“China, Myanmar tighten their Belt and Road ties”, 21 January 2020

China and Myanmar agreed to accelerate several joint infrastructure deals and projects during President Xi Jinping’s...visit to the country.  The two governments inked 33 agreements involving key infrastructure projects while agreeing to accelerate the implementation of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor scheme, part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). 

Most significantly, the two sides agreed to concession and shareholder agreements for the China-backed port project at Kyaukphyu in central Rakhine state. The deals are controversial… [as] Tun Kyi, coordinator of the community group Kyaukphyu Rural Development Association, said local villagers were not consulted during the negotiations of the two new agreements..."the majority of the people in the project area do not support the project. The company...did not disclose or consult the project details to the public". Local communities are worried about the risks of losing their livelihoods without being provided alternative jobs, especially because most residents are involved in fisheries, as well as sand and gravel mining...

A consortium led by state firm CITIC, comprised of four other Chinese firms and Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group, plans to develop the deep-sea port as part of a special economic zone in...Rakhine. In late 2019, CITIC hired Canadian firm Hatch as project manager to supervise and recruit consultants for a legally required environmental and social impact assessment…

Newly inked agreements aimed to hasten negotiations on the proposed Ruli-Muse Cross Border Economic Cooperation Zone and a 1,390 megawatt, US$2.6 billion liquified natural gas (LNG) power plant project in Ayeyarwaddy’s Mee Laung Gyaing. The omission of any mention of the Myitsone dam, a $3.6 billion China-funded mega-dam project suspended by Myanmar in 2011, was noteworthy. The dam remains highly controversial in Myanmar, in part because 90% of the generated power would be exported across the border to China.

On the day of Xi’s arrival in Myanmar, a group of more than 30 local civil society organizations, mostly based in Kachin state, released a public letter urging the Chinese leader to terminate the scheme:  “One of the most important tasks for the Chinese investors is to consider the environmental, social and governance risks of projects at the early, concept, stage, and take steps to reduce negative impacts,” said Vicky Bowman of the Yangon-based Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business…