monday, may 11, 2015 (mte daily issue 39)

PHOTO: AUNG HTAY HLAING

Govt offers two-stage ceasefireKokang group and its two allies would be excluded from nationwide ceasefire to ensure peace process stays on track but the government will open talks with the trio once fighting stops, says chief negotiator U Aung Min. NEWS 3

Student union marks anniversary, rejects going underground Despite many of the groups key members being detained at Letpadan in March, leaders of the All Burma Federation of Student Union said yesterday at a ceremony to mark the groups 79th anniversary that they would not be driven underground by the governments campaign of repression against its activities.

WWW.MMTIMES.COM DAILY EDITION ISSUE 39 | MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

500Ks.

HEARTBEAT OF THE NATION

NEWS 2

Nay Pyi Taw-friendly Tories keep UK officeActivists in Britain say they had hoped a Labour victory would put human rights back firmly on the Foreign Offices agenda, after years of focusing on economic ties.

NEWS 4

Returning fishermen tell of slavery and tortureThe first Myanmar fishermen to return from Indonesia say they worked for years without pay and were tortured by their captors before being abandoned on remote islands.

BUSINESS 9

Best Western opens in Mandalay, more to followHotel chain takes over management of 91-room property in Mandalay and plans 200-room expansion, as international firms move into market after a 10-year gap.

BUSINESS 8

No more oil and gas tenders until 2016: govtMyanma Oil and Gas Enterprise will focus on development of recently contracted blocks this year rather than put any more out for tender, according to officials at the state-run enterprise.

An All Burma Federation of Student Unions member walks past a display

commemorating the crackdown on demonstrators at Letpadan before a ceremony yesterday to mark the

groups 79th anniversary.

2 News THE MYANMAR TIMES MAY 11, 2015

Nay Pyi Taw-friendly Tories returned for five more years

MANY Myanmar people living in the United Kingdom were able to vote in the May 7 general election there, some of them for the first time. Speaking to The Myanmar Times as the electoral campaign culminated, they spoke of what it meant for them to participate in a long-established democratic process, and what the re-sult might mean for Myanmar.

As votes were counted overnight and results announced across the country throughout the morning of May 8, it emerged that what many observers had considered a multipar-ty contest had come down to a choice between only two parties, at least in England. Furthermore, despite sever-al days of opinion polls appearing to show that those two parties, the rul-ing Conservative and the opposition Labour, were neck-and-neck, it was the Conservatives who won a clear parliamentary majority.

Myanmar people living in the UK, including those who have become British citizens, have been following the elections with particular interest. Many favoured the Labour Party to win because they felt that the Con-servatives, led by Prime Minister Da-vid Cameron, were more concerned about developing business and in-vestment opportunities in Myanmar than to speak up for human rights.

The Kachin National Organisa-tion in the UK was set up in 2007 to lobby for ethnic rights and demo-cratic reform in Myanmar. About 30 of its 100 members have the right to vote in the UK elections, and an-nounced before polling day that they would vote Labour in the west Lon-don constituency of Hounslow and Isleworth.

In a letter to local Labour candi-dates, the Kachin group also request-ed help in establishing a Kachin Community Hall for worship, meet-ings and cultural programs, as well as Labour support for the promotion of human rights in Myanmar.

The Conservatives have gone in

the wrong direction and are not doing enough to meet my concerns as far as their commitment to human rights [in Myanmar] is concerned, said Hounslow resident Bulu Makhaw, 58, as she prepared to vote in her second British election since 2010.

Zoya Phan, 35, an ethnic Kayin, was very excited about being able to vote for the first time after becoming

a UK citizen last year. Where I came from it was not easy to vote. Voting is part of democracy, she said.

Zoy Phan fled Myanmar in the early 2000 and settled in London. As the daughter of Kayin ethnic leader Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan, the sec-retary of the Karen National Union, who was assassinated in 2008 in Mae Sot, she has become well-known in Britain for advocating democracy and human rights issues in Myanmar.

Anna Roberts, executive direc-tor of the Burma Campaign UK, was hoping for a Labour win as she con-siders that the Conservative govern-ment favoured the current Myanmar government. Human rights have taken a back seat. This British gov-ernment wants to work closely with Nay Pyi Taw to seek further invest-ment, she said.

Burma Campaign UK will contin-ue to work with parliamentarians in both Houses to promote democratic

reforms in Myanmar, she said.Along with British citizens, resi-

dent citizens of Ireland and most Commonwealth countries are allowed to vote in a general election. While Myanmar is a former British colony, it elected not to join the Common-wealth upon independence in 1948, meaning Myanmar citizens resident in the UK cannot vote in elections.

Not all Myanmar who reside long-term in the UK are interested in citizenship; some have left for politi-cal reasons, while many have family back in Myanmar.

KNO secretary Khun Htoi Lay-ang, 40, who lives in Hounslow, said he had decided not to apply, though he has advised others on how to ac-quire it. I still want to be a Myanmar citizen, he said. I hope to return, but only if the 2008 constitution is amended, because I dont want to live under a constitution written by the military regime.

LONDON

EI EI TOE LWIN

[email protected]

British prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron and his wife Samantha arrive at the partys headquarters in London on May 8, the day after a general election. Photo: AFP

This British government wants to work closely with Nay Pyi Taw to seek further investment.

Anna Roberts Burma Campaign UK

Development fund to build worker skills

YOUNG people wishing to acquire marketable skills can learn welding, electrical work or how to operate a lathe in training sessions provided free of charge by the government. Daw Khin Mar Aye from the Ministry of La-bour, Employment and Social Security said the ministry has been offering training every year in Yangon, Man-dalay and Pathein in these basic skills free of charge to 300 youths who had not completed high school.

Come and attend our training. We offer short courses of one-and-a-half months, and afterward you can get a job at Myaungdagar industrial zone earning K150,000 a month, said Daw Khin Mar Aye, who is deputy di-rector of the labour department.

Daw Khin March Aye made the re-marks to The Myanmar Times at a May 7 ceremony to announce the launch of a fund to develop workers skills, held at Nay Pyi Taws Thingaha hotel.

The new labour law provides for the setting-up of a fund for technical skills development, but we still have to draft the plans, raise the funds and form a [management] committee. In doing so, we will take into account the experience gained in Thailand and Singapore, she said.

The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw approved the Employment and Skills Develop-ment Law at its last session.

Daw Khin Mar Aye said anyone wishing to receive the free technical training should register with the min-istry, which opened a course once 20 people had put their names down for it. The training could start at once in the event of a group registration, she said.

However, the training is for basic knowledge only. The ministry says higher-level training will have to be paid for from the new fund.

The Skills Development Fund will fill the gap when employers allow their experienced workers to attend advanced training, and are no longer working, she said.

Contributions to the fund will be collected from employers, but entre-preneurs in SMEs will be exempt. She declined to say how much the ministry hopes to raise.

The Department of Labour has also been giving management training to private companies. Today, staff from AGD Bank will take part in a training course, and staff at Shwe Mi plastics factory and the Toyo battery factory in Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone have also received training.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun

HTOO [email protected]

Myanmar lobby groups had hoped for a Labour government that would prioritise rights over business ties

News 3www.mmtimes.com NEWS EDITOR: Thomas Kean | [email protected]

Were not going underground, says fugitive student union boss

DESPITE continued arrests and pur-suit by the authorities, activists com-memorating the 79th anniversary of the founding of the All Burma Federa-tion of Student Unions declared yes-terday that the movement would not go underground.

The event, which also marked two months since the brutal police crack-down on student protesters at Let-padan, was held at the Free Funeral Service Society in Yangon, drawing nearly 300 people, including federa-tion members and parents of jailed students.

Ko Min Ko Naing and Ko Jimmy, activists of the pro-democracy 88 Gen-eration students group, also lent their support to the occasion, while worker associations and some minor political parties sent formal messages to mark the anniversary.

ABFSU president Ko Kyaw Ko Ko a fugitive who has been ordered to ap-pear in court sent a speech through a recorded video that was screened at the meeting.

Now we [ABFSU] can stand on the ground, and were not going to go underground. All students have to focus on their security and our dig-nity. We have to keep up our actions against the government on educa-tion, and all students have to unite,

Ko Kyaw Ko Ko said.More than 130 people were de-

tained after police on March 10 broke up a rally outside a monastery in Let-padan held in protest against the na-tional education law, which students say imposes too much central govern-ment control. About 70 are still being held at Tharyarwady Prison, while some prominent student leaders, like Ko Kyaw Ko Ko, remain on the run.

Security services are closely moni-toring students outside prison, accord-ing to Ba Ka Tha, as the federation is commonly known.

We have not sent any request let-ters to anyone outside to free us from jail. Everybody knows about us, what we did. We believe in the students outside, student leader Ko Min Thwe Thit said in a message that he gave to others during a court appearance.

