Sunday, February 17, 2013

Dawei Port megaproject is on delay -
good news for who loves Maungmagan Beach



The plans were very ambitious: The new Dawei oil deep-sea port in the southeast of Myanmar should link India, Africa and Europe with China, Southeast Asia and other East Asian countries via Thailand. A special economic zone in Dawei should house the largest industrial park (250 square kilometres) in South East Asia. A 472-kilometre rail link should connect Dawei and the deep-water port of Laem Chabang on Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard. In November 2010 the Myanmar Port Authority signed a USD $8.6 billion deal with Italian-Thai Development to develop a deep sea port at Dawei. But this big plans are on delay now: Thailands Transport Minister Chadchat Sittipunt admitted that the development of Dawei Port has stalled "because of planning uncertainties and conflicts with potential investors", as Bangkok Post writes. Thailand has difficulty getting Japan on board as a major investor. The minister said, the Japanese government disagreed with Thailand's proposed port locations in Dawei. Japan is calling for industrial and container ports to be separated.
But the Dawei project has got into difficulties already early in 2012: Myanmar’s government blocked proposals by Bangkok construction giant Italian-Thai Development to build a huge 4,000-megawatt coal power plant to fuel the Dawei project with electricity, as The Irrawaddy reported.
This is good news for the fishers and all the travelers, who love popular Maungmagan Beach near Dawei and the coast nearby, which is dotted with islands including the Heinze group, the Maung-Magan group and the Mergui or Mergui Archipelago, more than 800 beautiful and attractive islands. Maungmagan Beach is the planned site for the deap sea port.

Read more:
Build it and they might come: A planned Thai mega-project in Myanmar runs into difficulty (The Economist)