• Burmese
Tuesday, July 15, 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 News Junta Cronies

‘I want to be a crony’: The Rise of Zeya Thura Mon in Junta-Ruled Myanmar

Hein Htoo Zan by Hein Htoo Zan
July 3, 2023
in Junta Cronies
Reading Time: 5 mins read
0 0
A A
‘I want to be a crony’: The Rise of Zeya Thura Mon in Junta-Ruled Myanmar

U Zeya Thura Mon poses with a luxury car in Yangon in February 2022. /Zeya Thura Mon Facebook

7.8k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Since the 2021 coup, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has sought to relieve rising international pressure by strengthening Myanmar’s ties with Russia, relying on Moscow’s cooperation in the military, economic and energy sectors.

Several Myanmar tycoons have been eager to help the junta chief in this aim, seeing it as a lucrative opportunity.

U Zeya Thura Mon, CEO of RGK+Z&A Group of companies, is prominent among cronies who are working closely to achieve the junta’s Russian ambitions.

RelatedPosts

Myanmar Junta’s ‘Living Fence’ on Thai Border Falls to Karen Resistance

Myanmar Junta’s ‘Living Fence’ on Thai Border Falls to Karen Resistance

July 14, 2025
774
Myanmar Junta Launches Space Agency With Russian Help

Myanmar Junta Launches Space Agency With Russian Help

July 14, 2025
503
TNLA Invites Investment in Ruby and Mineral Towns Amid Myanmar Junta Onslaught

TNLA Invites Investment in Ruby and Mineral Towns Amid Myanmar Junta Onslaught

July 14, 2025
419
Zeya Thura Mon (right) during the MOU signing ceremony for a wind-power partnership in St. Petersburg, Russia on June 15. /Rosatom

The 57-year-old businessman joined the junta’s delegation at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last month. On June 15, the junta’s electricity ministry signed two memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with NovaWind, a subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned nuclear firm Rosatom, and two Myanmar companies to launch feasibility studies for wind-power projects.

The two local companies were Zeya & Associates Company Ltd under the RGK+Z&A Group and Primus Advanced Technologies Ltd under the Supreme Group of Companies.

Supreme Group is developing the 135 MW Kyauk Phyu Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP) in Rakhine State and the 1,390 MW Mee Lin Gyaing LNG Power Plant in Shwe Thaung Yan Township, Ayerwaddy Region.

U Zeya Thura Mon’s RGK+Z&A Group is operating a 50 MW natural gas power plant near Hlawga National Park in Taik Kyi Township, Yangon Region. It has been selling electricity to power ministries of successive regimes since 2013.

Zeya Thura Mon also signed a 2014 long-term service agreement with the world-renowned Rolls-Royce Power Systems Holding to supply spare parts, supervision and maintenance for phase 2 of the Hlawga power plant.

In Russia last month, he joined the Electric Power Planning Department in signing an MOU with NovaWind, to launch a feasibility study for a 200 MW wind farm in Kyaukpadaung or Nyaung-U township in Mandalay Region.

The same day, an MOU to develop non-energy nuclear technologies in Myanmar was signed in St. Petersburg by Rosatom and Zeya & Associates. They agreed long-term, mutually beneficial cooperation on a joint project to build multifunctional facilities in Myanmar for processing products using ionizing radiation. An official from Zeya & Associates told The Irrawaddy the deal involves nuclear medicine technology.

Zeya Thura Mon has managed to grow a successful business empire in Myanmar without becoming well known as a crony or high-profile tycoon.

Junta deputy chief Soe Win bestows the title of Agga Maha Siri Suddhamma Manijotadhara on Zeya Thura Mon on December 1, 2021 in Naypyitaw. / GNLM

Yet he has made no secret of his ambition.

“I want to be a crony,” he told local business media outlet Myanmore in 2021. “The biggest crony is on a dollar bill,” he declared, brandishing the image of US statesman, inventor and businessman Benjamin Franklin.

