Xinhua, Yangon :
Myanmar and Thailand are seeking revival of the years-delayed Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project in Myanmar’s southern Tanintharyi region and the initial project is expected to resume by early November.
A meeting of the two sides in Nay Pyi Taw Thursday focused on coordination of concession agreements and due diligence assessments, SEZ sources said.
Ernst and Young, which is a multi-national professional services firm based in London assigned to calculate expenses of the projects previously undertaken by the Italian-Thai Development Company, submitted its final due diligence assessment report to the last coordination meeting between Myanmar and Thailand in September.
The Dawei SEZ is located in Nabule, 27 km northwest of Dawei.
The initial projects include the construction of a two-lane motorway, a small jetty, an industrial zone, a power plant, a housing estate, water supply and communication facilities.
Although the project started in November 2010 in accordance with the framework agreement between the Myanmar Port Authority and the Italian-Thai Development Company, it has faced long delay, calling for governmental cooperation of the two sides for the resumption.
Meanwhile, Myanmar revised its plan of developing the Dawei SEZ in December last year, inviting international companies to bid for the project following the pull-out of the Italian-Thai company, which had failed to keep on with the project work. The Dawei SEZ Management Committee revealed that former agreement with the Italian-Thai Company on the project has terminated to make way for carrying out due diligence assessment of the company by international consulting firms and invitation to prospective international investors and developers for tendering the project competitively and transparently.
In the new process, the Italian-Thai company is permitted to re- tender the project along with others.
The construction cost of the overall project, which is to be implemented in two phases, is estimated at 8.6 billion U.S. dollars.
The initial phase, which will take five years, covers nearly 20 square kilometers or 10 percent of the overall project of 250 square kilometers.
The plan of the overall Dawei SEZ covers deep seaport, industrial zone, steel plant, fertilizer plant, coal and natural gas-fired power plant and water supply system.
The SEZ will also has a motor road to link Thailand’s Kanchaburi province as well as a railroad hub linked to oil and gas pipeline and electrical cable lines.
Myanmar and Thailand agreed in November 2010 to implement the project on a 50-50 basis. Afterwards, the two countries set up a joint committee on comprehensive development of the zone in November 2012.
The joint committee later agreed on the framework of the first five-year development plan between 2014 and 2018.
After inviting Japan to join in development of the project as a strategic partner, a follow-up tripartite meeting of Myanmar, Thailand and Japan have been focusing on setting up of special purpose vehicles (SPV) production base.