Ko Aung Nay Paing, spokesperson of ABFSU, said, The government is trying to make us go underground and become an illegal organisation, as happened under the military regime. But were not going to. Now we show through our actions that ABFSU still exists under their sight.

MRATT KYAW [email protected]

CAUTIONARY NOTICENOTICE is hereby given that ONDULINE of 35 rue Baudin, 92300 LEVALLOIS PERRET - FRANCE, do solemnly and sincerely declare that we are the Owner and Sole Proprietor of the following trade mark in Myanmar.

ONDUBANDThe said mark is used in respect of the following goods: Insulating materials; thermal and acoustic insulating materials; waterproof packings and bands; insulating adhesive bands (other than for stationery, household use or medicine use); semi-processed plastic substances in the form of sheets, bands and plates for waterproofing and thermal and sound insulation for all building types [Class 17].Non-metallic building materials; non-metallic transportable buildings; non-metallic roof coverings; bituminous products for building; non-metallic tiles; plates made of fibers and materials of all kinds (non-metallic building materials); roofing, cladding and weather boarding plates (non-metallic building materials); non-metallic ridge materials for all building types [Class 19].The said trade mark is the subject of Declaration of Ownership recorded with the Registrar of Deeds and Assurances, Yangon, Myanmar, in Book under No. IV/5246/2014 Dated 12th May, 2014.

Any infringement or colourable imitation thereof or other infringement of the rights of the said corporation will be dealt with according to law.

Dated: 11th May, 2015 For ONDULINE Remfry & Sagar Attorneys-at-Law

GURGAON Remfry House at the Millennium PlazaSector-27, Gurgaon-122 009New Delhi National Capital Region, IndiaTel : 91-124-280 6100Fax : 91-124-280 6101E-Mail : [email protected]

CHENNAI376-B (Old No. 202)Avvai Shanmugam Salai,GopalapuramChennai n 600 086, IndiaTel & Fax 91-44-4263 7392E-Mail: [email protected]

Govt offers two-stage ceasefire deal

THE governments chief negotiator has proposed a conditional two-stage ceasefire agreement with Myanmars various ethnic armed groups that would incorporate, at a later stage, three factions fighting the Tatmadaw in the Kokang border region.

Minister for the Presidents Office U Aung Min outlined the offer to re-porters attending a forum on national reconciliation held in Yangon on May 9.

The minister, who led the gov-ernment side in nearly 18 months of ceasefire talks with representatives of 16 armed groups, was speaking a day after President U Thein Sein held unexpected meetings in Kengtung, Shan State, with political leaders of the Wa and Mong La enclaves, as well as Shan State Army-South.

Minister for Information U Ye Htut posted photographs of those meetings on Facebook without com-ment. Observers noticed that U Sai Lin, chair of the National Democratic Alliance Army that controls the Mong La special region, was joined by his wife, who is the daughter of Peng Jiasheng, the fugitive octogenarian leader of the ethnic Chinese rebels in Kokang.

U Aung Min said a nationwide ceasefire agreement, which was signed in principle on March 31, would take too long to finalise if the government had to first talk to the three groups fighting in Kokang, none of which had previously reached bilateral ceasefire agreements with Nay Pyi Taw.

But the minister also said the three groups had to stop fighting

before peace talks could begin. The three groups are the Kokang-based Myanmar National Democratic Alli-ance Army (MNDAA) led by Mr Peng, and its two allies, the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Ara-kan Army (AA).

All three groups are members of the 16-strong Nationwide Cease-fire Coordination Team (NCCT) that signed the draft ceasefire accord with government delegastes on March 31.

We have already promised to reach national reconciliation through political dialogues to be held after the nationwide ceasefire accord, the

minister said at the Yangon forum.President U Thein Sein appears

caught between China, which has re-peatedly called for dialogue between the government and the Kokang re-bels, and the Tatmadaw, which has pushed a large-scale offensive right up to the Chinese border and occa-sionally beyond, displacing tens of thousands of civilians since the con-flict erupted three months ago.

The United Wa State Army (UWSA), the most powerful of Myanmars armed groups, with close economic ties to China, last week hosted a 12-way meeting of ethnic armed groups

that called on the government to halt its military operations and include the Kokang rebels and their two allies in the nationwide ceasefire accord. The meeting, held in the Wa stronghold of Pangkham, also endorsed Wa aspi-rations to carve out their own state inside Shan State and for a rewriting of Myanmars constitution to create a genuine federal system.

The official Global New Light of Myanmar reported that the three ethnic leaders who met the president in Kengtung expressed support for the peace process of the government and reiterated their commitment

to signing the nationwide ceasefire agreement.

The draft accord needs to be agreed by the various ethnic leaders represented on the NCCT before its signing with the government. The NCCT, which says the accord may need rewriting, has not yet set a date for that meeting.

U Thein Sein says he wants to fi-nalise a nationwide ceasefire as soon as possible in order to pave the way for political dialogue to be completed before parliamentary elections are held in November.

The Yangon forum attended by U Aung Min was organised by the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Restoration Council of the Shan State, the political wing of the Shan State Army-South. Seven ethnic armed groups and 64 political parties joined proceedings, as well as civil so-ciety organisations.

KNU secretary Pado Saw Kwel Htoo Win said the aim of the NCCT was to have an all-inclusive nation-wide ceasefire. But he said they would report to their respective organisa-tions to decide whether to accept the government offer of leaving out the groups fighting in the Kokang area until a later stage.

We also really want to end these long wars, as the government does, he said.

U Sai Nyunt Lwin, secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for De-mocracy, welcomed the government proposal. I think that can be the way out of delaying the peace process, he said.

A source close to the government ceasefire negotiating committee, who asked not to be named, said it would not change its policy of refusing to recognise the MNDAA and the Ara-kan Army at the political level. If the NCCT will not agree to this then the peace process could be delayed, he said.

WA LONE GUY DINMORE

President U Thein Sein shakes hands with armed ethnic group leaders in Kengtung, Shan State, on May 9, including National Democratic Alliance Army leader U Sai Lin (left). Photos: Facebook/U Ye Htut

Kokang group and its two allies to be excluded from first ceasefire, but government says it will open negotiations when fighting stops

An All Burma Federation of Student Unions member speaks at a ceremony to mark the 79th anniversary of the groups founding yesterday. Photo: Aung Htay Hlaing

IN DEPTH


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Almost 500 Rohingya rescued off AcehRESCUERS yesterday brought ashore 469 migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh after their wooden boat ar-rived off Aceh in northwest Indonesia, an Indonesian official said.

We received a report from fisher-men this morning that there were boat people stranded in the waters off north Aceh, Aceh provincial search and res-cue chief Budiawan said.

We despatched teams there and evacuated 469 migrants who are Ro-hingya from Myanmar and Bangla-deshis. There are women and children among them. So far, all of them are safe, he added.

He said the group would be taken to a detention centre in north Aceh district, where police and immigra-tion officials would carry out further

processing, which would include in-vestigating their motives.

Darsa, a disaster management agen-cy official who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said the group had arrived near a beach in north Aceh dis-trict early yesterday and were told to swim to shore.

One of the migrants who could speak Malay told me that their agent had told them they were in Malaysia, and to swim to shore, he said.

Some of them did. But later they found out from fishermen that they were in Indonesia, he added.

According to the migrant, five boats had departed from Myanmar last week to escape the conflict, Darsa said.

He said the Muslims were beaten and had hot water poured on them and

they just wanted to get out of Myanmar as soon as possible, to anywhere where they could seek refuge, he said.

Darsa said there were 83 women and 41 children on board. One of the women was pregnant and some of the children were aged under 10.

There was little food and water on the boat. Some of them were not doing too well and needed medical attention, he said.

Thousands of Muslim Rohingya officially called Bengalis in Myanmar have braved the dangerous sea crossing from Myanmar to southern Thailand and beyond in recent years.

Many hope to go on to mainly Mus-lim Malaysia but the migrants have of-ten fallen prey to people-traffickers in Thailand. AFP

First group of fishermen return from Indonesia

STORIES of murder and torture are beginning to emerge as the first Myan-mar fishermen, rescued from slavery at the hands of their captors, return home from Indonesia. The first group of 15 fishermen, out of 535 who are known to have been enslaved, were brought home on May 9.

Anti-trafficking task force com-mander Police Major Ye Win Aung said eight of the 15 had been marooned on Benjina Island by the slavers who had captured them. Five others had es-caped from a Thai fishing boat to Am-bon Island and were stranded there, while two returned home with the as-sistance of the International Organiza-tion of Migration.

All of them were trafficked, and the IOM helped them return home, he said.

