Economy of Karen (Kayin) State

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Description: This document provides a basic introduction to Kayin State inculding information about population; inhabitant; languages and religion; sown acreage and produce; other products of the state; tradition and culture, historical sites and places of interest and TV retransmission stations.
Source/publisher: MODiNS.NET
Date of entry/update: 2005-06-04
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Myanmar’s military coup in 2021 has triggered a widespread humanitarian crisis but also a breakdown in the rule of law. And the security situation is getting worse by the week. With the rise of lawlessness, the coup has provided freedom for cyber-criminals, human traffickers and gunrunners to operate along the border with Thailand. In the city of Shwe Kokko, Karen State opposite Thailand’s Mae Sot, Chinese triad gangs and criminals are exploiting the turmoil following the military takeover to expand their criminal activities. Shwe Kokko, just north of Mae Sot, is notorious as a criminal hub for online gambling, scamming and trafficking. The city is also known as Myanmar’s Silicon Valley, but since the coup its high-tech expertise and infrastructure has been geared to transnational criminal activity. Among the victims are foreigners lured to the city by offers of high-paying jobs in Thailand. Last year, Filipinos, Malaysians, Indonesians, Indians, Thais, Taiwanese, Bangladeshis, Brazilians, Kenyans, Colombians and Hong Kongers traveled to Thailand on the promise of jobs, only to find themselves trafficked across the border to Shwe Kokko. Just 20 kilometers south is KK Park, also known as KK Garden, which recently made headlines as a trafficking hub for Malaysian and Indian victims. The victims in Shwe Kokko and KK Park are imprisoned and coerced to work for crime syndicates as online scammers. Those who refuse face physical punishment or even worse forms of abuse. Families of the victims have been asked to pay ransoms in exchange for the release of loved ones. Embassies in Bangkok have been busy rescuing their citizens from Shwe Kokko. In diplomatic circles of the Thai capital, the name Shwe Kokko has now supplanted Myanmar’s democratic icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who languishes in a junta jail after her government was ousted in the February 2021 coup. The city is making headlines in regional newspapers as a hive of scams, abduction, and human trafficking, with governments increasingly under pressure to respond to emergency appeals from families and victims. Shwe Kokko is under the control of the Karen State Border Guard Force (BGF) led by Colonel Saw Chit Thu, a Karen insurgent leader. Several years ago, he signed a ceasefire with Myanmar’s army that saw his breakaway Democratic Karen Buddhist Army rebadged as the Karen BGF under partial command of the military. In the mid-1990s, Karen insurgents fought fierce battles with Myanmar armed forces around Shwe Kokko – an area known then as Kawmoora. The Kawmoora battleground was notorious among both Myanmar citizens and foreign journalists who arrived to cover the fighting between Karen rebels and state forces. Few could have imagined this war-torn stretch of border would come under the control of a Karen breakaway group, which brokered peace and business deals with Myanmar’s military and invited massive investment by the Chinese underworld. These days, the regime in Naypyitaw is merely a sideshow in what could be dubbed Myanmar’s Special Criminal Zone. In 2017, Saw Chit Thu formed a joint venture with Yatai International, owned by She Zhijiang, a Chinese national who holds Cambodian citizenship. The result was the Karen BGF’s Chit Linn Myaing Co Ltd, the front for Chinese investment to develop a $15-billion special economic zone (SEZ) in Shwe Kokko. The project was portrayed as a high-tech hub with an airport, industrial zone, villas, amusement park, hotels and other facilities. Once a fly-blown village of cattle smugglers and Karen BGF, Shwe Kokko transformed into the Chinatown of Karen State as Chinese investors, workers and gamblers flocked to the area. She Zhijiang was also responsible for turning it into a criminal hub for online gambling and scams. In 2018, the Myanmar Investment Commission approved a first phase of the Shwe Kokko New City project: the $22.5-million construction of 59 luxury villas on 10.3 hectares. However, construction activity expanded well beyond those limits. Mae Sot, a sleepy town in the 2000s, transformed into a bustling city peppered with luxury