Recently, the People’s Daily reporter visited Myitsone Hydropower Station in Myanmar after the shutdown, and investigated the living conditions of local people in Myanmar and the losses suffered by China Power Investment Group (hereinafter referred to as China Power Investment Corporation) after the suspension of the project. The People’s Daily published this survey article on January 3, 2014.
Myitsone Hydropower Station is the largest hydropower station in the hydropower development project in the upper reaches of Irrawaddy River signed by the governments of China and Myanmar. In March 2009, the governments of China and Myanmar signed the Framework Agreement on Cooperative Development of Hydropower Resources in Myanmar. The installed capacity of Myitsone Hydropower Station is 6 million kilowatts, with a total investment of 3.6 billion US dollars. Construction started first in December 2009, and the first unit is planned to generate electricity in 2017. However, on September 30, 2011, Myanmar President Thein Sein suddenly announced that the Myitsone hydropower project was temporarily put on hold during his term of office on the grounds of "people’s will".
Due to the suspension of the project, both China and Myanmar have suffered huge losses. The main investor, China Power Investment Corporation, bears the brunt. It goes without saying that the initial investment of 7 billion yuan is self-evident, and the financial interest and personnel maintenance fees of these funds are increasing at a rate of 300 million yuan per year. At the same time, the company faces huge claims for breach of contract from suppliers, construction units and other relevant contractors.
Myitsone hydropower station site
Myanmar suffered even more losses. According to the original plan, 30,000 people need to be employed locally for the construction, but only 78,000 people have emigrated to all the Yijiang projects, and all the laborers can be employed during the construction of the power station. Nowadays, many immigrants have no livelihood. Secondly, the confidence of foreign investment has been hit hard. Foreign investment in Myanmar has dropped sharply from $20 billion in fiscal year 2010-2011 to $1.49 billion in fiscal year 2012-2013. Third, economic growth has been frustrated. Experts estimate that Myanmar’s GDP will lose $5 billion every year when Myitsone Power Station is stopped, compared with $40 billion last year. The development of electric power is blocked, which may affect the realization of its goal of tripling its GDP in 2030.
According to the People’s Daily reporter, the Burmese people who opened a shop near the construction site said: "The villagers are actually not opposed to the construction of hydropower stations. Everyone is more concerned about livelihood and safety. We certainly welcome the construction of a safe hydropower station that allows us to use electricity and promote employment."
Among the reasons why some non-governmental organizations oppose the construction of Myitsone Hydropower Station, the clause of selling 90% of electricity to China has aroused nationalist sentiment in the hearts of Burmese people and catered to the western accusation that "China plundered Myanmar’s resources". But these accusations are untenable. According to the calculation, the installed capacity of Myitsone Power Station is 6 million kilowatts, and the annual power generation is three times that of Myanmar’s annual electricity consumption in 2011, which cannot be fully digested by Myanmar’s domestic market. According to the agreement signed between China and the Myanmar government, the Myanmar government will receive 10% of the free electricity from Myitsone Hydropower Station, and at the same time, it will give priority to power supply to Myanmar, waiting for the demand in the Myanmar market to increase. It is possible for the Myitsone Hydropower Station to transmit 100% electricity to Myanmar in the future. Some non-governmental organizations don’t know this situation, and they exaggerate that "China plunders Myanmar’s resources" and incite public opinion.
China Power Investment Corporation has never given up its efforts to restart the Myitsone project. Not long ago, China Power Investment Corporation invited Wu Saimin, deputy speaker of Kachin State Parliament, to lead 21 Kachin State legislators and media representatives to inspect the Myitsone Hydropower Station project, and also invited many Myanmar media as well as international media such as Asia News Channel and BBC to interview the project site. Domestic analysts in Myanmar generally believe that whether the new government can restart Myitsone Hydropower Project after the general election in 2015 depends largely on how China persuades the Myanmar government and local political forces to accept Myitsone Hydropower Project, which is a mutually beneficial project between China and Myanmar. Cheng Zhonghua, director of Myitsone Management Department of China Power Investment Group Yijiang Upstream Hydropower Co., Ltd., told the People’s Daily reporter: "We look forward to returning to work as soon as possible."
Schematic diagram of Myitsone Hydropower Station
The following is the full text of the People’s Daily reporter’s visit to Myitsone Hydropower Station in Myanmar after the shutdown.
