monday, june 8, 2015 (mte daily issue 59)

No return in sight for IDPsFour years after fighting resumed between the Tatmadaw and tje Kachin Independence Army in northern Myanmar, an estimated 100,000 people in Kachin State and northern Shan State are unable to return home. NEWS 4

Nervous Yangon high school students gather before dawn to check their matriculation exam results, which were released nationally at 4:30am on June 7. Just over one-third of test-takers managed to pass the exam, which is the sole determinant for university admissions. The national pass rate of 37.6 percent was an improvement on last year, when only 31.76pc of students passed.

WWW.MMTIMES.COM DAILY EDITION ISSUE 59 | MONDAY, JUNE 8, 2015

500Ks.

HEARTBEAT OF THE NATION

IN PICTURES

PHOTO: AUNG KHANT

NEWS 3

Risks for NLD leader ahead of first China visitAnalysts have warned that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will need to be wary on her upcoming trip to China not to provoke a domestic backlash, with the fighting in Kokang and projects at Letpadaung and Myitsone likely to dominate talks.

NEWS 3

Students shun invitation to education law talksAt least two student unions boycotted talks on the National Education Law called by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, while a third group did attend in a reflection of divisions coursing through the student movement.

BUSINESS 8

Labourers make do at Kyaukpyu docksThe Ngalpwe jetty is one of the few places where unskilled labourers of both sexes can make money. While workers eke out a living, a large special economic zone is set to rise nearby.

BUSINESS 9

Investors dodge ongoing boats crisisWhile the international community follows the plight of those rescued from smuggling boats, businesses say the crisis does not have a direct impact on their investment decisions.

2 News THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 8, 2015

THE INSIDER: Its called that because its on the inside page of the paper

Page 2THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 8, 2015

Kayleigh Long |[email protected]

Nothing can stop the electionsexcept the outbreak of natural disaster of the absence of regional security, apparently, with chair of the Union Election Commission telling a meeting of the UECs subcommissions just that on June 5.

Its not quite clear if this marks a change in policy that will also apply to referendums, and if by region he means Southeast Asia or something a touch more local like Bago.

PR 101Government departments should adopt departmental policies for relations with media and releasing information, Information Minister U Ye Htut told the opening ceremony of the training course on relations with media at the MoI HQ in Nay Pyi Taw late last week, the Global New Light reported over the weekend.

Obviously thats a move to be applauded, and a step in the right direction for politicians trying to get their message across. Its also good news for journalists.

Now, there is probably something to be said for authorities taking a bit more time and effort to craft their message, with some politicians being particularly prone to stepping out of line and saying something a bit dumb that doesnt reflect that well on the government.

Case in point: Even as U Ye Htut addressed the media relations course in the thriving metropolis of Nay Pyi Taw last week, Speaker of the upper house U Khin Aung Myint attended a conference at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.

I want to urge everyone to look at everyone among these boat people. They cannot speak the Myanmar language, and they dont look like Myanmar people, U Khin Aung Myint was quoted by ABC as saying.

He stopped just short of delving into phrenology on the sidelines of the conference, telling a journalist from Australias SBS News that the boat people are clearly and unequivocally not from Myanmar, inviting her to check if they look like me [him].

To think, all that confusion over how to determine whether or not someones from Myanmar could have been avoided! All those calls for enforcement of the 1982 citizenship law from people who cant actually explain its contents? Totally unnecessary. All thats needed is a picture of Khin Aung Myint. Phewf! Its obviously a very sensitive and infinitely complex issue, but the stipulation about linguistics is plainly ridiculous, with a good number of people from other remote and undeveloped regions having Myanmar language skills about as good as mine, which is to say ne-ne-ma-kaun-bu.

When my colleague travelled to Langkawi to cover the boat crisis a month or so back, she went to a detention centre where the people identifying as Rohingya had been separated from the Bangladeshi migrants and that was achieved in an afternoon by local authorities. People talk of a regional solution perhaps their expertise wouldnt go amiss.

Damned if you doJournalists formed a scrum outside Daw Aung San Suu Kyis house yesterday in anticipation of a protest, after rumours began to circulate 969 and friends had deemed the NLDs very cautiously worded open letter on the boat crisis, which called for rule of law and not much else, to be a source of some offence. Unfortunately, the protest was a bit of a fizzler so this whole episode may not be noted by the international press who seem to thrive on peddling ill-informed, sanctimonious op-eds about Her Silence.

In brief:New local business just such a bad idea that everyone in the neighbourhood assumes its a money laundering front

Northern Shan meth production lab output soaring, says manager: If theres one thing thats great for productivity, its meth Gamers reach consensus that Grand Theft Auto: Nay Pyi Taw is pretty boring until you find the tunnels

Next week:John Okell reveals hes preparing to drop new album of what he calls educational relaxcore: Its pretty much Burmese By Ear with panflutes and waterfall noises Absolutely no one clear on whether or not the PLA-Air Force border drill is still going on?

Once was Burma ...Archival material courtesy of Pansodan GalleryFirst floor, 286 Pansodan, upper block, Kyauktada township

A grainy image graces the cover of Forward cover in 1970A grainy image graces the cover of Forward cover in 1970

News 3www.mmtimes.com NEWS EDITOR: Thomas Kean | [email protected]

Daw Suu risks domestic backlash from China trip

DAW Aung San Suu Kyi makes her first visit to China this week, a trip that analysts say could help soothe strained bilateral relations but also present the opposition leader with domestic pitfalls.

The Chinese Communist Party and the National League for Democ-racy have confirmed that she would meet President Xi Jinping and Pre-mier Li Keqiang during her five-day visit, which starts on June 10.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will be joined by her chief of staff, Daw Tin Mar Aung, and two members of par-liament, U Phyo Min Thein and U Phyo Zayar Thaw.

The Myanmar democracy icon has made a series of high-profile trips to Asia, Europe and the United States since her release from house arrest in late 2010 but this will be her first to China. Beijing appears keen to court those politicians seen as likely to play leading roles after the November elections, and has previ-ously welcomed delegations from the NLD, ethnic minority parties and the Union Solidarity and Development Party.

Her visit to Beijing comes at a time of heightened tensions along the shared border where the Tat-madaw and ethnic Chinese rebels in the Kokang region have been en-gaged in fierce fighting for the past four months. Tens of thousands of civilians have fled across the border. Last week China launched what are believed to be unprecedented live-fire military exercises along the same stretch of frontier, in what some ob-servers saw as a warning to the Tat-madaw to stop the conflict from spill-ing over into its territory.

Political commentator U Yan Myo Thein, author of a book on the triangular relationship between Myanmar, China and the US, said that China believes it can safeguard its strategic interests in Myanmar against competition from the West by fostering a relationship with the Oxford-educated NLD leader.

According to my research, it is the first time the Chinese Commu-nist Party has invited the leader of an opposition party who is also a No-bel peace laureate. They never made such an invitation before, he said.

I believe to some extent the visit would help resolve military tensions across the border, even if they cannot be resolved completely, he said.

He said there were high hopes from the trip, but talks would likely cover such sensitive and controver-sial projects as the Letpadaung cop-per mine and the Myitsone dam, as well as the border conflict.

One of the first major acts of President U Thein Seins new semi-civilian government in 2011 was to suspend the Chinese-led Myitsone project, a move that Beijing inter-preted as an early and alarming sign that Myanmar intended to reorient its foreign policy toward the US.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must be very cautious and clever when these sensitive issues come to the table. If she puts a foot wrong, she would face challenges in local politics and this would probably have an impact in the elections, U Yan Myo Thein added.

U Thein Sein suspended the dam project until the end of his presiden-tial term early next year. China is already lobbying for the project to be restarted and some politicians be-lieve Daw Aung San Suu Kyi could be persuaded to back it.

During protests against the

proposed dam in August 2011, the NLD leader issued her Irrawaddy Appeal calling for protection of the vital waterway. Noting the estab-lished tradition of mutual regard and friendship between Myanmar and China, she urged both sides to reassess the project.

