June Cement Industry started building a cement factory in the Pyar Taung area of Kyaikmaraw Township, Mon State without informing the Mon State Government according to their Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation Minister.
The minister, Dr Min Kyi Win, said: “We don’t know anything about June Company. We don’t know whether they are carrying out trial excavations or not. I think the Union Minister [for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation] U Ohn Win may know about this.
“The previous government granted a license to operate this cement factory and in most cases, there is usually a trial period to find out what resources are in the project area and the companies are only allowed to excavate later.”
June Cement Industry’s director U Soe Myint said: “We have already done everything. We have submitted everything [needed] to the authorities for importing laterite and also [resolved] the land issues [with the authorities]. There hasn’t been any problem so far.”
He said that the cement factory will be built in a deep-water area and that the company has started filling up 200 acres of land, even though they have not yet finished working on the environmental impact assessment (EIA) or the social impact assessment (SIA) which will be released to the public at a later date.
Dr Min Kyi Win said: “The union government will only give permission to implement the project after [the proposal] has been passed by the state and township [authorities] and local residents. As the [former] union government didn’t follow [the necessary steps] and gave permission during the [previous] administration issues arise when the company tries to negotiate with local residents.”
The June Company needs 1,000 acres to build the cement factory and it has already bought over 700 acres of land. The factory will operate using either power from the national grid or natural gas, but has yet to decide which power source it will use, said an official from the company.
Once fully operational the factory will produce 5,000 tons of cement a day.
Mawlamyine Cement Ltd is also building a cement factory in the Pyar Taung area, which is near to completion. The factory will produce 5,000 tons of cement a day, but it will use energy supplied by a coal-fired power station. The local residents have objected to the use of coal-fired power in that project.
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
