• Burmese
Sunday, July 20, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
26 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home Features

Japan’s Thilawa Aid Widens Burma Factories vs Farms Divide

The Irrawaddy by The Irrawaddy
May 29, 2014
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0 0
A A
Japan’s Thilawa Aid Widens Burma Factories vs Farms Divide

Local fishermen pass by container ships at Thilawa Port

11.8k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

THILAWA, Rangoon Division — Tin Hsan and her husband lived modestly in the outskirts of Burma’s commercial capital Rangoon, growing rice and betel leaves on their 22 acres and peddling vegetables, but they got by, until they were forced to move to make way for Thilawa, a showcase industrial zone being built with Japanese aid.

The expansive factory park is part of plans to develop the Rangoon region and its crumbling, pre-World War II infrastructure as Burma rushes to shift from subsistence farming to export manufacturing following sweeping political and economic reforms that ended outright rule by the military.

Critics, however, say the landmark project is pushing families deeper into poverty, and accuse local officials of strong-arm tactics to force resettlements, highlighting the dilemmas faced by Burma’s fledgling democracy as foreign businesses and development groups pour into the country.

RelatedPosts

U San Hla, who lost his leg in a mine blast near Namtwe Village. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

Treading Lightly in Shan State: The Civilian Casualties of Myanmar’s Landmines

December 16, 2019
12.9k
Zau Bauk, who lost his wife and two of his children in recent clashes. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

Shelling Fractures Families in Myanmar’s Conflict-Torn Shan State

December 10, 2019
13.9k
Will Rangoon’s Secretariat be Returned to the Public?

Will Rangoon’s Secretariat be Returned to the Public?

August 10, 2016
19k

Japan International Cooperation Agency and several big Japanese companies have a combined 49 percent stake in the 2,400-hectare (5,900-acre) special economic zone, which is Japan’s biggest investment in Burma so far.

Many of the people forced to move from farms to tiny plots of land outside the area designated for the industrial zone may eventually get jobs in the factories expected to set up in Thilawa. But in the meantime conditions are bleak.

“My husband is a farmer and he only knows how to work in the field. Since he has no work to do, he became depressed and is now drinking day and night,” said Tin Hsan, standing outside their rickety, one-room hut that fills a barren roadside lot. “Since we moved here and live in this small place with no space to grow anything, we are living hand to mouth and we are all miserable.”

Tin Hsan and her husband are one of 81 households, or about 300 people, moved between 4.5 kilometers and 8 kilometers so far. Local residents and their advocates say that in the rush to meet deadlines, residents were forced to sign agreements for new housing and compensation that fell far short of their needs and also violated JICA’s requirement that resettlement not result in lower living standards. More than 4,500 will be resettled for the second phase of construction.

Plans call for the zone to eventually employ nearly 300,000 people, mostly in manufacturing. Since construction began in late November, a Japanese contractor has raised and leveled 400 hectares (990 acres) of land near a port built in the 1990s that will be expanded. During a recent visit, workers were putting the finishing touches on a prefabricated building that will serve as the zone’s headquarters.

“There’s so much speculative capital looking for somewhere to go. Thilawa is looking like the best bet for an industrial park so that land prices are going up,” said Rachel Calvert of consultancy IHS. “The amount of interest in Thilawa is huge.”

Thilawa is promising ample, stable electricity and good quality water piped in from a reservoir up country. Since other industrial zones in and around Rangoon are full and lack stable electricity, companies are lining up to get in, said Calvert.

Yet satisfying the priorities of foreign investors and local businesses comes at a high cost for those uprooted. They are unhappy over the disruptions to their lives, loss of livelihoods, the amount of compensation provided, and most acutely over the silty orange water available to their new homes.

Tin Hsan and her husband received about 28 million kyats (US$29,000) in compensation, a sum that is a small fortune in Burma but which was quickly dissipated and also shortchanged them by paying out for only 13 of their 22 acres. Without farmland to provide food and an income, the extended family of four sons and a dozen grandchildren was forced apart. Tin Hsan said they spent about $5,000 to build their new house and split the remaining money between their children.

“Maybe the residents’ homes were old, but they were spacious. Now they have new homes, but they’re cramped and surrounded by water when it rains. The houses are full of cracks,” Michihiro Ishibashi, a Japanese lawmaker who recently visited to investigate, told a parliamentary committee earlier this month.

Officials at JICA, the Japanese aid organization with a 10 percent stake in Thilawa, acknowledge problems with the resettlement effort but insist the project conforms to its own and to other international aid standards.

