Locals protest oil refinery project in Launglon

 

The project is a joint venture between the military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Ltd (UMEHL), Htoo Trading Ltd and Chinese company GTZR. When operational, it is expected to produce 5 million tonnes of petrol a year.

The protesters marched from Nyin Maw Buddhist Monastery to the project site for one and half hours yesterday morning, holding placards calling for an end to the project and to stop the forced relocation of villages in the project area.

“We protest against the refinery project because it is harmful to the environment. The factory is located in Nyin Maw Village but the nearby places will also suffer environmental consequences. So, the local people here do not want the refinery at all,” said Chit Oo, a resident of Nyin Maw Village.

Residents said they had to apply six times to get permission from local authorities for the protest and were rejected five times. 

“The authorities mentioned traffic jams and educational events as reasons for their rejection. This time, the township police chief allowed us to protest on the outskirts but did not allow us to pass in front of schools and offices. As long as the refinery project is going on, we will continue protests,” added Chit Oo. 

Six villages fall in the area of the refinery project site. The project is located on a 1,600-acre palm oil plantation bought by UMEHL from the Ministry of Industry at a cost of Ks 2.6 billion (US$ 2.6 million).

Myanmar is rushing the construction of new refineries, to satisfy the growing oil demand in the country. The country now houses three small refineries. The first at Thalyin, constructed in 1955, has the capacity of only 11,400 barrels per day (bpd). The second one at Chauk was built in 1951. Its current capacity is 2,285 bpd. The third one, part of the Thanbayarkan petrochemical complex of Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, was operational in 1982 with capacity of 100,000 bpd. 

Domestic demand has been on the rise, in line with the country’s economic growth. 

After the government opened up car imports in 2012, up to 10,000 cars a month are currently being imported to Myanmar. 

It is estimated that there are about 500,000 registered cars in the country, and several foreign companies are looking at establishing refineries in the country.

Thai Oil, the biggest refiner in Thailand, also wants to build a facility with a capacity of 150,000 bpd, which would make it the biggest in the country.

 

 

 

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Caption: Sara Lamsam, president and CEO of Muang Thai Life Assurance.

 

 

Major Thai life insurer ventures into Yangon

 

MYANMAR ELEVEN 

 

Muang Thai Life Assurance has opened a representative office in Myanmar to cash in on the rich potential of the market, which boasts a large population and a booming economy.

It is the first among Thai life insurers to win the permission for the limited service offering, but the fifth foreign company. For the first time in more than 50 years, the state-owned Myanma Insurance and the Insurance Business Supervisory Board (IBSB) in January issued insurance companies conditional approval to start operating in the country. 

Twelve companies met the criteria set by the IBSB and Myanma Insurance. Before the military government nationalised many businesses in 1963, 70 local and foreign insurance companies had been operating in the country. Only the government-owned Myanma Insurance Enterprise has since remained in business.

Upon receiving the permit, Sara Lamsam, president and chief executive officer, said in reference to the Asean Economic Community told The Nation newspaper in Bangkok: “We will prepare our infrastructure and build our brand in Myanmar and we will study other neighbouring countries, because we believe life insurance will prosper from the coming of the AEC.”

The representative office will provide information on life insurance to companies and financial institutions in Myanmar. It is not allowed to sell insurance products. However, when the regulatory framework is in place for foreign companies to market life insurance here, the company will be all set to do business through a joint venture or independent model.

The company spreads its wings to the country with a social project – to build new toilets for Nakalaiku temple, which serves as a learning centre for over 1,300 monks, nuns and novices. With only eight toilets, many of them had to venture into the dark fields nearby and some died of snakebite. 

The Thai life insurer is also looking to establish a presence in other Asean countries, including Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Sara said the approach of the AEC prompted the company to prepare itself both proactively, partly through securing licences, and defensively, by injecting money to upgrade its core system to reinforce services besides products. 

“The digital trend is drawing data from local and foreign policyholders, so we have to develop technology for the front and back offices, such as automated underwriting and applications, because we want to be a digital insurer,” he said.

It will add training facilities to help improve the efficiency of agents and services from its multi-channel and hospital partners.

 

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Japan funds clearance system improvement

 

Myanmar Eleven

Japan has pledged to spend nearly 4 billion yen to modernise Myanmar's goods clearance system, according to the Customs Department under the Ministry of Finance and Revenue.

The Japanese government will provide 3.99 billion yen for the Single Window Project which aims to speed up import-export clearance through electronic means.

The agreement between the Myanmar government and Japan was signed this month. 

All Asean countries agreed to facilitate the intra-regional trade through the Single Window Project.

Last April, Myanmar and other 9 member states signed the memorandum of understanding on the implementation of the Asean Single Window Pilot Project. 

The Asean Single Window Project currently supports the exchange of the intra-Asean certificate of origin (ATIGA Form D) and ASEAN Customs Declaration Document (ACDD) on a pilot basis among seven member states and will be expanded to exchange other types of data. 

Eventually the Asean Single Window Project, because it uses international operability standards, can support the exchange of certificates of origin and advance cargo information with non-ASEAN trading partners. Other incremental benefits include legal inter-operability, support for Asean’s policy harmonisation efforts and better view of data exchange among member states.