Natural Resource Use, Burma/Myanmar - reports, articles etc.

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Description: About 4,500 results (August 2017)
Source/publisher: Various sources via Youtube
Date of entry/update: 2017-08-22
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
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Description: Link to a sub-section of Agriculture
Source/publisher: Online Burma/Myanmar Library
Date of entry/update: 2014-12-04
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: This sub-section is under Economy and currently contains material on mining, oil and gas and timber extraction
Source/publisher: Online Burma/Myanmar Library
Date of entry/update: 2014-12-21
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Source/publisher: Online Burma/Myanmar Library
Date of entry/update: 2014-12-04
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Source/publisher: Online Burma/Myanmar Library
Date of entry/update: 2014-12-04
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English and Burmese/ မြန်မာဘာသာ
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Source/publisher: Online Burma/Myanmar Library
Date of entry/update: 2014-12-04
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Source/publisher: Online Burma/Myanmar Library
Date of entry/update: 2014-12-04
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Source/publisher: Online Burma/Myanmar Library
Date of entry/update: 2014-12-04
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Sub-title: Revenues from Foreign Companies Keep Military in Power
Description: " Payments by energy and extractive companies to entities under the control of the Myanmar military are providing key funds to sustain the junta and pose serious legal, financial, and reputational risks to investors in those companies. In October, Human Rights Watch wrote to several dozen investment firms that own shares in companies that operate in joint partnership with entities under the control of the junta installed by Myanmar’s military, which seized control in a February coup, engaged in a brutal crackdown against protestors, and is implicated in multiple crimes against humanity, killings, torture, and war crimes. Joint projects involving natural gas generate over a billion dollars in foreign revenue for the junta annually, transmitted in US dollars to the junta’s bank accounts in foreign countries. “Investors need to act now to help block massive payments currently flowing to a brutal military junta,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The junta is highly dependent on foreign US dollar income from mining and natural gas, and targeted new measures to block it may be the only real way to achieve changes in their behavior.” Under existing contracts with government entities, energy companies have limited options for halting payments that go to the junta, but they would need to comply with sanctions or other financial regulatory actions blocking those payments if imposed by the US, EU, and other key governments, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch wrote to investment firms with major investments in at least one of the following companies: Total Energies, Chevron, PTT or its subsidiary PTTEP, and POSCO, which together are responsible for the bulk of Myanmar’s natural gas production and revenues. Blackrock, State Street, and Vanguard own substantial stakes in all four companies, giving them especially potent leverage with company leadership. Human Rights Watch also wrote to JP Morgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, Fisher Asset Management, and Dimensional Fund Advisors, as well as to several other funds of varying sizes with significant shares in Total Energies. Human Rights Watch has previously corresponded with Total Energies and PTT about their Myanmar operations. The letters to firms and investors detail how companies providing revenue to the junta are facing serious legal, financial, and reputational risks and are unable to fulfill their human rights responsibilities in Myanmar under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Investment firms also have human rights responsibilities and could themselves face financial and reputational risks as shareholders in companies generating billions of dollars for the junta. Human Rights Watch received no reply from Blackrock, Vanguard, or other US-based investors. State Street, which holds substantial blocks of shares in Total Energies, Chevron, and PTT and smaller stakes in POSCO, responded in an email on October 22 saying that the letter had been “passed on to our Asset Stewardship team who develop and implement our engagement strategies with portfolio companies in order that they can consider how this issue might be built into future engagements.” To address possible unintended negative consequences, the letters outline methods for blocking payments without disrupting natural gas production itself. Investors should move swiftly to raise concerns with companies, Human Rights Watch said. “Investment firms should be using their leverage as major shareholders to convince companies to support sanctions by the US, EU, and other concerned governments, freezing payments into the junta’s offshore accounts,” said Sifton. “Failing to act perpetuates harm to the people of Myanmar and only exposes companies to further risk.”..."
