Dormitories built for the first wave of the huge numbers of workers expected to be employed at Thilawa special economic zone to the south of Yangon are nearing completion, SEZ officials say. The accommodation is designed for internal migrant workers who come from all over the country.
U Nyan Thit Hlaing, director of Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings (MTSH), told The Myanmar Times that three six-storey buildings are nearing completion, to accommodate 2400 workers.
Rental fees will range between K25,000 to K30,000 a month with the exact amount to be settled when the first renters move in.
At a cost of about K1 billion, the SEZ management intends to build a total of 15 dormitories for about 17,000 workers, each with ground-floor stores and restaurants, based on a Japanese design. Cooking in bedrooms will be forbidden and workers will sleep 12 to a room measuring 18 by 25 feet.
The 2400-hectare Thilawa SEZ is eventually expected to provide 200,000 factory jobs.
The first phase of the 400-hectare Zone A – which will create around 40,000 jobs by 2018 – formally opened last September and the second phase will be finished in July, with more residential and commercial developments to follow.
More than 85 percent of the land in Zone A has been reserved by 69 light-industry manufacturers. Of these, nine are already exporting their products, 27 are preparing to begin operations and 33 more are starting to build factories.
Construction of Zone B is due to start at the end of this year, including an industrial park of between 500 and 700 hectares.
The project is a joint venture between Myanmar and Japan – each government has a 10 percent stake while MTSH, a consortium of nine local companies, controls 41pc and a Japanese private-sector consortium controls the remaining 39pc.
Source: Myanmar Times