“The definition of a crony is being a very big businessman. We are in the list of powerful companies but only between 100th and 200th,” he told the media outlet.

He has acted as a mentor, speaker and panelist on business training courses, conferences, and lectures held by associations under the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI).

He was an executive member of the UMFCCI until the end of 2021 before being elected to its central executive committee under the military regime for the next term (2022-2025).

The junta also handed him the title of Agga Maha Siri Sudhamma Manijotadhara for his donations and assistance to Buddhism. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who likes to style himself as the guardian of Burmese Buddhism, attended the honors ceremony in December 2021.

Zeya Thura Mon has a history of working with Thai business partners.

His first-ever job was as an overseas sales manager at Gunkul Engineering, which is now listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

When Gunkul Engineering Supply Co Ltd was established in 1997 as the Myanmar subsidiary of the Thai company, Zeya Thura Mon was tasked to lead it along with his younger brother Thiha Thura Mon, eventually becoming CEO and a member of the board of directors.

In 1995, he set up Zeya & Associates with his wife Daw Khine Khine Myint, and his brother.

In 2013, the Thai subsidiary was reregistered as Gunkul Myanmar Central Power 1, with executive directors that included three Thai investors: Naruechon Dhumrongpiyawut, Phongsakorn Damnoen, and Sopacha Dhumrongpiyawut. This trio are also currently the executive director, chief operating officer and CEO, respectively, of Gunkul Engineering Public Co Ltd in Thailand.

U Zeya Thura Mon also does business in Singapore, where he founded Royal GK Pte Ltd in 2006 and Zeya and Associates Pte Ltd in 2010 to trade computer accessories, energy equipment, hardware, and other IT and energy-related utilities.

He uses Royal GK Pte Ltd to finalize transactions with foreign currencies, and for international procurement and banking transactions for his businesses in Myanmar.

In 2012, he registered Myanmar Central Power Co Ltd as the investment vehicle and operator of Hlawga Power Plant, which launched operations a year later.

Other companies he founded as subsidiaries of his group include Double Trees Co Ltd and South Dagon Engineering Co Ltd.

He has also invested in companies outside the RGK+Z&A Group.

His wife, Daw Khine Khine Myint, is a director of Myanmar Coach Center Co Ltd, Myanmar’s sole authorized dealer of U.S. forklift brand Clark.

In 2014, his brother, Thiha Thura Mon, partnered with Thai investors to found Myanmar Information Highway Ltd. (MIH). MIH, a broadband business service provider, is a subsidiary of Benchachinda Group in Thailand.

In 2015 he became a director of the Yangon Bus Company (YBPC). Three years later, his brother became director of SCI Metal Tech (Myanmar) Co. Ltd., the local arm of Thailand’s SCI Electric PCL—a top investor in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone.

The February 2021 coup did nothing to halt his pace of foreign expansion.

Two months after the military takeover, he established Mon Enterprise (Thailand) Co Ltd in Thailand for trading motor vehicles, motorcycles, other machinery, and equipment.

U Zeya Thura Mon was born to a couple of medical doctors who made their living from their profession. Thus he has always described himself as a self-made businessman who worked his way up from the bottom. However, he has also enjoyed support from well-connected family members.

Sources close to Zeya & Associates said that among his older relatives are two uncles – Captain Aung Thwin and Colonel Khin Maung Htwe – who served under the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) dictatorship (1964-88).

Up until the early 2000s, one of his cousins also worked as a high-ranking officer at Thai Sawat, one of only five Thai firms with logging rights in Myanmar after the SLORC military regime expelled all Thai logging companies.

U Zeya Thura Mon is also involved in the importation of jet fuel for the junta, whistleblowers in Myanmar business circles told The Irrawaddy, but his company denied it.

The Irrawaddy discovered that U Zeya Thura Mon has expanded his network to the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s largest producers of petroleumm products, including jet fuel.

