The state-run Myanmar [Burma] Port Authority (MPA) plans to privatize ports in Rangoon and offer port-building and other port-related projects in the former capital city to private companies, according to government sources.
Win Khant, a Ministry of Transport official in the new administrative capital, Naypyidaw, told The Irrawaddy that the MPA plans to sell its existing ports to the private sector and invite investors to build new ports under a build, operate and transfer (BOT) system.
“Private companies themselves can tender proposals to the ministry to build new ports in Yangon [Rangoon],” he said on Thursday.
There are two government-owned ports operating along the Rangoon River—the Sule and Bo Aung Kyaw ports, located near Rangoon's city center.
Another port, the Myanmar International Terminal Thilawa (MITT), located 25 km south of the city, is owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchinson Port Holdings. MITT and Asia World Co, Ltd., owned by Lo Hsing Han, a former drug lord wanted by the US government, have already reached agreements with the MPA to build new ports.
According to business sources, the government plans to confiscate properties along the Rangoon River—including bus terminals, public servants' residences, warehouses and markets—to make way for the new ports.
“Local residents who have seen land surveyors in their areas are worried. But houses facing the riverbank will not be confiscated,” said an editor of a Rangoon-based business journal.
There are also concerns that construction of the new ports will result in the demolition of historically important buildings along the Strand Road, including the Strand Hotel, the Central Post Office, the Myanmar Airways office, the British Council, the Customs House and the Myanmar Port Authority building.
Meanwhile, private companies will also be granted contracts to remove sand in shoal areas in the Gulf of Martaban, navigate channels and levy taxes on vessels along the Rangoon River, according to the MPA.
A Reuters report said that the Transport Ministry is also planning to transfer Burma's only state-owned shipping line, Myanmar Five Star, to Myanmar Economic Holdings, a business enterprise under the control of the Defense Ministry.
Since the beginning of this year, the government has privatized 246 state-owned gas stations and 110 factories. A number of hydro-power and mining projects have also been sold to private enterprises in recent months.
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