Myitsone Hydropower Station is the largest hydropower development project in the upper reaches of Irrawaddy River signed by the Chinese and Burmese governments. According to the plan, seven cascade hydropower stations will be built in the upper reaches of the Yi River, with a total installed capacity of 20 million kilowatts, of which the installed capacity of Myitsone Hydropower Station is 6 million kilowatts.
"This project is a cooperative project signed by the governments of China and Myanmar and invited by the Myanmar government to participate in the development," Cheng Zhonghua, director of Myitsone Management Department of China Power Investment Group (hereinafter referred to as China Power Investment Corporation) Yijiang Upstream Hydropower Co., Ltd., told People’s Daily reporter that in October 2006, the Myanmar government participated in the third China — An invitation was sent to China Power Investment Corporation at the ASEAN Expo; In March 2009, the governments of China and Myanmar signed the Framework Agreement on Cooperative Development of Hydropower Resources in Myanmar. Since then, the hydropower development in the upper reaches of the Yijiang River of China Power Investment Corporation has been comprehensively promoted.
然而，2011年9月30日，缅甸总统吴登盛突然致函缅甸下议院，以“缅甸政府是民选政府，必须尊重人民意愿”为由，宣布在其任期内暂时搁置密松水电项目。近日，记者走进了停工后寂静的密松水电站。
密松水电站位置
仅设备停放导致中方损失每月就高达上千万元人民币
从缅甸克钦邦首府密支那向北行驶约38千米，就是密松水电站项目部。项目部门口尽管有数名保安把守，但大门周围已经长满荒草。进入施工区域后，经常能够看到修了一半的道路，还有很多刚刚打了地基或建了一半的房屋。由于无人看管，杂草从水泥地面的裂缝中钻出来，有的已经有一人多高。
在中电投负责修建的跨伊江大桥前，记者看到这座仅仅完工了一半的桥体静静地矗立在江面上。青绿色的江水从几个巨大的混凝土桥墩旁绕过，桥墩上暴露出已经锈迹斑斑的钢筋和横梁。按照中国公司的计划，水电站修建过程中，中电投将负责为伊江两岸修建共计约800千米的公路，极大方便两岸人民的出行和交通。然而在密松水电站被叫停后，伊江两岸的公路施工也陷入停顿。
Talking about the losses caused by the shutdown to China Company, Cheng Zhonghua said that the annual loan interest of the project reached 300 million yuan. After the construction started, the company delivered large-scale construction equipment worth 700 million yuan from China to the construction site. After the work was stopped in September 2011, the equipment was parked on the construction site. For these large-scale construction equipment maintenance, maintenance and rental costs, the company will lose tens of millions of yuan every month. After a year and a half of coordination with the Myanmar government and local armed forces, and the damaged bridges were repaired, all the equipment was finally shipped back to China at the end of March 2013.
Myitsone hydropower station area
Tens of thousands of local jobs have been lost.
The reporter then went to the immigrant new village next to the project department of Myitsone Hydropower Station. This new immigrant village built on the right bank of the Yi River is Anminda Village, with a total of 325 households, while about 85 immigrants on the left bank of the Yi River are placed in Mariyang Village. According to Cheng Zhonghua, these 400-odd households with more than 2,000 people are mainly villagers in Myitsone Dam area, and they need to be resettled first.
Immigrants’ New Village was completed as early as 2010. Most of the new immigrant villages are tall wooden houses with two-story frame structure, and each household has an independent courtyard. Some villagers with better economic conditions have built cement walls on the basis of wooden houses and planted economic trees, fruit trees and flowers around the courtyard. Immigrants’ new village has opened a wide cement road and running water, with 24-hour free power supply.
The reporter visited the schools and hospitals in Xincun. Both hardware and software conditions are first-class in Myanmar. The school not only accepts students from immigrant villages, but also students from many nearby villages. The teacher of the school, Duo Changda, told the reporter: "There are only three college students in the history of Myitsone. Since the establishment of Anminda Village School, students have been admitted to universities every year, and five students have been admitted this year."
Larry, pastor of Kachin Christian Baptist Church in Anminda Village, told the reporter that some villagers originally planted fruit trees or upland rice on the mountain. After moving into the new village, the land allocated to them by the Myanmar government was far away, and the quality of the land was not good. After the project was stopped, many villagers secretly returned to the reservoir area, continued to plant fruit trees and upland rice, or went to the rivers around the Yi River to engage in activities such as gold panning.
Cheng Zhonghua told reporters that due to the shelving of the project, many people lost their jobs, and the livelihood of immigrants had problems. The company still insisted on distributing rice to immigrants every month, with a total of more than 1,000 tons, which was welcomed by the villagers. If the Myitsone project is under construction, there will be tens of thousands of direct jobs in the peak period, and the number of indirect jobs such as service industry is incalculable. The company requires that local employees be used as much as possible.
