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Kyaukphyu Deep-Sea Port

Coordinates: 19°21′52″N 93°41′04″E / 19.36444°N 93.68444°E / 19.36444; 93.68444
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Kyaukphyu Deep-Sea Port
Map
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Native name
ကျောက်ဖြူ ရေနက်ဆိပ်ကမ်း
Location
CountryMyanmar
LocationMaday Island, Kyaukphyu Township, Rakhine State, Myanmar
Coordinates19°21′52″N 93°41′04″E / 19.36444°N 93.68444°E / 19.36444; 93.68444
UN/LOCODEMMKYP
Details
OpenedExpected 2025
Operated byKyaukphyu SEZ Deep Seaport Co. Ltd.
Owned byCITIC Myanmar Port Investment Limited (70%)
Kyaukphyu SEZ Management Committee (30%)
Type of harbourDeep-water seaport
No. of berths10 (planned)
Statistics
Annual cargo tonnage7.8 million tons/year (bulk cargo, projected)
Annual container volume4.9 million TEU/year (initial)
Expandable to 7 million TEU/year
Website
www.mpa.gov.mm/ports/kyaukphyu-port/

The Kyaukphyu Deep-Sea Port (Burmese: ကျောက်ဖြူ ရေနက်ဆိပ်ကမ်း) is an infrastructure project under development in Kyaukphyu, Rakhine State, Myanmar. It forms a component of the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), specifically for the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC).[1] The port is intended to provide China with direct access to the Indian Ocean, bypassing the Strait of Malacca. The project is led by a joint venture between the Chinese state-owned CITIC Group and the Myanmar government.[2][3][4]

Background

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Kyaukpyu Port during construction in 2018

Kyaukphyu is a coastal town in Rakhine State.[5] The port is designed to handle large cargo vessels, addressing the limitations of Myanmar's existing river ports, such as Yangon Port, which can only accommodate vessels up to 15,000 DWT with a 9-meter draft.[6][7]

The port can connect Kunming in China's Yunnan Province to Myanmar's economic centers, including Muse, Mandalay, Yangon, and Kyaukphyu. The port provides China with a shorter trade route to the Indian Ocean which reduces reliance on the Strait of Malacca.[8][9]

The port project was formalized following the establishment of the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone Management Committee on January 13, 2014.[10] The project gained momentum after the CITIC Consortium was selected as the developer through an international open tender process on December 30, 2015.[1] The port is part of a broader SEZ that includes an industrial zone and a high-end housing project, covering approximately 4,300 acres (1,740 hectares).[11][12]

Myanmar China Petro Transportation

Project

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The Deep-Sea Port project is estimated to cost US$7.3 billion and will be implemented in three phases.[13][14] The first phase, estimated to cost US$1.3 billion, is focused on constructing a deep-sea port on Maday Island, covering 370 acres.[14] The second phase includes a port on Ramree Island (237 acres), and the third phase will expand the port's capacity.[15]

The project encompasses several major components designed for regional infrastructure and industrial development. The port infrastructure includes construction of two deep-sea ports featuring a total of 10 wharfs.[16] The wharfs are capable of accommodating large container ships, positioning the area as a strategic maritime hub.[17][18][19]

To support connectivity, the project includes the construction of a bridge connecting Maday Island and Ramree Island, as well as a 15-kilometer road linking the port facilities to the Special Economic Zone industrial park.[20] In addition, there are plans for expanded rail and road links between Kyaukphyu and Mandalay so that it can be aimed at strengthening inland transportation and trade routes.[21]

To meet the energy demands of the SEZ and surrounding infrastructure, the project also features the installation of gas-fired power plants with a combined generation capacity of approximately 300 megawatts.[22]

Timeline

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On January 13, 2014, the Myanmar government established the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone Management Committee to oversee the development of the deep-sea port project.[10]

On December 30, 2015, Myanmar awarded the Kyaukphyu Deep-Sea Port project to a consortium led by China's state-owned CITIC Group.[23] This partnership was formalized under a 50-year lease agreement.[11]

On November 8, 2018, the anagement Committee and China's CITIC Group signed a framework agreement to develop the Kyaukphyu Deep-Sea Port. This led to the growth in component of China's Belt and Road Initiative.[24]

In January 2020, during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Myanmar both countries signed agreements to finalize the Deep-Sea Port joint venture.[25] The project's first phase was scaled down from $7.2 billion to $1.3 billion under Myanmar's NLD government due to concerns over debt dependence on China.[26]

On December 26, 2023, Myanmar's junta and China's CITIC signed a supplementary agreement to speed up the Kyaukphyu port project.[27] This mainly included enhanced security measures to protect Chinese workers and infrastructure due to growing threats from the Arakan Army in Rakhine State.[28][29]

