Myanmar, Thai seek revival of years-delayed economic zone project

YANGON, Oct 3 (Xinhua): 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.