Reshuffle puts 'right person in right place': government

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2 THE MYANMAR TIMES JULY 29 - AUGUST 4, 2013 Page 2 online editor Kayleigh Long | kayleighelong@gmail.com THE INSIDER: The local lowdown & best of the web Jaws A trainer at a popular reptile park in Thailand had a narrow escape after a stunt involving him putting his head in the mouth of a crocodile went awry. The 27-year-old crocodile trainer, Pravit Suebmee, reportedly has more than eight years of experience dealing with crocodiles, but received bite wounds to his face and neck after he brushed the creature’s cheek, startling it during what is considered a routine stunt at the park. The incident occurred on July 21 at the Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo, with footage of the near-miss going online soon thereafter. The man escaped the crocodile’s grip when another trainer grabbed its tail. Myanmar’s “Mankini King” A Czech “performance artist” has ruffled feathers online, offending the sensibilities of a good number of Myanmar web users with his photographic series of a young man wearing a Borat-style “mankini” at various locations around the country. Viktor Kopecek’s travels around Myanmar saw him take the usual tourist trail, going from Yangon to Inle Lake, then on to Mandalay and Bagan. At each location, his “model” posed for photographs in the revealing lycra number. The images, posted to online hub Behance, showed the young man in the skimpy number at some of Myanmar’s more recognisable tourist sites, while bemused locals looked on. Some web users took offence at the young man’s sexually suggestive poses with an urn and a pagoda. It seems Kopecek enjoyed his time in Myanmar. “It was a truly amazing trip. All those places...and all those looks! Incredible! Friendly people. Most of them was really exited about our ideas!” he posted. Marathon effort UK teacher and activist Ben Hammond has completed his crossing of the UK, dancing all the way from John O’Groats on the tip of Scotland to Land’s end, the most westerly point of England. Hammond undertook the challenge as part of his campaign to raise awareness about the plight of Myanmar refugees, as well as to raise funds for his charity. The “teacher in a tutu” faced a significant setback on his journey last October, when he became the victim of a hit-and-run accident. Not allowing this to deter him, he set out again on quieter coastal roads. Hammond, 35, spent a year teaching in a refugee camp on the Thailand- Myanmar border eight years ago, and was so affected by his experiences there that he set up a charity called LearnBurma in 2011. Swedish party member’s I nstagram gaffe A Swedish lawmaker was caught with his pants down Wednesday after flashing his private parts in a picture meant to show off his newly-inked Liverpool football club tattoo. A picture of former Left Party leader Lars Ohly’s tattoo -- inspired by the Premier League team’s Liver Bird emblem -- was deleted by the politician after his followers on the photo-sharing network Instagram pointed out that they could also see his penis. “Ha, ha, I accidentally posted a picture on Instagram that showed more than intended. Now corrected,” Ohly wrote on Twitter. The 56-year-old lawmaker was sunbathing outside his summer cottage when the picture was taken, he told the Aftonbladet newspaper. Other Swedish politicians were quick to weigh in on the issue. “Congratulations to you, after all these years, for getting this genuinely public breakthrough!” conservative Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, a political opponent, tweeted. Other Twitter puns ranged from allegations over Ohly showing “loads of balls to admit he supports Liverpool”, to questions over whether he was really “left leaning”. “Today I decided not to start using Instagram,” current Left Party leader Jonas Sjoestedt wrote. – AFP When Myanmar was Burma... Archival material provided by Pansodan Gallery Yangon’s street dogs were a noisy problem back in occupied Burma, according to this excerpt from Burma To-Day, Volume 1, No. 10, August 1944. Ne Win-era advertisement for a farmers conference, 1964 Style Statement NOW! Poe Darli was photographed for NOW! Magazine at Yangon’s Alfa Hotel by Greg Holland.