The police could not say when the remaining fishermen would be return-ing home.

We repatriated the first 15 as a pri-ority for their security, because they had spoken to the media, said Pol Maj Ye Win Aung.

Ko Phyo Kyaw, 28, who was aban-doned on Benjina Island, said he was enslaved for two years, working with-out pay. After leaving home in 2011, he was persuaded by a broker to work on a fishing boat.

Almost 1000 Myanmar fishermen were working around the Indonesian islands. Some are Shan or other ethnic groups, he told The Myanmar Times after arriving at the airport.

Ko Kyaw Thu, who was enslaved aboard a Thai fishing boat for about three years, said he was forced to work round the clock. When I tried to sleep, the captain poured boiling water over me, he said. Some Myanmar were killed and their bodies thrown into the sea.

Ko Maung Soe, who was a slave on Benjina Island for more than seven years, said the Myanmar authorities had advised returning fishermen not to talk to the media.

He was never paid for the time he spent as a crew member on the fishing boat.

Those of us who talked to AP news agency were told not to [speak to the media again], for security reasons, he said.

Daw Yu Yu Swe, director of the so-cial welfare ministrys Department of Relief and Resettlement, said the gov-ernment had advised the fishermen of their rights, including the right not to talk to the media if they did not want to. Pol Maj Ye Win Aung said there was a need for confidentiality as the police were still investigating human traffickers.

Some declined to answer questions, but stated that they had been enslaved for several years on fishing boats.

Together with the media, families gathered at the airport waiting for the return of sons and brothers they feared they would never see again.

Ma Thandar, sister of Ko Phyoe Kyaw, another fisherman, said the fam-ily had been trying to find him for the past two years. The last we heard he was working at the border. He said he was fine. Weve only just found out that he was trafficked, she said.

Daw Than Than Win, mother of Ko Win Ko Naing, 25, told The Myanmar Times at Yangon airport that her hopes of ever seeing her son again were dwin-dling in the complete absence of any in-formation about him. We were afraid he may be dead because we couldnt find out any information despite all our efforts, she said tearfully.

Ko Kyaw Thu said the need to estab-lish citizenship had held up the repa-triation process. I spent eight months on Ambon Island and two months in Jakarta confirming my identity. All the fishermen have to go through this, he said.

Another eight fishermen found on Benjina Island spent about two months at the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta establishing their citizenship before being repatriated to Yangon with the group from Ambon.

Pol Brig Gen Win Naing Tun said the identification process would soon be complete. The Myanmar govern-ment delegation that went to Indone-sia to rescue the trafficked seamen last month is still reportedly at work.

The United States Mission to ASE-AN has pledged US$75,000 to help fund the repatriation, and the US gov-ernment has separately contributed $225,000 to support medical costs and case workers, as well as food, water and shelter for the victims.

Walkathon raises money for road safetyAYE NYEIN [email protected]

Unless people obey the rules of the road, accidents will only continue to increase.

U Hla Aung Yangon traffic official

NYAN LYNN AUNG

[email protected]

PEDESTRIANS struck back yes-terday against Yangons increas-ingly deadly traffic. To mark the Third UN Global Road Safety Week, more than 1000 high school students and other road users participated in a walka-thon at Peoples Park in Dagon township.

Prizes of K1000 were handed out for every 500 metres walked on the 1.5-kilometre circuit, but all the winners donated them to road safety projects.

Students came to the walka-thon even though this is the school holidays, Sanchaung township teacher Daw Tin Win said, adding that her school put road safety on its curriculum.

Traffic police also conduct safety classes in Yangon schools at least once a year.

Yangon Region Minister for Transport and Communication U Aung Khin, who attended the event, said that while education was a major focus of the govern-ments road safety strategy, many people knowingly break the road rules.

This has led to an increase in accidents in recent years some-thing he said he hoped Global Road Safety Week events could help to change.

We hope this event will spot-light the danger of accidents, and we will continue to do it in coming years, he said.

U Hla Aung, head of the Yan-gon Region Supervisory Com-mittee for Motor Vehicles, said Myanmars rising road toll was being mirrored elsewhere in the developing world.

This is a matter of deep concern, he said. Unless peo-ple obey the rules of the road, accidents will only continue to increase.

Participant Ko Kyaw Kyaw Naing, of Mayangone town-ship, said, Traffic accidents are a major cause of death because people dont follow the rules of the road and road users dont re-spect each other.

Citing drivers who drive the wrong way and run red lights, he added, Education is the key. Its not enough for children to learn about road safety in school as long as their parents keep break-ing those rules in front of them.

Once someone has broken the rules once, they keep doing it. The traffic police should take action, no matter who commit-ted the offence.

Ma May Myat Paing, a student at Basic Education High School 4 in Sanchaung township, said she was glad she came. We do get lessons from the traffic police, she said, but a walk like this helps bring the lesson home.

A returning Myanmar fisherman is greeted by a relative at Yangon International Airport on May 9. Photo: Aung Htay Hlaing

News 5www.mmtimes.com

Family seek answers after custodial death

BEREAVED relatives of a man who died in custody following his arrest in connection with a road accident have accused the police of killing him.

Maung Myo Thint, 33, was arrest-ed in Chaungzon township after the bus he was driving crashed in an ac-cident in which no other vehicle was apparently involved on April 15.

Two of the 21 children on board were injured, one with a broken arm, said Ma May Win Moe, one of the passengers. She said that Maung Myo Thint was arrested at the scene of the accident, which occurred around 2pm.

U Aung Khin, his brother-in-law, told journalists that when he visited Maung Myo Thint that afternoon, he complained that the police had punched him.

When the family went to the po-lice station the next morning in a sec-ond attempt to post bail, they were

informed that Maung Myo Thint was dead.

Daw Mi Khin Aye, the aunt of the deceased, said a doctor at the hospital had told the family that he appeared to have taken a blow to the head. She described his death as suspicious.

Daw Mi Khin Aye said witnesses to the crash had told her that, contrary to what the police had informed her, Maung Myo Thint was not injured at the time of his arrest.

Chaungzon police chief U Hla Khine told The Myanmar Times that an investigation was under way. We have set up a task force to look into this, he said.

However, officials from the district police office refused to answer ques-tions from journalists yesterday. They said they were not involved in the investigation, and denied any knowl-edge of it.

Ko Zaw Min, a member of 88 Gen-eration Peace and Open Society, said he had written to Minister for Home Affairs Lieutenant General Ko Ko, the Bureau of Special Investigation and the Mon State police deputy super-intendent seeking answers. We are asking them to investigate the death of Maung Myo Thint, he said.

A woman poses for a photo with a 1928 DeSoto produced by the Chrysler Corporation at the First Myanmar Classic Cars Show, held at Myanmar Culture Valley on May 9 and 10. Organised by the Myanmar Classic Cars Club, the show featured cars and motorbikes from the early and mid-20th century, as well as more recent vintages.

MAWLAMYINE, MON STATE

NAW SAY PHAW WAA

[email protected]

IN PICTURES

PHOTO: NAING WYNN HTOON


A hero of eastern MyanmarA patient is carried on a makeshift stretcher by members of a Back Pack Health Worker Team. Photo: Si Thu Lwin

DEEP in the forest, the surgeon fought to save the life of his patient, who had stepped on a landmine. When the tourniquet slipped and the bleeding resumed, the surgeon stemmed the flow as best he could with bandages and cotton wool before continuing his preparations to amputate.

The preparations had to be carried out there and then to make it possible to move the patient to a hospital. In the forests of Kayin State, there are no ambulances.

Saw Win Kyaw still remembers the operation, 20 years ago.

It was hard, but I had to find the self-confidence to help my people, he said.

He has treated Tatmadaw soldiers, local residents and displaced families wounded in fighting. He has ampu-tated the arms and legs of more than 150 victims of landmines, artillery shells and hand grenades. He has lost patients whose bleeding he could not stop.

With training received from a Nor-wegian doctor, Saw Win Kyaw learned how to use anaesthetics and conduct transfusions. Patients with severe bleeding need transfusions. Blood is essential for mine victims, he said.

The third son of five children of Poe Kayin parents, he was born in Septem-ber 1971, in the Kayin State capital Hpa-an. He started work as a cleaner and assistant nurse at Htoo Waa Lu hospital at Manerplaw, the headquar-ters of the Karen National Union, in 1988. He passed basic healthcare training in 1989, working in Maner-plaw until the Tatmadaw forced the KNU to flee in early 1995.

As the fighting raged, Saw Win Kyaw and others formed a Back Pack Health Worker Team to provide

healthcare to anyone who needed it. That initial four-person team has grown to more than 400 workers, providing treatment to hundreds of thousands of people in Kayin and Mon states.

