Myanmar revises plan for developing Dawei SEZ

Myanmar has revised its plan of developing its Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in southern Tanintharyi region, seeking partnership mainly with Japanese consortium and other international investors and developers in addition to Thailand for the implementation of the SEZ project. Chairman of the Management Committee of Dawei SEZ U Han Sein told a press conference here Monday that the sole original developer, which was the Italian-Thai Public Co , has terminated its work with the SEZ to carry out due diligence assessment of the company by international consulting firms and make way for Myanmar 's invitation to prospective international investors and developers for tendering the project competitively and transparently. In the new process, the Italian-Thai company is allowed to re- tender the project along with others. U Han Sein, who is also deputy minister of Transport, said that international developers can bid the tender starting Dec. 20 for the initial phase of the project and the tender will open on March 31, 2014 and the project work is set to begin on May 15, 2014. The construction cost of the overall project is estimated at 8. 6 billion U.S. dollars, he added. He disclosed that the project area is being reduced to 196 square-kilometers (sq-km) covering six villages from 204.5 sq-km covering 16 villages and the project will be implemented in two phases, the initial phase and the full-fledged phase. The initial phase will cover nearly 20 sq-km or 10 percent of the overall project which is estimated to take five years, Chairman of the Special Work Committee for Implementation of Dawei SEZ and Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Security U Aye Myint told Xinhua in an interview. The overall Dawei SEZ covers deep seaport, industrial zone, steel plant, fertilizer plant, coal and natural gas-fired power plant and water supply system as well as motor road to link Thailand's Kanchaburi province, railroad, oil and gas pipeline and electrical cable line, while the initial phase of the project includes two-lane motor road, small wharf which can accommodate 13, 000-20,000 tons of vessel, industrial zone involving labor intensive industries, power plant, residential building, water supply system and communication lines. Tender for the following phases will be invited later in the process of implementation. The Dawei SEZ is introduced as the first largest of its kind in Myanmar. Myanmar and Thailand initially signed a framework agreement in November 2010 to implement the project. Afterwards, Myanmar and Thailand set up a joint committee on its comprehensive development in November 2012 setting the development ratio as 50 percent each.