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch (USA)
2021-11-19
Date of entry/update: 2021-11-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "80% of the natural gas produced in Myanmar is exported (75% to Thailand and 25% to China as of 2016) [1]. Four large-scale offshore fields (Shwe, Yadana, Yetagun, and Zawtika) have played a significant role in earning foreign currency for the government. Among them, the Yetagun field has been closely connected to Japanese government and corporations since its development. Nippon Oil Exploration (Myanmar), a Japanese company, acquired working interests in the M13 and M14 blocks in 1991 and M12 block in 1992 [2]. The company developed the Yetagun field located in these blocks through exploration, assessment, and construction of production and shipping facilities including pipeline. The Yetagun field, which began production in 2000, also produces light liquid hydrocarbon (liquid natural gas similar in nature to oil) called condensate, a byproduct of natural gas. The shareholders of the field are Malaysia’s stateowned Petronas Carigali, the operator (40.9%); Myanma Oil Gas Enterprise (MOGE) (20.5%); Nippon Oil Exploration (Myanmar) (19.3%) , and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP) which is a subsidiary of state-owned PTT (19.3%)[3]. In Myanmar, a production sharing contract for offshore natural gas development [4] may allocate as much as 60% to 90% for the Myanmar government [5]. Further, there are numerous payments to be made to the government under such a contract, including a surface fee, signature bonus, production bonus, 12.5% royalty, 25% corporate tax, and 8% special goods tax [6]. Because MOGE is currently under control of the military that staged the coup d’état in February 2021, payments made now would benefit the military. All of the natural gas from the Yetagun field is sold to Thailand’s state-owned PTT and exported to Thailand, but it has been used for electricity projects implemented by and have generated profit for Japanese companies in Thailand. The gas is supplied to the Ratchaburi and Wangnoi power plants as fuel for generating electricity [7]. The Ratchaburi power plant is an independent power producer (IPP) in which JERA (a Japanese joint venture by Tokyo Electric Power Corporation and Chubu Electric Power Corporation) and Toyota Tsusho Corporation hold shares along with PTT and other corporations [8]. This plant was originally planned as Hin Krut Coal-fired Power Plant, but the plan was scrapped due to strong opposition by local residents. Under guidance from the Thai government, fuel was changed from coal to natural gas, and the controversial plant was finally built after the project site was also changed from Prachuap Khiri Khan to Ratchaburi [9]. Japanese entities have long been interested in natural gas development in Myanmar. The Overseas Technical Cooperation Agency, the predecessor organization to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), conducted a study on natural gas development in Myanmar in 1963 [10]. The study was commissioned by the government in Burma (Myanmar) at the time for the purpose of using the gas for fertilizer and cement production, but the records of detailed geographical surveys contained in the study suggest that Japan has long been involved in resource development in Myanmar. Nippon Oil Exploration (Myanmar) is jointly held by the Japanese government (50%), JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corporation (40%), and Mitsubishi Corporation (10%). Shares now held by the Japanese government were previously held by the Japan National Oil Corporation (JNOC), but after JNOC received much criticism for incurring huge losses and was reorganized into the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC), the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) took over the shares held by JNOC [11]. Between 2000 and 2011, profit from the sale of gas from the Yetagun field was an important source of income enabling the Myanmar military to exert control. Ordinary expenses by the Myanmar military increased threefold between 1995 and 2007 [12]. A significant increase is seen in 2001, and the trend continued after 2004. Given this, it can be assumed that the increase in expenses is due to the increase in income from export of natural gas including that from the Yetagun field. Petronas Caligari, the operator of the Yetagun project, declared force majeure on the Yetagun field and ceased production in April 2021 due to the production rate dropping below the technical threshold [13]. METI has indicated that production resumed on July 21, but that it was suspended again due to multiple workers having contracted Covid-19. Production was still suspended as of August 31 [14]. Gas production at the Yetagun field had been estimated to be near depletion even before the recent cease in production [15]. Even so, in the past, gas from the Yetagun field was an important source of income for the Myanmar military regime. It is unclear whether royalties, tax and other payments have been made to Myanmar after the coup or whether such payments, if they had been suspended due to the production cease, will resume in the future..."
