June 2, 2016

Myanmar Investment Commission to Reform in June

The Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) will be reformed this month in line with the Myanmar Investment Law, said Than Aung Kyaw, deputy director general of the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA).

“Each MIC term is only three years, so it’s time for new members to be appointed,” he said.

The commission, which is responsible for assessing and approving large-scale investments and is headed by Union-level government officials, initially consisted of at least nine members who dealt largely with processing foreign investment. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

Aung San Suu Kyi moves to end sectarian violence in Myanmar

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi will lead a fresh effort to bring peace and development to the impoverished, troubled Rakhine state in Myanmar, where violence between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims has cast a shadow over democratic reform.

Sectarian violence in Rakhine State in 2012 killed more than 160 and 140,000 people were displaced, and the two communities have remained segregated since then.

Ms Suu Kyi holds the rank of state counsellor in Myanmar (formerly Burma), where she is considered de facto leader after a landslide election win in November but is barred from holding the presidency because of rules imposed by the military junta, which still wields considerable power in the southeast Asian nation. (Courtesy of irishtimes.com)

Government Urged to Strengthen Safeguards on Press Freedom

A prominent US-based media rights organization has written to President Htin Kyaw, urging the new government to strengthen legal protections on press freedom, and ensure that reporters can practice their profession independently and without fear of reprisal.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) commended the government for granting a presidential pardon to four reporters and the CEO of Unity Journal. The five were serving seven-year prison sentences with hard labor, under the colonial-era State Secrets Act, for a series of investigative reports in January 2014 on what they claimed was a secret chemical weapons factory run by the Burma Army.

The CPJ letter also welcomed the government’s recent move to abolish the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, a law that former military-backed governments in Burma have used to prosecute and imprison journalists for reporting news deemed detrimental to broadly defined “national security.” (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

More Refugees Expected to Return From Thailand Next Year

More individual and large-scale returns of Burmese refugees from Thailand are expected during the dry season next year, according to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that provide assistance to more than 120,000 refugees on the Thai-Burma border.

In its report released Tuesday, the UN’s refugee agency, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said a growing number of refugees in Thailand’s camps were seeking support to return and rebuild their lives back home because they were encouraged by the prospects of the peace process, social and democratic reforms and the new civilian government.

The report said that several hundred Burmese refugees from nine camps along on the Thai-Burma border have approached the UNHCR in recent months seeking support to return home. In response, the UNHCR dispatched a team to conduct voluntary repatriation interviews in Nupo Camp in Thailand’s Tak province. (Courtesy of irrawaddy.com)

Scottish companies set for oil and gas trade mission to Myanmar

A Scottish economic development agency will lead a trade mission to explore investment opportunities for oil and gas companies in Myanmar, Asia’s “final frontier”.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has vast underdeveloped oil and gas reserves and its government, which is guiding the transition to democracy after decades of military rule, is keen to develop the nation’s indigenous energy sector.

Scottish Enterprise plans to use the trip to find out how Scotland’s wider supply chain can fill the gaps in Myanmar’s oil and gas supply chain.

Energy firms in the UK have been looking to branch into different producing regions to make up for a downturn in North Sea activity amid the oil price rout. (Courtesy of energyvoice.com)