8th July 2021
Last week we reported on the future of Telenor, one of the telecom companies in Myanmar. Telenor was wholly owned by Telenor of Norway and was independent of the Myanmar government. It wrote its investment down to zero and was considering selling it off. We forecast that it would be acquired by either the Junta or its cronies. Guess what?
Norwegian telecoms operator Telenor has sold its Myanmar operations to the Lebanese investment firm M1 Group, which was added to the Burma Campaign UK’s Dirty List in 2019 for doing business with the Myanmar military.
On Thursday, Telenor announced in a statement that it has sold its mobile operations in Myanmar to M1 group for US$105 million. It said that M1 Group will acquire all shares in Telenor Myanmar and continue the current operation.
“Over the past few months, the situation in Myanmar has become increasingly challenging for Telenor for people, security, regulatory and compliance reasons,” Sigve Brekke, president and CEO of Telenor Group, said in the statement.
“We have evaluated all options and believe a sale of the company is the best possible solution in this situation,” he added.
The sale came a few days after Telenor Myanmar said it was continuing to weigh its options in the country, a day after an industry publication reported that the firm was planning to sell its local unit and had hired global banking giant Citibank to handle the divestment.
The M1 group has been on Burma Campaign UK’s Dirty List since August 2019 because it is a major shareholder in Irrawaddy Green Towers in Myanmar, which has almost 4,000 telecom towers across the country and is working for the military-owned Mytel telecom operator.
International companies conducting business with the Myanmar military or involved in projects that have resulted in human rights violations or environmental destruction are added to the Dirty List.
Telenor launched its operations in Myanmar in 2014. As of 2020, it had 16,243 million subscribers and was one of the biggest foreign investors in the country.
In May, Telenor Group was forced to write off the value of its operations in Myanmar, recording a US$780 million impairment charge.
The company was one of four telecom operators in Myanmar, alongside Qatar-owned Oredoo, the military-backed Mytel and the state-owned Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT).
Source The Irrawaddy 8th July 2021.
Meanwhile, the Covid situation is getting worse. Oxygen is in short supply and people are going direct to suppliers and queueing long hours to buy privately.
Things are now so desperate that patients are receiving treatment on the pavement outside Yangon Hospital.
Five months after the military seized power from the civilian government in Myanmar, the country’s healthcare system is in a state of collapse.
The struggle to get treatment during a surge in Covid-19 cases is one of the clearest signs that most citizens are now deprived of basic medical services, while treatment for chronic diseases and health emergencies is also no longer guaranteed.
“Our biggest nightmare is starting to look like it’s happening – that we get a third wave of Covid while the public health system is close to breakdown,” said Marjan Besuijen, Myanmar head of mission at Médecins Sans Frontières.
Myo Myint Aung’s nightmare began when his 31-year-old wife tested positive for Covid in strife-torn Kalay township, close to Myanmar’s northwest border with India. The town has emerged as the epicentre of a raging coronavirus outbreak that reportedly killed 200 alone in June.
The fight against Covid faced a major setback in June when Htar Htar Lin, the former head of Myanmar’s immunisation programme, was detained on charges of high treason for colluding with opponents of the military authorities.
Her arrest was a brutal blow to a vaccination strategy that has all but collapsed since the army seized power.
It has made the work of Biat Mhain Ngar, a leader at the Aid Sut community centre in Kalay, even tougher as he tries to help curb the current outbreak.
“There is a Covid positive patient in every house in Kalay… generally 10 people die per day here. If you are sick, then you have to buy a test kit and then test yourself. If you get a positive result, you have to stay at home and treat yourself because there is no space available in the public hospital,” he said.
The military hospital was not taking civilians, and doctors suspected of belonging to the CDM movement are on a wanted list and only available for online consultation, he said.
“So far, the military has no effective plan for Covid here.”
Khup Pi, a volunteer medic in Kalay, alleged the junta were refusing to treat patients in the local military hospital to make doctors supporting the CDM feel guilty that people were dying.
“The junta is trying to weaken the revolution by letting people suffer with Covid, then the economy will collapse and they can’t concentrate on politics,” he said.
Residents were forced to find their own test kits and oxygen, he added. “The shortage of oxygen is getting worse day by day. People are desperately looking for it now.”
Some patients have been able to find help at underground clinics, but most are forced to remain at home, spreading the disease.
Source The Telegraph, 6th July 2021.
It appears that there are no limits to the depths that the military will sink. The situation is rapidly deteriorating.
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