News
Laos is 'world's fastest growing' ivory market
The fastest growing ivory market in the world is now Laos, according to an investigation by Kenya-based group Save the Elephants. China is banning all ivory trade by the end of 2017, but business is booming in neighboring countries. Investigators visited a Chinese casino resort ...
Alastair Leithead
Government will take over burned Myanmar land: minister
Myanmar’s government will manage the redevelopment of villages torched during violence in Rakhine state that has sent nearly half a million Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, a minister was reported on Wednesday as saying. “According to the law, burnt land becomes government-managed land,” Minister for ...
Shoon Naing
U.N. warns of catastrophe as Myanmar Rohingya exodus nears 150,000
Nearly 150,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in less than two weeks, officials said on Wednesday after the United Nations chief warned there is a risk of ethnic cleansing in the former Burma that could destabilise the wider region.Myanmar leader Aung San Suu ...
Wa Lone and Simon Lewis
Govt urged to establish Belt and Road taskforce
The Myanmar government is urged to take a proactive role and form a taskforce to carve out its involvement in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). An adviser to the National League for Democracy-led government stressed the need to scrutinize debt while others voiced the ...
Su Phyo Win, Chan Mya Htwe, and Thompson Chau
Poverty Decreases, But Rural Areas Slower to Develop: Report
The number of people in Myanmar living in poverty has decreased from 32 percent of the population in 2004 to 19 percent in 2015, according to a recent report. The World Bank and the Ministry of Planning and Finance analyzed data on living conditions from ...
Thu Thu Aung and Rik Glauert
First rice export bilateral agreement signed
The National League for Democracy-led government is set to sign its first ever government-to-government (G-to-G) rice export bilateral agreement, according to the commerce ministry. The country is likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to export rice to Bangladesh in early September.Keep reading ...
Migrant workers group asks for action against corruption in issuing ID papers
Thailand-based rights group Migrants Workers Rights Network (MWRN) asked the Myanmar Ministry of Labour to take effective action against the corruption linked to the issuing of Certificates of Identity (CI) in the kingdom.“Our migrants have to pay for more than the real price at CI ...
SEZs in Myanmar should learn from international experience
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Myanmar should encourage policy experimentation and focus on tech spillovers, an economist told The Myanmar Times. By early June, 95 percent of the land plots in Thilawa SEZ zone A had been sold and the building of manufacturing plants is ...
Further delays hindering initial phase of Dawei SEZ kick off
The initial project of Dawei SEZ has been delayed due to the required approval for environmental and social impact assessment reports and the signing of land lease contract, deputy minister for the Ministry of Commerce U Aung Htoo said. “As the pre-requite conditions by both ...
State Counsellor stresses Belt and Road needs to align national priorities
At the BRI summit in May, the State Counsellor stressed that BRI-led projects should complement national priorities and take into account the welfare of local communities, and highlighted the need to ensure responsible business practice. Local analysts and commentators in Myanmar have spelt out some ...
