Burma is to be transformed overnight. The
NY Times (h/t
1972) reports that Burma is preparing to sell off a massive quantity of state asserts in the next few week ahead of the election:
Diplomats and businessmen say that the sales may allow ruling generals to build up cash for election campaigns to the new Parliament, where they will hold 25 percent of seats, or to pay for salary increases for civil servants and other populist measures. Many of the assets are being sold to businessmen allied with the military, reinforcing the strength of a class of oligarchs and military cronies.
This kind of activity is music to the ears of some observers:
But the privatizations could also have the effect of injecting some competition into what is an almost Soviet-style economic system, and some analysts here say they may herald a shift in direction. Reformers in the government, they say, may be hoping to follow a path similar to that of China or Vietnam, where the economies have been liberalized but the ruling party has remained firmly in charge and has tolerated little dissent.
It is also opening the health care and education sectors to private enterprise, Mr. Phone Win said, issuing licenses for the first time for private hospitals and schools. “There are opportunities here for the international business community,” he said.
The visible effects of the sell-off will likely destroy the appearance of the former capital, architectural gem of Southeast Asia:
For a people accustomed to more gradual change under military rule, the scale of the sales is raising apprehension that it will strengthen the hand of military cronies. One businessman in particular, U Tay Za, owns an airline and a soccer team and has interests in the teak, tourism, telecommunications and construction businesses. He has now been appointed the head of a new petroleum association and appears to be expanding his holdings.
In recent days, the country’s Privatization Commission produced a list of 176 assets in Yangon, the main city, to be auctioned off sometime over the next few weeks. The 18-page list, which was shown to prospective buyers, includes a wide-ranging roster of buildings in Yangon worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The list, which covers only part of the privatization plan, features many former government offices, notably the lakeside office of the attorney general, the national archives, the auditor general’s headquarters, the archaeology department and the Ministry of Industry.
The buildings were abandoned when the capital was moved to the more remote location of Naypyidaw in 2005, and their sale would seem to ensure that the move was irreversible.
The businessman said it was likely that dozens of colonial-era buildings would be torn down. “I feel like I’m bleeding,” he said.
The businessman said the military had compiled a separate list of assets for auction that he had not seen; other buildings may also be auctioned independently, he said.
It will be interesting to monitor how the rest of the international media reports this orgy of privatization: a liquidation of public asserts for the purpose of massively enriching the country's corrupt regime and its friends:
The assets being sold include the country’s fuel import and distribution network, gem and tin mines, farmland, and factories, according to businessmen who have seen announcements of the sales. Most of the announcements have been made to small groups of businessmen and then spread by word of mouth.
The government has put out word that it is selling factories producing soft drinks, cigarettes and bicycles, among other commercial goods, according to U Phone Win, the head of a nonprofit organization that assists people in rural areas.
Important questions remain unanswered. Will foreigners participate in the auctions? If not, surely foreigners will be the buyers when many of these assets are
resold. At the end of the day, will the Chinese end up owning much of Burma? Singapore's state capitalists? A handful of rich Thais?
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