RNDP Holds Paper-Reading Seminar on 24-Hour Electricity in Arakan State

Sittwe: The Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) held a paper-reading seminar on 13 November in its head office in the capital Sittwe in western Burma's Arakan State.

U Tin Win, Vice-President of the RNDP and reader of the party's monograph, said the seminar was held on 24-hour electricity supply and the multi-billion dollar Shwe Gas Project in Arakan State.

"We held this paper-reading seminar especially to find ways and public opinions for getting 24-hour electricity supply in our state," said U Tin Win.

"We also presented about the Shwe Gas Project with the references to statements on the project by the union minister in parliament and our monograph in order to make our people know about the project," he added.

Arakan State is abundant in gas and other natural resources that can generate power to supply electricity throughout the state, but it still remains a region with the least access to electricity in Burma.

U Tin Win said his party has also addressed in its paper the peoples' suffering from high charges for electricity in state due to different electricity rationing systems between Arakan and mainland Burma.

Arakan State has the lowest amount of electricity supplied in all of Burma. Electricity is currently generated by expensive diesel and petrol engines and residents have to pay higher rates - 400 to 600 Kyat per unit of electricity - than anywhere else in Burma.

In central Burma, electricity is charged at a rate of 28 Kyat per unit for household use and 50 Kyat per unit for industrial use. The electricity being produced from the generators in Arakan is too low in voltage to run factories, but households are charged significantly more per unit than in central Burma. Because of this, most residents in the region are unable to access electricity at all.

"The RNDP held the paper-reading seminar as a first step to make the people aware of the electricity issue in their state, and is planning to widely work on the issue in the near future," U Tin Win said.

U Tin Win read his party's monograph on electricity in Arakan State and the attendants, most of whom were intellectuals, shared their ideas and opinions on the issue during the seminar.

Union Minister for Energy U Than Htay said in Pyithu Hluttaw on 27 September that natural gas obtained from the Shwe natural gas fields will be exported to China through the Burma - China natural gas pipeline, and can not be used in Arakan State per the bilateral agreement with China.
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