Reshuffle puts 'right person in right place': government

28 Business Property THE MYANMAR TIMES JULY 29 - AUGUST 4, 2013
New flats spark rising expectations
Tenants moving from a crumbling government-owned estate in Yankin township say they want to own their new apartments
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HTAR
HTAR
KHIN
RESIDENTS of dilapidated government
housing in Yankin township
who are being relocated to newly
built apartment blocks a few kilometres
away say they would be less
reluctant to move if they could become
the owners of their new flats.
They are also questioning the system
used to assign them new homes and
higher rents at the new location, despite
its distance from a major road.
Representatives of the 160 families,
all of whom received apartments because
one member is a civil servant,
say they are happy to move to newer,
larger apartments, but the rent increase
– from K51 a monwth (a rate
set in the late 1960s) to over K10,000 a
month – is too much for retirees.
Some say the location of the new
apartments is also inconvenient.
They are on a secondary road in the
township while their current apartments
are on its main thoroughfare:
Yanshin Road.
U Han Htay, a resident of one of
the six buildings that will be demolished,
said that although he is grateful
for the new apartment, he is disappointed
with the government for
shipping him and the other families
to a site that is less accessible.
“I want the public and authorities
to know that we expect more transparency,”
he said.
U Han Htay, like many residents of
the six buildings, runs a small business
from the flat his father received
as part of his compensation for a career
spent teaching. The family has
lived in the flat since 1969.
Their building is one of hundreds
built in a post-Independence boom
of government housing. Sixty years
later, the buildings are unsafe and
unhygienic and many – if not most –
are cheaper to tear down than repair.
The residents of Yankin are the first
from the government’s 42 crumbling
estates – which house an estimated
50,000 people nationwide – to be relocated.
However, U Han Htay says the
main reason residents are reluctant
to move is because they want to own
the new flats.
“It’s quite painful that we’re not
being allowed to own our flats, like
residents of Shwe Ohn Pin housing
do,” one tenant said, referring to a
government housing project nearby
that gives ownership to occupants.
Tenants moved into it earlier this
year and were given ownership titles
to their flats by the department
of human settlement and housing
development, which is also providing
the apartments to the Yankin
families.
U Yu Khaing, director of the administration
and estate division at
the department, said the government
is doing its best to help the residents.
“We’re aiming to develop all of Yangon
city, including the old Yankin site,” he
said, adding that officials had “negotiated”
with the tenants and they will
move into their new flats on August 7.
A trash collector passes a crumbling housing estate in Yankin township whose
residents are being relocated to the one pictured above. Photo: Aung Htay Hlaing
New buildings for tenants of a government-owned estate in Yankin township near completion. Photo: Aung Htay Hlaing
Construction of six new buildings
is complete, but the question of ownership
remains a stumbling block, he
said.
Flats on the top two floors of each
of the new six-storey buildings have
been sold to staff at his department,
U Yu Khaing said. The first four floors
of each building are for the tenants
being relocated from the crumbling
estate, he added.
U Yu Khaing said that they will not
be made owners of their new flats,
but insisted that the tenants will be
secure because the new apartments
are on government land.
Although rents will rise, they are
still quite low, he said. Tenants who
now pay K51 a month for their flats
will pay monthly rent of K10 per
square foot at the new ones, U Yu Khaing
said. The new apartments are 896
square feet each, putting monthly rent
at K8960. A surcharge of 25 percent
will also be added because the apartments
are located in central Yangon.
Yankin township administrator U
Win Aung said local authorities are negotiating
with residents to ensure their
relocation goes smoothly. “We’re trying
to calm them down … Transportation
from the old location to the new one is
the township’s responsibility,” he added.
U Han Htay said the monthly rental
fee is affordable for most tenants,
but not those who rely on a civil-service
pension. He asked, however, how
the department will manage buildings
in which some residents are tenants
and others are owners, saying it
would be simpler if every occupant
was an owner.
The department of human settlement
has two types of contracts for
residents of government housing –
ownership and rental – and since it
offered ownership contracts at Shwe
Ohn Pin earlier this year demand for
these contracts is spreading.
U Han Htay said he and other
residents want to know who will be
responsible for maintenance and
repairs at the new buildings. With
rents of K51 per month tenants took
responsibility for repairs and upkeep,
but when rent rises above K10,000
per month they expect the landlord
to assume responsibility, he added.
