Myanmar: Minister Touts Massive Land Redistribution Program

May 19, 2014 | Bill O’Toole and Noe Noe Aung, Myanmar Times
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During a visit to Mandalay on May 11, Minister for the President’s Office U Soe Thein made an ambitious claim. Speaking at the Youth and Peace Forum, the minister said regional governments would soon roll out a program to provide land to Myanmar’s landless farmers.

“In the future there will not be landless people in Myanmar,” U Soe Thein declared.

The statement was bold: Awarding land to potentially millions of households would undoubtedly be a massive and historic undertaking.

It was also surprising: Many land-related organisations and bodies, including government ministries, told The Myanmar Times they had not heard of the proposal.