The Chinese government has implemented a project titled ‘Kyaukphyu Future’, where a charity mobile clinic will be opened in Kyaukphyu township of Rakhine State.
The initiative is understood to address the anger of common Rakhine people against various Chinese projects in Myanmar.
The charity clinic project, which is designed by the CITIC group, will be implemented by the local civil society organization named KSEDAA in Kyaukphyu district public hospital. It is funded by Yunnan province’s foreign aid department.
Under the initiative, free health check-up camps will be organized in 20 surrounding villages by the next four months. It is expected to solve the health problems of people as there is no modern medical facility in those villages.
A Rakhine youth wrote in social media about Kyaukphyu Future as ‘it is like harvesting the entire field of wheat and giving the owner a slice of bread’.
Another Rakhine resident commented that providing health care facilities is a good idea, but the Chinese agency needs to enhance job opportunities for local people.
“There are a number of big Chinese projects in Kyaukphyu district, because of which locals are losing their farmlands and facing the crisis of livelihood. Both the Chinese and Burmese governments are earning revenues from those projects,” he added.
A Chinese oil tanker port is located at Ma Day island from where the crude oil is being exported to Yunnan province through a pipeline. Moreover, a gas pipeline is laid from the Shwe Natural Gas Project in the Rakhine coast to pump the gas to the southeast China localities.
But hundreds of Rakhine families lost their jobs due to the confiscation of farmland for these large scale projects. They are losing the livelihood of fishing as oil tankers start entering river waterways.
President of a social organization in Maday island said that prior to these big projects, the authorities promised
jobs as well as free electricity. Moreover they assured the village roads would be reorganized. Building telephone towers for the benefit of the people of the island and supplying drinking water were also promised. But in reality, only those Chinese project employees get all these benefits, but not the local Rakhine people.
Maday island supports 3800 people in 760 households across four Rakhine villages. The locals do not have access to health care, education and also enough drinking water.
China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) owns the pipelines project and it invested $2.5 billion in the giant project. The project is yet to get the cooperation from all concerned parties.
A new route bypassing Malacca straits has been developed to send oil to the Yunnan capital city of Kunming. Recently the new pipelines were made operational by sending a large volume of oil from the Maday island deepwater port.