U Thaung Kyaw, an MP from Yangon
Region, is calling the department
of human settlement to review its
contracts.
“The process of relocation is always
problematic, but issues about
the rental system can cause delays. At
Shwe Ohn Pin, authorities let tenants
own the new apartments so those who
can only rent are now dissatisfied. We
need a system that is fair for all to create
harmony,” U Thaung Kyaw said.
MP U Thar Win, who represents
Yankin, has raised the issue at the
hluttaw. He is calling for a standardised
system under which all occupants
of government housing receive
rental contracts with maintenance
and repair costs paid for by the department
of human settlement.
‘The process of relocation is always
problematic, but issues about the rental
system can cause delays.’
U Thaung Kyaw
Yangon Region MP
BRIEFS
Athens
Island auction starts at €10 million
An uninhabited private island off the coast
of Greece will go up for auction at a starting
price of €10 million (US$13.2 million) in
September, the company organising the
sale announced on July 25.
The sale of the island, part of the
Spalathronisia archipelago that sits 500
metres from the Halkidiki peninsula, a
tourist hotspot in northern Greece, is just
the latest from the country’s crisis-hit
landowners.
Greece’s privately owned islands have
been sold off in great numbers as the government
attempts to refill its coffers after
four years of economic crisis.
COLOMBO
China to build city in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has signed a deal with a Chinese
company to build a US$1.4 billion city complex
on reclaimed land near the capital’s
harbour, an official said on July 25.
The state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority
(SLPA) will reclaim 230 hectares next to the
new Colombo South port, said SLPA chairman
Priyath Bandu Wickrama.
He said the SLPA finalised a deal under
which China Communications Construction
Company (CCCC) will invest $1.43 billion
to build a Port City that will change the
coastline in the capital.
“We are moving toward the sea to
reclaim land and build a mini city,” Mr
Wickrama said during a visit to the port.
“We have finalised the deal with CCCC
and construction will begin by September.
We hope to complete the land reclamation
within 39 months,” he added, without saying
when the deal was struck.
Miami
Frenzy over auction of Versace villa
The firm auctioning off slain fashion mogul
Gianni Versace’s former villa claims the
luxury Florida property has sparked a frenzy
among potential foreign buyers.
The owners hope the buzz generated by
an auction on September 17 will convince
someone to part with more than US$40
million for the Casa Casuarina. The villa
“is the Mona Lisa of real estate in South
Florida”, said realtor Jill Eber. “You can see,
you can feel Versace’s vision, Versace’s soul
everywhere,” she added. – AFP
SHANGHAI
China curbs extravagant
spending on govt offices
CHINA has banned government departments, Communist
Party agencies and state-owned companies from
constructing new office buildings for five years as the
country seeks to cut wasteful spending.
The ban includes construction for purposes of
training, meetings and accommodation, the government
said in a statement on its website yesterday, calling
for resources to be spent instead on developing
the economy and improving public welfare. Projects
that have already won approval and are not under
construction should also be halted, the government
said. All localities should report on the implementation
of the new rules by September 30, according to
the statement issued on July 24.
President Xi Jinping, appointed as the ruling Communist
Party’s general secretary in November, last
month pledged a “thorough cleanup” of the party
amid a yearlong campaign aimed at ridding its ranks
of bureaucracy and extravagance. China’s economy
grew 7.5 percent in the second quarter and is at risk of
the weakest annual expansion in 23 years.
“The main purpose of the call for a ban on new
government buildings is largely symbolic in that these
are a highly visible sign of government officials misusing
public monies,” said Andrew Wedeman, author
of Double Paradox: Rapid Growth and Rising Corruption
in China. “A real assault on corruption, however,
requires a much less visible, long-term effort to attack
the causes of corruption, not just those involved and
the visible symbols of corruption,” he added.
The ban applies to courts, prosecutors, labour unions
and youth leagues, according to the statement.
Some departments and local authorities have recently
built office compounds in violation of regulations,
which has hurt the image of the party and the government,
according to the statement.
Finance departments should not release funding
for projects without proper approvals and land agencies
should not grant property-use rights, according
to the statement. Restoration of buildings with outdated
facilities is allowed, but such projects must be
designed to remove safety risks. –Bloomberg