News
Palm oil projects destroy local livelihoods: report
More than 1.8 million acres of palm oil plantations in Myanmar’s southern Tenasserim Division do more harm than good for local Karen villagers, causing land conflict, damaging livelihoods, destroying biodiversity, and polluting the environment, according to a new report. Companies and businesspeople have taken over ...
Soros fund management to assist Myanmar in budget drawing process
The Soros Fund Management will render technical assistance to Myanmar for its budget drawing process and taxing, Myanmar News Agency reported on January 12. The assistance was discussed when Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi met with the Soros Fund Management delegation led by ...
Youth, women key to economic growth
To join the “Asian Tiger” economies of the neighbouring countries, Myanmar must invest more in its youth, the UN Population Fund has said following a new examination of demographic trends from the 2014 census. “A unique window of opportunity opens when there are more people ...
Special rapporteur barred from Laiza, Hpakant
Just a few days into her fifth visit and the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar has already encountered a few bumps in the road, with the government blocking her from going to Laiza and Hpakant, in Kachin State. Yanghee Lee and her ...
Tanintharyi tourism committee to draft master plan
A Tanintharyi development committee, operating under the tourism ministry and chaired by local tycoon Serge Pun, is drawing up a master plan for sustainable tourism in the region. Tanintharyi boasts the Myeik archipelago, a cluster of more than 800 largely untouched islands that hold huge ...
Savings spare women from labor in Myanmar
Ma Nwe places a rock the size of a baseball at her feet, then tightens the string holding her bamboo hat in place. “I can’t risk it falling off,” she explained, squinting in the sun. “It’s only going to get hotter as the day goes ...
As catch and sales fall, Myanmar’s fishermen sink into debt
On a recent afternoon, the beach at Jatetaw village was bustling with fishermen hauling their boats a shore and off loading the catch. Local women carried the fish off in bamboo baskets and laid them out to dry in the sun, after which they would ...
Yangon bus system overhaul set to start
Yangon’s infamous public bus system – where commuters are dragged by callous conductors onto ageing vehicles operated by drivers with scant regard for road safety – is about to change. A long-awaited transformation of the bus network, which some 80 percent of the commercial capital’s ...
Rakhine commerce minister sees bright future for black bean exports
The Rakhine State commerce minister is hoping around 10,000 tonnes of black gram beans will be exported to India from Sittwe this year, pending completion of the Kaladan Multi-Model Transit Transport Project. The Kaladan project will connect Mizoram in India to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine ...
Govt evicts Nansibon jade mine scavengers
Jade scavengers who have allegedly overrun mines operated by private companies in Hkamti township have been ordered to move out by the government, with a combat police battalion standing by to enforce the ban. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation gave the itinerant ...
