YANGON — The Yangon regional government will provide accommodation for all squatters in the region in the next three years before the current administration’s term expires in 2020, said Yangon chief minister U Phyo Min Thein.
“We’ve started making preparations this month to accommodate squatters. Our regional government will draw up a plan to accommodate them because squatters are a burden to industrial zones,” said the chief minister at a meeting between Vice President U Myint Swe and businesspeople in Yangon on Saturday.
The regional government surveyed the population of squatters since last September and issued smart identity documents to them. According to the survey, there are some 100,000 squatters in the region.
There have been reported cases of squatters occupying vacant spaces in factory compounds in some of the region’s 29 industrial zones and demanding money from factory owners to vacate.
To upgrade the region’s industrial zones, it is important to address the issue of squatters, said U Phyo Min Thein.
“Squatters, water and electricity supply, sewage systems, and dumping are the pressing issues to upgrading the industrial zones. And we plan to build industrial zones in every township [in Yangon],” said the chief minister.
The plan also includes the creation of jobs at new industrial zones for squatters, he said.
According to the regional government, it also plans to establish small-scale industrial zones in 12 townships in the region outside the municipal border of the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC).
Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
