The Irrawaddy
Ethnic Groups Demand Input in Myanmar Land Reforms
Development organizations and farming groups from ethnic minority areas have called on the government to postpone land reforms, saying they will crush indigenous people’s rights. After parliament resumes on Feb. 1, it is due to discuss a land law which has been planned since 2019 as ...
NAN LWIN
Ethnic Groups Demand Input in Myanmar Land Reforms
Development organizations and farming groups from ethnic minority areas have called on the government to postpone land reforms, saying they will crush indigenous people’s rights. After parliament resumes on Feb. 1, it is due to discuss a land law which has been planned since 2019 as ...
NAN LWIN
Myanmar Closes Eight Temporary COVID-19 Hospitals in Yangon
Yangon has closed eight temporary hospitals, out of 15, as the number of COVID-19 cases drops in the city. In mid-September, Myanmar rapidly opened temporary hospitals and converted public housing into COVID-19 hospitals in Yangon as up to 1,900 cases were reported per day. Myanmar opened about ...
ZAW ZAW HTWE
Myanmar COVID-19 Vaccination Expected from April
Myanmar plans to start providing COVID-19 vaccines to about 20 percent of its 54.4 million population in April under the global Covax affordable medicines program, according to health minister Dr. Myint Htwe. Myanmar on Dec. 7 submitted its request to the Covax program at the World ...
NYEIN NYEIN
Making Myanmar’s Markets Work for Safe Farmers
It was a Saturday morning and several people have started to gather around small stalls lined up along Nat Mauk Street near Yangon’s Kandawgyi Lake. There is nothing unusual seeing a weekend market packed with shoppers, some of them fresh from their early morning walk, ...
DWIGHT JASON RONAN
Myanmar Offers Struggling Families COVID-19 Cash
Myanmar’s government says it will provide a fourth round of cash handouts for those struggling because of COVID-19. However, only the Yangon regional government has announced the cash plan and The Irrawaddy could not confirm if it would be replicated elsewhere. “This time the government will provide ...
AUNG THIHA
ADB Approves $484-Million Loan for Expressway Linking Myanmar’s Bago Region, Mon State
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$484-million (624.52-billion-kyat) loan to construct a new expressway connecting Bago Region and Mon State, which lie along Japan’s planned East-West Economic Corridor, a grand infrastructure scheme for the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The ADB said the new GMS ...
NAN LWIN
Health Workers Make Up 10% of Myanmar’s COVID-19 Cases
More than 10 percent of those currently infected with COVID-19 in Myanmar are health workers, according to a top government medic. “More than 10 percent of those infected with COVID-19 after Aug. 16 are health staff,” said the director of contagious disease prevention and eradication at ...
THAZIN HLAING
‘This Is Our Land—and That’s the Truth’: Pa-O Farmers Challenge Myanmar Military
Much is in dispute surrounding nearly 2,000 acres of farmland in the ethnic Pa-O region of Hsi Hseng Township in southern Shan State, but native farmer Moe Bae is sure of two things: the land is owned by local farmers like her, and the military ...
NYEIN NYEIN
Myanmar COVID-19 Recovery Plan Won't Favor China's BRI Projects, Official Says
When Myanmar announced its seven-point economic relief plan to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19 in late April, one item immediately raised eyebrows among China analysts in the country. The initiative’s third main objective is stated as “Easing the Impacts on Laborers and Workers”, and ...
NAN LWIN