vehicles, upscale restaurants and hotels, with flights from Bangkok mostly fully booked. The developers initially claimed Shwe Kokko New City was part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but Beijing disavowed the project after it was investigated by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s government. In 2020, the Chinese embassy in Yangon backed the government’s move to probe irregularities surrounding the controversial city development project in Karen State. Thailand shut off power and telecoms services to Shwe Kokko. However, power and Internet service were switched back on just weeks after the 2021 coup. Chinese nationals continued to flow into Mae Sot. Among them was She Zhijiang, who is a fugitive in China but holds a Cambodian passport after investing in casinos there. She, also known as Dylan She, is chairman of Yatai International Holding Group. Thai authorities arrested the billionaire fugitive tycoon in August 2022 for running illegal online gambling platforms, but Yatai said the arrest would not affect its business operations. Thousands of Chinese illegal immigrants continue to live in Shwe Kokko and the city’s online gambling venues are still busy. The Myanmar military issues licenses for its allies and cronies to run hotels, clubs and casinos in towns on the border with Thailand and China. The operators pay annual fees to the military. Among them is Myanmar crony businessman Tun Min Latt, an arms broker and drug trafficker who was arrested in Bangkok last year and has direct connections with top generals including junta boss Min Aung Hlaing and his family. Tun Min Latt runs the Star Sapphire Group and operates several hotels and casinos in the border town of Tachilek, northern Shan State. His Allure Resort offers a casino, shopping and other entertainments for Thai and Chinese gamblers. Tun Min Latt’s deep connections with high-ranking generals including Min Aung Hlaing give him freedom to run lucrative and illicit business along the border. His company pays annual fees to the military while he has also provided a considerable sum of money to the regime leader and his family. Junta leaders are reportedly trying to secure his release from detention in Thailand. Several transnational Chinese criminal gangs operate hotels and casinos in the northern Shan State borderlands, also known as the Golden Triangle. Their local partners include the border guard forces and other militia and insurgent groups. The irony is they emerged after the coup “strengthened and with new opportunities to generate illicit income”, according to the United States Institute of Peace USIP. How much tax revenue flows into the regime’s coffers from Shwe Kokko is not known. However, revenue received from criminals in the border city boosts the junta’s ability to purchase arms to suppress its own people. New casino projects have mushroomed along the border in Karen State since the coup. Meanwhile the regime has been condemned for mass killings and arbitrary arrests of opponents that amount to crimes against humanity. This criminal campaign extends from the heartlands to the ethnic border regions, so it is unrealistic to expect the regime to clamp down on transnational crime. In fact, Chinese criminal tycoons are thought to have reached deals with Naypyitaw top brass involving substantial kickbacks. The military regime uses its control over the contested Karen territory to milk the area for revenues. Elsewhere, it continues to loot citizens’ homes, shoot children, torture dissidents to death, torch villages, and bomb resistance forces and civilians with fighter jets. The coup has triggered serious instability beyond the border regions, bringing an exodus of people, economic collapse, human tragedy and security concerns for neighbors. Myanmar’s home-grown criminals are sitting in Naypyitaw. Meanwhile, transnational Chinese gangs are free to operate on the Myanmar-Thailand border, posing a serious security threat to the region. It is time for governments of countries who share borders with Myanmar, including China, India and Thailand, to look into this matter more closely since criminal activities in Shwe Kokko and other casino hubs are directly linked to the junta in Naypyitaw. Criminals in Myanmar should not go unchecked – they pose a serious threat to countries across the region..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2023-02-27
Date of entry/update: 2023-02-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Land confiscations, illegal casinos, money laundering, and environmental degradation plagues a Myanmar SEZ.
