Asian Waters–Nu River Development Offers Only Hard Choices.

               by David Parmer / Tokyo

China’s Nujiang or Nu River runs a course of 3200km from the Tibet plateau through Myanmar and Thailand to eventually empty into the Andaman Sea. Once outside of China, the Nu River becomes the Salween River or Thanlwin River. The Nujiang is China’s last undammed river and one of the longest free-flowing rivers in the world, and that is its blessing and its curse.

Nujiang Prefecture in China’s southwest is home to some of its poorer minorities who are isolated both physically and culturally. These are the people of the Nu minority and the Lisu minority. (Strangely, some of the Nu people were converted to Catholicism and still maintain that affiliation.) A major drawback for them is a lack of knowledge of Mandarin Chinese, the language of their central government in Beijing.

The Nu River basin is an area of immense biodiversity having an estimated 6,000 unique plant species and 47 fish and amphibian species unique to the area and 143 other species of fish and amphibians. Other wildlife includes wild Ox, small pandas, and monkeys (World Atlas). The danger to this pristine ecosystem is development–development that would bring a higher standard of living to the poor minorities but would also threaten the ecosystem of the river as it winds its way from the highlands to the sea.

A “higher standard of living” really has to do with bringing the minorities to a power grid, and that power would come from energy generated hydroelectrically. To get that kind of power dams are necessary. And just as with the Mekong River, dams bring problems of their own. The Nu River flows over several earthquake faults, and dams in these areas could cause catastrophic damage should an earthquake occur.

Moreover, damming the free-flowing river waters would also have serious side effects on the fragile ecosystem. A series of 15 dams were proposed for the Nujiang in the early 2000s, but most have been put on hold. However, China-supported dam projects in the lower Salween River in Myanmar are ongoing.

In an effort to preserve the wild Nu areas, local authorities have created two national parks: the Nujiang Gran Canyon National Park and the Dulongjiang National Park. Perhaps tourism can bring world attention to this precious resource so that it can continue to benefit the local people, the countries through which the river flows and our planet.

Photo: Axel Drainville via flickr

Myanmar’s Hot Mobile Phone Sector Key To Change

Handset23.jpg                    ( Photo:Telenor Website Myanmar)

                                       by David Parmer

If you are looking toward politics as the driving force for change in Myanmar, you are probably looking in the wrong direction. For technology, not politics, is transforming what was formerly one of the world’s most reclusive countries. And the leading agent of  technological change is the mobile phone. Myanmar’s mobile phone revolution is letting the country bypass the personal computer phase of development and go directly to handset and tablet.

 The Nikkei Asia Review reported that there were 10.7 million mobile subscribers by the end of September 2014, up 87% from the end of 2013. The mobile penetration rate stands at 20%, with the government predicting 80% 3G penetration by 2016. Prices for SIM cards have plummeted and competition for subscribers is fierce.

Since the lifting of sanctions in 2013 two foreign firms have been allowed to enter the Myanmar market. They are Ooredoo from Qatar, and Telenor Group from Norway. Both companies have experience is emerging markets, and both are off to a good start. Competition between the two firms is intense, with Telenor taking the lead in number of subscribers causing Ooredoo to find a new Myanmar CEO to head up operations in 2015.

 Forbes magazine lists Myanmar as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Years of military rule and isolation have left the country with a stunted infrastructure for its mostly-agricultural economy. Infrastructure is not the only drawback in doing business in Myanmar, a lack of trained, tech-savvy bi-lingual staff is also a challenge. And as for e-commerce, Tech In Asia reports that there is both a lack of vendors and a lack of logistics ability to handle a vibrant e-commerce sector.

 So far, the new Myanmar is an Android nation with estimates of the number of Android users being anywhere from 75-95% of total users. Also, Shenzen-based Huawei dominates the handset market, with Samsung coming in second. For those who are interested in predicting trends in Myanmar, technology might be a better focus than politics, because in the world of hyper-tech, politics is yesterday’s news.

 Forbes The Rebirth of Burma

http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinternational/2015/01/09/the-rebirth-of-burma/

 

 

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