Submission Statement:

On the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar, Chinese state-owned firms have been given the green light to construct a $7.3 billion deep-water port and a $2.7 billion industrial area in a special economic zone which would be 70 per cent owned by China and 30 per cent owned by Myanmar. However, if the costs of Myanmar’s share prove too much to bear there are concerns it could fall into a debt trap, as happened with Sri Lanka, which late last year handed over control of its Hambantota port to China. 

n Cambodia’s Sihanoukville, where a Chinese-funded deep-water port and Special Economic Zone is being built, locals complain that it has become a Chinese enclave. In Malaysia, the new government is reviewing all Chinese projects including the ports and the planned new rail link with Singapore. And in Sri Lanka, the Hambantota port is far from being a commercial success.