Myanmar’s parallel civilian National Unity Government has launched Spring Pyin Oo Lwin Investment to raise funds for the ongoing revolution against the junta by selling thousands of acres of military-owned land, including the Defense Services Academy, in Pyin Oo Lwin Town, Mandalay Region.
The land sale is the latest fundraising effort by the NUG’s Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investment (MOPFI). The ministry said the military-owned land and buildings will be reclaimed once the junta is ousted, then developed as projects to benefit the public.
The NUG aims to develop education services, a hill resort, and organic agriculture with the military-owned land in Pyin Oo Lwin, a scenic hill town and popular tourism spot in Myanmar.
Suitable plots of land in the town will be sold off without affecting the development plans, the ministry said.
Details of the project will soon be announced to the public in Myanmar and abroad, who can participate by connecting with the “The End of Dictatorship (EOD)” program in various countries around the world.
“Land will be sold at one-third of the market price and buyers are required to make a downpayment of only 40 percent. The remaining 60 percent must be paid in the post-revolutionary period when the project is launched,” an EOD representative said.
Praising the move, a resident of Pyin Oo Lwin said the town is home to large tracts of land seized by the military which should be seized to raise funds for the revolution.
Elsewhere, the MOPFI has launched the Spring Inya, Spring Valour and Spring Bliss condominium and housing projects, to be built on land illegally seized by the military in Yangon townships.
It has also founded Spring Mandalay Investment with three projects – Spring Rose, Spring Oasis and Spring Aurora. The projects will use land confiscated from the military and sold to public investors to raise funds for the revolution.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing’s illegally seized property at 14 Inya Road in Yangon was also put up for sale by the NUG in late May, raising US $10 million.
The MOPFI has so far raised about $100 million from similar projects, including the sale of two houses owned by Min Aung Hlaing and other land owned by the military.
