Recent meetings between diplomats and government officials from China and Myanmar and executives of the Chinese state-controlled CITIC Group, which will build the port, are believed to have resulted in some changes to the original concession agreement signed in 2018 and a consensus to restart the project as soon as possible.

CITIC has a 70% stake in a project that was first conceived more than a decade ago and which involves the construction of a deepsea international port capable of handling bulk, general and containerised cargo, and special economic zone for industrial and logistics activities.

The new port is an important element in China’s One Belt One Road initiative as it will be located at the southern end of the 1,700km China-Myanmar Economic Corridor and it will give China’s landlocked Yunnan province, which includes the city of Kunming, direct access to the sea (Indian Ocean).

For Myanmar, the port will be a catalyst for economic growth and employment prospects in the Rakhine region while nationally it should cut the costs of imports and exports. Currently, most cargo shipped to/from Myanmar is transhipped via ports in Singapore and Malaysia.

However, Kyaukphyu’s development has been hindered by many factors, including regulatory and financing issues, the immense political uncertainty in Myanmar, which included the military coup in 2021, and the COVID-19 pandemic.