It said it is working with the local government to try to resolve the problems. The muddy water supply may partly stem from the haste in which the wells were installed, JICA said.

“Resettlement is a tremendous burden and many of the project-affected persons are still struggling,” Takuro Takeuchi, a JICA advisor, said in an interview at the agency’s headquarters in Tokyo. But ultimately, he said, “It’s the Myanmar government that has to settle the situation.”

In April, JICA went ahead with loans for Thilawa despite an environmental impact assessment showing 11 areas of likely negative impact and nine needing further study, compared with only six categorized as neutral or positive.

JICA’s rules call for the host governments of projects it funds to ensure residents can improve or at least maintain their living standards. Meeting that benchmark appears daunting given the hard-scrabble conditions prevailing around Rangoon and the limited resources available in one of the poorest countries in Asia.

Activists working with Thilawa residents say those resettled were told they had no choice. Despite Burma’s recent democratic reforms, most citizens remain wary of protest and unaware of their rights after decades of authoritarian, repressive rule.

“The people in Thilawa continue to suffer, but the Myanmar government isn’t listening and JICA isn’t listening. They don’t seem to care that the project is violating their own guidelines,” said Mya Hlaing, leader of the Thilawa Social Development Group, which represents local residents.

The zone began auctioning off shares in the project in early March, for 10,000 kyats per share, with a target of selling 2 million shares, and reported it took in 40 billion kyat ($41 million), nearly twice the amount expected.

Sales of factory sites began May 19.

“From autumn to next year, we will see the highest quality infrastructure in Myanmar,” said Win Aung, chairman of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

“You have nothing to worry about,” he told a Japanese business mission.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: Features
The Irrawaddy

The Irrawaddy

...

Similar Picks:

From Aung San’s Driver to Centenarian
Stories That Shaped Us

From Aung San’s Driver to Centenarian, a Long and Winding Road

by Kyaw Zwa Moe
April 29, 2015
12.7k

As the man who drove Gen. Aung San to Panglong, 100-year-old U Khan is proud of the small part he...

Read moreDetails
The Safe Sex Talk
Specials

The Safe Sex Talk, Burmese Style

by Samantha Michaels
January 20, 2014
27.7k

In a Buddhist-majority country where talking about intimacy is taboo, efforts are under way to develop a better system for...

Read moreDetails
The Life of Burmese Male Sex Workers in Chiang Mai
Features

The Life of Burmese Male Sex Workers in Chiang Mai

by Kyaw Kha
November 18, 2014
46.7k

Dozens of young men from poor villages in Shan State work as sex workers in gay show bars in northern...

Read moreDetails
Sex Sells in Burma’s Sin City
Features

Sex Sells in Burma’s Sin City

by Lawi Weng
September 2, 2014
25.9k

Nowhere in culturally conservative Burma is it easier to find sex than in Mong La, a Sino-Burmese border town with...

Read moreDetails
The Kola of Cambodia
Features

The Kola of Cambodia

by The Irrawaddy
January 9, 2015
8.2k

A Buddhist pagoda and an elderly woman are among the last traces of a group of mysterious Myanmar migrants.

Read moreDetails
Forgotten
Factiva

Forgotten, but Not Gone

by Yan Pai
April 18, 2014
17.2k

Half a millennium after the Portuguese first set foot in Myanmar, their legacy lives on in a remote corner of...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Burmese Food Truck to Deliver Street Eats With a Side of Tolerance

Burmese Food Truck to Deliver Street Eats With a Side of Tolerance

‘They Are Helping Generals to Become Millionaires—People Are Angry at That’

‘They Are Helping Generals to Become Millionaires—People Are Angry at That’

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

5 days ago
1.5k
Chinese Investment Reshapes Myanmar’s N. Shan as MNDAA Consolidates Power

Chinese Investment Reshapes Myanmar’s N. Shan as MNDAA Consolidates Power

1 week ago
3.6k

Most Read

  • More Than 20,000 Displaced As Myanmar Junta Burns Homes Around World Heritage Site

    More Than 20,000 Displaced As Myanmar Junta Burns Homes Around World Heritage Site

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Airstrikes Protecting Irrawaddy Flotilla Kill 20

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta’s Recapture of Nawnghkio Shows Strategic Missteps by TNLA

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The Nation Where Brave Hearts—and Martyrs—Dwell

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Indian Top Brass Visit Myanmar After Cross-Border Drone Attack

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.