Maday Island residents wary but open to Kyaukphyu SEZ project’s regional development potential

29 Apr 2021

DMG Newsroom
29 April 2021, Kyaukphyu

Residents of Maday Island in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township have said they would welcome any project that can benefit regional development.

Islanders told DMG that the logic extended to the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project, as long as it provides job opportunities for residents and the project is transparent.

U Khin Maung Nyunt, a resident of Maday Island, said if the Kyaukphyu SEZ project plays out as it did with the China National Petroleum Corporation’s oil and gas project in the state, it should not be accepted.

“I want authorities not to implement the new project without letting the residents know transparently. We do not object to the project, but we insist that the new project should not be the same as the CNPC project. If it is the same, we must object, because it cannot create any development in the state,” he said.

Agreements for the Kyaukphyu SEZ project’s deep-sea port project and shareholders were signed during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in January of last year.

U Maung Myint Khin, a resident of Maday Island, also said residents are worried that they could be cheated again, and that they will decide if they should accept the Kyaukphyu SEZ project after comparing the situation with the CNPC’s oil and gas pipeline project. 

“We heard a deep-sea port project will be implemented here. They bought farmland and other land here. We are worried that the project will make the situation worse on Maday Island because the previous project did not give job opportunities for the residents,” he said.

Maday Island residents did not get any job opportunities from the oil and gas pipeline project, as well as losing their farmland, and jobs in agriculture and fishing, residents said of that deal.

Another Maday Island resident, U Maung Maung Than, said residents are worried that the new project will create the same situation as what the CNPC wrought in the region.

“Residents are relatively concerned that the deep-sea port project will not bring any development in their region because they did not see any development from the CNPC’s project,” he said.

The China International Trust and Investment Corporation won the tender for the Kyaukphyu SEZ project under the U Thein Sein government.