Description: "Like more than 100 areas in the Mekong River region earmarked as development zones, the Yatai Shwe Kokko Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Myanmar was promoted as a way to spur economic growth and deliver material benefits to the local community. But instead the Chinese-backed U.S. $15 billion real estate mega-project along the Thaungyin River in southeastern Kayin state has gained notoriety in recent months as a bastion of illegal activity, according to a report released Wednesday by the Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), an independent research outfit that studies transnational organized crime networks. Shwe Kokko New City, as the area is called, was funded by Hong Kong-registered developer Yatai International Holding Group in partnership with the Chit Lin Myaing Company owned by the Kayin State Border Guard Force (BGF), an ethnic Karen force aligned with the Myanmar military. It includes the Myanmar Yatai Shwe Kokko Special Economic Zone. But the area became a hub for illicit activity because of weak national laws, a diffusion of responsibility, and a lack of development plans, says the 76-page report titled “Zoned Out: A Comprehensive Impact Evaluation of Mekong Economic Development Zones.” The study identified 110 official and unofficial foreign-invested EDZs in the Mekong region, including 40 in Cambodia, 15 in Laos, 20 in Myanmar, 16 in Thailand, and 19 in Vietnam, and used publicly available information to assess them in terms of economic development, illicit activity, and geopolitics. To assess the impact of EDZs, the researchers examined both quantitative indicators derived from personal activity intelligence, including mobile phone location data, change detection in satellite imagery, and nightlight data, along with qualitative research on illicit activity and geopolitical trends. Because of the strong correlation between nightlight data and economic activity, the researchers measured nighttime luminosity in the EDZs to objectively evaluate the relative economic performance of the zones. They also used information from publicly available reports that detailed illegal activities, including corruption, environmental degradation, land conflict, drug trafficking, and wildlife trafficking. Shwe Kokko is not the only example of an EDZ gone wrong. The study found that while the establishment of the zones speeds up development, the EDZs themselves can facilitate adverse outcomes that undermine economic growth benefits. They also found that limited data access concerning the Mekong region’s EDZs can hurt host governments and local communities, and that collaboration among stakeholders from government, grassroots organizations, the private sector, and civil society will increase transparency and better match objectives to end results. “Without proper management, EDZs can serve as staging grounds for multiple types of transnational illicit activity and geopolitical machinations,” the report says. “Further complicating the situation is a paucity of accessible data, leaving policymakers and observers alike struggling to draw informed conclusions on the effects of zones.” Lack of regulatory oversight In the case of the Shwe Kokko SEZ First, the developers allegedly received a 70-year land lease with the possibility of extending to 99 years, violating Myanmar law which limits lease terms to 50 years for official Economic Development Zones (EDZs). Then the BGF confiscated land for the site, but shortchanged residents paying them only U.S. $1,600 an acre — half the amount they sought. A lack of regulatory oversight enabled the illegal land confiscations along with Chinese gang activities once the project had been built, illegal casinos, money laundering, and environmental degradation, the report says. It also notes that She Kailun, Yatai International’s China-born chairman, had a previous conviction for operating an illegal lottery business that earned nearly U.S. $300 million. In response, Myanmar’s civilian-led government announced plans in January to address alleged irregularities, including the land confiscations, illicit activities, and local concerns about the impact of the casinos. The government also cracked down on Chinese criminal groups in the area and requested that the national military enforce the law in Shwe Kokko. When Myanmar’s military overthrew the government in a Feb. 1 coup, it became unclear what would happen next in Shwe Kokko. “A combination of legal ambiguity, limited host government enforcement, and poor zone management have created numerous negative externalities in Shwe Kokko, including increased criminal activity, decreased geopolitical power, and environmental degradation — all without delivering economic gain for the region itself,” the report says. Aung Naing Oo, minister of investment and foreign economic relations under the State Administrative Council, the official name of Myanmar’s military government, told RFA that the Myanmar Investment Commission had examined and approved the Shwe Kokko project during the previous civilian-led government, but determined that its scope was much larger than the original proposal. “Then we checked the project again and ordered that business activities not included in original proposal be stopped, he said. “Because the project was much larger and there were other issues such as land use, we ordered the project to be halted since previous government. They were ordered to do only what had been approved.” “The activities that were not included in the proposals were the building of hotels among other [sites],” he said. “We asked them to stop, [and] the order has remained unchanged…We have supervised them very closely about the suspension.” The report details other case studies of other zones plagued by illicit activities, such as the Boten SEZ in Laos, rife with illegal sales of wildlife, such as endangered pangolins, and the Golden Triangle EDZ, also in Laos, a hub for a hub for illicit drug and wildlife trafficking. An official in the Special Economic Zone Control Department of the Lao Ministry of Planning and Investment told RFA that he could not comment on whether there is illicit activity in the Boten and Golden Triangle SEZs. China ‘used its influence’ Cambodia’s Sihanoukville SEZ, considered part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, suffered from high crimes rates among other factors, the report said. “The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) promises benefits for local communities. In the case of the Sihanoukville SEZ, however, development was greatly undercut by increasing crime rates, rising rents, overwhelmed infrastructure, and the suppression of local culture in the city of Sihanoukville,” the report says. “China allegedly used its influence to pressure Cambodia to ban online gambling as part of a broader campaign against gambling by China. This ban further disrupted the city of Sihanoukville by devastating the local gaming economy and causing thousands to leave the city,” it said. The Cambodian Investment Board did not respond to an email request for comments on the report’s findings concerning the Sihanoukville SEZ. Emails sent to two contact addresses listed on the website of the Cambodian Special Economic Zone Board were undeliverable. Both government agencies deal with investment projects in SEZs. To improve the impacts of EDZs in the Mekong region, the researchers recommend the development of open, centralized repositories of information on EDZs, the use of emerging technologies such as nightlight capture, satellite imagery, and machine learning to create monitoring processes, and the convening of cross-sector interdisciplinary task forces to address negative impacts. “Through collaboration and data-driven analysis, host governments can ensure that EDZs serve the needs of the host country economy and the local population,” the report says..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
2021-06-25
Date of entry/update: 2021-06-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: The economic ventures of the Kayin State Border Guard Force have gained notoriety, but the group insists its businesses benefit the Karen people.