Source/publisher: Mekong Watch
2021-09-15
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 286.46 KB
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Sub-title: Fossils like those in 'Jurassic Park' draw scrutiny as Kachin conflict drags on
Description: " Myanmar is a major producer of amber, a fossilized tree resin. Amber is valued for jewelry, and also serves as a sort of time capsule that provides scientific clues to prehistoric life with fossilized inclusions such as insects, birds and dinosaur footprints. Meanwhile, the main amber-mining areas in the country are located in an internal conflict zone where an ethnic minority is fighting against the national armed forces, and the amber also comes with problems of human rights violations and smuggling. "Jurassic Park," a 1993 film directed by Steven Spielberg, has a scene at the beginning in which blood is collected from a mosquito entrapped in amber, in order to restore a dinosaur's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), with dinosaurs subsequently resurrected in a island theme park. In reality, DNA is lost over tens of millions of years, so reproducing dinosaurs from fossils in amber remains a fiction. However, since tissues like skin and wings are preserved better in amber, compared with normal bone fossils, they provide valuable clues for research. In recent years, a series of such discoveries has occurred in Myanmar. In March 2020, a research team led by Xing Lida, an associate professor at the China University of Geosciences, Beijing, announced in British scientific journal Nature that they had discovered the head of a small new dinosaur species, resembling a bird, inside some amber. The animal lived about 99 million years ago, in the Cretaceous Period. The head is about 1 cm long, and the estimated length of the dinosaur is the shortest among known fossilized dinosaurs from the Mesozoic Era. It had many small, sharp teeth..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Nikkei Review" (Japan)
2020-06-08
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "...I would like to begin this concluding chapter with a statement from an elderly Karen woman: “We have hope as long as we have the Salween River.” This statement is emblematic – it is not only a pithy reflection of an elderly woman whose life has been interwoven with the struggle, but it is also an insight into the intimacy that local people share with the Salween River. The Salween is no longer merely a source of the local people’s livelihoods, but it has become more than that; it represents a hope, a struggle, and a challenge. From this, I am concerned with border people’s negotiation processes, those that take place beyond the Salween borderlands and allow a broader possibility for them to invent a strategy which functions as a connection between diverse groups of people, from many places and on different scales – to enhance their network and strengthen their struggle for a common goal. The issues and questions posed by the border people’s everyday survival struggles are the central points of this study. The Salween River has been targeted by capitalist markets and states as a resource frontier – to generate capitalist expansion along the Thai-Burmese border in a form of frontier capitalization. Frontier capitalization at the Salween borderlands, in terms of social construction of ‘nature’, can be characterized as the commodification of the Salween resources, namely forests and rivers, that have been transformed into commodities for trade in particular markets. It has taken place in that the landscape of Salween borderlands have been read by the capitalist market and the states as empty lands where they can turn nature into a commodity, which in turn facilitates and generates economic growth and progress. This commodification takes place in different forms, and has been produced by different forces at various points in history...."
Creator/author:
2012-02-00
Date of entry/update: 2020-04-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : PDF
Size: 2.35 MB
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Description: "...Myanmar, where the amount of natural rainforest is still high and the amount of economic activity is still low, really is one of the last countries that can be considered 'empty' in our 'full world'. But the country currently undergoes deep transition processes. These processes are not only of social, but also of economic and ecologic nature. Such changes pose opportunities and also threats to society as well as the ecosystem. Particularly energy management is an important issue: In areas where level of electricity is often below thirty percent, producing energy and improving electric infrastructure is crucial to increase the standard of living, especially in a low-income country. But do the current energy projects benefit the local people while at the same time maintaining the further existence of the surrounding ecosystem?In order to show the opportunities and threats that occur during the transition of Burma towards democracy, I will assess the impacts of energy management and electrification, namely a coal power project in the Mon State and hydropower in the Shan state, on local livelihoods. I will use the methodology of institutional and resource economics as well as the knowledge from Southeast Asian area studies to analyze, energy policies, governance structures and the social situation that play a role in recent energy projects. Finally, I will advocate the strengthening of the local civil societies to play a greater role in deciding on energy policy to avoid societal and environmental negative outcomes of energy management in this country of deep transformation..."
