Nine firms purchase right to submit proposals for first phase of the New Yangon City Development project

Construction News Myanmar
Traffic moves along a busy downtown street in Yangon

Nine firms purchase right to submit proposals for first phase of the New Yangon City Development project

Nine out of 15 eligible organisations have paid the Request for Proposal (RfP) fee which allows them to access documents related to investing in the first phase of the New Yangon City Development project, according to the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations.

Three companies each from Myanmar and France and one each from Singapore, Taiwan and India paid the RfP fee for the project, which covers developing an industrial park and essential supporting infrastructure under a Swiss challenge against China Communications Construction Company.

The companies are: BES Engineering Corporation Taiwan, BYMA Myanmar Ltd from France, Dragon Power Company Ltd from Myanmar, EDF HQ Singapore, Myanmar National Brotherhood Consortium, NTPC Ltd from India, Nylect Technology (Myanmar) Ltd from Singapore, Southern Metal Industry Co. Ltd Myanmar and SUEZ Group from France.

The RfP documents must be submitted by January 18, 2021.

The involvement of BYMA Myanmar in the RfP process has raised concerns over conflict of interest given that it is partially owned by Yoma Strategic Holdings, a Singapore-listed company controlled by U Serge Pun, who is also CEO of the government-funded New Yangon Development Company, which manages the project.

U Serge Pun has since clarified that Yoma Strategic is not involved in the management BYMA Myanmar, a joint venture between Dragages Singapore, which is a subsidiary of Bouygues Construction and SPA Project Management, a subsidiary of Yoma Strategic.

U Serge Pun has said that neither himself nor Yoma Strategic Holdings were informed of BYMA’s interest in receiving the RFP documents. “The tendering process for Package 1 adheres to the Swiss Challenge process and is headed by a global third-party consultant, Roland Berger, and they are guided by the Swiss Challenge Tender Committee. According to BYMA, their interest in receiving the RFP documents is not to bid but to have a better understanding of the urban development vision of the Yangon city project,” he said.

U Serge Pun further pledged not to support any bids involving the project by any company under his control to address the issue of any potential conflict of interests.

Source: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/nine-firms-purchase-right-submit-proposals-new-yangon-city.html