Description: "COLONEL Saw Min Min Oo is the managing director of Chit Linn Myaing Co Ltd, a company owned by the Kayin Border Guard Force that oversees a growing stable of lucrative businesses. The ethnic Karen armed group’s readiness to partner with shadowy Chinese investors, and to undertake projects with seemingly little regard for Myanmar law, is deeply controversial. Its most audacious venture so far is the vast “new city” project next to the Kayin BGF’s headquarters of Shwe Kokko Myaing in Kayin State’s Myawaddy Township, popularly dubbed as a “Chinatown” because of the largely Chinese financing and workforce. However, Min Min Oo insisted that the profits from these ventures don’t only accrue to the armed group, which is aligned to the Tatmadaw, but are shared with “the residents of our Karen land”. Min Min Oo was a 55-year-old battalion commander in the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army nine years ago when it became a Border Guard Force under Tatmadaw command and he was appointed to run Chit Linn Myaing. The company’s board of directors is made up of officers from the BGF, he said. When Frontier met Min Min Oo briefly in Yangon in October, he was dressed casually in a Karen blue-and-red longyi. He spoke limited Burmese, and a later phone interview with him was done mostly in the S’gaw Karen language. The Kayin BGF, whose supreme commander is Colonel Saw Chit Thu, has about 6,000 troops and was formed in August 2010 with 12 battalions from the DKBA and one battalion from the Haungtharaw-based Karen Peace Front. It is one of several BGFs in borderland areas of Myanmar, which were formed at that time out of ethnic armed factions that had come to ally themselves with the Tatmadaw..."
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Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
2019-12-16
Date of entry/update: 2019-12-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Dozens of newly built villas line a street as concrete skeletons of what may become hotels or casinos stand half-finished nearby. A new paved roadway allows access to more than a dozen boxy two-story buildings still under construction opposite plots of cleared land streaked with muddy tire tracks. Farther along the road, about 30 warehouse-type buildings with blue roofs stand at attention beside a river, while in the distance villagers’ small homes dot lush green fields. The Chinese-backed U.S. $15 billion real estate mega-project along the Thaungyin River in southeastern Myanmar’s Kayin state has been dubbed Shwe Kokko “Chinatown” by locals. It sits about 12 miles away from the state capital Myawaddy, and a 10-minute drive to the Thai town of Mae Sot. Shwe Kokko is the latest manifestation of China’s growing presence in the Southeast Asian country through its Belt and Road Initiative to connect the country with the rest of the region and beyond. And it's moving ahead at full throttle despite heavy criticism from ethnic Karen locals who object to what they see as Chinese encroachment upon their land, livelihoods, and culture..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
2019-11-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: This article on Kayin State was originally printed in the New Light of Myanmar on February 3th, 2005, as part of a series leading up to and immediately following the celebration of Union Day on the 12th of February. The original text along with accompanying pictures and tables can also be found in the archive of the print edition of NLM in the On-line Burma Library at http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs2/NLM2005-02-03.pdf An article summing up recent developments in the whole country with accompanying statistical tables was published in NLM on Union Day, 2005, and is available at http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs2/NLM2005-02-12.pdf.
Creator/author: Thiha Aung
Source/publisher: SPDC (News and Periodicals Enterprise, Ministry of Information, Union of Myanmar)
2005-02-03
Date of entry/update: 2005-08-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 1.34 MB 2.98 MB
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