The Myanmar town of Kyaukpyu, nestled around a small fishing port on the Bay of Bengal, has the air of a place expecting to get rich soon. In the market, stalls of seafood unloaded from wooden fishing boats have been joined by stacks of Chinese-made toys and smartphones.

[…]”The real danger of the port is that its extreme expense could lead the Myanmar government to take out an unsustainable level of debt,” said Mr Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “That… could, in the coming years, lead to a debt trap.”

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Locals and authorities came to a relocation agreement on January 23 after some 100 villagers, representing about 200 families living on a riverbank in Kampong Chhnang province protested on Sunday to demand proper compensation after they were told they must move to pave the way for a garden development. Touth Sareth, Chung Koh village chief in Phsar Chhnang commune, said the villagers had protested after they were told that they would be given a nearby relocation plot – but would have to pay $3,400 to a company to level it out. The families have lived on the riverbank since 2000 and they have “settlement” documents issued by local authorities, he said. However, Sun Sovannarith, deputy provincial governor, said yesterday that all of the families were living on state land illegally and didn’t have land titles. He said that after negotiations, all but 10 families had agreed to resettlement packages.

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On a recent November morning, farmer U Soe Myint Aung was busy collecting rice from his harvester and loading it into bags. It is heavy work but still he knows he is lucky; with 17 acres of paddy field situated along a road in Kwinyar village, in Kangyidaunt township, he can afford to own a harvester. Most farmers in Ayeyarwady Region, the country’s ‘rice bowl’ and home to some 10 million people, lack enough land and capital to afford use of mechanical harvesters, while their uneven plots are often difficult to access with the machines. The lack of mechanised farming has become a pressing problem, many farmers and officials here said, as manual labour is in short supply in the delta region, where farming remains labour intensive. “Due to labour shortages farmers can’t plant their paddies in a timely manner,” U Soe Myint Aung said. “Also, the harvest can be delayed and the crops could be damaged by rains; such paddy doesn’t get a good price.”

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The Finance Ministry has backed away from developing the 500-rai Makkasan plot owned by the State Railway of Thailand under a debt-for-land deal with the rail agency. The State Enterprise Policy Commission, or the superboard, earlier agreed to a proposal that the SRT lease the Makkasan plot to the Finance Ministry’s Treasury Department for 99 years for commercial development in return for clearing 61-billion-baht of its debt. The Council of State later gave the deal the green light, saying SRT land could be developed for commercial purposes. Deputy Transport Minister Ormsin Chivapruck said Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong suggested the SRT develop the land itself if it is ready to do so. If the Finance Ministry is to develop the land, it needs to hire consultants to conduct a feasibility study again, Mr Ormsin said, citing Mr Apisak. The SRT had hired consultancy firms to conduct a study again, Mr Ormsin said, citing Mr Apisak. The SRT had hired consultancy firms to conduct a study earlier, the deputy transport minister said.

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Chea Sophat stood on the gravel embankment of a road as he pointed to what was once his rice field, an unfenced, 4,000-square-metre waterlogged plot with a handful of buffaloes wallowing in the mud. Across the Tonle Sap river, Phnom Penh was celebrating the festivities of the Water Festival – longboat races, music concerts, an appearance by the King – but on Chroy Changvar, 63-year-old Sophat was consumed by worry. “The land was used for farming before the company filled it with sand. Now I cannot use it,” he said, pointing to mounds of sand scattered around his plot that have destroyed the land’s ability to drain. Passing motorbikes and cars tossed up clouds of cement dust and sand on the nearby road being constructed for what has been dubbed the “City of the Future”. Sophat’s land is in the process of being seized by the Phnom Penh Municipality to facilitate the development of the $1.6 billion Chroy Changvar satellite city. The 387-hectare development promises modern condominium and villa residences, a sports stadium, a business district and even a new bridge and rail system connecting it with the city.

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SET-listed Rojana Industrial Park Plc (ROJNA) expects flat sales of land next year as the weak economic outlook persists and curbs investment, says independent director Amara Charoengitwattanagun. She said land sales in 2017 will remain at 400-500 rai, below the target of 500-600 rai announced earlier this year. The global economy has not yet fully recovered and this will have an adverse impact on the Thai economy as well as investment, Mrs Amara said.
“The company expects next year’s land sales to be flat as we have not seen any positive signs to help improve the economy and investment in Thailand,” she said. “We cannot expect any rise in land sales and revenue. Rojana plans to review its investment budget and investment strategy next month.

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The State Enterprise Policy Office says land development of 39,000 rai held by the debt-ridden State Railway of Thailand could offer a quick solution. Director-general Ekniti Nitithanprapas said SRT, one of the biggest landlords in the country, has holdings that are ideal for commercial development. Some 23,000 of the 39,000 rai consists of unused land, and there are five big plots among them with a combined space of 1,500-1,700 rai in Bangkok that have great potential, Mr Ekniti said. He specified two plots at Bang Sue subway station, land near a subway station in Yannawa district near the Chao Phraya River, the Makkasan station in downtown Bangkok and vacant land near Chatuchak market. The rest of the lands also have potential to develop commercial projects, but they are not located in prime areas like those five major plots. Some of them have squatters and have become slums, said Mr Ekniti.

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Cambodia has cleared more square kilometres of landmines than any other country over the past year, according to a new report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, but is still unlikely to meet its goals in coming years. At 46.5 square kilometres, Cambodia’s demining efforts account for more than 25 percent of all recorded global demining since October 2015. Cambodia is also among the top five aid-receiving countries for demining activities, along with Afghanistan, Iraq, Laos and Syria. The report classifies Cambodia as having a status of “massive antipersonnel mine contamination”, which it defines as having over 100 square kilometres of contaminated area in the entire country. Despite Cambodia leading the pack in clearance last year, the organisation that created the report agreed with the recent Geneva International review that found Cambodia is not on schedule to meet its upcoming land-clearing deadlines.

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A Chinese steel company is in talks with Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone to set up an industrial facility in the zone, a marketing executive said on November 19. Gu Xia, section chief of SSEZ’s marketing department, said the Chinese company was currently reviewing the land contract, and his company hopes the deal will be signed by next month. He declined to name the firm or the size of its investment, or provide details on the nature of its operations. “The scale [of the investment] is still under discussion, but according to their plans it will offer jobs for maybe 400 to 500 workers,” he said. SSEZ – jointly operated by Jiangsu Taihu Cambodia International Economic Cooperation Investment Co Ltd and Cambodia International Investment Development Group Ltd – is the largest special economic zone in Cambodia, with over 100 tenants. A total of 88 mostly-Chinese factories currently operate in the 1,113-hectare industrial park, providing jobs for about 15,000 workers. The zone recently announced a plan to expand to 300 factories by 2020, providing 100,000 more jobs.

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Caches of unexploded ordnance were recovered in both Pailin and Kandal provinces on November 5 in what was a busy weekend for the Cambodian Mine Action Centre. Twelve DK-82 mortar rounds and two B-41 rocket-propelled grenades were unearthed by canal workers digging behind the Pailin deputy provincial governor’s office on November 5. Provincial CMAC director Keo Pov said the recovered explosives were found in poor condition, but could nonetheless have caused harm to people and livestock. “Each month at least 100 to 200 mines are discovered and collected by our experts for detonation,” Pov said. Meanwhile, in Kandal province’s Kien Svay district, 50-year-old farmer Kem Mony uncovered two cases of ordnance buried in a jar while hunting for crickets, according to district police chief Pa Sam Ith.

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