A Resourceful Solution to Rapacious Mining Projects

Aug 11, 2016 | Frontier Myanmar
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Just weeks before last year’s election, Global Witness dropped a bombshell. In a report on the jade industry, Jade: Myanmar’s ‘Big State Secret’, it alleged that the illegal trade in jade was worth US$31 billion in 2014. Dozens of companies linked to the military, government and Union Solidarity and Development Party officials, as well as some of Myanmar’s biggest conglomerates, were implicated.

Many dispute the size of this figure – the equivalent of half of Myanmar’s GDP. But there’s little doubt that a grand theft of state resources has taken place in recent years, making corrupt officials and businesspeople very wealthy in the process. The environmental devastation at Hpakant, the piles of waste rock hundreds of feet high, stand as testament to their greed. If another reminder was needed, the emergence of photos showing dozens of illegally imported dump trucks lined up at Kan Pai Tee, a border crossing with China, provided it.

In deciding not to renew the current batch of mining permits, rather than call a complete and immediate halt to jade excavation, the government has struck the right balance of pragmatism and adherence to principle. The permits have been honoured, while election commitments to stamp out corruption and ensure environmental sustainability are being implemented.