Unseen in ASEAN Parts 2 : Koh Rong in Cambodia

Unseen in ASEAN Parts 2: 

Koh Rong in Cambodia

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Unseen in ASEAN Parts 1 : Putao in Myanmar

Unseen in ASEAN Parts 1: Putao in Myanmar

Putao is located in Kachin State, Myanmar which is also the northernmost town of Kachin State.  It was once the site of World War II British Fort Hertz.  Transportation to get to Putao has a bit of constraint as getting to Putao by road is only available during summer, however; it is accessible year round by air if there are enough visitors/tourists group to justify a plane. 

Putao is popular for having rare orchids which grow naturally in the area.   Obviously, it is the place for those who love orchid to visit and a rare orchid specie name called “Black Orchid” grow in the mountains western and eastern of Putao.  The weather in Putao can be said cooler than the rest of the entire Myanmar and iceberg and mountain covered in snow can be seen almost throughout the year in certain part of Putao.  

Moreover, local people inhabitant around the uphill and mountains area are friendly and helpful so that most tourists can arrange their own hiking and mountain climbing trips with local community.  Therefore, Putao is the best place for those who would like to go for a bit of adventurous trip with friendly local people to explore the deep nature of the mountain cilvilization.

Resource from:

http://myanmartravel.cc/myanmar-travel-destinations/putao

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Japan completes feasibility study of Myanmar rail project

Japan completes feasibility study 

of Myanmar rail project

Japan has completed a feasibility study on the proposed $1.7 billion modernization of the Yangon-Mandalay railway link—a major attempt towards developing Myanmar’s railway transport infrastructure.

The rehabilitation contract for the 640km link will be given to Japanese companies because the study was funded by a grant from Japan, said Thura U Thaung Lwin, deputy minister in Myanmar’s rail transportation ministry.

Japan is also expected to provide a loan to fund the project.

In another development, the Myanmar government plans to set up manufacturing facilities for diesel locomotives and rolling stock such as coaches and wagons in the country by 2015 with China’s help.

“The twin facilities will be operational within three years. The tender has been completed and the contract will be awarded to a Chinese company,” U Thaung Lwin said in an interview. He didn’t name the Chinese firm.

These facilities will require an investment of $100 million. While 90% of the investment will be covered through the Chinese loan, 10% will be contributed from Myanmar’s annual budget. The diesel engines will be manufactured in Nay Pyi Taw, the Myanmar capital, and the coaches and wagons will be built in Mandalay.

Myanmar’s attempt to improve its creaky infrastructure hold out the promise of lucrative contracts for foreign companies as governments such as Japan try to leverage their aid and loan programmes to step up their economic engagement with the South-East Asian economy.

According to a report by consulting firm McKinsey and Co., Myanmar needs $650 billion of investment by 2030 to support economic growth. Of this, $320 billion is required in infrastructure.

Myanmar has a railway network length of 4,000km of tracks, with 926 stations and a fleet of 436 locomotives. The state-run system’s 412 trains lug 1,281 passenger coaches and 3,204 wagons.

Much of the railway network is old and in urgent need of modernization.

A planned Trans-Asian Railway link aims to connect the railway systems of 28 countries in Asia, and Europe.

There is also a plan to establish a rail link between India and Myanmar, which will join Jiribam, Assam in India with Kalay in Myanmar.

India is also a part of the road project that seeks to help establish connectivity from Moreh in India to Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar.

“Transporting by rail instead of truck from Myanmar to Shanghai would reduce the cost to four times that of sea freight compared with ten times,” said the McKinsey report.

“Our estimates of freight costs from Chennai to Shanghai via Myanmar by ship and by overland routes consist of the following elements: sea shipment from Chennai to Yangon at a rate of $0.003 per km per tonne, and land transport from Yangon to Shanghai by way of the Muse/Ruili border crossing at a rate of $0.05 for trucking and $0.02 for rail,” the report added.

Such connectivity will also help in the economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Trade between India and Asean was $76.3 billion in 2012-13 and is expected to increase to $100 billion by 2015.

“In the initial period during the development of our country, the rail network will be developed within our country. Going ahead in future, when our economy is developed, we will link up to neighbouring countries such as India, China and Thailand,” U Thaung Lwin said.

India has been involved in strengthening Myanmar’s railway infrastructure. Of a $500 million credit line extended to the Myanmar government by India, $155 million has been earmarked for developing railway infrastructure.

In a related development, a survey team from state-owned RITES Ltd has already conducted a feasibility study for the 250km link between India and Myanmar.

