This quiet stretch of coast just south of Dawei is today used mostly for swimming and fishing by local villagers or the occasional tourist (see related story).
But the northern area of the bay is set to become part of a Chinese plan to build Myanmar’s largest oil refinery – which controversially received approval in the final days of former president U Thein Sein’s administration.
Some 196 square kilometers along Myanmar’s west coast is slated for transformation into a deep sea port and industrial estate unrivaled anywhere else in the region.
At present, there is only a wide road and vast fields but the area will soon be a flourishing major economic hub for neighbouring countries including Thailand and Myanmar. It is the site of the Dawei deep-sea port, the largest in the country, with a project area spanning thousands of square kilometres.
Japanese agricultural equipment firm Kubota is set to construct a machinery assembly plant in the Thilawa, according to Japanese financial journal Nikkei Asian Review. The move continues the company’s expansion in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Thilawa port, located some 25 kilometres southeast of Rangoon.