Similarly, as chair of a special par-liamentary commission on the contro-versial Chinese-backed Letpadaung copper mine, Daw Aung Sann Suu Kyi called for improvements and

safeguards to the project but recom-mended its resumption. The Chinese companies welcomed her report; lo-cal villagers were furious.

U Aye Thar Aung, a leader of the Rakhine National Party who was invited to China a year ago, is convinced Beijing will lobby her to support the restart of the Myitsone dam.

He said that while in China his delegation was briefed on the ben-efits of such hydropower projects.

They openly told us they dont want to give up the project and must try to implement it, U Aye Thar Aung said, adding that he hoped she would not accept Chinese proposals without also considering the will of the people.

Another project that could be up for discussion is a planned US$20 billion railway linking Kyaukpyu in Rakhine State with Kunming in Chi-na, which was reportedly dropped in July 2014 due to public opposition in Myanmar. The railway would have broadly followed the route of newly built oil and gas pipelines connecting China to the Indian Ocean.

EI EI TOE LWIN

[email protected]

IN DEPTH

Fighting in Kokang and controversial investments such as the Myitsone dam are likely to dominate discussions

Opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi speaks to the media during a press conference at the National League for Democracy headquarters in Yangon on July 3, 2012. Photo: AFP

AT least two student unions boycotted a meeting in Yangon yesterday called by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the controversial National Education Law.

The All Burma Federation of Stu-dent Unions (ABFSU) and the Mon State Students Union both said they had rejected an invitation to the talks that was issued through Pyithu Hluttaw representative U Phyo Zayar Thaw, who also acts as a bodyguard to the opposi-tion leader.

But in a reflection of the divisions that have run through the national student movement for some months, representatives from the University Stu-dents Union did attend the three-hour meeting at Daw Aung San Suu Kyis res-idence. Ko Zayar Lwin, a union mem-ber, said nearly 20 students attended.

U Phyo Zayar Thaw confirmed to The Myanmar Times that he had con-veyed the invitation to the various stu-dent groups, making clear that the NLD leader would be there. Commenting on the refusal by the two groups to attend, he said, This is their desire not to meet with us. I have nothing to say.

ABFSU spokesperson Ko Aung Nay Paing pointed out that almost all AB-FSU students leaders were in prison for protesting against the National Educa-tion Law. Parliament passed the law last September and is now in the clos-ing stages of completing amendments.

Ko Aung Nay Paing said the NLD had left it too late to discuss the bill with students as the hluttaw was finish-ing its work.

The NLD needs to agree and re-spect the four-party agreement on the education law first. We understand what they did to Dr Thein Lwin for his association with our marches. But time says so many things now, the student spokesperson said.

U Thein Lwin, leader of the Na-tional Network for Education Reform (NNER), was removed from the NLD leadership committee while students, the NNER, government officials and parliamentarians were holding discus-sions on amendments to the law early this year. The four-way talks reached an agreement with the government over the student demands, but they were mostly rejected later in parliament.

In a sign of inconsistency within the NLD, some party members recently discussed in parliament the removal of thamaga or student unions from the text of the education bill, while oth-ers expressed their support for students by attending the trial of those arrested during the crackdown at Letpadan.

We dont know if Daw Aung San Suu Kyis strategy is honest or tricky. But I have to say that the invitation to the talks should not have been made at this point, and NLD MPs need to show trans-parency, Ko Aung Nay Paing added.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must be very cautious and clever when these sensitive issues come to the table.

U Yan Myo Thein Political commentator

MRATT KYAW [email protected]

Students divided over talks with NLD

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No return in sight for Kachin IDPs

FIVE Kachin ladies sip tea as they sit and chat, trying to forget their trou-bles. They live in a camp for internally displaced persons, and they want to go home.

Maing Naa IDP camp in Waingmaw township, Kachin State, has already been home for far too long, as the renewed conflict between the Kachin Independence Organisation army and the Tatmadaw enters its fifth year.

Whenever a car drives up, we think its someone coming to call us home, said 60-year-old Daw Khawng Noon, who was forced from Ghaa Daa Yang village by the fighting. Weve been here nearly four years, ever since the conflict began. We long to go home.

But their hopes are dim. Exchang-es of fire continue as the conflict

marks its fourth anniversary tomor-row.

This is not our home, but this is where we have to live, said Daw Htoot Hsan, 62. Our country is not at peace and we have to make the best of it. But we still want to go home.

But they know that even if peace comes, their return home might be de-layed. Both sides in the conflict have laid landmines, which will remain a threat to life and limb long after hos-tilities end.

If they dont clear the mines in the paddy fields and farmland, we dare not go home whatever the ceasefire agreement says, said 48-year-old Daw Khun Gyar from Gyan Maing Kaung IDP camp in Myitkyina township.

Despite promises from negotiators on both sides during peace talks, noth-ing has been done to clear mines.

U La Nan, a spokesperson for the KIO, said the questions of IDP return and mine clearance could be resolved only once the government suspends its offensives and peace prevails.

The conflict is going on because we are being falsely accused of smuggling

timber, he said, referring to recent Tat-madaw offensives in Mansi township.

The past four years have also been hard on the IDPs abandoned houses. They will not be able to move back in without extensive renovation work. U Naw Lah, officer-in-charge of Maing Naa camp, said displaced persons in camps on the government side are allowed to check on their property if they have a recommendation letter from the camp and a national ID card.

Some have taken up this option, but what they find can bring back painful memories of all they have lost.

Recently, my grandmother went back to Kazuut village and found that my house and garden were complete-ly overgrown by the bush, said Daw Htoot Hsan. It was a pleasure to work in the garden before 2011. Will we ever have a chance to go home?

The Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) has assumed responsibil-ity for taking caring of residents in government-controlled areas in My-itkyina, Bhamo, Namhkam, Kutkai, and Muse, estimating their number

at more than 20,000.But we fear the number of dis-

placed in the areas controlled by the KIO, along the Chinese border, exceeds 78,000, said the Reverend Samson Hkalam, general secretary of the KBC.

To add to their woes, the financial support for the displaced families is also in question. Though there is talk of delay in the provision of assistance from the international community, the KBC and the World Food Programme say there is enough rice, oil and salt, and an extra K6000 per person a month is likely to become available, according to the KBC.

A family could receive more than K50,000 a month, he said.

Camp residents who live near a town can supplement their income through day-labour, but this is harder to do in remote rural camps, raising the risk of malnutrition.

In some cases they have only leaves to eat. We have to do 10 transfu-sions a day, said a nurse who works at Maing Naa IDP camp.

While the conflict in Kachin State and the plight of those affected has lately been overlooked for other is-sues ranging from preparations for this years election to fierce fighting in the Kokang and the migrant boats in the Andaman Sea they have not been entirely forgotten.

In Yangon, activists gathered on June 6 for a ceremony to mark the end of the fourth year of the conflict. Much discussion focused on support for IDPs, of which the UN estimates there are 100,000 in Kachin and northern Shan states.

In the camps, the wait goes on. Mostly Christians, camp residents gather every day at 6pm for worship. We pray for a prompt end to the war and a return home, Daw Htoot Hsan said. These are our most earnest desires.

YE MON

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A young woman sits in the kitchen at the Gyan Maing Kaung IDP camp in Myitkyina township, Kachin State, last month. Photo: Aung Myin Ye Zaw

Residents walk through the middle of Maing Naa IDP camp in Kachin States Waingmaw township last month. Photo: Aung Myin Ye Zaw

If they dont clear the mines in the paddy fields and farmland, we dare not go home whatever the ceasefire agreement says.

Daw Khun Gyar Gyan Maing Kaung IDP camp

Disabled still face formidable social barriersCHERRY THEINMYINT KAY [email protected]

OF all the barriers faced by peo-ple with disabilities, the most troublesome are social barriers, participants in a workshop on the disabled have been told. The Bahan township event heard a range of speakers on the need for change in attitudes.

Policy-making, law enforce-ment and legislation should be directed toward breaking down barriers rooted in traditional at-titudes, in an effort to erode the climate of blame for the victims, speakers said.

