Resource information
Land grabbing is an urgent concern for people in Tanintharyi Division, and
ultimately one of national and international concern, as tens of thousands of people are being displaced
for the Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Dawei lies within Myanmar’s (Burma) southernmost
region, the Tanintharyi Division, which borders Mon State to the North, and Thailand to the East, on
territory that connects the Malay Peninsula with mainland Asia. This highly populated and prosperous
region is significant because of its ecologically-diversity and strategic position along the Andaman coast.
Since 2008 the area has been at risk of massive expulsion of people and unprecedented environmental
costs, when a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Thai and Myanmar governments,
followed by a MoU between Thai investor Italian-Thai Development Corporation (ITD) (see Box 1) and
Myanma Port Authority, granted ITD access to the Dawei region to build Asia’s newest regional hub.
Thai interest in Dawei is strategic for two reasons. First, the small city happens to be Bangkok’s
nearest gateway to the Andaman Sea, and ultimately to India and the Middle East. Second, the project
links with a broader regional development plan, strategically plugging into the Asian Development
Bank’s (ADB) East-West Economic Corridor, a massive transport and trade network connecting
Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam; the Southern Economic Corridor (connecting to Cambodia);
and the North-South Economic Corridor, with rail links to Kunming, China. If all goes as planned,
the Dawei SEZ project, with an estimated infrastructural investment of over USD $50 billion will be
Southeast Asia’s largest industrial complex, complete with a deep seaport, industrial estate (including
large petrochemical industrial complex, heavy industry zone, oil and gas industry, as well as medium
and light industries), and a road/pipeline/rail link that will extend 350 kilometers to Bangkok (via
Kanchanaburi). The project even has its own legal framework, the Dawei Special Economic Zone Law,
drafted in 2011 to ensure the industrial estate is attractive to potential investors...
