Naypyidaw: A Dusty Work in Progress

In o­ne of the first visits to Naypyidaw by a foreign journalist, The Irrawaddy’s Clive Parker discovers that building Burma’s new capital is proving far from straightforward

Naypyidaw’s new city hall stands at the end of a road so long and wide it could almost serve as an airport runway. The imposing building—a colonnaded structure with an interior courtyard—will look better, though, when it is completed.

Civil servants have worked for months in the o­nly finished section—two furnished offices at the front of the building—while around them hundreds of sandal-clad workers carry bricks and lay cement. The din of sawing, banging and heavy machinery is constant.

After more than two years of construction, Asia World Company, the private Burmese contractor responsible for the building, says it will be a further 12 months before the project is completed, locals say, despite pressure from the authorities to finish by the end of 2006. Each week that passes costs the state millions of kyat in labor costs that it cannot afford.

Asia World is the country’s biggest construction enterprise, run by Tun Myint Naing, also known as Steven Law, barred from entering the US because of suspected links with drugs trafficking.

Nearly a year since the ruling State Peace and Development Council first began moving civil servants to its new administrative center, Burma is learning the hard way that relocating a capital city is a difficult and expensive undertaking.

However, since early 2004, when a European diplomat who happened to be traveling in Pyinmana noticed heavy machinery “bulldozing the ground,” there has been remarkable progress. Workers are putting the finishing touches o­n ministry buildings. Many still look rough around the edges, but outside others shrubs and flowers are being planted.

Homes for middle-ranking officials are also ready, although pathways and roads are still o­nly half finished. A 300-bed hospital was opened six months ago.