The Association of Myanmar Disabled Womens Affairs and the Gender Equality Network jointly organised the June 3 workshop to highlight the challenges ahead.

Managing director of the Eden Centre for Disabled Children in Yangon, U Hta Oke, said build-ing an inclusive society required fighting discrimination. Disabil-ity is not a private or personal is-sue, it is a social issue. If we see diversity as a problem, it is im-possible to create inclusiveness. We all need to change social atti-tudes on disability and to remove those barriers, he said.

If there is no inclusiveness, there is no democracy, he added. We must change old attitudes that marginalise people with disabilities.

The chair of the Association of Myanmar Disabled Womens Af-fairs, Daw Nge Nge Aye Maung, said Myanmar society had long discriminated against women, and was particularly oppressive toward disabled women.

Most people are supersti-tious. They think a disabled per-son brings bad luck to the family, the workplace and the communi-ty, she said, adding that disabled women find it harder to access education and job opportunities.

Workplace criteria unfairly limits disabled women who oth-erwise can work just as well as anybody else, she said. When disabled women and disabled men apply for a job, employers prefer men.

The co-chair of the Gender Equality Network, Daw Nan Phyu Phyu Lin, said it was time to cre-ate space and support for access to education and employment for women with disabilities instead of blaming the government and NGOs.

All development sectors should adopt gender sensitivity to reduce gender-based violence and discrimination, she said.

The workshop, convened to share research on social policy and poverty among the disabled, was organised by the Social Policy and Poverty Research Group.

Policy group director Mike Griffiths said a woman with a dis-ability living in a rural area was 40 percent more likely to be poor than if she lived in an urban area.

As President U Thein Sein said in his address on poverty re-duction and government projects for development, it is essential to consider the meaningful par-ticipation of women with disabili-ties, he said.

According to the 2014 census, 2.3 million people, or 4.5pc of the population, are living with a disability.

MYITKYINA, KACHIN STATE

An estimated 100,000 are living in camps across Kachin and northern Shan states as the conflict enters its fifth year

Repatriation expected to begin today as Rakhine plan protest

MYANMAR is expected today to re-patriate 150 Bangladeshis rescued from abandoned human smug-gling boats, while Rakhine State nationalists have announced plans to protest against the government hosting nearly 800 other people found adrift at sea.

The Myanmar navy last month intercepted three stranded boats collectively carrying 943 people, including more than 100 women and children, after a crackdown in Thailand disrupted a regional trafficking route, prompting smug-glers to abandon their human cargo.

Temporary shelter is being pro-vided in a remote region of Rakh-ine State along the border with neighbouring Bangladesh, where the government has said it hopes to quickly return those rescued.

The rescue operations have prompted a squabble between My-anmar and Bangladesh over the nationality of those on the boats, while also provoking condemna-tion from hard-line nationalists in Myanmar who believe the gov-ernment has saddled them with intruders from the neighbouring country.

Myanmar insists that most of the people rescued are economic migrants from Bangladesh who need to be repatriated, rather than Muslims fleeing persecution in Rakhine State. At an official brief-ing last week, a Rakhine member of the Yangon Region government went so far as to blame the crisis on an explosion of the Bangladeshi population, alleging that those who say they are from Myanmar only do so for political reasons.

In response to the accusations, Dhaka summoned the Myanmar ambassador on June 5 to explain his comments.

While the two neighbours con-tinue to argue over the origin of those rescued, the Bangladeshi embassy has agreed to accept back 150 following a drawn-out verifica-tion process.

A spokesperson for the Border Guard Bangladesh in Coxs Bazar, just over the border from Rakh-ine State, told AFP that the first batch of 150 Bangladeshis would be repatriated today. A Western aid worker confirmed the plan yesterday.

Officials have yet to announce what will happen to the 50 oth-ers from that first intercepted boat who have been accepted by neither nation.

Minister for Foreign Affairs U Wunna Maung Lwin also con-firmed last week that at least eight people from the vessel boarded from Myanmar.

U Zaw Htay, director of the Presidents Office, told The My-anmar Times that they would be sent back to their homes in Kyauktaw township, but VOA has since reported that the eight are being held for questioning and investigation.

Myanmar has come under pres-sure from the US and the UN to increase surveillance and rescue missions ahead of the monsoon season, as well as to accept back those from Myanmar who iden-tify as Rohingya and provide them citizenship.

[With the upcoming election] it may not be the ideal time to be discussing these things in Burma, but it is the situation, said Anne Richard, US assistant secretary of state for population, refugees, and migration.

But recent the efforts taken by the Myanmar navy as well as the international pressure have reig-nited nationalist tensions in res-tive Rakhine State.

Rakhine-based groups have an-nounced plans to stage a protest on June 14 to express their anger at the government harbouring those rescued from the boats.

There are three things to pro-test, said U Than Tun, a member of the Emergency Coordination Center of Rakhine State.

The first thing is that the gov-ernment is making Rakhine State a landfill of Bengalis. Number two is that we want to know the exact date when the government will re-turn all boat people back to Bang-ladesh from Rakhine State. The last thing is that we, the Rakhine people, dont accept to shelter any boat people who are floating in the sea.

Three years ago communal vio-lence racked the state. The fight-ing left hundreds dead and forced more than 140,000 into squalid in-ternally displaced persons camps, where most still remain today.

Last month nationalists parad-ed through Yangon in an officially sanctioned protest decrying for-eign pressure over the Bengalis.

LAIGNEE [email protected] KYAW [email protected]

Political prisoner list growsTHE number of political prisoners in Myanmar continued to grow last month, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, although a slightly lower number are on trial.

Forty-nine people were charged with political offences in May, of whom 41 have been detained, ac-cording to the rights group.

At the end of the month, 163

were in prison, up from 157 in April, while 442 were on trial, down on 453 the previous month.

The majority of the increase during May was due to the arrest of 32 people in Rakhine State by the Tatmadaw for alleged contact with the Arakan Army. They are expected to face charges under the Unlawful Associations Act.

Thomas Kean

A Pakistani demonstrates in support of Rohingya Muslims in Islamabad on June 6. Photo: AFP

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under Reg: No. IV/5311/2015 in respect of:-Electric radiators; oil-filled radiating heaters; wall convectors; electric water heater; electric hair dryers; domestic steam generators; steam generating installations; garment steamers; water purifiers for household purposes; filters for domestic water purifiers; ventilators, fans for ventilation; air coolers; air purifying apparatus; air humidifying apparatus; electric hot plates for cooking; electric plate warmers; kitchen ranges (ovens); microwave ovens; electric cooking stoves; gas stoves; induction cooker (portable); electric frying pans; electric grill pans; electric cooking steamers; electric pressure cookers; valves for electric pressure cookers; electric food warmers; electric apparatus for cooking on stone; electric barbecues grills; gas lighters; electric roasters; electric toasted sandwiches cooking apparatus; electric hamburgers cooking apparatus; electric kebab cooking apparatus; cooking apparatus for making naan bread; electric pancake makers; electric waffle irons; electric yoghurt makers; electric ice-cream makers; electric multicooker; electric rice cookers; electric popcorn cookers; electric egg cookers; electric toasters; oven toaster grill; electric kettles; electric coffee machines; espresso coffee machines; electric coffee percolators; electric teapots; electric deep fryer- Class 11

Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said trademark or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with according to law.

U Kyi Win Associatesfor TEFALP.O. Box No. 26, Yangon.Phone: 372416Dated: 8th June, 2015

Chinlone festival kicks off in Mandalay

TEAMS have been flocking in from all over the world to compete in this years Waso chinlone festival in Man-dalay, organisers say. Competitors from Canada, Japan, Thailand and the United States will face off against

sides from throughout the country in the 60-day festival, which began on June 3. Altogether 1800 teams are taking part.

All the well-known teams will participate, said U Kyaw Thein, sec-retary of the organising committee.

Chinlone is a traditional sport in which teams of around five players keep a cane ball, known as a chin-lone, from hitting the ground by

using parts of their body other than their hands.

The annual festival is being held for the 87th year, with performances taking place at a small stadium in the Mahamuni Pagoda compound from 9am to midnight daily.

