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Myanmar has revised its plan of developing its Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in southern Tanintharyi region, inviting international companies to bid for the project following the pull-out of the sole developer, Italian- Thai Public Company, which had failed to keep on with the project work.
Chairman of the Management Committee of Dawei SEZ U Han Sein revealed that former agreement with the Italian-Thai Public 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 rendering the project competitively and transparently.
In the new process, the Italian-Thai company is permitted to re- tender the project along with others.
U Han Sein, who is also deputy minister of Transport, said that international developers can bid the tender starting Dec. 20 for the initial phase of the project and the tender will open on March 31, 2014 and the project work is set to begin on May 15, 2014.
The construction cost of the overall project is estimated at 8. 6 billion U.S. dollars.
He disclosed that the project area is being reduced to 196 square-kilometers (sq-km) covering six villages from 204.5 sq-km with 16 villages and the project will be implemented in two phases.
The initial phase will cover nearly 20 sq-km or 10 percent of the overall project which is estimated to take five years, Chairman of the Special Work Committee for Implementation of Dawei SEZ and Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Security U Aye Myint told Xinhua in an interview.
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.
The initial phase of the project includes a two-lane motor road, a small wharf which can accommodate 13,000-20,000 tons of vessel, an industrial zone involving labor intensive industries, a power plant, residential building, water supply system and communication lines.
Invitation for tender for the following phase is said to be made later in the process of implementation.
The Dawei SEZ is introduced as the first largest of its kind in Myanmar.
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 a 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.
Dawei region serves as southern economic corridor of the Greater Mekong Subregion.