Creator/author:
2016-11-23
Date of entry/update: 2020-04-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : PDF
Size: 2.35 MB
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Description: "The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) an international watchdog on the oil, gas and mining industry recently has called on Myanmar to improve public disclosure on gemstone production and state-owned enterprises, the News Straits Times reported. It also asked the government to clarify the status of military-affiliated extractive companies and their activities in the country. The EITI board announced that Myanmar has achieved meaningful progress towards implementing impactful standards. However, the statement emphasised the need for Myanmar to further improve public disclosure around license allocation, gemstone production data and state-owned enterprises..."
Source/publisher: "Mizzima" (Myanmar)
2019-10-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Uncertainty and confusion over Myanmar’s proposed oil and gas law risk alienating existing investors and could undermine the next crucial bidding round, according to companies and experts in the sector.
Description: "Time is running out for the Ministry of Electricity and Energy to launch the round by the end of the year, having initially planned to start the process in the first half of 2019. The government published the revised text of the draft oil and gas law for public consultation in August with the aim of reforming the legal framework and replacing the 1957 petroleum resources act. But the association representing oil and gas investors has highlighted its objections to parliament in a letter, of which The Myanmar Times has seen extracts. Gas produced offshore in Myanmar is delivered to the domestic market and exported to Thailand and China, forming a major source of government revenues. In 2017-18, natural gas exports accounted for US$3.1 billion, or around 50 percent of total export revenues. But 2019 is a far cry from the heydays of 2013-2014, when in the space of 12 months the country enjoyed a rapid increase in foreign direct investment with the award of 16 onshore and 20 offshore blocks. There has been no international bidding under Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s administration. State-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), the de facto regulator, has pledged to go ahead with the release of 15 offshore and 18 onshore blocks to international bidders this year, leaving open the possibility of a bidding round without a new law. At present, there are 38 offshore and 27 onshore joint ventures in Myanmar, which are structured as production sharing contracts (PSCs)..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
2019-10-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "This Burma (Myanmar) History Thread on resource extraction describes the #petroleum (oil and gas) sector. Oil & gas deposits found in Cenozoic sedimentary rock in Central Burma/Myanmar from Sagaing Div. to Irrawaddy Delta. Offshore gas fields in Andaman Sea & Bay of Bengal. Burma had one of earliest petroleum industries, mainly for boat-caulking. Yenangyaung described by Baker 1755 as workers “getting Earth-oil out of Pitts.” Dug by hand, workers lowered in by rope. 1795 Symes wrote of “the celebrated wells” oil shipped far away in pottery jars..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Project Maje"
2019-07-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar is undergoing political, economic and social transitions. Peace negotiations involving the government, military and ethnic armed groups have led to an agreement—in principle—to move towards a federal union. This could have major implications for natural resource governance. Historically, national institutions have primarily been responsible for managing the country?s resources. However, demands for more subnational control are widespread. Drawing primarily on case studies from the Asia-Pacific region, Natural Resource Federalism: Considerations for Myanmar presents policy-makers with a framework for thinking through the range of natural resource governance responsibilities and the models used by different countries for conferring greater influence to subnational institutions..."
