The phlegmatic government (you can try to get rid of the booger from your fingers but it just sticks around) of Myanmar just announced a shocking awardment of foreign telco licenses to build 4G networks in Myanmar. The winners of the 15 year concession were Telenor from Norway (DIGI fame) and Ooredoo from Qatar.
What was shocking was the favourites did not get a mention. SingTel which was easily the hot favourite did not get it. SingTel was bidding as part of a consortium with Myanmar's biggest bank Kanbawza Bank. SingTel with a large footprint in emerging markets, backed by Temasek, not to mention being buddies in ASEAN loose coalition of neighbours to boot.
It would appear that there are other concerns in the awardment of the concessions. The messages are loud and clear. One, Myanmar still regards ASEAN as not the most important grouping as the memebrs try to make it out to be. Suffice to say, Myanmar has had lingering political issues that earned the ire of many foreign countries. Be it Aung San Sukyi or the dastardly acts towards the Rohingyas. It appears you cannot EVEN say anything negative or try to interfere in any way, even by political suasian or closed door sessions. A hands off and mouth zipped policies are valued.
The other favourite was a consortium led by Digicel, a Jamaica based telco that first invested in Myanmar in 2009 and employs close to 900 people in the country. The consortium also included Goerge Soros and Seung Pun, a leading businessman in the country. This was supposed to be a shoo-in. But no.
Again, that may have a message to George Soros, an advocate of democracy and supporter of many private efforts via NGOs globally. If you want to do big business in Myanmar, be apolitical.Any country that supports sanctions etc... will be "punished".
Ooredoo was ranked 9th out of 11 bids and was unlikely given the tension with anti-Islam violence with the Rohingyas, as the company was Qatari. Still, Ooredoo is 67% owned by Qatar government and provides telco services in Indonesia, Singapore, Laos and the Philippines. It supposedly has over 60mn customers in Indonesia alone.
Telenor can better explain its cause as it has Norway government support. Plus the Norway government has been one of the more active European countries in Myanmar, supporting and funding various projects in the country.
So, it could be political ... or it could also be corruption. Who knows? It certainly did not look to be fully on merit alone. Though Telenor could win by merit alone as well. Too many questions, the perils of doing business with government.
I came across this interesting study completed by Dr. Eric Thompson of National University of Singapore and Dr. Chulanee Thianthai of Chulalongkorn University to gauge regional awareness and identity among ASEAN residents. They have some interesting findings, are we like the European Union, how do we regard the ASEAN vision, do we feel collectively empowered or held back by the association. The survey covered 2,000 university students from all the ASEAN countries.
Q. I FEEL THAT I AM A CITIZEN OF ASEAN (Agree % / Disagree %)
Brunei 82.2 / 17.8
Cambodia 92.7 / 7.3Indonesia 73 / 27Laos 96 / 4
Malaysia 86.4 / 13.6
Myanmar 59.5 / 40.5
Philippines 69.6 / 30.4Singapore 49.3 / 50.7
Thailand 67 / 33
Vietnam 91.7 / 8.3
average 76.8 / 23.2Comments: This is a good start, the vast majority find that belonging to ASEAN is necessary and positive. Its an important association, it helps all countries in ASEAN to be "treated" properly and with more respect when they can move with one voice. The noted divergence is Myanmar naturally as ASEAN admitting Myanmar is akin to recognising the military junta, which has been terrorising the people of Burma. Thailand is surprising low on the YES votes as well, I see a lot of sympathisers with the Burma condition there or they feel they are always getting the raw end of the trade talks. The other surprising statistic is Singapore, they certainly feel they can perform better as a sole nation with a few million people. The Singapore YES figure is even lower than Myanmar, go figure the obstinacy and arrogance. Yea sure, wake up, Singapore government wants in so that they can defuse any intentions to invade or take over Singapore.Q. MEMBERSHIP IN ASEAN IS BENEFICIAL TO MY COUNTRY