The organisation buys medicines from Thailand with financial aid from the Canadian government and other organisations, and has been providing healthcare in 35 regions in coordina-tion with the Karen National Union and the New Mon State Party.

In this conflict-ravaged eastern corner of Myanmar, the job is fraught with difficulties and danger.

Up to 2012, nine health workers had died at their posts in remote ar-eas because of landmines and other causes, said Saw Win Kyaw.

The conflict has left many areas bereft of any state health services. A recent Health Information System Working Group of 64 townships in eastern Myanmar comprising 456,786 people found health conditions more similar to war-torn Somalia than to the rest of Myanmar.

The national infant mortality rate is among the worst in the region, at about 41 deaths per 1000 live births, but in eastern Myanmar the rate was more than double, at 94.2 per 1000 live births.

Mortality rates for children under five years of age were even bleaker, at 141.9 in the east of the country com-pared to 52 per 1000 nationally. Fif-teen pregnant women of every 1000 require emergency aid, but less than 10 percent of survey respondents had access to government-run health centres.

Despite agreement on a ceasefire,

this is unlikely to change soon.People in remote or border regions

cant get effective healthcare. Thats why our Back Pack teams will have to keep doing it, Saw Win Kyaw said.

While initially the team focused on those injured in conflict, the ex-perience of saving a newborn led Saw Win Kyaw to turn his attention more to womens healthcare. In my first experience of assisting at a delivery, I didnt have much experience. But I knew I had to help more people, not just those who had suffered from weapons, he said.

In 2000, he had to deliver his daugh-ter aboard a boat on the Thanlwin Riv-er, with no medicines or equipment. I named her Naw Kalee Mu, he said a name that translates to boat life.

Saw Win Kyaw has shared his ex-perience with health workers, offering courses in first-aid, volunteer nursing, village management and the treat-ment of mental disease.

In 2012, he was awarded the Van Heuven Goedhart Award by a Dutch organisation, and is now director of the Back Pack Health Worker Team.

In pursuing his particular interest in public health care, he believes that offering public education on how to prevent disease or injury is better than cure, and he still takes the time to of-fer public education about healthcare in villages and wards.

While conflict is slowly receding in eastern Myanmar, Saw Win Kyaw said the Back Pack team will continue to play an important role in both health education and treatment.

He expressed willingness to work alongside the government as state health services are expanded through-out the region but he said the gov-ernment should also recognise the work teams such as his have done over the past two decades.

Id like to ask the government to officially recognise the ethnic healthcare teams, he said, that are providing saving lives in all ethnic regions.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun

Saw Win Kyaw left) at the Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand. Photo: Si Thu Lwin

SI THU LWIN

[email protected]

Motorcyclists banned fromwearing masks in MyitkyinaMyitkyina city authorities have slapped a ban on the wearing of masks by motorcycle riders, threatening offenders with up to a month in prison. The statement, issued on May 4, cited security concerns and said the ban would come into force today in the capital of Kachin State.

The statement said the aim of the ban was to prevent the disruption of the rule of law and crimes and to avoid damage to life, health and safety.

Initial reaction was disbeliev-ing. An attempt by The Myanmar Times to seek clarification from township officials was met with nervous laughter.

Local MP Daw Dwe Bu said motorcyclists only used the masks to keep dust off their faces. Ive never heard of any masked criminals. Riding while masked is not a crime, she said.

The township says violators will be guilty of disobeying the orders of a civil servant, making themselves liable to a penalty of one month in prison or K200.

Facebook commentator and Myitkyina resident Ja Seng Awn Bakhkyam said, Are they crazy? The roads are so dusty no one can ride a motorcycle without a mask. Kyaw Phone Kyaw

Mandalay voter lists to be released in JuneMandalay voters will soon be invited to check their names against the provisional voters list when it opens for public review, electoral officials say. U Kyaw Kyaw Soe, deputy director of the Mandalay Region Election Sub-commission, said lists of those eligible to vote in the November election would be open in some townships next month.

The process of listing voters is almost complete, and will take only a few more days. In June we will publish the lists in townships where the listings are complete, he said, adding that the process was now about 80pc finished.

We will post the lists where people can easily access them. Voters should check that their names are on the list and let us know at once if there is any mistake, he said.

Lists have already been pub-lished in 20 townships. Mg Zaw, translation by Thiri Min Htun

IN BRIEF

Youth interfaith conferencescheduled for this monthMore than 100 young people are to gather in Yangon later this month for a six-day conference on religious freedom and inter-faith cooperation. The conference is being organised by the Smile Education and Development Foundation, said the foundations project coordinator, Ma Mon Kyi.

We will invite leaders in the religious and social fields to serve as panellists to guide the discussion, said U Myo Win, the founder of the SEDF.

The participants, aged be-tween 18 and 30, will discuss is-sues surrounding religious free-dom and interfaith cooperation. As a follow-up, SEDF will hold an advocacy workshop where 50 selected participants will learn how to bring their priorities to fruition through networking and advocacy, he said.

The young people will come from all across the country for the May 26 to 31 conference, which is supported by the US Agency for International Development.

This conference will give young people a chance to meet and share views on religion and learn from each other, said participant Ma Su Wai said. Myat Noe Oo

94.2Deaths per 1000 live births in eastern

Myanmar, more than double the national average of about 41

After fleeing Manerplaw in 1995, Saw Win Kyaw has built the Back Pack Health Worker Team into a 400-strong unit assisting a huge area, where barely 10 percent of residents have access to government health services

News 7www.mmtimes.com

ViewsScrambling to draw lessons

THERE is a natural rush to draw lessons from what has been happening these recent, busy years. It is so unusual for an entrenched military dictatorship to make moves toward political reform that a queue forms for the tutorial.

We are intoxicated by ideas that might apply elsewhere and that could make Myanmars tentative success a template for other reforms. We are enticed to ask whether countries synonymous with poor govern-ance places like the DR Congo, Syria or North Korea could benefit from what we know about U Thein Sein, the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, peace agreements and Myanmars galloping social change.

Such thoughts offer comfort when so much in the world appears to be hurtling in gloomier directions. The recent period in Myanmar offers a good-news story, admittedly one with more than its share of complex subject matter.

Some of the lessons we hear the most about deal with leadership. We understand that something hap-pened, quietly, in the decade before the political transformation received much public attention. Figures like Thura U Shwe Mann, U Khin Aung Myint and President U Thein Sein were still in uniform then. But they were laying the foundations for a new set of political compacts.

They did so in their own time, and it is often suggested that the devasta-tion of Cyclone Nargis, seven years ago this month, catalysed bolder action. It was at that moment of na-tional impotence that the need for a different political and economic order was hammered home.

Since then, Myanmar has ben-efited from creative leadership and a big appetite for taking risks. Many have played their part, including eth-nic commanders, democratic activists, ordinary bureaucrats and courageous street-level campaigners. Taken together they have responded to an environment shaped by suggestion from on high. There are all manner

of subtle indications, in the press, on social media, in body language and grand political re-positioning, that have offered confidence to those un-derstandably wary of the motivations of retired generals.

It has helped that the new legisla-tures have found a way of presenting alternatives to executive authority. That the president doesnt always get his way is taken to mean that the system, whatever its flaws, is now providing spaces for debate and policy competition.

Regardless of whether the hlut-taw was originally designed for this purpose and it seems that it wasnt there has been an incremental move toward more ambitious interven-tions. No doubt the election in 2012 of more than 40 National League for Democracy representatives has made

a difference. But they arent always the ones who are most outspoken in the chamber.

It tends to be voices from the lesser-known democratic parties and ethnic minorities that make the most regular interventions. They are joined by factions of the Union Solidarity and Development Party also keen to dissent with certain policies, big and small.

We see the challenges of these interactions most clearly in the ethnic faultlines. If Myanmar finally manages to pull together a sustain-able national peace agreement, with the historic possibilities that offers, lessons will be claimed on every pos-sible score. Such an agreement will sire hundreds of PhDs, and give life to 10,000 analytical thrusts. Clever treatments of causality will punctuate statements about effective national, regional and global peace-making. Its to be expected that everyone will want some of the credit.

Yet apportioning credit shouldnt be the goal of drawing such lessons. It will, instead, be in the hard-headed understanding of what went wrong, and then right why, for whom, and in what sequence that will need the most serious attention. Some of these lessons wont be neat and debates about them will ring with contradic-tion, and also with self-interest. Such will be the tone of discussion for many years to come.

These discussions will be shaped, most important of all, by the chang-ing social context in Myanmar. People who had never read an uncensored newspaper article now have Facebook feeds flooded with mind-boggling in-nuendo and speculation.