www.mmtimes.com News 3 Ministers trade places as president shuffles team President’s Office orders four ministers to switch portfolios in a move that it says will improve implementation of new policiies Villagers pan for copper at a mine dump near the Letpadaung project in Sagaing Region in September 2012. Photo: AFP Copper project to resume in Sept after new contract signed WIN KO KO LATT winkolatt2012@gmail.com SOE THAN LYNN soethanlynn@gmail.com THE US$1 billion Letpadaung copper mine expansion will resume by the end of September, a senior government official said last week, after a new contract was signed giving the state a 51 percent share of the profits. Minister for the President’s Office U Hla Tun said at a press conference on July 26 that the project would resume within two months. The expansion, which is expected to take about three years, will enable annual production at the Sagaing Region mine to increase from 40,000 tonnes of copper to 100,000. U Hla Tun announced the details of the new contract to the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw on July 25. The big loser from the new contract appears to be army-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited, which saw its share of the profits from the mine cut from 51pc to 19pc. The main investor, Wanbao Mining from China, will get 30pc, down from 49pc. Wanbao will be required to put aside US$2 million a year for land reclamation, while it will also have to pay $1 million a year for corporate social responsibility projects during construction. After production begins, 2pc of all profits will be kept for CSR. “In the new contract, Mining Enterprise 1 is included in the contract to get more revenue for the state … The state will also get a $5 million signing bonus for the new contract,” U Hla Tun said. “The agreement between these three groups was signed successfully on July 24.” The new contract was recommended by the Letpadaung Investigation Commission set up in November 2012 and led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The previous contract was signed by the military regime in 2010, when former investor Ivanhoe Mines left the project. Minister for Mines U Myint Aung told the hluttaw that the new contract also includes requirements on environmental and social impact assessment reporting. It also clarifies ISO requirements that were only mentioned generally in the original contract. “The new contract is signed to follow the Letpadaung Project Investigation Commission’s recommendation that the weaknesses in the contract be amended,” he said. 100,000 The number of tonnes of copper the Letpadaung mine is expected to produce when expansion is complete The commission recommended that environmental and social impact assessments be conducted, and environmental management and occupational health and safety plans be written and implemented. Discussions on the new contract started on April 6, less than a month after the commission released its report. Agreement was reached after 17 meetings. U Aung Tun Thet, a member of the Myanmar Investment Commission, said the new contract meant the copper mine project will be a “model for international investment in Myanmar”. “Every investor has to consider social responsibility in their business,” he added. However, not everyone applauded the new deal. Daw Khin San Hlaing, the Pyithu Hluttaw representative for Pale in Sagaing Region and a member of the investigation commission, said the government should have released the full contract. “U Hla Tun and U Myint Aung came to the hluttaw to explain the new contract on July 25 but MPs do not know exactly what the terms are,” the National League for Democracy representative said. “The government should show more transparency.” Political observer U Yan Myo Thein wrote on his Facebook page that the new contract was not a surprise but praised Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for taking on the tough job of heading the investigation commission. “It was an undeniable fact that Wanbao and UMEHL would have to make some concessions once Daw Suu was involved,” he wrote. “The investigation commission was a political trap and there is only one person who is brave enough to walk into that trap for the interests of the country and the people. That is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.” For Wanbao, the new contract represented closure on a difficult period. Geng Yi, the managing director of Wanbao’s local subsidiary, said the Chinese company had already spent $600 million in the project. It expects to invest $997 million altogether, he said. ‘’We want to restart the project as soon as possible and stop any further losses.” – Translated by Thiri Min Htun nantin.htwe@gmail.com NAN TIN HTWE THE latest cabinet reshuffle was about putting “the right people in the right place”, improving policy implementation and supporting U Thein Sein’s clean government push, officials say. Four ministers were rotated while six new deputy ministers were appointed, the government announced through state-run television on the evening of July 25. A senior official in the President’s Office, who asked not to be named, described the change as a “positive development” aimed at ensuring “good and clean” government. The reshuffle of ministers and deputy ministers was decided based on a scoring system that took into account their transparency, the opinion of their staff, and the extent to which they had been able to implement government policy. Presidential spokesman U Ye Htut said reshuffling the government was normal in a democracy and was ordered because of policy changes and reforms in the relevant ministries. “Government policies will be implemented more effectively because of this change,” he said. Staff within the ministries only learned about the change from state media. Daw Moh Moh Thwin, an assistant director in the Department of Labour, said on July 26 that she and her colleagues had been surprised when they saw the announcement on state television that Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security U Maung Myint had been transferred to the Ministry of Industry. “I thought [the former union minister] was doing his best,” she said. She said she was unsure whether the change was good or bad because she knows nothing about the new minister. “We’ve never seen him before,” she said. Daw Moh Moh Thwin said she was not in a position to criticise the decision as staff within the ministries are bound to follow the government’s decision. “We are not in position to think about [whether it’s good or bad]. We don’t need to,” she said. The government’s announcement also said Deputy Minister for Education U Aye Kyu and Deputy Minister for Rail Transportation Thura U Thaung Lwin had been “allowed to resign of their own volition”. Thura U Thaung Lwin’s position as chairman of the Dawei project’s management committee appears to be unchanged by the reshuffle. An official from the Ministry of Education said he also learned the news from state media. “The new deputy minister hasn’t arrived in the office yet. We don’t know whether he is good or bad. I just know that the former [deputy minister] is leaving because he is ill,” he said. The announcement brought a lukewarm response. U Ko Ko Hlaing, a political adviser to President U Thein Sein, did not back the decision. “I also want to know whether this is good or bad,” he said. Daily Eleven, which is generally critical of the government, reported that those close to the President’s Office had received the best positions. It reported that U Zeya Aung, the former railways minister who will become the new minister for energy, is the brother-in-law of U Ye Htut, the president’s spokesperson. It also said that because the Ministry of Energy deals with many international companies the position presents “good business opportunities” for the new minister. “Analysts say this change is nothing special for a government that is regularly criticised for its corruption,” Daily Eleven reported, without naming any analysts.
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Reshuffle puts 'right person in right place': government

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