Many villagers face a daily struggle to survive and to access food, following the grave land and livelihood loss. The project development has been accused of severe misconduct and adverse impacts, including a lack of transparency, a lack of meaningful consultations, violation of communities’ rights to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), severe human rights abuses such as forced evictions, lack of meaningful compensation, inflated employment estimates, corruption, environmental destruction, land grabbing, pollution and blocking of rivers and fishing areas, livelihood loss, and the harassment of people opposing the project. As of 2018, some preparatory and initial works have been completed, such as land clearing around the area of “Km 0” (the start of the international road to Thailand), a quarry, a small port, a visitor center, housing facilities, a resettlement area and other industrial infrastructure. In 2015, the resumption of the project was announced, especially after the Japanese Government got involved by signing a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) with Thailand and Myanmar in July 2015. Soon after (December 2013), the project was temporarily suspended, but negotiations and the search for adequate investors continued. In November 2013, the concession rights for the project were transferred to a new company, referred to as ‘Special Purpose Vehicle’ (SPV), jointly owned by the governments of Myanmar and Thailand (for a chronology of events between 2008-2013, see ). The latter withdrew its investment in July 2012 and the project was consequently stalled. Most works have been carried out in the name of the Dawei Development Company (DDC), which is a subsidiary of ITD (75%) and Max Myanmar (25%). In 2010, a 60 year concession was granted to the project contractor Italian-Thai Development Plc. įollowing the initial agreements in 2008, land was cleared in certain areas to commence infrastructure development. In order to supply the necessary resources and to enable international trade, the project also includes a road to Thailand and other transport links, the construction of new oil and gas pipelines to Thailand, a large water supply dam in the hills Northeast of the SEZ, a smaller port to the South, a stone quarry for construction materials in the North, waste management facilities, and several resettlement areas for the displaced villagers. The infrastructure required to establish and run the SEZ extends, however, well beyond the economic zone itself. The project is comprised of an industrial estate area containing a deep seaport, an oil refinery complex, a steel mill, a fertilizer and petrochemical plant, a pulp and paper processing plant, other industrial factory complexes and one or more electric power plants.
The Dawei SEZ was initiated in 2008 as a jointly owned bilateral economic cooperation project between the governments of Thailand and Myanmar.
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