Source/publisher: Natural Resource Governance Institute via "Progressive Voice"
2018-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2018-03-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 3.88 MB
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Description: Aquatic Resources - 6 files... Energy - 20 files... Environment and Biodiversity - 42 files... Forest Management - 52 files Governance and Sector Development/Assessment - 5 files ... Mining. .....To access some files, users may have to take out a (free) subscription to MYLAFF at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/mylaff
Source/publisher: MYLAFF
Date of entry/update: 2016-07-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "... This piece of community initiated action research reveals a number of lessons we can learn. The authors try to reflect the challenges of and opportunities for community based natural resources management in a seemingly forgotten Karen controlled area of southern Myanmar. The paper examines a number of case studies including the construction of a local water supply system, the establishment of fish conservation zones and community-driven forest conservation. An evolutionary development of community based networks such as CSLD (Community Sustainable Livelihood and Development), IRIP-NET (Tenasserim River and Indigenous People Network) and RKIP (Rays of Kamoethway Indigenous People and Nature) and their collaborative action to address emerging Natural Resources Management issues in their land are well illustrated in the paper..."
Source/publisher: Tenasserim River & Indigenous People Networks (TRIP NET), Rays of Kamoethway Indigenous People and Nature (RKIPN)
2016-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 3.13 MB
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Description: "... In 2014, Myanmar(Burma)confounded industry analysts by emerging to become the World?s third biggest tin producer, experiencing a 5-year tin production increase of ca.4900%. This surprise emergence of Myanmar as a major tin producer is a possible Black Swan event that potentially has significant re-percussions both for the future of global tin production, and for the economic development of Myanmar. This is a disruptive event that has likely contributed to a substantial drop in tin prices in 2015. The Myanmar production increase came from a new minesite in Wa State, and not from the traditional tin-producing areas in the South. We discuss tin mining and potential in Myanmar and consider whether it could provide a foundation for the economic rehabilitation of the country..."
Creator/author: Nicholas J. Gardiner, JohnP.Sykes, AllanTrench, LaurenceJ.Robb
Source/publisher: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford
2015-10-05
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.95 MB
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Description: "Myanmar?s Union government collects much of the trillions of kyat generated by oil, gas, gemstones and other minerals each year, primarily through its state-owned economic enterprises (SEEs). In the face of such centralized control over revenue, many ethnic groups have long asserted their right to make decisions over resource management in their states. Combatants in areas of active conflict and leaders from several ethnic minority parties—particularly those associated with Kachin, Rakhine and Shan states—have openly called for greater resource revenue sharing. (See map below for more on Myanmar?s extractive geography.) In response, the newly elected National League for Democracy (NLD) has committed to "work to ensure a fair distribution across the country of the profits from natural resource extraction, in accordance with the principles of a federal union." As such, a resource revenue sharing system will undoubtedly be on the table in the upcoming discussion on federalism. However, as we have seen in other countries, these systems come with considerable risks. In the most extreme cases, such as Peru, they can actually exacerbate conflict, encouraging local leaders to use violence to compel greater transfers from the central government or gain control over mine sites. While these experiences are atypical, natural resource revenue sharing often leads to financial waste, local inflation, boom-bust cycles and poor public investment decisions. However, if well designed, resource revenue sharing can: improve development outcomes and the quality of public investment; attract high quality private investors to the sector; and help secure a lasting peace. Sharing the Wealth: A Roadmap for Distributing Myanmar?s Natural Resource Revenues outlines options available under the current legal structure to help the new leadership fulfill its commitment to decentralize natural resource revenues. It is also meant to inform Myanmar?s broader discourse on how best to distribute these revenues. First, it outlines the current state of fiscal decentralization in Myanmar. Second, it describes the size and location of extractive activities given the limited information currently available. Third, it aims to share good practices for revenue distribution and international experiences. Fourth, it outlines policy options and considerations for policymakers on intergovernmental transfers and addresses the debate on tax assignments..."