“This will be followed by a detailed feasibility report that will indicate the investment required for this project. What I have heard is that on the India side the terrain is very mountainous, so first you have to search for an appropriate rail alignment,” U Thaung Lwin said.

“On our side, it is much easier as most of the area is plain. The project’s execution depends on the funding for it. While we will put some investments from our side, the main funding will have to come from India,” he added.

This comes in the backdrop of joint working groups set up by Myanmar and India to determine the technical and commercial feasibility of cross-border rail links and shipping links. State-owned Shipping Corporation of India Ltd has already completed a feasibility study on a liner between the two countries. According to the study, running this service would result in a yearly loss of Rs.28 crore.

Resource from:

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/xLyGG4f77gZscTHmIlRnbJ/Japan-completes-feasibility-study-of-Myanmar-rail-project.html

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ASEAN Transportation by Railway

From Singapore - kuala lumpur - Bangkok - Phnom phen - ho Chi minh city - Lao Bao - Thakhek  - Nakhon Phanom.

From Kunming - Mouse - Kyaukphyu 






Myanmar Railway in 2012




  The Future of  Kyaukphyu

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Indonesia : Chevron staff gets two years in prison for phony environmental program.

Indonesia : Chevron staff gets two  years 

in prison for phony  environmental program. 

The panel of Jakarta graft court’s judges has sentenced Kukuh Kertasafari, employee of PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia (CPI) to two years in prison for his role as the head of a bioremediation team that
endorsed a series of bogus environmental programs that inflicted state losses.

“The defendant has been found guilty of violating Law No.20/2001 on Corruption Eradication and therefore sentencing the defendant to two years in prison and Rp 100 million (U$ 10,000) in fines,” Presiding judge Sudharmawatingsih said on Wednesday.

The sentence was lighter that the five years and Rp 500 million in fines earlier sought by the prosecutors.

Judge Sudharmawatiningsih said the panel highlighted Kukuh’s failure to detect wrong doings behind the appointments of the 28 bioremediation locations that later on turned out to be uncontaminated.

However the panel saw a dissenting opinion by judge Slamet Subagyo, who insisted that the prosecutors assessment was invalid and therefore could not be used as evidence against Kukuh.

Commenting on the verdict, PT CPI spokesman Dony Indrawan said the company respected the ruling but vowed to assist Kukuh in his legal attempt to file an appeal to the higher court. He also felt assured that the company’s bioremediation projects had been exercised in full compliance with the government’s existing regulations.

Beforehand the same court had sentenced Herland Bin Ompo, director of PT Sumigita Jaya, a private contractor that had been assigned by PT CPI to six years in prison and Rp 250 million (U$25,000) in fines.

PT CPI had paid U$6.9 million to PT Sumigita Jaya to do bioremediation projects, restoring land contaminated by PT CPI’s oil. Later on, PT CPI asked the government to reimburse the payment it had made to PT Sumigita.

However, the prosecutors then found out that none of the Sumigita’s locations were contaminated by oil and therefore the prosecutors claimed that the government had reimbursed the cost for nothing. 

Resource from:

by  Hans Nicholas Jong, Wed, July 17 2013, 

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/07/17/chevron-staff-gets-two-years-prison-phony-environmental-program.html

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Myanmar : New and Improved Airports Needed as Burma’s Tourism Grows

Myanmar : New and Improved Airports Needed as Burma’s Tourism Grows

With the winning bids for Burma’s three major new airport projects due to be announced by the end of this month, officials say the contracts are necessary, given that the government hopes to draw over 7 million tourists to the country by 2020.

The existing international airports for Rangoon and Mandalay will be upgraded, while a new international airport—expected to rival other major Southeast Asian hubs such as Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi and Singapore’s Changi in size—will be built at Hanthawaddy in Burma’s central Pegu Division, about an hour’s drive north of Rangoon, the country’s biggest city.

“The new airport will be nine times the size of the current Yangon [Rangoon] airport,” says Win Swe Tun, deputy director-general of Burma’s Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), part of the country’s Transport Ministry.

“The main reason to build the new airport is that the market demands,” he told The Irrawaddy. “The bid requires the winner to have the airport ready by 2018 and be able to take up to 12 million passengers a year.”

The Burmese government recently announced a tourism plan that envisages a possible 7.4 million visitors by 2020, up from just over 1 million last year, though the blueprint also acknowledges that visitor numbers could be as low as 2.81 million by that time.