A ceremony paying homage to 52 senior players will be held on the second full-moon day of Waso, U Kyaw Thein said.

A chinlone team takes part in the Waso festival in Mandalay on June 5. Photo: Phyo Wai Kyaw

PHYO WAI KYAW [email protected] KYAW [email protected]

Experts call for change of tactics to tackle human trafficking trade

FOR Ma Nan, now 18, crossing the border was simple enough. When she approached the checkpoint, the broker from Kengtung in Shan State who had promised her a job in Thailand gave money to officers on the Myanmar side and their car was allowed to pass.

It was only once she was in Thai-land that she realised she had been sold into prostitution. The broker just said I could get more money working in Thailand than in my village. They never told me what kind of job I would have to do, she said.

In late 2013 she was arrested by Thai police and sent to a detention camp. She was finally repatriated to her village by Myanmars anti-human trafficking unit two months.

While she has no desire to return to Thailand after her four-year ordeal, Ma Nan faces the same problem she did four years ago: lack of work.

I am not educated and I cant speak Myanmar language. There are many people in my village like me. We have no job opportunities, she told The Myanmar Times yesterday through an interpreter. Because of this, most peo-ple in my village want to go to Thailand just like I did.

Ma Nan was speaking at a gather-ing in Yangon for former victims of hu-man trafficking, at which experts said that human trafficking remained as rampant as ever, despite government

attempts to rein in the problem.Daw Ohmar Ei Ei Chaw, country

program coordinator at the Australia-Asia Program to Combat Trafficking in Persons, said familiar dynamics were driving the trade in persons and a new approach was necessary.

We cant keep using the same old procedures. The government has tried to tackle human trafficking for years but it hasnt worked. A change in tactics is needed and unless that happens we will see little change in future, she said.

She said current legal migration procedures are so complicated they en-courage people to opt for illegal routes. Trafficking victims who are rescued face long delays before they are repat-riated to Myanmar, and are given little support, such as identity documents or employment, after they return.

Police working on the issue insist they are making progress, pointing to figures that show 3500 victims have been rescued from 2006 to the end of May 2015, while more than 2100 people have been charged with human traf-ficking-related offences. Another 1000 are on the run.

But given there are at least 2 million

Myanmar working overseas, according to last years census, and likely many more, this represents just a fraction of all trafficking cases over the period.

Police Brigadier General Win Naing Tun from the police forces anti-human trafficking unit admitted that police were struggling to deal with the prob-lem. He said all stakeholders needed to change their behaviour.

For example, we have already set up a job-creation department for vic-tims, but they need modern jobs, not just sewing, he said. We need to think about what the victims want and try and create job opportunities to match.

Dr Zin Htwe Si, program manager at World Vision Myanmar, said the government needed to do significantly more to not only assist former traffick-ing victims but also stop trafficking oc-curring in the first place.

There are many weaknesses. There should be better enforcement and also an investigation into corrupt govern-ment officials who are involved in the trafficking cases, she said.

For the trafficking victims, lack of suitable employment upon their return remains the primary complaint.

Ma Moe The, 17, was trafficked as a 12-year-old to Mae Sot in Thailand, where she lived with her aunty.

Ten months ago she was arrested by Thai police while sightseeing around Thailand, and returned to Myanmar af-ter spending eight months in a migrant detention centre.

She soon found work in a garment factory in Yangon but quit because the job was too hard. I asked the labour department to find me another job and they promised that they would, she said, but I am still waiting.

NYAN LYNN AUNG

[email protected]

2179People charged with human trafficking offences between 2006 and May 2015

News 7www.mmtimes.com

ViewsOn the border, spite is no answer

THE immediate Rohingya migration crisis of gang-ster criminality, vessels set adrift, people starving and bodies exhumed is galvanising action among those who cant accept such evil. Efforts to avert these humanitarian tragedies must be supported.

But we cannot ignore the source of the problem right here in Myanmar, where northern Rakhine State has become inhospitable to its Muslim population. It does not help that Rakhine State remains the second-poorest administrative division of Myanmar, and lacks almost all social and physical infrastructure. Seeking to placate a vocal and sometimes vio-lent Rakhine Buddhist element, the Myanmar government has disavowed responsibility for the Rohingya.

The fact that many thousands of Rohingya voted in Myanmars 2008 constitutional referendum and then again in the 2010 general election makes it hard to accept at face value the claim that they are ineligible for the privileges granted to the countrys other ethnic and religious minorities.

What really sets them apart is their Islamic faith, Bangla language and physical appearance. They are judged harshly as foreigners who can never belong among Myanmars official national race groups, of which there are 135.

Right now, Myanmar is preparing for what we anticipate will be elections late in the year. A wide range of other promising economic, cultural and strategic developments are also gain-ing momentum. This means that the overall picture of change in Myanmar cant be painted merely in the bleak hues of the Rohingya crisis. There is justifiable exuberance about what the end of military dictatorship has meant for the countrys 51.5 million people.

Yet something is going awry: spiteful nationalism is mainstream, anti-Muslim talk is commonplace and old ethnic boundaries are being policed with renewed vigour. Many wonder about the lack of support for the Rohingya from Myanmars

political leaders. All of them, includ-ing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, are merely responding to popular senti-ment, and in a nascent democracy the electoral mathematics is an overwhelming consideration.

Who is responsible for fixing this situation? It has long been clear that neither Myanmar nor Bangladesh has

any desire to absorb the Rohingya population, with both claiming that the other must shoulder the burden. The Rohingya are thus left to bounce around, from insecure camps huddled around Coxs Bazar to open-air con-tainment sites in northern Rakhine State. This is a decades-long game of pass-the-parcel, with too many lives destroyed.

With so-called pull factors in mind, both Bangladesh and Myan-mar are deeply ambivalent about international humanitarian responses that could entice further population movement. It is this double bind that has trapped the Rohingya: unwanted in Myanmar but discouraged from seeking alternative opportunities anywhere else.

A frenzy of half-information makes it hard to disentangle the duelling narratives, especially now that the in-ternet raises tempers so quickly. Both Myanmar and Bangladesh blame the other for waves of illegal migration and yet the fact, almost never ac-knowledged, is that both sides might be right.

Over time people have crossed

what is now the Myanmar-Bangla-desh border too many times to count. More than 1 million Buddhists live on the Bangladesh side of the border, and we guess that more than 1 million Muslims are in Myanmars northern Rakhine State. Usually, this story is only half told.

It matters that Myanmars own economic, political and cultural trans-formation remains far from complete. The country is still too poor, anxious and insular to embrace the Rohingya, especially while other issues require such constant attention.

And while we may not endorse the virulent nationalism that has taken root, we should seek to understand its social context. History has many tutorials in how fearful people lash out against their weaker neighbours.

But what can be done? The people of Bangladesh and Myanmar should be given a chance to understand that their countries share a zone of cul-tural interchange, with Buddhists and Muslims on both sides of the border.

Their mutual ignorance is a recipe for hatred and violence; it should not be allowed to fester. With todays

communication tools and our World Wide Web there are no excuses for surrendering the online battleground to bigots and their cheer squads.

A big investment in better infor-mation about how the borderlands actually work, how criminal gangs prey on the vulnerable, and how Myanmar and Bangladesh can work together would be a good start toward generating the necessary goodwill.

Bangladesh and Myanmar could also jointly make it clear to the region that their respective domestic chal-lenges need a serious and sustained international response.

They cant do this alone and should be able to negotiate favourable terms with donors from near and far. In their shared borderlands it would be cheaper to do something effective in the short term than to wait for things to really get out of hand.

Nicholas Farrelly is director of the Australian National Universitys Myanmar Studies Centre. This is an edited version of his remarks at the 29th Asia Pacific Roundtable held in Kuala Lumpur last week.

NICHOLAS FARRELLY

[email protected]

More than 1 million Buddhists live on the Bangladesh side of the border, and we guess that more than 1 million Muslims are in Myanmars northern Rakhine State. Usually this story is only half told.

