Strife hangs over China billions in Myanmar
Spending for key port as vital new gateway is threatened by communal violence
China is spending billions to develop Kyaukpyu as its international gateway in Myanmar, but the development threatens to be derailed by communal violence.
"Kyaukpyu is the new gateway to China and Asean. Kyaukpyu is the ocean exit for China. Kyaukpyu offers the shortest trade route from India to China," said Kyaw Oo, deputy chief engineer of the Myanmar Port Authority.
The port city in Rakhine state, on the northwest coast of Myanmar, saves ships 5,000 kilometres of sailing through the Straits of Malacca to China, as cargo can go overland from Kyaukpyu to southern China, Kyaw Oo said at the Myanmar Urban Development Conference in Yangon.
Kyaukpyu lies next to the offshore Shwe gas fields in the Bay of Bengal, the Southeast Asian country's biggest gas project.
Billions of US dollars would be invested in Kyaukpyu, Kyaw Oo said. "China will be a leading investor in Kyaukpyu. It is most appropriate."
In 2011, China Railway Engineering, a leading state-owned rail construction firm, and the Myanmar Ministry of Railways signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to build an 868-kilometre passenger and cargo railway between Kyaukpyu and Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province in China's south.
The railway would cost US$20 billion and be fully financed by China, said Myint Wai, general manager at the ministry. The project was undergoing feasibility studies, he said.