If realized, the plans for an expanded tourism sector would be worth over US$10 billion per annum to Burma’s economy, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Tourism Minister Htay Aung says the mooted new airport, which will feature a double runway, is needed to attract long-haul carriers to fly direct to Burma. “Now our flight options are very limited, so we need to open the new and bigger airport at Bago [Pegu],” he said.

While new routes from Doha, Frankfurt and Seoul to Rangoon’s international airport have become available in recent years, currently most visitors to Burma from Europe and North America fly via Southeast Asia’s bigger airports, including in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, which have regular long-haul intercontinental flights.

Four companies or consortia are in the final shake-up for the new Pegu airport construction project: Taisei of Japan, Vinci of France, Korea’s Incheon and Yongnam from Singapore. The winning bids will be announced by the end of July, says Win Swe Tun, along with the chosen pitches to upgrade Rangoon and Mandalay’s international airports. All the bids are being assessed by a selection board comprising Burma’s minister and deputy minister of transport along with the director-generals from the Myanmar Investment Commission and the DCA.

The Rangoon international airport upgrade contest features seven contenders, including Burmese company Pioneer Aerodrome Services, which is linked to Steven Law, a businessman described as close to Burma’s former military junta and subject to US sanctions. Another contender is the US-based ACO Investment Group, whose bid features former US government official Kurt Campbell, who visited Burma several times in his role as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs and was a pivotal figure in the first Obama administration’s overtures to Burma’s reforming government.

Rangoon’s current airport is built on a former World War II British Royal Air Force base at Mingaladon, a northern suburb, and is next to a current Burmese air force base. Featuring just a single runway, the airport was designed to handle 2.7 million passengers per year but is currently running over capacity, as it handles 94 percent of international air traffic to and from the country, says managing director Win Ko.

“Last year we had 3 million [passengers], up from 2.5 million the year before,” he told The Irrawaddy. The airport last received a major upgrade in 2003, with the current international terminal built by Asia World, which is run by Law, the sanctioned businessman.

Law’s father and Asia World founder, a long-time narcotics trafficker nicknamed the “Godfather of Heroin,” Lo Hsing Han, died last weekend in Rangoon.

The main objective of the proposed Rangoon upgrade is to improve the somewhat run-down domestic terminal, says the DCA. Last year 1.1 of the 3 million passengers transiting the airport were on domestic flights, according to airport statistics.

Two companies, Mitsubishi and Vinci, which is also in for the Rangoon upgrade, are competing for the Mandalay airport job. The airport, about a 40-minute drive from the center of Burma’s second-biggest city, will be upgraded primarily to enable the facility to function as a logistics and cargo hub for central and northern Burma, positioned between the giant Indian and Chinese markets, according to Win Swe Tun.

All told, there are 41 airports across Burma, but only three are capable of handling 747-class aircraft, including the airports at Rangoon, Mandalay and the capital Naypyidaw. Seven domestic and 23 foreign carriers offer domestic and international flights.

The airport renovation and construction plans have the support of Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), with spokesman Nyan Win saying that Rangoon’s international airport was too small. “For handling international flights, we need more capacity,” 

Resource from:

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/39923

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Myanmar: In Ngapali, Low Season Offers a Beach All One’s Own

Myanmar: In Ngapali, 

Low Season Offers a Beach All One’s Own 

NGAPALI, Arakan State — Ngapali Beach, a 10-kilometer stretch of stunning white sand on the shores of the Bay of Bengal in southern Arakan State, is without argument Burma’s most well-known premier beachside holiday destination.

During the dry season, Ngapali Beach transforms into a playground of resorts, from modest bungalow accommodation to luxurious health spas, offering everything from sailing, scuba diving, beach volleyball and visits to local attractions such as working elephants.

In the monsoon season, it is a quiet, peaceful place. Few visitors venture here and flights from Rangoon are reduced from several times daily to just twice a week, but this does not mean the area is not still well worth a low-season visit.

No matter the time of year, fresh seafood is a specialty of the numerous restaurants, offering succulent crab, prawn, squid and whole fish such as snapper and barracuda as regular menu items.

Should holiday-goers be looking for a break from the sun and surf, nearby Thandwe, a 20-minute drive inland on a rather heavily potholed road, is a picturesque little township straddling the Thandwe River. Thandwe provides support services to the beachfront resorts of Ngapali and is also a great destination for day trippers from the shore to take in local culture and do a little shopping.

The town is a bustling local commercial center with a modern central market and narrow streets, featuring a pleasant mix of Burmese architecture, numerous Buddhist pagodas and several beautiful mosques as ancient as the town itself.

Resource from:

http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/39826

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