The impacts on fishing communities which are described in the article are an impact caused by the pipeline/oil terminal, which long predated the SEZ plans. They mirror the findings in the MCRB Oil and Gas Sector Wide Impact Assessment (SWIA) for which field research was conducted in Kyaukphyu in 2013/4. Shwe Gas might also have covered those earlier still, although they more focussed on land grabs related to the terminal and the pipeline. Of course, if the actual Deep Sea Port , let alone the Industrial Park, ever made it off the drawing board, it’s likely to cause similar impacts on fishing communities unless better planned and managed. But it’s not the SEZ that caused the impacts because that doesn’t exist yet.
It’s also important to understand that China has no strategic interest in developing the Industrial Park, only the port as its the port which serves China’s aim of establishing a transport back door to the Bay of Bengal. But as the Myanmar side under Thein Sein was pushing Kyaukphyu as a third SEZ, they had to also pitch for industrial park. That element of the project is very much on the back burner, and even the port is only proceeding just fast enough to allow China to keep its end of the deal and keep its foot in the door, while the conflict dynamics play out.
The impacts on fishing communities which are described in the article are an impact caused by the pipeline/oil terminal, which long predated the SEZ plans. They mirror the findings in the MCRB Oil and Gas Sector Wide Impact Assessment (SWIA) for which field research was conducted in Kyaukphyu in 2013/4. Shwe Gas might also have covered those earlier still, although they more focussed on land grabs related to the terminal and the pipeline. Of course, if the actual Deep Sea Port , let alone the Industrial Park, ever made it off the drawing board, it’s likely to cause similar impacts on fishing communities unless better planned and managed. But it’s not the SEZ that caused the impacts because that doesn’t exist yet.
Thanks. Vicky Bowmen, for your insightful comments.
It’s also important to understand that China has no strategic interest in developing the Industrial Park, only the port as its the port which serves China’s aim of establishing a transport back door to the Bay of Bengal. But as the Myanmar side under Thein Sein was pushing Kyaukphyu as a third SEZ, they had to also pitch for industrial park. That element of the project is very much on the back burner, and even the port is only proceeding just fast enough to allow China to keep its end of the deal and keep its foot in the door, while the conflict dynamics play out.