Rescued migrants arrive at Mee Tike temporary refugee camp in Rakhine State near the border with Bangladesh on June 4. Photo: AFP

8 THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 8, 2015

Business

ONE two threeIt is the end of a long day of work

for 14-year-old Ma Thida Aye. She has been offloading bags of cement and cases of beer from ships berthed at Ngalapwe port since sunrise, taking in K100 for each bag she offloads and carries inland to a depot.

The managers give her tokens to keep track of her wages, which she counts out at the end of the day to see how she has done.

Usually, she takes in K3000 to K4000 a day from moving goods like cement and rice bags from the jetty to the warehouses, or more rarely in the other direction back to ships.

She said she has been a labourer at the jetty since her father died a cou-ple years before, eager to make money to help out her poor family, including three younger siblings. She is far from the only young woman in the business, as others join her in the walk back and forth along the jetty.

Are you a student, or do you have a job? she asked reporters, keenly eye-ing their electronic gizmos.

In much of Myanmar, workers start young. Ma Thida Aye is one of a huge number of the countrys young people that have joined the workforce. The 2014 census results released last month said 12.1 per-cent of 10- to 14-year-olds surveyed are labour participants. Given there are 5.1 million people in the 10-to-14 age range, according to the cen-sus, it means there are over 600,000 young people in Myanmar currently at work.

In the next age bracket, aged 15 to 19, over 50pc of census respondents said they are labour force participants. Given there are about 4.5 million 15- to 19-year-olds in the country, this means about 2.3 million of them are at work.

Ma Thida Aye is careful with her hard-earned income. Although most of it goes directly to her family, she also often spends K200 at the end of the day for Rakhines traditional rice noodle soup, mixing in extra spicy chi-lis and pepper.

I am happy I am able to give mon-ey to my mother, and there are many friends here who are like me, she said. It is hard for us uneducated people to get a job.

Ngalapwe port is about 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) from Kyaukpyu town, also on Ramree island in Rakhine State. The area is set for further develop-ment, with an ambitious special eco-nomic zone slated to be built nearby. Although there are other landing facil-ities on the island, Ngalapwe is more protected from storms that frequently blow in from the Bay of Bengal.

It was a hive of activity when visited by The Myanmar Times. Nearly 80 women jetty labourers between the ages of 12 and 55 are at the port to ferry cement bags off a ship, slated for Kyaukpyu area construction projects. They also cart off consumer goods for distri-bution around the area and further north in Rakhine State. Nearby, a

man tries vainly to shoo off a pack of stray dogs. Groups of labourers crowd around the different vessels or collect payments from turning in their tally tokens.

Another jetty labourer, Daw Aung Thein Hla, said her daily earnings rise as high as K7000 a day if a large cement-carrying vessel puts in at the dock.

My husband is also a jetty la-bourer. We cant get good-salary jobs with a certain level of education, said the 38-year-old mother of three. So I work and I allow all my children to go to school.

Working at the jetty is one of the few local opportunities open to peo-ple of either gender. While there is no job security and work appears

on an ad hoc business, Daw Aung Thein Hla said she otherwise has limited prospects.

This is the only way to make the living, to carry heavy bags with strength, she said. And women are allowed only at this Ngalapwe Jetty. The others only use men.

Local workers like Daw Aung Thein Hla say they look forward to further development of the Kyaukpyu special economic zone and deep-sea port pro-ject, though for now, they struggle to earn a daily wage.

Daw Aung Thein Hla earns up to K7000 on the good days, but if no ship arrives, there is no work.

We know very little about projects going on in our town, she said. Just rumours.

Labourers make do at the docksSU PHYO [email protected]

FEATUREKYAUKPYU, RAKHINE STATE

I am happy I am able to give money to my mother, and there are many friends here who are like me. It is hard for us uneducated people to get a job.

Ma Thida Aye Jetty labourer

Jetty labourers unload vital supplies off of a docked ship at Ngalapwe port. Photos: Thiri Lu

Labourers prepare to haul cement bags to a nearby warehouse. Both sexes Male Female

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by age brackets. Source: 2014 Census

9BUSINESS EDITOR: Jeremy Mullins | [email protected]

Exchange Rates (June 7 close)Currency Buying Selling

EuroMalaysia RingittSingapore DollarThai BahtUS Dollar

K1228K297K813

K33K1112

K1249K308K827

K35K1114

Hackathon tackles recently released census data

Coal power still popular in emerging markets as Europe ditches the fuel

BUSINESS 10 BUSINESS 12

MYANMA Railways has invited companies to apply to redevelop Kyeemyindaing Station and the surrounding area. This is the third station upgrade tender to be issued as part of an ambitious project to modernise Yangons circular rail-way line.

The tender, published on June 5 by state-owned media, invites repu-table local, international or joint venture developers and investors to submit expressions of interest to de-sign, build and operate the 2.63-hec-tare (6.49-acre) site. The deadline for applications is August 5.

The winning company will reno-vate the station and build multi-sto-rey commercial and office complex-es, hotels, and serviced apartments, according to the notice.

The invitation to redevelop Kyeemyindaing Station is the third to be issued in the past year,

following tenders to redevelop Yangon Central Railway Station and Pazundaung Station. None of the tender winners have yet been announced.

The Kyeemyindaing Station building is listed as a heritage structure by Yangon City Develop-ment Committee, as is Yangon Cen-tral Railway Station.

In both cases, developers will be expected to preserve the original architecture of the building, in ad-dition to building new commercial and retail space on the surrounding land. Railway employees who live beside the stations will be moved to make way for the new develop-ments, as will nearby businesses, schools and temples.

As congestion threatens to be-come a defining feature of Yangon, the government has announced sev-eral large-scale infrastructure pro-jects, in addition to smaller schemes such as widening the roads and at-tempting to repair drainage systems.

In 2014, only 1.1 percent of jour-neys in Yangon were made by rail, according to Takashi Shoyama, team leader of the Comprehensive Urban Transport Plan of Greater

Yangon at the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Around 11.3 million trips are taken in Yangon each day, accord-ing to JICA figures. Of these, 4.78 million are made on foot, 3.23 mil-lion by bus and passenger truck, 1.47 million by bicycle and 71,000 by rail.

Trains are old and slow they take three hours to complete a circuit of the track and travel at an average of 17 kilometres (10.5 miles) per hour. However, once the upgrade is com-plete, JICA estimates that by 2040 the circular railway will account for 30pc of public transport, reducing pressure on the citys roads.

Mitsubishi Corporation previ-ously told The Myanmar Times that it plans to work with Hitachi Group to upgrade the track, though a deal has not been signed. The cost of re-building the track to support mod-ern commuter trains is estimated at around US$2 billion.

Much of this is likely to be funded by JICA, which is re-portedly in discussions with the Ministry of Rail Transportation, though nothing has yet been pub-licly announced.

Circle line upgrade on track with Kyeemyindaing tender

Businesses weigh impact of boat crisisJEREMY [email protected]

THE international spotlight has been trained on the migrant boat crisis, with Myanmars policy toward Mus-lim residents of Rakhine State com-ing under global scrutiny.

The states Rohingya, who are gen-erally called Bengalis locally, have been at the centre of tension, with their treatment criticised by some members of the international diplo-matic community. Yet businesspeople say that while they are closely follow-ing the crisis, it does not directly af-fect most Myanmar business and is not leading them to alter immediate decisions.

I dont want to make business-men sound like they dont have a soul they dont like it, said one interna-tional businessperson in an interview.

But I do not believe it affects their decisions in Myanmar.

The boat crisis came to the inter-national forefront last month, when several thousand people were stuck at sea, unable to land in Thailand, In-donesia and Malaysia. Myanmar has been criticised for its poor treatment of the people at home in Rakhine State, though it has said repeatedly that it is not the source of most peo-ple fleeing, blaming human smug-glers for the situation.

While the debate continues on an international scale, with ASEAN holding emergency meetings and various international organisations weighing in, businesses are taking a more stand-off approach.

The businessperson said that while from a personal standpoint he is concerned, the investments he oversees are far from the crisis area and unlikely to be directly affected.