Creator/author: Andrew Bauer, Paul Shortell, Lorenzo Delesgues
Source/publisher: Natural Resource Governance Institute
2016-02-15
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 2.37 MB 11.6 MB
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Description: "We are at a critical juncture in our history, more promising than at any time in recent memory. The country will have a civilian-majority government that came to office through the votes of a multitude of smaller nationality groups for a pan-national party promising political change. If this political transition is to succeed, poverty must be alleviated, corruption curtailed, drug abuse radically reduced, and a host of other social crises addressed that have long blighted our country. At the beginning of the year my son came to the Kachin state with his newly-wed bride to receive our blessings for his marriage. For the first time I began to think about becoming a grandmother, holding a tiny grandchild and then actually thinking that, at some time in the future, I would welcome a granddaughter or grandson to our home for another happy wedding. What can I pass on to this future generation? What will unfold before their eyes? Snow-capped mountains and orchids hidden in deep forests? Streams rushing downhill to join the great Irrawaddy? Flourishing farmlands? I had a vision of reforested hills in Hpakant, travellers gathering pleasure from the peaceful countryside where camps for internally-displaced persons now dot the hills. I saw organic farmers, where today great swathes of monocultures for export have now displaced the original owners. And I could imagine thriving universities, where drug-addicted young people presently waste away their lives. These reflections are not simply personal, but concerns that every parent has in our country today. We are now at a critical juncture in our history, more promising than at any time in recent memory. For the first time since the 1950s, the country will have a civilian-majority government that came to office through the votes of a multitude of smaller nationality groups for a pan-national party promising political change. For non-Burman peoples, however, an underlying question remains, as it has in every political era since independence in 1948: can a multi-ethnic country of such cultural vibrancy and diversity be governed by a party that appears to be led by one majority group?..."
Creator/author: Lahpai Seng Raw
Source/publisher: Transnational Institute (TNI)
2016-03-17
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
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Description: INTRODUCTION: "The November 8, 2015 elections in Myanmar marked a historic milestone in the country?s political and economic transition that began in 2011. Incoming policy makers are preparing to pick up the baton and deliver on the people?s strong aspirations for a harmonious and prosperous Myanmar. In this series of policy notes, the World Bank Group seeks to promote dialogue on critical development challenges and on options for policies and reforms that can contribute to shared prosperity for the people of Myanmar. Myanmar has strong medium-term growth potential. Efforts to open up and liberalize the economy over the past 4 years have revealed pent up demand, brought in new investments, and increased productivity from a very low base. Between 2011 and 2014 Myanmar?s economy grew at an average real rate of 7 percent per year, which is among the fastest in East Asia, and comparable to other high performing countries in their initial phase of liberalization. In the coming years, further removal of economic controls could help Myanmar to maintain a strong pace of growth. Myanmar has a real opportunity in ensuring that growth is also inclusive. This not only means sustaining a strong pace of growth, but doing so through a diversified economy that can absorb the labor force into higher productivity sectors. The agriculture sector, which suffers from low productivity, contributing on average only 10-15 percent to annual real GDP growth over the past 4 years, employs over half of the country?s labor force. The manufacturing and construction sectors on the other hand, which have the highest value added per unit of labor, employ only 10-15 percent of the labor force. Policies that can enable a structural shift to more productive and labor intensive activities could make a big dent on poverty and inequality in Myanmar. These would include expanding access to essential public services. This could enable a bigger share of the population to benefit from the agglomeration of economic activities around Myanmar?s growth poles, namely Yangon and Mandalay, which account for roughly 35 percent of national GDP. The sound governance and use of Myanmar?s natural resource wealth are also critical to inclusive growth. Around 