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A Commentary by MACDO & Mads Barbesgaard (TNI)
How beneficial is the new policy of encouraging investment in Myanmar's Mon state?
Questions around investments in Mon State are heating up these days. The Economic Affairs Reviewing Committee of the Mon State Parliament has announced that, within the next few months, all investments within the state will come under official inspection. As Dr. Aung Naing Oo, Vice-Chair of the Mon State Parliament, explained, this inspection is coming about due to concerns about the recent inflow of investments to the state. “Although the Union Parliament allowed permissions, those businesses should be reviewed whether they were beneficial for the Mon State,” he said.
The favourable position of the Union Parliament towards investments mirrors that of the National League for Democracy (NLD) government. Addressing the people of Mon State in a speech at Mawlamyine University last year, State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi proclaimed: “Mon is poor, so you should welcome investments in order to secure development.”
This analysis is also in tune with recent calls from the State Counsellor for increased investments into the country more generally. A week after the inspection announcement by the Mon State Parliament, Aung San Suu Kyi declared on the eve of the 33rd ASEAN-meeting: “We have land, we have good young working population, we have many unexplored resources.” Most recently, the State Counsellor was even more bold in the attempt to entice investors at the Invest Myanmar Summit 2019. “As Southeast Asia’s final frontier market – final and best – we offer a world of opportunities,” she said. “Investment opportunities are everywhere in Myanmar; some are there to be seen, and others are waiting to be found.”
Such announcements, however, appear undeterred by the many ongoing conflicts around investments across the country. For people living on the ground, such statements are difficult to square with their daily realities. The implications of the recent surge in investments are especially the case for those affected by projects that target “land” and so-called “unexplored resources”.
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