"In the past, there were many shops near the construction site, and the business and catering industries were very prosperous. However, after the suspension of the Myitsone project, not only the business of nearby shops was bleak, but also the villagers who used to work on the project lost their jobs, "Minta, who opened a shop near the construction site, told reporters." The villagers are actually not opposed to the construction of hydropower stations. Everyone is more concerned about livelihood and safety. We certainly welcome the construction of a safe hydropower station that will enable us to use electricity and promote employment. "
Myitsone hydropower station site
If conditions permit, it will supply 100% power to Myanmar. Is this robbing Myanmar of resources?
Among the reasons why some non-governmental organizations oppose the construction of Myitsone Hydropower Station, the clause of selling 90% of electricity to China has aroused nationalist sentiment in the hearts of Burmese people and catered to the western accusation that "China plundered Myanmar’s resources". Cheng Zhonghua told reporters that in fact, when the company inspected the feasibility of the Myitsone Hydropower Station project, it was most worried about the issue of power sales. If the power sales could not be solved, the project would not be economically feasible, and the investment would not be established.
The construction of Myitsone Hydropower Station was put forward by Myanmar as early as 1952, but it could not be implemented due to technical, financial and market problems. Since the 1960s and 1970s, many enterprises including Kansai Company of Japan have visited Myitsone successively, among which Japanese companies submitted the preliminary development plan of Myitsone to the First Ministry of Electric Power of Myanmar Government in 2002.
Although Myanmar is a country short of electricity, the current consumption of electricity in Myanmar is still in its infancy. According to the calculation, the installed capacity of Myitsone Power Station is 6 million kilowatts, and the annual power generation is three times that of Myanmar’s annual electricity consumption in 2011, which cannot be fully digested by Myanmar’s domestic market. According to the agreement signed between China and the Myanmar government, the Myanmar government will receive 10% of the free electricity from Myitsone Hydropower Station, and at the same time, it will give priority to power supply to Myanmar, waiting for the demand in the Myanmar market to increase. It is possible for the Myitsone Hydropower Station to transmit 100% electricity to Myanmar in the future. However, some non-governmental organizations do not understand this situation, and they exaggerate that "China plunders Myanmar’s resources" and incite public opinion.
Some people in Myanmar oppose China’s construction of Myitsone Hydropower Station.
China introduced the development situation comprehensively, objectively and truly.
At present, the Myanmar government is secretive about the Myitsone hydropower project, and government officials are basically reluctant to mention it in public. Wu Saimeng Rui, Minister of Electric Power and Industry of Kachin State, refused to express his position on the Myitsone Hydropower Project in an interview with People’s Daily. However, there is a hydropower planning map of Kachin State hanging next to Wu Sai Meng Rui’s desk. When introducing Kachin State’s hydropower resources to reporters, Wu Sai Meng Rui deliberately pointed out seven cascade power stations planned and built in the upper reaches of the Yi River on the map.
Wu Saimeng Rui emphasized that hydropower has a unique advantage compared with other electric power. "It is not only cheap, but also recognized as a clean energy source in the world. Kachin State has the richest hydropower resources in Myanmar, but the current utilization rate is only 2.2%. In addition, the lack of high-voltage transmission network in Kachin State is also a big problem." Wu Saimeng Rui said that Myanmar welcomes foreign investment, but believes that the rights and interests of foreign investment can only be guaranteed after peace is achieved in Myanmar.
China Power Investment Corporation has never given up its efforts to restart the Myitsone project. Not long ago, China Power Investment Corporation invited Wu Saimin, deputy speaker of Kachin State Parliament, to lead 21 Kachin State legislators and media representatives to inspect the Myitsone Hydropower Station project, and also invited many Myanmar media as well as international media such as Asia News Channel and BBC to interview the project site. China Power Investment Corporation also published a book "Questions and Answers on the Development of Yijiang Hydropower" in Chinese, Myanmar and English, so that the public can fully, objectively and truly understand the development of Yijiang Hydropower.
Domestic analysts in Myanmar generally believe that whether the new government can restart Myitsone Hydropower Project after the general election in 2015 depends largely on how China persuades the Myanmar government and local political forces to accept Myitsone Hydropower Project, which is a mutually beneficial project between China and Myanmar. At the end of the interview, Cheng Zhonghua solemnly told reporters: "We look forward to returning to work as soon as possible."