Mandalay-Myo Thar industrial project on its way

Mandalay-Myo Thar industrial project on its way

By Si Thu Lwin   |   Friday, 02 August 2013

A potential stumbling block in the development of a 10,000-acre industrial park in Mandalay Region has been overcome, backers say, with almost all land compensation claims now settled.

Mandalay Region's Minister for Electricity and Industry Dr Myint Kyu said the development committee of the Mandalay Myotha Industrial Park had settled claims with 90 percent of farmers with land inside the project area.

"Land negotiations are nearly completed," he said. "The remaining farmers who we have not finished negotiating with are still farming because their lands are far from the project and we have allowed them to keep continue their cultivation.

"We will try to strike a bargain that satisfies everyone."

The main backer of the project is Royal High Tech Group. The company's chairman, U Aung Win Khine, is also chairman of Mandalay Myotha Industrial Development Public Company.

Shares in the public company went on sale in early April for K100,000. However, the public company reduced share prices by 90 percent to K10,000 from the beginning of June to make share ownership affordable to everyone, Dr Myint Kyu said. Those who already purchased shares at K100,000 will be issued with the equivalent in new shares.

"This project can be attractive to school teachers and low income groups so we have adjusted the share price to K10,000 each. More than 6000 shares have already been bought by businesspeople," Dr Myint Kyu added.

A company spokesperson said it expects to raise K3.6 billion through the shares.

The project's backers say the industrial, commercial and housing development will transform the region and bring significant economic benefits.

According to the prospectus the company released prior to the share sale in April, the Myotha Industrial Park will comprise more than 10,000 acres of land, of which 30 percent is earmarked for homes and 35pc for industrial projects, with the remaining 35pc taken up by roads, municipal infrastructure and public green space, including a golf course.

It includes three five-year phases, with the first phase expected to see about 2000 acres developed. The company says that when it is completed the park will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and require investment of more than US$600 million.

While the project's supervisory office and a river port at Simee Khone are both under construction and the company expects to start road building in August, land remains a potential hurdle.

Farmers say the project comprises 10,000 acres of farmland owned by more than 1300 farmers from 13 villages. However, only 900 acres are held by farmers with full proof of ownership documents; the remaining land is held by farmers without documentation, several sources said.

Farmers said the company paid K2 million (about US$2100) an acre to landowners with legal ownership papers but those without were paid crop compensation of about K500,000 an acre.

"Before the farmers were able to accept the compensation, project officials required them to provide fingerprinted and signed documents stating that they legally held the land," Sayardaw U Pinnyar Thiri from Tae Pin Monastery, who has been assisting farmers in the land compensation process, told The Myanmar Times.

"But even after that they were only paid K500,000 an acre because they could not provide ownership documents. Although the farmers did not want to accept the payment, they were pressed by township administrators to make them sign."

Some of the farmers who have not finished negotiating with the company have started planting sesame, groundnut (peanut), corn and cotton once the monsoon rains arrived.

"We have yet to reach an agreement for land compensation so we are still cultivating," said farmer Ko Kyaw Soe from Than Bo village in Ngar Zon township. "We did not accept the company's offer of compensation so we are continuing to grow crops on our land."

And while company officials say they allowed some farmers to continue farming because they were outside the project area, some say they rejected the offer of compensation altogether.

U Myat Thu, Pyithu Hluttaw representative for Ngar Zon township, said: "It may be that there is a difference between the two parties because verbal agreements were made before the land was surveyed. Conditions may have changed once surveyors from the Land Record's Department came to examine the land officially." – Translated by Zar Zar Soe

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/08/03/mandalay-myo-thar-industrial-project-on-its-way/