He founded two companies in the UAE in December 2021, 10 months after the coup. Victory Energy Power FZCo Co Ltd was registered under the Jabel Ali Free Zone Authority in western Dubai, while Zeya General Trading FZ-LLC was registered in the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone under the Dubai Department of Economic Development. An official from U Zeya Thura Mon’s RGK+Z&A Group said the companies have nothing to do with jet fuel, and were established solely for financial purposes, such as handling international transactions.

His group describes these companies as subsidiaries for international trade, but what they are importing to Myanmar remains unknown as both were founded as free-zone companies.

The junta needs jet fuel for its ongoing campaign of airstrikes against civilians and armed resistance.

Editor’s note: The story was updated with RGK+Z&A Group’s responses on Wednesday.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: cronyEnergyInternational TradejuntaRussiaThailand
Hein Htoo Zan

Hein Htoo Zan

The Irrawaddy

Similar Picks:

Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow
Burma

Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow

by The Irrawaddy
February 12, 2024
44.8k

Ethnic armed grouping says it will continue Operation 1027 offensive until goal of ousting the junta is achieved. 

Read moreDetails
Drone Attack at Myanmar-China Border Gate Causes Over $14m in Losses
Business

Drone Attack at Myanmar-China Border Gate Causes Over $14m in Losses

by The Irrawaddy
November 27, 2023
38.6k

Jin San Jiao is latest northern Shan State trade hub in crosshairs of ethnic Brotherhood Alliance.

Read moreDetails
Arakan Army Captures Myanmar Junta Brigade General in Chin State Rout: Report
Burma

Arakan Army Captures Myanmar Junta Brigade General in Chin State Rout: Report

by The Irrawaddy
January 15, 2024
36.6k

Rakhine-based armed group has reportedly detained the chief of 19th Military Operations Command after seizing his base in Paletwa Township.

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Junta Arrests Thai Condo Buyers, Realtors as Currency Crashes
Business

Myanmar Junta Arrests Thai Condo Buyers, Realtors as Currency Crashes

by The Irrawaddy
June 4, 2024
27.7k

Monday’s arrests follow reports that Myanmar has become one of Thailand’s most lucrative markets for selling condos since the 2021...

Read moreDetails
AA Urges Myanmar Junta Troops to Surrender as Western Command Burns
War Against the Junta

AA Urges Myanmar Junta Troops to Surrender as Western Command Burns

by The Irrawaddy
December 18, 2024
25.4k

Ethnic army reportedly poised to capture regime’s last stronghold in Rakhine State.

Read moreDetails
Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance Calls on Northeast Command Chief to Surrender
War Against the Junta

Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance Calls on Northeast Command Chief to Surrender

by The Irrawaddy
August 9, 2024
24.9k

Brigadier-General Soe Hlaing handed ultimatum to relinquish northern Shan State after resistance seizes command base in Lashio.

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Myanmar’s Arakan Army Denies Carrying Out Deadly Attack on Rival Rakhine Group

Myanmar’s Arakan Army Denies Carrying Out Deadly Attack on Rival Rakhine Group

Three Sagaing Civilians Killed in Myanmar Junta Shelling

Three Sagaing Civilians Killed in Myanmar Junta Shelling

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

6 days ago
1.3k
China’s Surveillance State Watches Everyone, Everywhere

China’s Surveillance State Watches Everyone, Everywhere

7 days ago
1.1k

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta’s ‘Living Fence’ on Thai Border Falls to Karen Resistance

    Myanmar Junta’s ‘Living Fence’ on Thai Border Falls to Karen Resistance

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Las Vegas in Laos’: the Riverside City Awash With Crime

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Launches Space Agency With Russian Help

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • TNLA Invites Investment in Ruby and Mineral Towns Amid Myanmar Junta Onslaught

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Chief Thanks Trump for Shutting Down VOA and RFA

    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.