10 percent of Myanmar?s official GDP is derived from natural resources, though some estimate unofficial trade in natural resources at more than 20 percent of official GDP. This not only concentrates wealth from non-renewable national assets in the hands of a few, but also finances conflicts, which have created vicious cycles of poverty that are geographically and ethnically concentrated. Policy reforms since 2011 have started to promote inclusion so that a growing share of Myanmar?s people can take advantage of new opportunities and benefit from economic growth. Higher tax collections from non-agriculture sectors and rising natural resource rents have enabled Myanmar to reprioritize public spending towards critical economic and social service needs. Foreign exchange, trade and investment liberalization have opened up economic opportunities and the space for investment beyond a small group of highly protected sectors. Increased public sector transparency and decentralization have started to gradually bring the state closer to the people. Given this context, how can Myanmar advance reforms to close the disparities across its geography, ethnic communities, and income groups; and to promote productivity and competitiveness? This is the question that this series of policy notes, ?All aboard! Policies for shared prosperity in Myanmar,” aims to generate debate and ideas. The theme ?All aboard” is meant to reflect inclusivity and imminent departure on a positive journey. The policy notes focus on six interconnected areas that are likely to be high priorities for shared prosperity (figure 1). The first is on closing the gap in access to social services for improving Myanmar?s human development outcomes. This could help to strengthen the productivity and employability of Myanmar?s current and future labor force, which is the critical input to inclusive growth and a precondition to success in all the other areas. The second policy note is on growing together by reducing poverty in rural areas. Policies to boost agriculture productivity and accelerate the delivery of essential services in rural areas, where they lag the most, could help to supply the much needed labor and food for the rapidly expanding industrial, manufacturing and service sectors. Investment in higher productivity sectors is also likely to require breaking business as usual to foster competitiveness and a dynamic environment for private sector growth across the country, which are discussed in the third policy note. These include policies that are targeted at reducing the costs of doing business and engaging in international trade. The relative impact of these could be enormous in terms of incentivizing private sector investments, expanding access to economic opportunities for rural and urban populations, and diversifying the sources of growth. Enabling these to drive major structural transformations in the economy is likely to require policy reforms in two important areas. The fourth policy note therefore looks at options to expand Myanmar?s ability for financing the future through an open, modern, and inclusive financial system. This is important not only for channeling savings to large private investments, but also to finance public sector operations and service delivery, facilitate the expansion of international trade, and enable the transfer of increased remittances to rural areas. The fifth policy note is on energizing Myanmar by enhancing access to sustainable energy for all. Myanmar?s growing economy will need more energy than is currently supplied ? not only for productive sectors, but also for the delivery of public services across the country."
Creator/author: Habib Rab + team
Source/publisher: World Bank
2016-02-23
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf pdf pdf pdf
Size: 1.5 MB 2.1 MB 1.37 MB 1.57 MB
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Description: "Oil, gas and mineral revenues are generated in nearly every state and region in Myanmar, with the most important interests lying in Bago, Kachin, Magway, Mandalay, Sagaing, Shan and Tanintharyi. In these and other regions, petroleum and mining activities have had significant impacts on livelihoods in affected communities, and on the local environment. There is also a perceived lack of benefits from extraction accruing to local populations. Therefore, several parliamentarians and ethnic armed groups have raised natural resource revenue sharing between national and subnational authorities as a key component in national reform, fiscal decentralization, and peace processes. Depending on how any prospective system is designed, resource revenue-sharing can help address three separate issues: improving development outcomes and the quality of public investment; attracting high quality investors to the sector; and securing a lasting peace..."