While the Rohingya issue is col-ouring international perception of the country, it so far has remained contained to Rakhine State, far from the commercial capital of Yangon or regional trading centres such as Man-dalay and Mawlamyine.

April the latest month with available statistics was also a ban-ner month for approved foreign di-rect investment. Although the Direc-torate of Investment and Company Administrations figures are lumpy and tend to vary considerably from month to month, over US$2.2 billion in investment was approved in April, over one-third of the $6 billion goal for the entire 2016 fiscal year.

The administrations figures show approved investment of about $8 bil-lion in the 2015 fiscal year and $4.1 billion in the 2014 fiscal year.

Sean Turnell, an expert in Myan-mars economy at Australias Mac-quarie University, said that as some-what unpalatable as it is, he thinks it is indeed the case that the crisis in Rakhine State will do little to deter foreign investment in specific ways.

But while the crisis alone may not be preventing many international businesses, it does add to the coun-trys overall risk.

However, I think it will have an effect in helping form the back-ground against which foreign inves-tors view the country. The narrative which, until recently, was so highly positive the new Myanmar, the po-tential new tiger, the story of redemp-tion, renewal, etc. Its a reminder that some of the countrys big problems, its politics, remain problematic and

unsolved. All against an environment more broadly of growing risk, he said.

While the crisis, centred in Ra-khine State, may not directly affect international business in the rest of the country, it does have an out-sized effect on the local area, which is already one of Myanmars poor-est states. Government officials have pushed for more investment to the area, saying it would help to end local poverty and lead to development.

While the area is in need of invest-ment, businesses are likely to avoid Rakhine if they are able to, and face significant hurdles if they do operate in the area.

You are unlikely to see any new investment in Rakhine for the time being if it is from a sector which has the choice of investing elsewhere, for example job-creating garment fac-tories or beach tourism, said Vicky Bowman, director at the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business.

The investment currently enter-ing Rakhine is in the natural resource sector, such as offshore gas, because companies have no choice but to go to where the resources are thought to be. This kind of investment cre-ates few of the jobs which are badly needed in the area, she said.

Any company which is choosing to invest in or offshore Rakhine State has the issue of intercommunal ten-sions at the top of their risk register, she said.

The tension could potentially im-pact the security of staff and subcon-tractors, particularly employees from the subcontinent. It also impacts their ability to engage with commu-nities and employ workers in a non-discriminatory way.

How the company goes about its business can also bring it reputation-al damage either in Myanmar or out-side Myanmar if these issues are not handled carefully, said Ms Bowman.

While businesses are reluctant to become directly involved, some say that companies have a moral respon-sibility to directly address human rights issues.

Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, said the ongoing cli-mate of human rights abuses and out-sized military influence has affected foreign investment.

Ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity arent good for business, he said. If Myanmar were in a state of relative peace without ethnic cleansing, war crimes and impunity I think wed see a lot more foreign investment overall.

In short, human rights abuses are not only inherently problematic, theyre also profoundly bad for Myan-mars development, he said.

Mr Smith said that economic de-velopment is not a panacea for all social ills, adding investors have a responsibility to ensure their activi-ties dont contribute to human rights abuses. He also pushed for more di-rect action by the growing number of international investors entering the country.

Investors cant pretend Myanmar is the next great frontier while ignor-ing international crimes happening under their noses, but thats what many are doing, he said.

Any investor in Myanmar should be actively promoting hu-man rights. Human rights are eve-ryones business.

CLARE HAMMOND

[email protected]

Kyat drops against dollarTHE kyat has taken another dive against the US dollar, dropping in value to near K1200 on local exchanges yesterday.

The depreciation comes as the Central Bank of Myanmar lowered its daily reference rate to K1105 per US dollar on June 5, the first time the official rate has dropped past K1100 this year.

It is illegal to trade outside of a band of plus or minus 0.8 percent

of the Central Banks reference rate, though some traders say the official rate has not kept pace with the market rate.

One downtown currency trader said that because banks and larger institutions are now following the official rates, they are reluctant to sell dollars at the official exchange rate, meaning people are having trouble acquiring dollars.

People cant buy dollars at the banks, they must buy them on the black market, he said.

The price of the kyat is falling

not only against the dollar but also other currencies like the baht, yuan and euro.

He added that business has also dropped off with the sudden de-preciation. Last week, the market rate for dollar-kyat was closer to K1130.

One merchant at Mingalar Mar-ket said the weakening kyat is mak-ing business difficult for importers.

Some shops are closing be-cause the weakening kyat makes foreign goods more expensive, he said.

TIN YADANAR [email protected]

The heritage Kyeemyindaing train station is due for a facelift. Photo: Zarni Phyo

10 Business THE MYANMAR TIMES JUNE 8, 2015

TRADE MARK CAUTIONNOTICE is hereby given that HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD. a company organized under the laws of Japan and having its principal office at 1-1, Minami-Aoyama 2-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8556 Japan is the Owner and Sole Proprietor of the following trademarks:-

REVERE(Reg: No. IV/1627/2015)

FIRESTORM(Reg: No. IV/1628/2015)

SUPER BLACKBIRD(Reg: No. IV/1629/2015)

PACIFIC COAST(Reg: No. IV/1631/2015)

FUNMOTO(Reg: No. IV/1633/2015)

CHALY(Reg: No. IV/1634/2015)

RVF(Reg: No. IV/1635/2015)

SPORTRAX(Reg: No. IV/1630/2015)

DYLAN(Reg: No. IV/1632/2015)

VETRO(Reg: No. IV/1636/2015)

in respect of: -Motorcycles and their parts and fittings; automobiles and their parts and fittings. Class: 12

Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said trademarks or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with according to law.

U Kyi Win Associatesfor HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD. P.O. Box No. 26, Yangon.Phone: 372416 Dated: 8th June, 2015

TRADE MARK CAUTIONNOTICE is hereby given that Marriott Worldwide Corporation a company incorporated in Maryland, U. S. A. and having its principal office at 10400 Fernwood Road, Bethesda, MD 20817, U.S.A. is the Owner and Sole Proprietor of the following trademarks: -

(Reg: No. IV/11776/2011)

MARRIOTT(Reg: No. IV/11777/2011)

The above two trademarks are in respect of:-Hotel services; restaurant, catering, bar and lounge services; resort and lodging services; provision of general purpose facilities for meetings conferences and exhibitions; provision of banquet and social function facilities for special occasions; and reservation services for hotel accommodations Class: 43

Any fraudulent imitations or unauthorized use of the said trademarks or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with according to law.

U Kyi Win Associatesfor Marriott Worldwide Corporation P.O. Box No. 26, Yangon.Phone: 372416Dated: 8th June, 2015

ON this years National Day of Civic Hacking, over 50 people came to downtown innovation lab Phandeeyar to make recently released census data more digestible.

The day-long hacking marathon came on the heels of the Union gov-ernments online publication of cen-sus data from last years enumeration. While access to that information only requires a few clicks, taking in whats on Excel data sheets gets complicated which is where hackers can help.

At the June 6 event, which lasted for the working day, loose groups worked on different projects, includ-ing an application program interface (API) for calling up census data. Some cleaned the information improving its machine-readability while others built infographics representing situ-ations such as disability rates by age group in one region.

Phandeeyar founder David Mad-den, whose organisation Code for Change Myanmar put on the countrys first two hackathons, said plans for a civic hackathon last year had been scrapped due to data constraints.

We had to redesign that first hackathon because we just didnt have any good data to work with, he said. And now here we are 15 months later and theres this data set ... which has some really, really important in-formation in it.

The objective of today is to make that data more accessible and more easily understood for the rest of the country.

Though having more information about whats happening in Myanmar across issues and sectors such as eco-nomics, housing conditions, education and migration benefits both people and policy-makers, a data onslaught can leave those attempting to analyse it with their heads spinning.

Data can be overwhelming when theres so much of it, said World Bank senior poverty economist Reena Badi-ani-Magnusson. How do you portray stories about Myanmar?

The census data especially, put online in so many Excel documents, makes for a difficult time pursuing a particular direction.