At 1000 miles a second, the inter-net can offer up the most remarkable of insights, and is now setting about changing many basic expectations in Myanmar society. Nobody can yet tell whether the political system in its current fragile form will weather all of these new pressures. We see changes also to economic interac-tions, family structures and gender relations. None of these issues will offer easy lessons. For some, the new Myanmar will in fact prove a caution-ary tale, filled with woe, gloom and dire futures.

That people outside Myanmar will be seeking to appreciate its trajec-tory will be part of the new story too. Getting different perspectives on questions of leadership, institutions, technology and culture will force us to confront our own confidence about how we understand the world and the people who make change happen.

Nicholas Farrelly is a partner at Glenloch Advisory and a fellow in the Australian National Universitys Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs. He is the co-convenor of the Myanmar Update Conference, to be held in Canberra on June 5-6.

NICHOLAS FARRELLY

[email protected]

Something happened, quietly, in the decade before the political transformation received much public attention.

Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann meets civil society leaders in Yangon in December 2014. Photo: Zarni Phyo

Money matters

EDITORIAL

THIS year, 2015, appears likely to hold elections for many coun-tries around the globe. Recently concluded elections in the Unit-ed Kingdom have seen the Con-servative Party emerge as the winner, attaining an outright majority 331 seats out of 650 seats in the House of Commons. Unlike the 2010 elections, when it was forced to form a coalition government, the Conservative Party has a much freer hand in structuring the cabinet.

Indias elections last year were called the worlds biggest exercise in democracy. But less attention was paid to the amount spent on campaigning: about US$5 billion, making them second only to the US presidential elections, which topped $7 billion.

Indian politicians justify these expenses by pointing out that the nation is the biggest democracy in the world, with an electorate of 800 million people.

What really matters, though, is not the amount of money the politicians and political parties spent or intend to spend, but the transparency and account-ability with which this money is acquired and used.

Myanmars elections in No-vember are shaping up to be perhaps the most democratic in living memory. The Union Elec-tion Commission has already promised a free and fair vote.

The issue of election expenses has until now prompted little dis-cussion. But the most conserva-tive estimates suggest the parties will spend billions of kyat.

The UEC has already set some rules on election campaign expenses. All political parties should play by the rules of the game. Some plan to go further: the National League for Democ-racy recently announced that it would publicly declare the pos-sessions of its candidates.

Will other parties follow suit? MPs have so far been reluctant to declare their assets, so it seems unlikely. But it would be a posi-tive step toward ensuring the elections are not just free and fair, but also transparent and clean.

8 THE MYANMAR TIMES MAY 11, 2015

Business

A truck passes shipping containers which are waiting at Yangon port. Photo: AFP

TWO big barriers electoral uncer-tainty and poor infrastructure are standing in the way of further for-eign investment, business sources believe. Even as more foreign invest-ment has flooded into the country, many investors have adopted a wait-and-see attitude, they say.

The Myanmar Investment Com-mission has already permitted about US$54 billion of overseas invest-ment in the country, including $37 billion since 1990 for the power, oil and gas sector. But investment in manufacturing is on hold pending much-needed improvements in in-frastructure, they say.

Economist U Hla Maung said yesterday, Inadequate electricity supply and poor transport facilities mean investors have to put up more money, yet have to wait longer to see any profits.

He added that the final removal of US and European Union sanctions would depend on the conduct of the November general election and oth-er political considerations.

U Aung Naing Oo, the secretary of the Myanmar Investment Com-mission, said the removal from the sanctions blacklist of the names of some Myanmar businessmen recently could change the FDI en-vironment by opening the way for more direct American investment.

The MIC has approved and in-vited more FDI in electric power generation and in projects to im-prove infrastructure in recent years, he said.

We will develop a private-public partnership framework to attract more investments in infrastructure development, and we can expect ODA for some projects to solve infra-structure challenges, he said.

To be sure, legal, policy, proce-dural and institutional reforms de-signed to build investor confidence have been made during the term of the present government, improv-ing the investment environment to some extent. The country is now viewed more favourably by interna-tional investors.

About $8 billion has been earned for the 2014-2015 fiscal year, said the Directorate of Investment and Com-pany Administration (DICA), with a further $6 billion expected for the present fiscal year as MIC formu-lates a long-term FDI promotion plan. This could increase as a result of the amended investment law to be submitted to parliament this month and related reforms, he said.

Levelling the playing field, in-corporating sound protections, and simplifying procedures while pre-serving the environment rather than tax incentives are the key elements of the new investment law, said U Aung Naing Oo.

U Mg Mg Lay, vice president of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Indus-try, said the chambers hoped to de-velop closer relations with responsi-ble and ethical businesses, including in their counterpart US chambers, once sanctions are removed.

We hope to see more foreign in-vestment in the wake of better rules and policies, he said.

TARIFFS applied to imported goods will soon be valued using World Trade Organisation (WTO) standards, though awareness is low among traders about how this will work, according to experts.

The Asian Development Bank sponsored a series of seminars last week for importers, customs bro-kers and freight forwarders.

The seminars aimed to familiar-ise businesspeople with the WTOs Valuation Agreement, an interna-tional agreement laying out how goods are to be valued for customs duties to be applied.

The Myanmar Customs Depart-ment will soon be applying the WTO Valuation Agreement to all imports, said James Lynch, direc-tor of ADBs regional cooperation

division in Southeast Asia.That is very good news for im-

porters, but its essential that they understand how to follow the rules, are clear about their rights and know what to do if they experience difficulties, he said.

The standards are particularly important for ad valorem customs duties, which are customs duties charged as a percent of the value of the good being imported.

The WTO Valuation Agreement stipulates valuations must be based on the actual price of the good, gen-erally what is shown on the invoice. It also outlines a number of other methods that can be used if the in-voices cannot be used for pricing.

With an amendment to the Sea Customs Act, Myanmar Customs is to follow the terms the WTO Valua-tion Agreement.

The ADB held seminars in Yan-gon last week, with other plans for similar seminars in Mandalay, as well as next month in the trade portals of Myawaddy, Tachileik, Muse and Myeik.

WTO rules to change customs valuationsSU PHYO WIN

[email protected]

We are not going to launch any more bidding until 2016, as previous bidding rounds are still ongoing.

U Myo Myint Oo MOGE official

FDI relies on politics and infrastructureAYE THIDAR [email protected]

AUNG [email protected] THET [email protected]

MYANMA Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) will not launch any new onshore or offshore bidding rounds this year, and will focus instead on the development of recently con-tracted blocks, the state-owned en-terprise said last week.

We are not going to launch any more bidding until 2016, as previous bidding rounds are still ongoing. In the meantime, we will closely moni-tor active PSCs [Production Sharing Contracts], said U Myo Myint Oo, managing director of MOGE at a press conference in Nay Pyi Taw on May 7.

We will also keep the current blocks to improve the production of petroleum reserves, he said.

He did not provide any informa-tion on how many onshore and off-shore blocks would be made avail-able in the next round.

MOGE has conducted three in-ternational bidding rounds for a number of onshore and offshore blocks since the nominally civilian government took office in 2011.

Before this, as a result of West-ern sanctions, a majority of inves-tors into Myanmars oil and gas sec-tor were Asian companies.

The first onshore bidding round for 18 blocks was launched in 2011 and nine blocks were awarded to

international companies.In 2013, the second onshore bid-

ding round for 18 blocks and the first offshore round for 30 blocks were launched. Of these, a total of 16 onshore and 20 offshore blocks were awarded.

Since then, MOGE has been sign-ing PSCs for awarded blocks with the winning international compa-nies and their local partners. Only a few PSCs remain to be signed, end-ing a year-long process.

There is much potential in both the onshore and offshore area. But it will take time to reach the devel-opment and production stage, said U Myo Myint Oo.

International oil companies will not immediately begin drilling campaigns in recently contracted blocks, as social and environmental

impact assessment surveys and seis-mic acquisition activities will take more than a year to complete, ac-cording to industry experts.

Production is unlikely to begin at any of the recently awarded blocks until 2028, said a senior geologist from the Ministry of Energy, during the 5th Myanmar Oil & Gas Exhibi-tion in Yangon.

Myanmar has a total of 104 oil and gas blocks including 53 onshore and 51 offshore blocks. At present, 16 onshore and 19 offshore blocks are in operation, according a Minis-try of Energy source.

Total current production is 8000 barrels of petroleum and 55 million cubic feet per day of natural gas from the onshore fields and 7000 barrels of condensate and around 2 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from Myanmars offshore fields, said a geologist from the Ministry of Energy.

Foreign capital pledged to Myan-mars oil and gas sector is nearly $17 billion, and $2.6 billion had already been invested during fiscal year 2015 by the end of January, accord-ing to statistics from the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC).

In the future, MOGE has plans to look into the production of uncon-ventional resources, such as shale gas, according to sources at the state-owned enterprise. However, for the time being, it will continue focus on conventional petroleum exploration.

