“NGOs Seek Kyaukphyu SEZ Delay as President Pushes Implementation”

A coalition of 107 nonprofit organizations has demanded that the Kyaukphyu special economic zone (SEZ) project be suspended until power has been transferred to a government led by the National League for Democracy (NLD)…

Announcement of the tender winner for the project has been beset by a series of delays.

Although the president…pushed for speedier implementation of the Kyaukphyu SEZ, locals worry about the project’s societal impacts, particularly for farmers, who often lose out as a result of such large-scale, land-heavy developments…

“Nobody knows, specifically, how the government will relocate village residents should they be forced to move. They haven’t said anything about villagers’ futures, if they will compensate them for land lost [as a result of the project],” said [a civil society representative].

He pointed to a lack of transparency on government activities and information, such as the budget in Arakan State, revenue generated from natural resources, and how much the state has spent over the past five years. Such data are not made available to the public, he claimed…