The Irrawaddy
Myanmar Junta to Sell More Timber in Search for Hard Currency
Myanmar’s military regime will hold further timber auctions on June 23 and 24 as it seeks to raise hard currency to fund its coup. Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE), the state-run entity which controls Myanmar’s timber sales, held three separate auctions in late May in which nearly ...
THE IRRAWADDY
Veteran Myanmar Activist Faces Hate Speech Charges
The prominent democracy activist Ko Mya Aye, who has spent more than three months behind bars since the February coup, faces hate speech charges under Article 505(c) of the Penal Code for incitement, which carries up to two years in prison. According to his family, the ...
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
