Myanmar Government News

Royal Dutch Shell plc recently entered into an agreement with Thailand-based companies to develop a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the Dawei special economic zone in the Tanintharyi Region in Myanmar, says local daily Myanmar Times. The firm has signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with Thai companies Italian-Thai Development and LNG Plus International in Bangkok on August 19 to cooperate on developing the terminal. It will consist primarily of an LNG receiving and re-gasification terminal at Dawei special economic zone. The LNG will be sold through Myanmar and Thailand. “We believe that this opportunity will enable Shell…

Boat with more than 700 aboard intercepted on Friday; Bangladesh says will only take those identified as citizens. Myanmar said a boat crammed with 727 migrants that it has kept stranded at sea for days was being escorted to a "safe" area for identity checks, bringing fresh criticism that it was only prolonging the suffering of people desperate to come ashore. "The operation is starting. They will be taken to a safe destination," Information Minister Ye Htut told Reuters by telephone, adding that the migrants had been provided with food and water. He would not disclose that location due to "security and safety concerns". Earlier, Ye…

More than 700 migrants found packed aboard an overcrowded boat in the Andaman Sea were still being held offshore by Myanmar's navy on Monday, more than three days after the converted fishing vessel was intercepted off the country's coast. "The government is checking their identity, asking what they want to do and where they want to go," government spokesman Ye Htut told Reuters, without providing further details of the boat's location. Government officials have been tight-lipped about the identities of 727 migrants on the overcrowded fishing boat, found drifting and taking on water early Friday, as well as their eventual destination.

Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Myanmar's largest city of Yangon on Wednesday to denounce foreign criticism of the country's treatment of stateless Rohingya Muslims. About 300 people, led by about 30 Buddhist monks, shouted slogans against the United Nations and Western media, who they accuse of unfairly blaming Myanmar for a "boat people" crisis that has seen thousands of trafficked Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants wash up in Southeast Asia in recent weeks. Protest leaders argued that the vast majority of those who have landed or been rescued at sea were citizens of neighbouring Bangladesh, who were pretending to be Rohingya in order to receive refugee protection.

Myanmar's navy found a boat carrying more than 200 Bangladeshis, the government said on Friday, after the military chief said some migrants landing in Malaysia and Indonesia this month are pretending to be Rohingya Muslims so they can get U.N. aid. The western Myanmar state of Rakhine said the boat was from Thailand and the people smugglers' plan had been to send the migrants to Thailand. The remarks are sure to spark concern after the United States lambasted Myanmar this week for failing to address the cause of the crisis, which observers say stems from Myanmar's refusal to recognise the Rohingya, an ethnic minority group living in western Myanmar, as citizens. Most of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya are stateless and live in apartheid-like conditions.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers voiced "serious concerns" on Saturday over naval clashes between Vietnam and China as the regional group's top official urged Beijing to step up efforts to advance talks on maritime security. Foreign ministers and heads of state of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are facing a test of unity at their summit this weekend as some members express alarm over China's growing assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea and push for a strong joint statement. Tensions ratcheted up in the past week after China positioned a huge oil rig in an area also claimed by Vietnam, with each country accusing the other of ramming its ships in the region close to the disputed Paracel Islands.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) president Koichi Muto hosted an appreciation cocktail party for government leaders, customers, partners and MOL employees on March 5 at Park Royal Hotel, Yangon. It was well attended by 110 guests including Ichiro Maruyama, Minister-Counsellor/Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan, reaffirming MOL’s expansion plan in the containership business in Myanmar and its commitment in furthering the country’s economic development. "It is my honor to visit Myanmar and I am deeply grateful to the Myanmar government…

The Australian Government informs it has re-established a resident Defence Attaché office in Burma with the arrival in Rangoon of Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Captain Jon Dudley who will fill the post left vacant since 1979. The appointment coincides with the arrival at the Port of Rangoon of a RAN Armidale-Class patrol boat, 'HMAS Childers', the first such visit by an Australian warship to Burma for about 50 years. Acting Minister for Defence, Senator George Brandis welcomed the visit by HMAS Childers and her 21 crew, who will stay for four days as part of a good will visit.

Thailand & Burma establish joint committee to facilitate construction of the border Dawei deep-seas port. Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra met with Myanmar Vice President Nyan Tun at Government House in Bangkok to discuss the Dawei projects, which have only made little headway and remained in need of an estimated 50 billion U.S. dollars in new funding. The two neighboring countries have formed a high-level joint committee to discuss ways and means to facilitate the construction of the Dawei deep-sea port, an industrial estate, a gas pipeline and other infrastructure such as roads and railway to link the Myanmar coastal town with the Thai border province of Kanchanaburi.

According to a report from the Associated Press, Myanmar's government and four foreign companies have signed an agreement to sell natural gas from offshore fields to neighboring China, state media said on Dec. 29, 2008. The agreement, signed on Dec. 24, was the first for sales of gas from Myanmar's northwestern offshore fields. (Source: Associated Press)