Creator/author: Andrew Bauer, Lorenzo Delesgues
Source/publisher: Natural Resource Governance Institute
2015-07-00
Date of entry/update: 2015-09-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
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Description: Executive Summary: "This report is the culmination of a one year investigation by Amnesty International into alleged human rights abuses by companies, including multinational companies, operating in Myanmar. The report focuses on the Monywa copper mine project and highlights forced evictions, substantial environmental and social impacts, and the repression, sometimes brutal, of those who try to protest. It also raises serious questions about opaque corporate dealings and possible infringements of economic sanctions on Myanmar. The report calls on the Government of Myanmar to urgently introduce strong measures for the protection of human rights, and on multinational companies and the home governments of those companies to ensure that due diligence is carried out to international standards for all investment in Myanmar...This report examines the issues in relation to one major mining operation - the Monywa project - made up of the Sabetaung and Kyisintaung (S&K) and the Letpadaung copper mines. During an extensive one-year investigation, Amnesty International examined incidents that are specific to the Monywa project as well as some of the wider structural issues ? such as the processes for acquisition of land and environmental protection ? that will affect other extractive projects in Myanmar. The organization found that, since its inception and throughout its various changes in ownership, the Monywa project has been characterised by serious human rights abuses and a lack of transparency. Thousands of people have been forcibly evicted by the government with the knowledge, and in some cases the participation, of foreign companies. Environmental impacts have been poorly assessed and managed, with grave long-term implications for the health and livelihoods of people living near the mine. Protests by communities have been met with excessive force by police...".....CONCLUSION: The Government of Myanmar is responsible for the serious human rights violations that have taken place at the Monywa project over many years. It has forcibly evicted people and has failed to put in place safeguards to protect mine-affected communities from environmental pollution which can im- pact their rights to water and health, amongst other rights. It has shown an unwillingness to monitor corporate activity or to hold companies accountable for the harm their operations cause. The companies involved also bear responsibility. Despite a history of human rights violations sur- rounding the mine, a Canadian company, and subsequently a Chinese company, have invested without undertaking appropriate due diligence to ensure that past abuses were remediated and future abuses prevented. They have profited from abuses that they knew or should have known were happening, and have, in certain cases, themselves abused rights by participating in forced evictions or failing to remediate environmental pollution. The system that enabled the transfer of the Monywa project to a business venture that involved My- anmar military interests, without any transparency as to how such a sale occurred, is emblematic of the lack of accountability that exists around allocations of concessions and contracts in the extractive industry in Myanmar. The people of Myanmar must not see a resource curse unfold as it has done in so many other countries where powerful economic interests profit from a context in which regulation is weak, the government is unwilling to hold powerful political interests accountable and there is little or no transparency. The home states of multinational corporations must ensure that these corporations do not unjustly enrich themselves at the expense of Myanmar?s poorest people. The home states of companies involved in the Monywa project ? Canada and China ? have failed to do this...".....The report also contains critical analyses of Myanmar?s land legislation.
Source/publisher: Amnesty International
2015-02-10
Date of entry/update: 2015-02-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Source/publisher: Online Burma/Myanmar Library
Date of entry/update: 2014-12-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The Myanmar Development Resource Institute?s Centre for Economic and Social Development (MDRI-CESD) and The Asia Foundation are pleased to present this fourth volume in the Subnational Governance in Myanmar Discussion Paper Series. Myanmar?s government has announced a commitment to both greater transparency in natural resource sectors and to further fiscal decentralization. There has also been increasing discussion of sharing natural resource revenues in the contexts of economic restructuring, constitutional reform, and the peace process. However, there is not yet consensus on what is to be shared, between which entities, how, or why. This discussion paper is intended to provide an overview of the current unknown and known elements of the resource governance system in Myanmar in order to inform future analysis of the potential risks and benefits of changes to the role of subnational governments."
Creator/author: Thet Aung Lynn, Mari Oye
Source/publisher: Asia Foundation, MDRI-CESD
2014-06-16
Date of entry/update: 2014-07-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 1.42 MB
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Description: "...The research presented in this discussion paper by Thet Aung Lynn and Mari Oye provides an overview of the current role of subnational government in natural resource management and revenue collection in Myanmar. Natural resources provide a large share of government revenue, and there is potential for growth in these sectors in coming years. The government under President Thein Sein has made reform of the natural resource management system a priority, and the topic remains the subject of great interest among the wider public and civil society. In addition, natural resource management and revenue collection has long been a contentious issue in the country?s numerous ethnic conflicts and will need to be fully considered in the political dialogue. As discussion of potential future reforms takes place, an overview of the current laws, systems, and practices surrounding these areas is intended to lay the groundwork for future research and inform policy debate..."
Creator/author: Thet Aung Lynn, Mari Oye
Source/publisher: Asia Foundation
2014-06-16
Date of entry/update: 2014-07-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.22 MB
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