Thai state-owned firm funds Myanmar military enterprises
Tue, May 25 2021 01:45:04 PM
By Anwesha Bhaumik
Kolkata, May 25 (IANS): Thailands majority state-owned oil and gas company, PTT, is partnering with military-linked companies to expand its engagement in Myanmar, a corporate source in a Burmese hydrocarbon company disclosed to IANS.
This expansion comes on top of the half a billion dollars PTT already pays annually to junta-controlled enterprises through its existing operations in Myanmar s gas fields, the source said on the condition of anonymity.
A 2019 PTT joint venture is paying the military conglomerate Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) nearly $1 million in annual rent for the construction of a fuel terminal on land seized from farmers.
Myanmar’s crumbling economy runs low on cash
Hours-long queues at cash-short banks have become a daily routine, creating work for black-market brokers
By Thu Thu Aung, Shoon Naing and Antoni Slodkowski / Reuters
If you need cash in Myanmar, you must get up early. Queues start forming outside banks at 4am, where the first 15 or 30 customers are given a plastic token that allows them to enter the bank when it opens at 9:30am and withdraw cash, according to more than a dozen people who spoke to Reuters.
If you do not get a token, you either need to queue for hours for the few functioning cash dispensing machines outside or go to black-market brokers who charge large commissions.