On April 28, 2024, approximately 300 Chinese workers arrived at Maday Island to advance preparatory work for the Deep-Sea Port despite ongoing conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army.[30] The workers were granted permission by the junta to proceed with the project.[31]

In March 2025, CITIC and Myanmar junta officials met to update the Kyaukphyu port due to concerns following the Arakan Army’s capture of nearby Ramree.[3] The junta then later extended the project's completion deadline to June 26, 2025.[32]

As of mid-2025, heavy clashes have been reported around the port area between the Arakan Army and Myanmar military forces.[33] The military has been making efforts to secure the area of Chinese investments.[34]

Funding and ownership

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The project is developed by the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone Deep Seaport Co. Ltd., a joint venture between CITIC Myanmar Port Investment Limited (70% stake) and the Myanmar government-backed Kyaukphyu SEZ Management Committee (30% stake).[35][36] The CITIC-led consortium includes China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd., China Merchants Holdings, TEDA Investment Holding, Yunnan Construction Engineering Group and Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group.[14][37]

Myanmar's 30% stake represents over 4% of its 2023 GDP.[38] To address concerns about a potential debt trap,[26] the project's scale was reduced from an initial US$7.2 billion to US$1.3 billion for the first phase under the National League for Democracy government in 2020.[39][40][41]

Criticism

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The port is projected to displace up to 20,000 people, primarily fishermen and farmers across 20 villages.[42] Fishing restrictions have already limited access to traditional fishing grounds which threatens livelihoods for approximately 70% of Maday Island’s 3,000 residents who rely on fishing.[43] Farmers are expected to lose over 2,000 acres of ancestral land.[44][45]