No more bidding on oil and gas blocks planned until at least 2016, says senior MOGE official

9BUSINESS EDITOR: Jeremy Mullins | [email protected]

Exchange Rates (May 10 close)Currency Buying Selling

EuroMalaysia RingittSingapore DollarThai BahtUS Dollar

K1190K302K820

K33K1095

K1230K315K835

K35K1100

Myanmar tech company plans to list on London stock exchange

South Korea lands Asias first Google campus to boost startups

BUSINESS 10 BUSINESS 12

BEST Western Premier Hotel Shwe Pyi Thar has become the first inter-nationally operated hotel to open its doors in Mandalay for more than a decade.

For many years, Myanmars sec-ond-largest city has had only two large international-standard hotels, both of which are rated 4 stars. Keppel Lands Sedona Hotel Man-dalay is targeted at business guests, and the Mandalay Hill Resort Ho-tel, formerly managed by Accor, is

aimed at tourists.But since international sanctions

began to be relaxed in 2012, global hotel groups have been looking for opportunities across the country, and several have committed to op-erating hotels in Mandalay.

As of May 6, Best Western Inter-national has taken over manage-ment of the 91-room Hotel Shwe Pyi Thar, according to a company statement.

The hotel is owned by local com-pany KT Construction Group, and is located around 20 minutes by car to the east of the city centre.

Best Western also noted that it is building a new 200-room wing, with construction on the expansion due to be completed by the fourth quarter of next year.

The project will feature a res-taurant, a bar, a swimming pool, a fitness centre, a spa and retail space, according to the announce-ment, as well as a 660 square metre ballroom, a conference room and a

lawn for outdoor events.Best Western already operates

two hotels in Yangon, the 91-room Best Western Chinatown in La-tha township, which opened last month, and the 201-room Best Western Green Hill Hotel in Tarm-we township.

In the future, the US hotel group has plans to open a hotel in Nay Pyi Taw, as well as a second hotel in Mandalay, according to the May 6 announcement.

Other international hoteliers are not far behind.

French group Accor has signed with Construction and Decoration (CAD) Construction to operate a Pullman Hotel as part of the Min-galar Mandalay complex, located to the south of the city centre.

The hotel, which is designed by architects Stephen ODell and Colin Okashimo, was initially due to be branded as a Novotel.

When it opens later this year, the Pullman will become the citys first five-star hotel, marking Ac-cors return to Mandalay after more than a decade.

The operator managed a Novotel Hotel, which is now the Mandalay Hill Resort Hotel, between 1993 and 2002, before exiting from its Myanmar investments due to the worsening political and economic environment.

Best Western International, based in the American city of Phoe-nix, has more than 4000 hotels in more than 100 countries and terri-tories worldwide.

Accor prepares to follow Best Westerns lead by opening a Mandalay hotel

CLARE HAMMOND

[email protected]

THE Ministry of Energy has warned oil and gas companies to own up to their responsibilities in the wake of reporting on appar-ently environmentally unsound practices.

State-owned newspaper My-anma Ahlin reported on waste sludge dumped in Mandalay Re-gions Kyaung Padaung township, near the Chauk oil fields, on April 24. Senior officials of the Min-istry of Energy and state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise

held a press conference on May 7, partly to send a message to firms conducting unsound practices though officials exonerated the firm responsible for the Kyaung Padaung sludge.

There are ways of getting rid of waste oil sludge that is a stage of environmental protection and that also follows the rules. If com-panies dont follow it, we will take action under management proce-dures, said Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise managing director U Myo Myint Oo.

The case in Kyaung Padaung township is not necessarily a case

of unsound practices, he said.The Ministry of Energy issued

a statement on May 7 stating the owners of Shwe Htee Saung oil field at Gwaycho village near Chauk township had dumped the waste oil according to proper pro-cedures. U Myo Myint Oo said the waste reported in the government newspaper is actually a temporary storage tank that was 10 feet (3 metres) high though it had over-flown the tank at the top.

It seems that media and resi-dents misunderstood. Now we have fixed it according to proper procedures and made the tank 3

feet taller, he said.U Myo Myint Oo also down-

played the possible negative ef-fects from the incident, adding mud and oil sludge are not neces-sarily overly harmful, though resi-dents may think it is a dangerous chemical.

U Myo Myint Oo also said the foreign companies that have recent-ly received rights for onshore and offshore blocks are now working on preparing Social and Environmen-tal Impact Assessments as part of their licensing rules after signing Production Sharing Contracts.

Translation by Zar Zar Soe

Ministry warns environmentally unsound oil companies, but lets latest off the hook

Local oil production is not always as environmentally friendly as it could be. Photo: Staff

PYAE THET [email protected]

Awareness needed to protect consumers

Consumer protection rules are in place, but practices and awareness need to be improved for the rules to be effective, experts said at a seminar late last week.

An effective approach means testing products before they arrive at market, and keeping them away if they are not safe, according to Kather-ine Porter from University of California at Irvine. Policies should also take consumers into consideration.

One of the challenges for Myanmar is how to engage the consumer in making and implementing rules, she said.

Another major challenge is teaching consumers their rights and providing strate-gies to protect them, she said at the seminar last week.

Myanmars consumer pro-tection law was enacted in mid-2014. Committees have subequently been formed, though experts agree the protections are still being worked on. Daw Myo Myo Htike, deputy director of the Consumer Affairs Division, said there about 30 laws that relate to consumer protec-tion, including laws for a national food law, drugs, public health and financial institution law.

Under the laws, consum-ers have the right to obtain promised value, correct infor-mation, terms and conditions, forums for settlement on disputes, and non-discrimi-natory treatment and service.

By-laws set to follow the consumer protection law passed last year are still to be released, and are at the Attorney Generals office for final approval.

Aye Thidar Kyaw

ROOM

200Size of the expansion under way at Best Westerns newly opened Mandalay hotel

property

10 Business THE MYANMAR TIMES MAY 11, 2015

THE company behind a popu-lar Myanmar chat application wont wait on Yangon to launch a stock exchange to debut on the public market.

MySQUAR the Singapore-based firm behind localised chat application MyChat has turned to the London Stock Ex-changes Alternative Investment Market (AIM) for its float, slat-ed for later in 2015.

The mobile social network-ing platform needs backing to keep pace with Myanmars transformation, and a stock market listing is the most ef-fective form of investment for MySQUAR right now, said the companys chief technical of-ficer David Rossellat.

Mr Rossellat said the com-panys chat app, which went beta last August, continues to see extraordinary growth. The localised application targeted at Myanmar youth counted 533,000 user accounts in early April up from 500,000 at the end of March with a goal set at gaining 22,000 more by the end

of last month.The app performs well on

Google Play, often placing in the top 10 nationally across all apps on the platform, Mr Rossellat said. On May 10, MyChat ranked 12th in the top free category. Meanwhile, international com-petitor Viber took 10th place.

Last year, On Device Re-search alleged Viber had a stranglehold on the Myanmar chat segment, with 79 percent

of surveyed mobile internet us-ers saying they engaged with it.

At Vibers flagship event in Yangon last July, the company revealed its local registered user base had swelled to 5 million.

While the apps grip on the market as well as stiff competi-tion from the likes of Facebook could prove challenging for

MyChat to battle, Mr Rossellat called messenger apps increas-ing popularity a positive.

We really wanted to create an app that would appeal to youth in Myanmar and get them excited to connect and find new friends, he wrote in an email. And apart from anything else, MySQUAR and MyChat are the only such tools tailor-made for the Myanmar language.

The company has pushed localisation and a targeted ap-proach as MyChats competitive edge since the early days of the apps launch.

However, MySQUARS pros-pects for a public offering have taken it far from the Myanmar market.

Mr Rossellat said Londons AIM is the current best fit for MySQUAR and called the ex-change the worlds top market for companies with small capi-talisation, as well as the tech sectors premier growth market.

MySQUARs users span more than 80 countries, but the lions share stems from Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia, accord-ing to Mr Rossellat. Presently, the firms head office is sta-tioned in Singapore.

We are in the process of transferring a major presence in Myanmar this year, Mr Rossel-lat said.

MySQUAR aims for listing in London

CATHERINE TRAUTWEIN

[email protected]

CATHERINE TRAUTWEIN

We really wanted to create an app that would appeal to youth in Myanmar.

David Roussellat MySQUAR

IN BRIEFHlegu township agriculture needs mechanisation pushHlegu township in northern Yangon needs 50 percent more equipment to take advantage of its agricultural potential, according to a local Ministry of Agriculture official.

The township has more than 89,000 cultivated acres, and needs around 1500 smaller tractors and 150 large ones, said U Naing Min Thu, an indus-trial farming official in northern Yangon Region. Currently, when combining private and public ownership, we have only about 1000 smaller tractors and 100 large ones, he said.

