $50 billion project, as are two golf courses and a holiday resort all strategically nestled between rising powers India, China and Southeast Asia with a port on the Andaman Sea.

The company hopes to secure $8.5 billion by yearend to finance infrastructure and utilities under the first phase of the project, and is confident it will find partners, but it also acknowledges that convincing investors remains tough, particularly given Myanmar’s low level of infrastructure, visa restrictions and urgent need for currency reforms.

Somchet Thinaphong, managing director of Dawei Development Co, controlled by ItalianThai, told Reuters the first phase of construction roads, a telecoms network, utilities and a port would be completed within three-and-a-half years, along with a power plant, but it remains unclear what energy source the plant would use.

Myanmar’s government abruptly halted construction of a 4000 megawatt coalfired power plant on January 10, citing environmental concerns.

Somchet said its power plant partner, Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Pcl, would decide on fuel type within three months, including the possibility of using natural gas funnelled to the site on a 50-kilometre (31-mile) pipeline from fields within Myanmar.

In the year to date, ItalianThai shares have underperformed those of its peers and the overall market due to uncertainty over the Myanmar project.

“We think this project is visionary. It is a door that is opening Myanmar. At the same time, Myanmar has to open this door,” he said.

As Myanmar embarks on its most dramatic political changes since a 1962 military coup in what was then Burma, megaprojects like the 250-square-kilometre Dawei Special Economic Zone hint at a rapid acceleration in both investment and development.

But Somchet also illustrated some of the challenges that vex investors in Myanmar.

While they have completed construction of a road that will link Dawei to Bangkok 250km to the east, the border is not fully open due to disputes between Myanmar and Thailand over its exact demarcation.

Construction of the highway was delayed last year by ethnic Karen rebels who have since signed a preliminary peace deal with the government.

Customs facilities still need to be built.

Somchet is confident all that will be resolved. And while the road on the Myanmar side is not yet paved, he expects that, too, to be completed in about three years, creating a stable route for transport cargo that has been sent to Dawei from the Middle East and Africa for shipping to Bangkok and beyond in Southeast Asia, bypassing the lengthy and congested Strait of Malacca. Other challenges include Myanmar’s dual exchange rate.

While the currency is pegged at six kyat to a dollar, it changes hands unofficially at rates more than 120 times higher, forcing the government to seek help from the International Monetary Fund.

ItalianThai is looking for partners for the various parts of the project and the main ones are likely to come from China, Japan and South Korea, he said.

A quarter of Dawei Development is now held by Max Myanmar Group, owned by tycoon U Zaw Zaw, whose close ties to the Myanmar government put him on the US targeted sanctions list in 2009.

A November 15, 2007, U.S. diplomatic cable described Zaw Zaw as an “up and coming crony”.

That might have been a problem last year, when some potential partners, according to Somchet, were reluctant to express their interest in the project publicly for fear of upsetting business allies in the United States.

But since US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Myanmar in December, the mood has changed dramatically, he said.

Although he has had no major expressions of interest in the project by Western investors, potential Asian partners are decidedly more open.

Somchet said he met recently with Japanese Trade and Industry Minister Yukio Edano, for instance.

ItalianThai hopes Dawei could be a location for Japanese firms to build parts to be used at car manufacturing plants in neighbouring Thailand, among other uses.

An investment roadshow in South Korea is scheduled for late February.

Thailand’s top lender, Bangkok Bank, is advising on the power project and Siam Commercial Bank on the whole project.

– Reuters

[napoleon]

DAWEI: Japan may ease the way for ITD

THE NATION April 28, 2012 1:00 am

The Japanese government has shown interest in supporting the Dawei deep-sea port project in Myanmar, easing the concerns of Italian-Thai Development over financing. ITD holds a 75-year concession on the project.
Tokyo's involvement would smooth the way to acquiring funding from international institutions, while ITD is selling some of its stakes in potash and aluminium mines to raise funds and increasing registered capital.

LONG-TERM LOANS

ITD president Premchai Karnasuta said yesterday that the company was seeking long-term loans from international financial institutions to finance the Dawei project. Support from Japan will give such institutions confidence to lend for the project.

"If we can secure long-term loans and raise funds, it will no longer be a concern," he said.

Premchai said the Japan Bank for International Cooperation was willing to finance the project.

He said ITD also had 80,000 rai (12,800 hectares) of saleable land within the Dawei project, of which 30,000 rai was in the process of being sold to investors who are interested in power plants, an integrated steel plant, and the deep-sea port itself. Meanwhile, ITD is offering to sell some of its stakes in a potash mine in Udon Thani province and an aluminium mine in Laos to raise funds.

Chartchai Chutima, deputy chief executive for finance, said the company expected to dilute its share in the aluminium mine to 30 per cent from 45 per cent currently. It will reduce its stake in the potash mine from 100 per cent currently, but will maintain its majority in the asset.

He said these asset sales would begin in the current half of the year.

Premchai said a Chinese company would be a partner in the aluminium mine, which needs an investment budget of US$1.2 billion for the first phase. ITD is dealing with both Thai and foreign investors to partner in the potash mine. It will finalise the partners as well as the mining licence by the end of this year.

An ITD shareholder meeting yesterday approved the increase of registered capital from roughly Bt4.19 billion to Bt5.87 billion by issuing new ordinary shares at par value of Bt1 per share.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/busi...-30180876.html