When you look at the tabulations, the enormous number of columns, the enormous number of rows, theres so many cells of data that you might find yourself going a little bit cross-eyed, Ms Badiani-Magnusson said. You need to work out how to use it, and thats the hard part.

The census has made an impressive amount of information available, and Ms Badiani-Magnusson said that the project had widened the possibilities for questions and analysis in Myan-mar which can lead to action.

This is how we use the data as we look at ... [sectors] and think, How can we use the census data to inform what we know about Myanmar and the kind of programs that we run? she said.

Data, as was said by David be-fore, seems dry ... but its people like you with your creativity, your way of adapting, to make this data into some-thing that is alive, into something that brings colour and purpose to a process of development, said UNFPA program specialist Petra Righetti, addressing the crowd in opening remarks at the event.

At the end of last month, the Union government of Myanmar released data gathered from Myanmars first census in more than 30 years. The project, supported by the United Nations Pop-ulation Fund (UNFPA), cost more than US$60 million and took longer than three years to complete. The UNFPA said that next steps include spreading

information and crafting thematic reports on sectors such as education, fertility and disability. Information on religion, ethnicity, occupation and in-dustry remains outstanding.

With the datas publication, the floodgates have opened and on June 6, those gathered at Phandeeyar helped direct the flows course.

I see that the census data has a ma-jor importance for all the people here in Myanmar. And then I see the govern-ment has released the data in raw data tables, said 17-year-old student and hackathon participant Ko Phyu Min Thu. Its clear no one can easily assess or recognise whats happening.

We need people developers and other contributors to make apps or websites or 3D maps that will let people access the information. I came here to contribute.

As hackathon director Ko Yan Naung Oak spoke with The Myanmar Times, two of the events participants walked over to display the progress they had made in the morning hours.

We just want to show off, Ma Phyu Hninn Nyein joked. This is the preliminary thing that were doing.

On her laptop was an interactive Excel document that broke down pop-ulation data into charts a visual rep-resentation of information that hadnt been available days prior.

We were hoping if one of these things came out of today it would be a success, Ko Yan Naung Oak said.

AIMING to provide quality informa-tion on the flow of investment into Cambodia, the National Bank of Cam-bodia has announced it will launch a detailed survey of foreign investors.

Speaking at a signing ceremony in Phnom Penh last week, Chea Serey, director general at the National Bank, said the lack of detailed data relating to foreign direct investment (FDI) was a barrier for the decision-making of both future businesses eyeing Cambo-dia and its policymakers.

The statistics [from the survey] will be used as crucial input in setting up economic policy, preparation of the strategic development plan and other research relating to globalisation, she said.

Through the 2015 FDIS [Foreign Direct Investment Survey] and other surveys in the future, the National Bank of Cambodia will be able to keep track and measure the flow of value of foreign direct investment into Cambo-dia and be able to check the benefit of the foreign direct investment on the economy, for instance the transfer of skills and technology, she said.

The survey aims to understand

the economic value foreign investors will bring to the local economy. It will capture detailed business information such as the skills and technology com-panies will offer, as well as the indus-try-specific intentions of investors.

New projects registered with the Council for Development of Cambo-dia (CDC) and existing investors al-ready in Cambodia will both be sur-veyed under the new project.

ANZ Royal CEO Grant Knuckey welcomed the initiative he said would support the business community.

I think various government agen-cies have consistently shown an in-creasing desire to get direct feedback from both existing and prospective investors, and this sounds like an-other good step in that direction, he said.

The CDC, the governments au-thority to approve foreign invest-ment, releases some information on approved projects, but provides little detail other than the size and origin of the funding.

This lack of information limits the ability of economic policymak-ing, according to Stephen Higgins,

founder and managing partner of Cambodia-based investment firm Mekong Strategic Partners.

The CDC data provides infor-mation on approvals given by the CDC. I dont believe it shows what has happened in terms of actual in-vestment flows. We know for exam-ple that quite a few projects are an-nounced, but dont actually happen, or dont happen for several years, Mr Higgins said.

Also, not all FDI will be approved by the CDC. For example, if an MFI raises additional capital from for-eign shareholders, thats unlikely to appear in CDC figures, but it is still investment into Cambodia, he added.

For the NBC, and economic poli-cymakers, its important to know what the flows of foreign capital are into the economy each year, and which sectors they are going into.

The NBC, in partnership with the National Institute of Statistics, kicked off the project last week and expects the intial survey to be com-pleted by the end of September.

The Phnom Penh Post

Civic tech hackathon takes on census data

Cambodia takes second look at FDI

CATHERINE [email protected]

Taking a closer look at census data. Photo: Catherine Trautwein

PHNOM PENH

Business 11www.mmtimes.com International Business 11www.mmtimes.com

INDIAS food safety regulator on June 5 banned Nestle from making and selling its hugely popular Maggi instant noo-dles, calling them unsafe and hazard-ous after tests found they contained excessive lead.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said it was ordering Nestle to halt manufacturing after tests by some states found lead levels above statutory limits.

Nestle, which denies the charges and says the noodles are safe to eat, had already announced it was pulling the product from sale as it seeks to contain growing safety concerns.

An FSSAI statement said it was or-dering Nestle India to withdraw and recall all the nine approved variants of its Maggi Instant Noodles from the market ... and stop further production.

It said tests had found the noodles to be unsafe and hazardous for human consumption.

Nestle, which says the lead content in its Maggi noodles is well below the limit, had already announced it would withdraw the product from sale as it tries to contain the growing scandal.

On June 5, its global chief executive Paul Bulcke said the product was safe for consumption.

We decided to take off the noodles from the shelves as there was confu-sion about the safety, he said at a

press conference in New Delhi.The safety of our consumers is

paramount. We are working with the authorities to clear up this confusion.

At least six states including Indias capital have announced temporary bans on the sale of the instant noodles in the past few days, after officials said test results showed high lead levels.

The FSSAI said the presence of lead beyond permissible levels could make the product unsafe and hazardous, cit-ing risks of damage to the kidneys and the nervous system.

Activists in the eastern city of Kol-kata on June 4 burned packets of the noodles in protest, underscoring the scale of public anger.

Nestle has been selling its Maggi brand for over three decades in India, and has 80 percent of the countrys in-stant noodle market.

The product marketed as a quick and healthy snack grew increasingly popular as more and more Indians moved away from their homes to study or seek work.

It emerged as one of Indias five most trusted brands in a consumer sur-vey conducted last year.

Several celebrities have endorsed Maggi over the years, including Bolly-wood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.

The scare met with a mix of outrage

and disappointment in India, where it was one of the top trending topics on Twitter on June 5.

Many users welcomed the ban and the best selling novelist Chetan Bhagat tweeted that Maggi was junk being sold as emotional nectar to Indians daily.

Others defended the product and said they had been eating it for decades with no ill effects.

My work often involves travel and odd hours, which over the years

made Maggi my favourite snack, said 30-year-old IT worker Puneet Raheja.

I think that this controversy will soon blow over.

The scare began when food inspec-tors in Uttar Pradesh said they had found high lead levels in two dozen Maggi noodle packets during routine testing, along with the flavour enhancer MSG (monosodium glutamate), which is not listed in the ingredients.

The state last weekend filed a crimi-nal complaint against Nestle India over the findings, while a separate legal peti-tion was filed against Bollywood stars who have advertised the noodles.

Nestle has said it does not use MSG in its Maggi products sold in India, but that glutamate is a naturally occurring substance and may be present in some of the ingredients.

The FSSAI said Nestle had disputed the conclusions on the basis that the noodles and flavouring were tested separately, even though they are con-sumed together. Shares in Nestle India, the subsidiary of the Swiss giant, fell 9 percent on the Bombay Stock Exchange on June 3 as the crisis escalated.

The company, which markets a huge range of food items from Nescafe instant coffee to KitKat bars, said Mag-gi noodles would return to the market as soon as the current situation is clarified. AFP

Unsafe Nestle noodles off Indias shelvesNew Delhi

BaNgkok

Nestles Indian instant noodles have been pulled from the shelves. Photo: AFP

We are working with the authorities to clear up this confusion.