Brunei 85.3 / 14.7
Camboodia 96.3 /3.7
Indonesia 83.5 / 16.5
Laos 99 / 1 Malaysia 90.9 / 9.1
Myanmar 58.3 / 41.7
Philippines 94 / 6
Singapore 92 / 8
Thailand 89.5 / 10.5
Vietnam 96 / 4
average 88.5 / 11.5Comments: Again its understandable for Myanmar to diverge. But look at the hypocrisy of Singapore. They do not feel they belonged to ASEAN but they think they are MUCH BETTER OFF economically by being in ASEAN. That's so Singaporean. Gee, this is supposed to be a neutral review but now looks like being a Singapore-bashing thing (again). At least we can quote this study when we are asked why we don't like Singapore.Q. ASEAN COUNTRIES ARE SIMILAR CULTURALLY
Brunei 45.4 / 54.6
Cambodia 84.3 / 15.8
Indonesia 84 / 16
Laos 81 / 19
Malaysia 50.2 / 49.2
Myanmar 50.2 / 49.8
Philippines 78 / 22
Singapore 49.3 / 50.7
Thailand 73.5 / 26.5
Vietnam 78.4 / 21.6
average 67.4 / 32.6Comments: This is very important I think because the countries that voted half-half shows up in countries where cultural differences are apparent, and in a large aspect accepted as well. The other countries would show a much more cohesive local viewpoint that they are one people as a country and culturally. Very interesting indeed.
Q. ASEAN COUNTRIES ARE SIMILAR ECONOMICALLYBrunei 29.4 / 70.6
Cambodia 39.7 / 60.3
Indonesia 46.8 / 53.2
Laos 49.5 / 50.5
Malaysia 46.3 / 53.7
Myanmar 40.4 / 59.6
Philippines 34 / 66
Singapore 11.8 / 88.2
Thailand 44.5 / 55.5
Vietnam 54.4 / 45.6
average 39.7 / 60.3Comments: I think this is revealing for different reasons. The countries that think that their own economy is more "sophisticated" and "value-add", would have a stronger DISAGREE votes, e.g. Singapore.
Q. ASEAN COUNTRIES ARE SIMILAR POLITICALLY
Brunei 23.4 / 76.6
Cambodia 50.7 / 49.3Indonesia 49.6 / 50.4
Laos 44.2 / 55.8
Malaysia 29 / 71
Myanmar 28 / 72
Philippines 31.4 / 68.6
Singapore 13.3 / 86.7
Thailand 25.5 / 74.5
Vietnam 54 / 46
average 35 / 65Comments: Western media would always find it convenient to lump th entire region as one politically and that pisses me off no end. Each country has its own varying levels of democracy. It might not be a two party system, some are even dictatorial, there is varying levels of paternalism in politics. You may generalise a bit in saying that corruption is rife (with the exception of Singapore). As a whole, we have a lot of growing up to do politically. Each with its own set of problems and issues. Hence is it any wonder that the first rule for admission into ASEAN is that "we do not question country politics". Naturally in a group of very ugly girlfriends, they will not want to hold a beauty contest.p/s photo: Taw Natoporn Taemeeruk
The phlegmatic government (you can try to get rid of the booger from your fingers but it just sticks around) of Myanmar just announced a shocking awardment of foreign telco licenses to build 4G networks in Myanmar. The winners of the 15 year concession were Telenor from Norway (DIGI fame) and Ooredoo from Qatar.
The other favourite was a consortium led by Digicel, a Jamaica based telco that first invested in Myanmar in 2009 and employs close to 900 people in the country. The consortium also included Goerge Soros and Seung Pun, a leading businessman in the country. This was supposed to be a shoo-in. But no.
Telenor can better explain its cause as it has Norway government support. Plus the Norway government has been one of the more active European countries in Myanmar, supporting and funding various projects in the country.