U Naing Min Thu said there are a number of ways the government is at-tempting to bridge the gap. It is looking to take out loans from India to afford purchases, while equipment vendors are also looking to make deals.

Kubota, a Japanese brand with two Thailand factories, held an expo in the township, with the aim of selling equip-ment to local farmers. Su Phyo Win

BMW begins sales of 2 SeriesBMWs Myanmar dealer Prestige Automobiles has begun selling its 2 Series vehicles, according to company officials.

The firm hopes to sell 200 units this year, including 50 of the 2 Series model, which is a two- or four-door coupe. The models start at US$79,900 in its Yangon showroom.

Prestige managing director U Chan Mya said BMW has developed a fuel management system to control poor-quality petrol, which can be a problem.

The 2 Series come with three-year warranties from Prestige. The com-pany claims to have sold 180 overall units since launching in 2014.

Aye Nyein Win

FMIs hospital joint venture gets MIC nod

First Myanmar Investment (FMI) and Lippo Groups health care joint venture has been approved by the Myan-mar Investment Commission, according to a press release.

Serge Pun-chaired FMI will own 60 percent of the joint venture, with Indonesia-based Lippo Group, the controlling shareholder of Indonesias Siloam Interna-tional hospitals, owning the remaining 40pc stake.

This represents a first step for us into the country and we will go beyond the city of Yangon to become a national network, said Lippo Group chief executive James Riady in a press release. Our commitment is to invest in a model similar to Siloam that has seen it become a national healthcare leader.

Serge Pun said FMI and Lippo share a vision to pro-vide equitable and accessible healthcare to a large seg-ment of the Myanmar people.

The 182-bed Pun Hlaing Hospital will be re-named to Pun Hlaing Siloam Hospital as part of the joint venture. It claims six operating theatres, 24-7 emergency services, a maternity ward, an inten-sive care unit and a modern clinical laboratory, the press release said.

Jeremy Mullins

International Business 11www.mmtimes.com

NEW Yorks powerful banking regula-tor announced late last week its first li-cence for a Bitcoin exchange, extending its influence over the growing but little-regulated virtual currency industry.

New York City-based itBit Trust Co was the first company dealing in so-called crypto-currency to receive a trust licence from the state Depart-ment of Financial Services (DFS).

ItBit immediately announced it was accepting US retail and institutional Bitcoin trading customers, and said it had recruited to its board the respected former chair of the Federal Deposit In-surance Corporation, Sheila Bair.

Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the DFS, which supervises the mas-sive New York City banking industry, said it was critical to regulate the vir-tual money industry in the wake of the collapse of the Tokyo-based Mt Gox Bitcoin exchange last year.

The trust licence obliges the com-pany to meet state banking law rules on capitalisation, anti-money launder-ing safegaurds and consumer protec-tions, Mr Lawsky noted.

We have sought to move quickly but carefully to put in place rules of the road to protect consumers and provide greater regulatory certainty for virtual currency entrepreneurs, he said in a statement.

The technology behind Bitcoin and other virtual currencies could ulti-mately hold real promise and it is criti-cal that we set up appropriate rules of the road to help safeguard customer funds.

ItBit is one of a number of exchang-es already operating, but was the first to apply for a New York banking law licence after the state moved to begin regulating the exchanges last year.

The company started up in 2012 in Singapore and last year in New York. It is led by co-founder and chief execu-tive Charles Cascarilla, an investment banker, and is backed by a number of venture capitalists.

On May 7 it formally announced the establishment of itBit Trust with US$25 million in fresh funding.

It also said that Ms Bair, former US senator Bill Bradley, and Robert Herz, former chair of the Financial Account-ing Standards Board and board mem-ber at Morgan Stanley, had joined the itBit board of directors.

Our mission at itBit has always been to create a trusted, institutional-grade exchange and regulatory compli-ance is an important pillar of that mis-sion, said Mr Cascarilla in a statement.

Dealing with a New York-licenced trust, he said, means that our cli-ents can rest assured knowing that their deposits are secure no matter the exigency. AFP

Americanregulator gives out Bitcoin licence

NEW YORK

The technology behind Bitcoin and other virtual currencies could ultimately hold real promise.

Benjamin Lawsky NY Department of Financial Services

GREECE and its international creditors were very close to a loan deal for the cash-strapped country, a Greek junior minister said yester-day, a day ahead of a key meeting in Brussels.

After weeks of painful negotia-tion, if the other side is willing, it will become apparent that ... the deal is very close and will be sealed in the coming period, Euclid Tsakalotos, one of Greeces main negotiators, told Avgi daily.

Mr Tsakalotos, a junior foreign minister, said Athens and its credi-tors were politically apart on la-bour and pension issues and that some areas will remain open until the last minute.

At a meeting of eurozone fi-nance ministers later today, Greece is hoping for a positive statement on negotiations that will allow for a section of 7.2 billion euros (US$8.1 billion) in remaining bailout loans to be released, officials have said.

However, European officials have played down the likelihood of a deal actually emerging later today.

We have made progress, but

we are not very close to an agree-ment, Eurogroup chair Jeroen Dijsselbloem told Italys Corriere della Sera daily.

It will surely not be reached at the Eurogroup meeting [today], he said.

Greece has been squeezing funds from the central and local governments to be able to meet its international loan payments, with concerns that within a matter of weeks it could default and face a messy exit from the euro.

But a loan repayment of 750 million euros due tomorrow to the IMF will be honoured, according to sources in Athens.

A poll in Real News daily yester-day showed 71.9 percent of Greeks favoured a compromise to keep the country in the eurozone.

And if the question was put to a referendum, as the government has indicated it may do, 49.2pc said they would accept further salary and pension cuts if it meant keep-ing the euro. AFP

ATHENS

Greece, EU near on debt deal: minister

Greek Junior Foreign Minister Euclid Tsakalotos is head of Greeces negotiating team. Photo: AFP

THE new CEO of Malaysia Airlines has told its employees that the trou-bled carrier faces a more dire outlook than previously thought and warned of coming job cuts, saying the com-pany does not have enough work for you.

The gloomy outlook from Chris-toph Mueller was contained in a memo to the stricken airlines em-ployees dated May 5 and obtained on March 8.

The financial situation of MAS in 2015 is more challenging than we all thought and it is a call for swift ac-tion, wrote Mr Mueller, who took his new position on May 1.

The state fund that controls the airline said last year it planned to slash 6000 jobs, or about one-third of the workforce.

It also has said it would kill off unprofitable routes and make other wrenching changes to rescue a carrier facing possible collapse after years of losses and two devastating disasters in 2014. Appointing a new CEO was a key part of the rescue strategy.

Mr Mueller is a German national who had previously initiated a turna-round plan at Irelands Aer Lingus that involved hefty job cuts. AFP

Malaysia Airlines hits rough skies

KUALA LUMPUR

12 International Business THE MYANMAR TIMES MAY 11, 2015

HANOI

COFFEE farmer Bui Van Trong is plan-ning to switch as much as 15 percent of his 5-acre farm to pepper after prices more than tripled in five years.

When I have profit from it, Ill be less worried by wild fluctuations in the coffee market, said Mr Trong, 51, whose farm is in the central Dak Lak province bordering Cambodia.

Vietnam is the worlds biggest pro-ducer of pepper as well as the largest supplier of robusta beans. As coffee swung from a bull to a bear market in the past 14 months, more farmers planted pepper as an alternative source of income. The expansion could pose a threat to robusta production, said Le Tien Hung, who exports the beans from the Central Highlands.

Farmers are planting pepper vines to replace old trees, said Mr Hung, the general director at September 2nd Import-Export or Simexco, the coun-trys second-largest shipper. Coffee production may even stop growing and decline in the long run, he said by phone April 21.

The doi moi reforms of the 1980s gave farmers access to global markets and they responded by planting more

of everything. Robusta output expanded eightfold in two decades. Pepper pro-duction has climbed 36pc in the past five years and the country now supplies about half of global exports. Vietnam also ships rice, tea and rubber. Black-pepper prices in Vietnam have more than tripled in the past five years to US$8565 a tonne in March, according to the Spices Board in India. Robusta added 28pc to US$1729 a tonne on the ICE Futures Europe market in London.

The price of pepper rose every year but one since 2009, while coffee has swung between gains and losses. Robusta has also been more volatile, jumping 52pc in the four months to March 2014 before dropping 22pc in the following year.

That has spurred pepper planting, with the cultivated area increasing to 83,800 hectares (207,000 acres) in 2014, from 55,500 hectares in 2011, ac-cording to agriculture ministry data. Coffee plantations expanded 9.5pc to 641,700 hectares in the same period, the data show.

