USD 31 million spent for development of Rakhine region, ironically more families face livelihood difficulties

The China-Myanmar oil & gas pipelines project in Kyauk Phyu township of Rakhine State has already spent about USD 31 million for the development of the Rakhine region, but in reality no visible development activities are observed on the ground. Rather the local residents have been facing more difficulties for their survival, said a Rakhine environmental activist.

The BETV reported that the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which runs China-Myanmar oil & gas pipelines, has spent US$ 30.93 million for infrastructure developments along the pipelines through Southeast Asian Oil Pipeline Company (SEAOP) and Southeast Asian Gas Pipeline Company (SEAGP).

Ko Myo Lwin, a mangrove and environmental conservationist from Ann township informed Narinjara News that the compensations were paid among the farmers but those were with lower rates.

"After the pipelines project was sanctioned, 21 townships in two States and divisions emerged as affected localities. Nearly USD 2 million was proposed to be spent for development of areas along the pipelines on various fronts like education, health, water supply, electricity and transportation.

But a large volume of money was spent for other regions by the junta government,” he added.

Initially it was decided to spend $ 9.6 million for education, $ 1.4 million for health, $17 million for infrastructure development, 400,000 dollars for culture, social welfare and sports, and $ 1.4 million for humanitarian aid.

 A resident of Kyauk Phyu Maday island, where major projects of CNPC are located, informed that the Chinese company built some schools, constructed roads, started water supply schemes but those are substandard in nature.

"The quality of works is poor and I doubt if they had actually spent the full amount of money,” he added.

According to a BETV report, the junta authorities earned US$ 993.94 million from the gas exporting to China in eight months (January to August 2023).

The Sino-Myanmar oil & natural gas pipelines project is one of the initial initiatives of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). But the project may lead the Rakhine people losing their culturalal heritages and also increasing on their dependency on foreign economic powers.

According to data from the general administration of customs (China), no less than 52 billion cubic meters of natural gas has been sent through the China-Myanmar natural gas pipeline in the last 10 years and new gas fields are still being explored in the Rakhine sea.

Myanmar thus emerges as the third largest exporter of gas to China through the pipeline.

But in return, the Rakhine people are only suffering from the loss of livelihood because of the Chinese projects and they even can not protest against it, added the environmental activist.