China has clinched a multi-billion-dollar deal to build a port + at a strategic town along the coast of the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar, its third project in India’s neighbourhood after Sri Lanka and Pakistan. China and Myanmar signed an agreement on Thursday to build the deep sea port project in Kyaukpyu town after […]
Myanmar risks falling into a China debt trap
June 12, 2018 by
To understand China’s top priority in Myanmar, forget Beijing’s involvement in the country’s sputtering peace process, or efforts to restart its backed but now suspended US$3.9 billion Myitsone hydroelectric dam, or even securing rights to extract copper at the locally resisted Letpadaung mine outside of Mandalay. Those are all subordinate interests to what China really […]
Reliance Industries exits from overseas oil and gas blocks
October 25, 2017 by
New Delhi: Reliance Industries has exited the last of its overseas oil and gas assets after it relinquished two blocks in Myanmar. “Relinquishment of Myanmar Block M17 and M18 on completion of study / others technical evaluation assessment period,” RIL said in an investor presentation post announcing its second quarter earnings. With this, the oil-to-telecom […]
‘One Belt, One Road’ Welcomed With Some Caution
May 16, 2017 by
China is convening from Sunday a large two-day summit in Beijing to tout its ambitious “One Belt, One Road” development strategy. The initiative proposed by China’s leadership seeks to promote massive infrastructure projects, spanning 65 countries in Asia and Europe and about 40 percent of global gross domestic product. Many Asian countries, including populous Indonesia […]
In Myanmar, the AIIB Could Buttress China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ Framework
August 23, 2016 by
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank could come to play a greater role in Myanmar. Is the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) just another vehicle for spreading Chinese geoeconomic primacy throughout the Asia-Pacific? Earlier this year, reflecting on the bank’s first projects, I argued that such fears were overwrought. The AIIB, with modest partnership-based undertakings along with […]
