Beijing promotes project to open new energy route for China

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported today, December 29, that top executives of Chinese state-owned company Citic Group, Chinese diplomats and Myanmar military government officials attended the signing ceremony of the annex to the project concession agreement in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw on December 26. Under the agreement signed in 2018, Citic Group will maintain a 70% stake in the Kyaukphyu port project.

At the new signing ceremony, Citic Group Chairman Xi Guohua stressed that the Kyaukphyu deep-water port is "an important part" of Beijing's Belt and Road strategy as well as the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor and has "great significance for practical cooperation".

"Latest Signs"

Details of the annex to the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port project agreement were not released, but it is seen as the latest sign that the major China-backed infrastructure project is getting back on track, according to SCMP . The project has made little progress since the Myanmar military seized power in a coup on February 1, 2021.

The $1.3 billion Kyaukphyu Port project is located on Maday Island off the fishing village of Kyaukphyu in the Bay of Bengal. It is part of the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone, a plan to attract the textile and oil refining industries that are at the heart of China’s relationship with Myanmar.

It is also a key part of the 1,700-km China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, a network of railways, roads, oil and natural gas pipelines running from the capital of Kunming in China's Yunnan province to the Indian Ocean.

Kyaukphyu port will provide China with an alternative route to import energy from the Middle East, avoiding the Strait of Malacca

The Kyaukphyu port is expected to give Beijing strategic access to the Indian Ocean, while also providing China with an alternative energy route to the Strait of Malacca, the narrow waterway between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea that carries about 80 percent of China's oil imports from the Middle East.

Citic Group, one of China's largest and oldest financial companies, was selected as the investor in the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone and deep-sea port projects in 2015.

The project made little progress until Citic Group and the then Myanmar government , led by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, reached a framework agreement in 2018 to scale back the port project investment from $7.3 billion to $1.3 billion.

A joint management committee was also established between Citic Group and the Myanmar government on a 70:30 equity basis, with a 50-year lease to the Chinese company.

However, legal issues have hampered the project's progress, forcing China to publicly call on the Myanmar government to push ahead with infrastructure plans under the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, according to SCMP .

Efforts of Myanmar military government

The signing of the supplementary agreement for the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port project comes amid fighting between the military and a coalition of ethnic armed groups that has raged across Myanmar for more than two months.

The continuing clashes prompted the Chinese Embassy to issue a new security alert on December 28, urging citizens to “evacuate as soon as possible” from Laukkai, a major town in the Kokang Autonomous Region near Myanmar’s northern border with China.

Earlier, on December 27, The Irrawaddy news site quoted sources close to the rebel groups as saying that the Myanmar military government and an alliance of three ethnic armed groups failed to reach a peace agreement at the second round of peace talks brokered by China last week in Kunming.

People's Liberation Army ethnic armed forces clash with Myanmar military near Sagaing region of Myanmar on November 23, 2023

Citic Group said in February 2023 that it had completed a 10-month site survey for the Kyaukphyu port project. A report was released in September, paving the way for construction, with the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone Committee launching a tender process last month.

Earlier this month, Myanmar Commerce Minister Aung Naing Oo announced the end of negotiations with Citic Group on a deep-sea port licensing deal signed by the previous government, according to SCMP .

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/bac-kinh-xuc-tien-du-an-mo-them-tuyen-nang-luong-moi-cho-trung-quoc-185231229121037746.htm