Residents have expressed concerns about the loss of livelihoods, environmental degradation and the lack of accountability in previous Chinese projects. The Kyaukphyu Rural Association reported in 2017 that local communities fear repeating the land confiscation during the construction of the Sino-Myanmar pipelines.[46] Some locals view CITIC's community engagement like as Chinese language courses with suspicion and speculating they may be a pretext for project advancement.[46][47]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Fillingham, Zachary (14 December 2023). "Backgrounder: Myanmar's Kyaukpyu Port". Geopolitical Monitor. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  2. ^ "Why is Myanmar's new deep-sea port such hot property? | Lowy Institute". www.lowyinstitute.org. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  3. ^ a b Kavi, Maung (4 March 2025). "China's CITIC and Myanmar Junta Discuss Progress on Rakhine Deep-Sea Port". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  4. ^ "Myanmar: Government-backed committee says deep-sea port project in western Rakhine State can start upon completion of environmental and social impact assessment report". Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  5. ^ "Kyaukpyu". Archived from the original on 11 June 2010. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
  6. ^ "Promoting Efficient and Competitive Intra-ASEAN Shipping Services" (PDF). ASEAN.org.
  7. ^ "Yangon Port" (PDF). ESCAP.
  8. ^ TAMER, Dr Cenk (13 March 2024). "Myanmar Economy Corridor in the Context of China's Generation Road Attempt". Kuşak ve Yol. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  9. ^ "The Belt and Road Initiative 2025 | Myanmar". CDR News. 5 November 2024. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  10. ^ a b "Ports in Myanmar". mpa.gov.mm.
  11. ^ a b "CITIC-led consortium wins bid for implementing SEZ in Myanmar – Business – Chinadaily.com.cn". www.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  12. ^ "ThaibizMyanmar.com : Framework agreement to develop Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone Deep Sea Port project was signed in Nay Pyi Taw". ThaibizMyanmar.com. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  13. ^ "ကျောက်ဖြူရေနက်ဆိပ်ကမ်း – စစ်ကောင်စီရဲ့ နောက်ဆက်တွဲစာချုပ် တရုတ်လိုလားတဲ့ပုံစံ ပြန်ရောက်သွားမလား". BBC News မြန်မာ (in Burmese). 30 December 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  14. ^ a b c "Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone" (PDF). BRI Monitor.
  15. ^ "Vice Senior General Soe Win Calls for Effective Execution of Chinese-Supported SEZ Deep-Sea Port in Kyaukphyu Amid Continued Intense Combat". Burma News International. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  16. ^ "Troubled Waters Surround Kyaukphyu Deep-Sea Port". Development Media Group. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  17. ^ Chaudhury, Dipanjan Roy (8 January 2024). "China pushes for expediting SEZ in Myanmar's Bay of Bengal zone". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  18. ^ Irrawaddy, The (20 September 2021). "Agreement Moves Myanmar's Kyaukphyu Port Project a Step Forward". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  19. ^ "Implementation of Kyaukpyu SEZ, Deep Sea Port Project to be accelerated". npnewsmm.com. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  20. ^ "Myanmar: Impact assessment consultation for port projects takes place in Kyaukphyu, Rakhine State". Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (in Italian). Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  21. ^ Now, Myanmar (6 September 2023). "Military, Chinese preparations underway to open Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone and deep sea port". Myanmar Now. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  22. ^ "Myanmar: Kyaukphyu deep-sea port poses challenges for Maday Islanders and local fisheries – ICSF". Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  23. ^ Myint, Moe (31 December 2015). "Kyaukphyu SEZ Tender Awarded to CITIC-led Consortium". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  24. ^ "China, Myanmar sign framework agreement on Kyauk Phyu SEZ deep-sea port project – Xinhua | English.news.cn". www.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  25. ^ Chau, Thompson (20 January 2020). "China, Myanmar tighten their Belt and Road ties". Asia Times. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  26. ^ a b "Myanmar scales back Chinese backed port project over debt fears". The Guardian. 2 August 2018. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  27. ^ Irrawaddy, The (27 December 2023). "Myanmar Junta 'Sweetens Deal' For China in US$ 8 Billion SEZ And Port in Rakhine State". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  28. ^ Kavi, Maung (16 January 2025). "Myanmar Junta Pushes Key Chinese Projects in Rakhine Despite Looming AA Threat". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  29. ^ "Junta, Chinese firm sign addendum to Kyaukphyu project as fighting rages in Arakan State". Development Media Group. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  30. ^ "China sends 300 workers to deep sea port project in Myanmar's Rakhine state". Radio Free Asia. 3 May 2024.
  31. ^ "Amid escalating conflict, hundreds of Chinese nationals arrive in Kyaukphyu". Development Media Group. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  32. ^ Kavi, Maung (13 March 2025). "Myanmar Junta Pushes Chinese BRI projects in Rakhine Amid Fierce Fighting". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  33. ^ "ကျောက်ဖြူရေနက်ဆိပ်ကမ်း တိုက်ပွဲကြောင့် ဒေသခံ ၄၀၀၀ ခန့် နေရပ်စွန့်ခွာထွက်ပြေးရ". ရခိုင်ပြည်နယ်၊ ကျောက်ဖြူမြို့နယ်ထဲမှာ စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်တွေနဲ့ အာရက္ခတပ်တော် (AA) တို့ကြား တိုက်ပွဲတွေ ဆက်ဖြစ်နေတာကြောင့် ဒေသခံပြည်သူ ၄,၀၀၀ လောက် နေရပ်စွန့်ခွာ ထွက်ပြေးခဲ့ရတယ်လို့ စစ်ဘေးဒုက္ခသည်တွေကို ကူည…. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  34. ^ "တရုတ်စီးပွားရေးဇုန်ရှိသည့် ကျောက်ဖြူကို လက်မလွှတ်ရရေး စကစတပ် စစ်ကူများ ထပ်မံစေလွှတ်". Mizzima (in Burmese).
  35. ^ "Myanmar Gives China Green Light to Proceed with Strategic Seaport". The Maritime Executive. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  36. ^ Lee, Yimou; Aung, Thu Thu (17 October 2017). "China to take 70 percent stake in strategic port in Myanmar". Reuters.
  37. ^ "The Business Practices of a Chinese State-Owned Enterprise in Myanmar's Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone". ResearchGate.
  38. ^ admin (10 January 2024). "Kyaukphyu Deep Sea Port Agreement Amidst Ongoing Armed Conflict". MoeMaKa in English. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  39. ^ Team, Container News (4 August 2018). "Myanmar reduces the cost of port-project". Container News. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  40. ^ "China's Stakes in the Myanmar Coup". Institut Montaigne. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  41. ^ Irrawaddy, The (6 August 2021). "Myanmar Junta Pushing Ahead with China-Backed Kyaukphyu SEZ and Port". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  42. ^ "Another Year Dawns With Fears Persisting Among Farmers in Kyaukphyu SEZ Project Area". Development Media Group. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  43. ^ Naing, Yan (13 September 2022). "Guest Column | China-backed Port in Western Myanmar Depriving Locals of Land and Jobs". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  44. ^ Zue, Kay (10 October 2024). "The farmers' struggles within the special economic zone of Kyaukphyu". Laywaddy FM. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  45. ^ "Arakan State's mangrove forests continue to shrink due to Chinese-backed projects". Development Media Group. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  46. ^ a b "Report calls for Kyaukphyu SEZ suspension, review of land use grievances". Burma News International. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
  47. ^ Myint, Moe (27 January 2017). "Arakanese Villagers Call for Suspension of Kyaukphyu SEZ Project". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 18 May 2025.
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