Weekly Business Roundup (March 6, 2009)

By WILLAM BOOT

Chinese Labor to Help Build Irrawaddy Dams

Preparations to house thousands of Chinese migrant laborers are being made along the upper reaches of the Irrawaddy River and its tributaries in northern Burma in readiness for construction of two large hydro dams.

The dam construction is to be carried out by the Chinese state firm China Power Investment Corporation (CPIC) and the Burmese junta-linked private firm Asia World.

CPIC company sources said up to 15,000 Chinese could be drafted to work on the two dams, according to the Kachin News Group(KNG).

Preparations include building barrack-like accommodations around Myitsone for the imported labor, says the KNG.

The two hydro-electric projects will eventually have an installed generating capacity of more than 5,000 megawatts—far more than the whole of Burma currently has. Most of the power will be shipped north into China’s Yunnan Province starting around the middle of the next decade.

“Large dams are being constructed on all of Burma’s major rivers and tributaries by Chinese, Thai and Indian companies. The power and revenues generated are going to the military regime and neighboring countries,” says the environmental rights agency Burma Rivers Network.

Human rights violations, including land theft, are wide scale, it says.
Plans to move thousands of Chinese workers into Kachin State come as millions of Chinese factory workers have been made jobless by the global economic crisis.


Burma Main Source of Illegal Drugs in India, says Report

India will complain to Burma that it believes 90 percent of illegal drugs in the country are being smuggled into Indian territory across the joint border by rebel groups hiding in remote Burmese jungles.

No value has been placed on the drug smuggling, but almost 100 kilograms of heroin and 75 kilograms of opium have been seized in recent years, according to Indian intelligence sources quoted by The Sangai Express in the northeast Indian state of Manipur.

The newspaper quoted from what it says is an intelligence report prepared by security teams for a government-level India-Burma cooperation meeting to be held in Rangoon soon.

The sources also complain that weapon smuggling across the border from Burma is on the rise.

The report alleged that the smuggling involves four border crossing points, including the main overland trade route between the two countries via Tamu-Moreh.


Junta Urges Asean Economic Cooperation

After its leaders said very little in public at last weekend’s Asean summit in Thailand, an official Burmese junta-backed newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, this week urged “boosting economic cooperation among members … to win more development in the region.”

“Asean countries can enjoy greater regional development in the near future if they keep on boosting trade and investment cooperation in the economic sector in accordance with the fine tradition of their unity,” said the paper several days after the summit ended.

The summit reaffirmed the dream of creating some form of European Union-like economic and social union, although critics doubt the startup date of 2015 is anywhere near realistic.

“Some question if Asean members can focus on regional cooperation as they struggle with domestic politics and controversies,” says Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

“Many officials in Asean countries adopt a realpolitik approach and still look first and foremost to countries like the US or China, rather than their own neighbors,” Tay said in an SIIA commentary on the summit.


Rangoon Cargo Service helps Singapore Firm Boost Profits

Amid global economic gloom and widespread losses, Singapore’s container cargo shipper Samudera has announced a 29 percent net profit increase.

The carrier—which recently added Rangoon to its regional services— says it netted profits of US $26.8 million in 2008, compared with under US $21 million in 2007.

Samudera last year began a new service, shipping containers between Rangoon, Port Klang in Malaysia and Singapore.

The new feeder service plugs Burma into two key international trading ports, and flies in the face of efforts by Western countries to tighten economic sanctions against the military government and its business cronies.

The company attributed it good 2008 results to higher container volumes and improved freight rates, coupled with enhanced inter-island shipping operations in Indonesia.

The Rangoon service picked up as Samudera suspended its India-China container shipping route because of “slumping box volumes.”