Junta takes steps to restart marble production in Taungup

By Admin 07 Apr 2023

DMG Newsroom
7 April 2023, Sittwe

Myanmar’s military regime is taking steps to restart the Nayputaung marble stone production project in Taungup Township, Arakan State, according to local residents.

Local residents previously had access to Nayputaung, but a junta-led ministry recently set up signs of “prohibited area” around the site.

“Previously, locals could freely go to Nayputaung. But, there have been ‘prohibited area’ signs recently. They said local residents can’t enter unless they have signed approval from the mines minister,” said a Taungup resident.

A joint management committee for resumption of the project was formed last November with four representatives each from the junta’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation and a Vietnamese company.

Another Taungup resident said: “There were reports that the project would be restarted in January. We have been denied access to Nayputaung since then. We don’t know what they are doing inside.”

When asked by DMG about the resumption of marble production, assistant manager Daw Khin Hnin Aung of the mines minister who is responsible for Nayputaung, said: “I am not authorised to answer your questions. Please ask directly from the natural resources and environmental conservation ministry. We are not authorised to comment.”

DMG’s calls to the junta’s Arakan State resources minister U Than Tun and spokesman of the Arakan State Administration Council U Hla Thein went unanswered.

The regime has been pushing for the India-backed Kaladan multi-modal transit transport project, China-backed special economic zone and deep-sea port project in Kyaukphyu, and China-backed wind power project in Thandwe, Gwa and Ann townships in Arakan State.

Arakan people say the foreign investment projects the regime is implementing in Arakan State bring no benefits for local people.

Environmentalist U Tun Kyi said: “Though the military regime is making investments in Arakan State, there is no parliament that will convey the voices of Arakanese people. There is also no room for civil society organisations to play a role. A lot of resources have been extracted from Arakan State. And Arakanese people get nothing from all the investment projects in Arakan State.”

The project was part of a Vietnam-Myanmar cooperation agreement signed between U Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government and the Vietnamese prime minister in 2010. The state-owned No. 1 Mining Industry of Myanmar and Vietnam’s Simco Songda signed a contract in March 2012 to produce decorative marble stones on more than 2.3 square kilometres of land in Nayputaung aka Mt. Naypu until 2032.

Arakan State residents from Taungup and beyond have since demanded an immediate end to marble quarrying at Nayputaung, saying the project is tantamount to environmental vandalism and has gone forward contrary to the wishes of the local community.

The project continued under the National League for Democracy (NLD) government, but finally suspended in April 2018 as it was no longer financially feasible. The NLD’s natural resources and environmental conservation minister, U Ohn Win, told the Upper House of Myanmar’s bicameral Parliament that the project was suspended because of high production and transportation costs. 

The project had no access to electricity supplied by the national grid and was being run with diesel generators, he said.