Paul Bulcke Nestle chief executive

THE Thai government plans to call bids for another 2.6 million tonnes of high-quality rice from state stocks between now and August while trans-ferring low-quality and substandard grains to the industrial sector.

Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Foreign Trade Depart-ment, said with new output from the main crop coming after August, the June-August period was the right time for the government to call two or three bids for its rice stocks, starting with 1 million tonnes this month.

Since Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha took office, the Commerce Min-istry has called six bids to speed up disposal of 18 million tonnes of state stocks accumulated from previous rice pledging schemes.

The ministry has sold 2.1 mil-lion tonnes, fetching 22.4 billion baht (US$734 million) so far. Remaining stocks include 2.6 million tonnes of high-quality rice ready to sell and 13 to 14 million tonnes of substandard grades.

The Commerce Ministry will have surveyor companies inspect this por-tion of rice to determine whether it can be used as human or animal food. If neither, it will be sold to ethanol or alcohol factories.

Deputy Prime Minister MR Pridi-yathorn Devakula said the government expected to take a month to decide whether to sell the low-quality and rot-ten grains to the industrial sector.

Of existing rice stocks, the govern-ment now controls 10 million tonnes of low-quality grade-C rice, with rot-ten rice making up 2 million tonnes, he said. The decision will be based on whether the government can secure a good price.

Previously the private sector pro-posed purchasing 2 million tonnes of rotten rice at 5 baht a kilogram, but that offer was too low, Mr Pridi-yathorn said. The Bangkok Post

Thailand plans to sell more rice stock

12 International Business THE MYANMAR TIMES June 8, 2015

COMPANIES, banks and investment funds, primarily European, have been coming out in recent weeks with an-nouncements they will halt invest-ments in coal, a new front in efforts to reduce use of the highly polluting fuel that faces a battle against the hunger for power in emerging markets.

The latest move came on May 5, when Norways parliament voted to force its sovereign wealth fund the worlds biggest to pull out of firms that are heavily involved with coal.

Earlier in the week, French energy group Total announced it would with-draw from its coal activities, notably in South Africa where it is involved in the production and sale of the fuel which is important for electricity in numerous countries around the world.

In May it was French insurer Axa that said it would pull out 500 million euros (US$555 million) it had invested in energy companies that generate over half of their turnover from pro-ducing or burning coal.

French bank Credit Agricole fol-lowed by saying it would cut funding for coal mining projects.

Even the Church of England, which manages some 12.4 billion euros in in-vestments, said it would divest some 12 million (US$18.3 million) it had in companies that generated more than 10 percent of their revenue from coal or oil tar sands.

The announcements are an impor-tant development in efforts to reduce the output of greenhouse gasses that are causing global warming.

However it will be difficult to coun-ter the fact that emerging market na-tions, particularly China, rely heav-ily on coal for meeting their growing need for electricity.

Coal accounted for 73pc of the elec-tricity production in China at the end of the last year.

The International Energy Agency estimated in December that coal de-mand will continue to grow by an average of 2.1pc through 2019, even if this is slower than the 3.3pc average recorded in 2010-2013.

We have heard many pledges and policies aimed at mitigating climate change, but over the next five years they will mostly fail to arrest the growth in coal demand, IEA executive director Maria van

der Hoeven said at the time.Even if Chinese authorities want to

reduce coal use to improve air quality, the IEA estimated that China would account for three-fifths of the increase in coal demand through 2019.

The country has announced 500 gigawatts of coal-fired power stations in the years to come, said Nathalie Desbrosses, head of energy market re-search at Enerdata.

That is the equivalent of more than 500 nuclear reactors.

Other emerging market nations are following on Chinas heels.

India, which is investing massively to expand its electricity output, saw coal use jump by 11pc last year after rising by nearly 7pc in 2013.

Last year it passed the United

States in coal consumption by vol-ume to account for 74pc of electricity generation.

Increasing reluctance by Western banks to fund coal mining projects has failed to curb Indias coal drive.

Earlier this year Indias Adani Group brushed aside a decision by a dozen European and US banks not to fund huge coal industry projects in Australias Galilee Basin near the Great Barrier Reef, saying it had no bearing on the company.

In addition to Asian emerging markets, demand for coal is expected to increase in Japan and South Korea due to new power plants coming on line.

Although the contribution that coal makes to energy security and access to

energy is undeniable, I must emphasise once again that coal use in its current form is simply unsustainable, said Mr van der Hoeven.

A recent study published in the journal Nature said that over 80 per-cent of coal reserves must be left un-touched until 2050 to meet the UN target of limiting warming to 2.0 de-grees Celsius over pre-Industrial Rev-olution levels to save Earths climate from potentially catastrophic damage.

Price continues to play in coals favour as mining companies have cut production costs.

So far experiments in a number of countries to put a price on carbon in an effort to harness market forces to encourage efficiency and use of less-polluting fuels have largely failed.

But six energy companies, which usually oppose carbon pricing, in the past week publicly endorsed such schemes.

We firmly believe that carbon pricing will discourage high carbon options and reduce uncertainty that will help stimulate investments in the right low carbon technologies and the right resources at the right pace, said the chief executives of BG Group, BP, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Total in a joint letter.

The call by companies came as ef-forts were under way to breathe life into talks aimed at reaching a deal on a new UN climate pact ahead of a cru-cial conference in Paris in December.

AFP

Paris

CaPe Town new York

Emerging markets buck coal trend

Activists protest in front of the Manila office of construction and mining company DMCI on World Environment Day. Photo: AFP

THE launch of a free trade agreement by three African economic blocs in Egypt this week will be an important step toward a potentially game-chang-ing common market spanning the con-tinent, supporters say.

The deal between the East African Community, the Southern African De-velopment Community, and the Com-mon Market for Eastern and Southern Africa will create a market of 26 coun-tries with a population of 625 million and gross domestic product of more than US$1 trillion.

The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) will be inaugurated at a summit of heads of state and government on June 10 in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt after four years of negotiations to establish a framework for tariff preferences and other commitments. The launch of the TFTA is a significant milestone for the African continent, the South African government said.

We believe that this sends a power-ful message that Africa is committed to its economic integration agenda and in creating a conducive environment for trade and investment.

The move was welcomed by busi-ness leaders at the World Economic Summit for Africa in Cape Town last

week, with participants highlighting the fact that just 12 percent of African countries total trade is with each other compared to some 55pc in Asia and 70pc in Europe.

The tripartite trade agreement is really important as a first step for Af-rica ... which then can engage with the European Union and others on a global basis, Michael Rake, BT Group chair and a co-chair of the forum, said.

Africas share of global trade stands at around 3pc.

Boosting trade has long been an am-bition of the African Union and backers of the latest move are aware of scepti-

cism surrounding its prospects.I think Africa will surprise the

world, Fatima Haram Acyl, the African Unions commissioner for trade and in-dustry, said at the WEF.

Were going to have our continental free trade area.

British colonialist Cecil Rhodes orig-inally dreamt of unifying Africa from Cape to Cairo in the 19th Century un-der imperial rule from London a far cry for the diverse group of nations that will make up the Tripartite Free Trade Area.

Member states will range from rela-tively developed economies such as South Africa and Egypt to countries in-cluding Angola, Ethiopia and Mozam-bique, which are seen as having huge potential growth.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said in a 2013 report that one reason for weak intra-African trade is that the focus has been more on the elimination of trade bar-riers than the development of capacity.

If African governments want to achieve their objective of boosting intra-African trade, they have to cre-ate more space for the private sector to play an active role in the integration process, the report said. AFP

High hopes for African free trade

US regulators say the hoax that whip-sawed Avon Products last month was hatched by a man in Bulgaria who had fooled Wall Street twice before with similar ruses.

Avon shares surged 20 percent May 14 after a regulatory filing purported to show a bid three times Avons stock price. Avon said there was no such of-fer, and the stock fell to earth.

Nedko Nedev, 37, hoodwinked the stock market from Sofia, the SEC said. Over the past three years, he allegedly did the same thing with Tower Group International and Rocky Mountain Chocol

monday, june 8, 2015 (mte daily issue 59)

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