A collapse in coffee output in Viet-nam is unlikely any time soon. Yields are increasing and global demand for robusta is rising, according to Carlos Mera, a commodities analyst at Ra-bobank International in London. Ro-busta is typically used in soluble drinks and espresso blends.

Farmers are not going to uproot a significant proportion of coffee trees to plant pepper, said Mr Mera. Vietnams harvest will probably increase to 29.4 million 132-pound (59.9 kilogram) bags in the 12 months from October, from 27.2 million bags this year, he estimates.

Pepper vines are also more vul-nerable to disease and cost more to cultivate. Bloomberg

Pepper baits Vietnam coffee farmer switch

Coffee production may even stop growing and decline in the long run.

Le Tien Hung Coffee bean exporter

GOOGLE formally opened its first Asian start-up campus in Seoul on May 8 a marquee-name nod to South Koreas aspirations as a regional hub for a new generation of tech entrepreneurs.

Opened by President Park Geun-Hye, who has touted establishing a creative economy as a key policy for her administration, Campus Seoul is housed in the capitals upscale Gangnam district which has become a focal point for the Korean start-up community.

As well as providing a space for peo-ple to work and network, it offers men-toring and training by Google teams and experienced entrepreneurs, plus access to other start-up communities in Asia and beyond.

We feel were at a tipping point where Korean start-ups will begin go-ing global, said Jeffrey Lim, who heads the Seoul Campus operations.

Its a point that has been touted as tipping for some time, nudged by a highly educated, hard-working com-munity in a country with some of the worlds fastest broadband speeds and highest smartphone penetration rates.

But despite the domestic success of some start-ups, Korean firms have struggled to take their products to the global market.

There are a variety of reasons, in-cluding a lack of funding and know-how, well-intentioned but overly regu-lated government involvement, and the absence of any real role models.

There are also challenges that are particular to South Korea because of its recent history.

The Asian financial crisis that rocked the country in the late 1990s and the bursting of an initial dot-com

boom in 2001 served to reinforce the widely held view that taking risks and running your own business was to in-vite volatility, insecurity and potential bankruptcy.

When bright, young Korean gradu-ates want to create their own start-ups, the biggest challenge they face is often their parents, said Mr Lim.

They still push them toward the security of jobs with the big conglom-erates like Samsung and LG. They still feel thats the gold standard for how they raised their kids, he added.

But for those with the courage to take the plunge, there are encouraging signs that things are changing.

And the good thing about Korea is that, when we change, we have shown we can change very fast, said April Kim, co-founder and CEO of ChattingCat a start-up providing an instant English-language correction service for non-native speakers.

The 33-year-old, who has already moved her tiny team into Campus Seoul, believes a major corner has already been turned, with overseas venture capital firms setting up shop in South Korea and Korean entrepre-neurs starting to create start-up incu-bators and accelerators.

The government has also stepped up, with Ms Parks administration

in 2013 unveiling a 3.3 trillion won (US$3.0 billion) fund to nurture start-ups over the next three years.

In the past two years, Ms Kim has received more than $60,000 in govern-ment funding, a sum she was extreme-ly grateful for when she was struggling to get her company up and running.

But the money came with a sub-stantial cost in time and effort.

There was so much paperwork! For my first [$20,000] I had to write an 80-page report. And every quarter, they want an accounting of how the money is being spent, Ms Kim said.

Theres a lot of frustration and wasted energy, she said.

Its a point echoed by another early Campus Seoul member, Park Sangwon, whose software development start-up is promoting a real-time camera filter application that already boasts 160 mil-lion downloads.

The problem is that the side pro-viding the funding is not really looking at making the business more success-ful, the 34-year-old said.

Theres a lot of distrust and want-ing to make sure the money is being spent in the proper way, he added.

The Google campuses are not-for-profit projects that the US tech giant says carry the over-arching benefit of widening the internet eco-sphere. The Seoul outpost is modelled after similar facilities in London and Tel Aviv, and soon to be Warsaw and Sao Paulo.

Basic membership is free and space is provided at very low rates. Google has no financial stake in the start-ups that use the Seoul campus, although it clearly doesnt hurt to have a close eye on what might become the next Twitter or Uber.

For both Ms Kim and Ms Park, its a welcome resource where they can meet other small teams like their own, share experiences, pursue possible collabora-tions and, hopefully, identify and open doors to venture capital funding.

But in terms of growing, they still lack the models for how to move be-yond the Korean market.

Im at a stage where I need men-tors and connections, but they are hard to find, Ms Kim said.

I hope there will be at least one Ko-rean start-up that makes it on a global scale in the next few years. It would give a lot of people hope and help oth-ers to learn and follow. AFP

Google campus member April Kim poses during a media tour of the campus in the Gangnam distric of Seoul. Photo: AFP

SEOUL

Google opens first Asian campus in Korea

AN unpopular new consumption tax has handed fresh ammunition to critics of Malaysias embattled prime minister, with angry consumers complaining it has sent some prices surging, and econ-omists warning it could harm growth.

The government on April 1 intro-duced the 6 percent Goods and Servic-es Tax (GST), which taxes transactions throughout the business supply chain and replaces earlier sales and service taxes on end-consumers that ranged from 6 to 10pc.

The government had said the more streamlined tax regime would lead to lower prices for many key items and boost government revenue in South-east Asias third-largest economy.

Experts agree Malaysias biggest tax reform in decades is necessary fewer than 3 million of the countrys 30 million people pay income tax, and high government debt has economists worried.

But implementation has been marked by mass confusion over how the tax works, its array of exemptions and contradictory government state-ments, with many businesses hiking prices amid the uncertainty.

The issue sparked a May Day pro-test by thousands of opponents and has provided fresh fodder for ruling-party forces seeking Prime Minister Najib Razaks ouster over allegations of cor-ruption and mismanagement.

We are victims of a mismanaged economy. [The GST] hurts the poor and the middle-class like me, said

Kuala Lumpur pre-school teacher Siti Nora Manaf, 62.

Like many Malaysian consumers, she already faced rising costs, with the ringgit currency at its weakest in years due to concerns over the impact of soft world oil prices. Malaysia is heavily de-pendent on energy exports.

Ms Siti Nora said the price of a bag of rice supposedly exempt from the GST has jumped 40pc since April 1 amid the confusion. She has begun growing vegetables in the small garden at her home, while slashing other living costs.

Mr Najib last month defended the tax as an important reform that will help us build a stronger, more sustain-able and transparent economy.

He has said short-term pain was un-avoidable, while vowing to clamp down on profiteering.

But critics question the timing of the GSTs introduction.

After Malaysias economy grew 6pc last year, the World Bank in January forecast a slowdown in 2015 to a still-enviable 4.7pc, citing the oil-price woes.

Malaysian consumers also shoul-der some of Asias highest levels of

personal debt, increasing public sensi-tivity to price shocks.

Everyones wallet is being hit. Salaries are not going up, and going forward consumers will face a hard time, said Paul Selvaraj, head of the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations.

Chua Hak Bin, a Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist, said the GST will crimp the domestic spending that Malaysias economy increasingly relies on as export markets have softened.

There will be a pullback in con-sumer spending and it could last until September due to waning consumer sentiment, Mr Chua said.

He added, however, that scrapping the GST would be a disaster that would shatter investor confidence.

Economists remain guardedly op-timistic on the financial outlook, and foreign investment remains solid.

But worried comparisons are being made with Japan, which raised its con-sumption tax last year, a move blamed for stifling consumer spending and triggering a recession.

AFP

KUALA LUMPUR

Unpopular tax takes Malaysia political toll

Malaysias Prime Minister Najib Razak speaks during the opening

ceremony of the 26th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

Photo: AFP

North Korea claims ballistic missile test launch from subWorld 17

Widodo frees Papua political prisonersWorld 16

14 THE MYANMAR TIMES May 11, 2015 15

World World editor: Fiona MacGregorRENEGADE Yemeni troops who helped Shiite rebels to seize much of the country said yesterday that they had accepted a Saudi proposal for a ceasefire after more than six weeks of air strikes.

The announcement came as Saudi-led warplanes hit the Sanaa residence of ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is accused of orchestrat-ing the alliance between the renegade units and the rebels.

There was no immediate word from the Huthi rebels themselves on whether they too had accepted Saudi Arabias offer of a five-day pause from tomorrow in the devastating air war it has led in support of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

The truce moves came as the Unit-ed Nations expressed mounting con-cern about the civilian death toll from the bombing campaign and the hu-manitarian impact of the air and sea blockade that Saudi Arabia and its al-lies have imposed on its impoverished neighbour.

Coalition warplanes pounded the rebels stronghold of Saada in the northern mountains for a second straight night on May 9 after de

monday, may 11, 2015 (mte daily issue 39)

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