Crony capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between businesspeople and government officials. It may be exhibited by favouritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks or other forms of state interventionism. Crony capitalism is believed to arise when business cronyism and related self-serving behaviour by businesses or businesspeople spills over into politics and government, or when self-serving friendships and family ties between businessmen and the government influence the economy and society to the extent that it corrupts public-serving economic and political ideals.In its worst form, crony capitalism can devolve into simple corruption, where any pretence of a free market is dispensed with. Bribes to government officials and tax evasion are common.Corrupt governments may favour a set of business owners who have close ties to the government over others. This may also be done with racial, religious, or ethnic favouritism.Myanmar needs to plan to restrict the growth of crony capitalism, preventing a minority richer people from limiting the growth of the middle class and keeping the majority of the population in poverty. Crony capitalism in Myanmar makes foreign investments dicey—at least for the West.

1. Crony capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on close
relationships between businesspeople and government officials. It may be exhibited by favouritism in the
distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks or other forms of state interventionism.
Crony capitalism is believed to arise when business cronyism and related self-serving behaviour by
businesses or businesspeople spills over into politics and government, or when self-serving friendships and
family ties between businessmen and the government influence the economy and society to the extent that
it corrupts public-serving economic and political ideals.In its worst form, crony capitalism can devolve into
simple corruption, where any pretence of a free market is dispensed with. Bribes to government officials
and tax evasion are common.Corrupt governments may favour a set of business owners who have close
ties to the government over others. This may also be done with racial, religious, or ethnic
favouritism.Myanmar needs to plan to restrict the growth of crony capitalism, preventing a minority richer
people from limiting the growth of the middle class and keeping the majority of the population in
poverty. Crony capitalism in Myanmar makes foreign investments dicey—at least for the West.Myanmar’s
economy is forecast to grow over 6% this year as new foreign investment surges into the former hermit
kingdom, but Western companies have been slow to join the party. Most investment is set to come from
other emerging markets in Asia or beyond, where companies are more comfortable dealing with corruption
and ethically questionable partners.Despite recent reforms, doing business in Myanmar is still a murky
affair. Take, for example, the country’s gas stations—potentially a great investment in a frontier market
where many people are poised to grow rich enough to buy mopeds and eventually even cars. A local
lawmakerhas claimed 247 state-owned stations that were privatized in 2010 were sold at “very low prices”
to a military-owned trading company and other firms with close ties to the generals. (In 2010, the junta lost
some of its power and Myanmar got a semi-civilian government.)Getting into bed with the military and
former junta officials could be a reputational risk too far for Western corporations. The junta leaders were
responsible for gross human rights violations such as conscripting child soldiers (which still happens)
and colluding with drug and people traffickers. A deal with such partners raises the risk of a boycott at
home or a US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation.It is extremely hard to find Burmese business
partners that do not have strong junta connections. German non-profit Bertelsmann Stiftungreported that
“military conglomerates and cronies…continue to monopolize the economy under the new
government.”Although foreigners are allowed to fully own Myanmar businesses in many sectors , it is
considered unwise to operate there without a local partner, as getting business done is very much driven
by personal relationships. The nation does not have a strong rule of law or courts that can be relied on to
independently protect assets or contracts. “You need a local partner, otherwise you get killed,” hotel
developer Richard Friedman said in INTERVIEW..A Hong Kong-based private equity fund manager who
has spent time in Myanmar looking for deals told Quartz: “There are very few businesses or business people
that our Western investors would consider to be clean. I met one prominent businessman there who has
what the Myanmar people call ‘white money’ as opposed to money from military connections. Everyone is

2. chasing him. The terms he would require for doing business with us would not be advantageous.”So the
country’s economic future is likely to be carved up between the generals and ex-junta tycoons, and
emerging-markets investors without Western investors or stock market listings. The Bertelsmann Stiftung
report, noting that foreign investors were cautious about their public image, concluded that “neighboring
Asian countries (including Thailand, China and India) have invested heavily.”
Myanmar's 'crony capitalists'
In a new era of foreign investment, analysts are split on what role elites connected to the military junta
should play.Hereward Holland | 27 Jan 2014 06:50 GMT
For much of the world, Myanmar is considered to be in the process of transforming from pariah to pet
project.Following half a century of Western isolation, Myanmar voted in a government of retired generals
two years ago, heralding radical economic and political reforms. Most observers agree the government is
creeping towards more transparent and democratic rule, but there remains a debate of whether Western
economic sanctions helped or hindered the reform and whether outstanding sanctions are an effective
diplomatic tool.In 2010, the government ended pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest
and began releasing hundreds of political prisoners.As a result, the West suspended or lifted most of their
trade and economic sanctions, opening the door to bargain-hunting frontier investors. Still, the US
maintains sanctions against a number of favoured Myanmar tycoons who allegedly grew rich through
corruption and their close ties to the old regime. In December the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) agreed
to pay US authorities $133m to settle sanctions violations in four countries including Myanmar, where it
processed 46 wire transfers totalling around $376,000. As the political and economic landscape shifts, the
cronies have tried to rebrand themselves as potential local partners for foreign businesses. Human rights
groups argue the US needs to maintain pressure against the Myanmar government to ensure the
reformers don't backslide. "Despite holding by-elections and taking other positive steps, the government
has yet to institute the reforms necessary to move Burma toward democracy, and basic political power
remains with the military," New York-based Human Rights Watch said in an open letter to President
Obama in November. "It is imperative for the United States to retain its leverage until real reform
occurs." But others say the sanctions were a knee-jerk moral response to the cruelty and indifference of
the Myanmar state towards its citizens, and not an effective use of the diplomatic toolbox. They say the
real trigger of reform in Myanmar was an internal recognition that the era of superstitious and paranoid
governance was outdated, combined with fears of encroaching economic domination by resource-hungry
China. The remaining sanctions, the pragmatists argue, could be retarding economic growth and job
creation because those with a murky history also have much-needed capital and market
knowledge. "Sanctions were ineffective at best, and counterproductive at worst," says Richard Horsey, a
political analyst. "The cronies made their millions at the expense of the country but, putting aside the
moral argument, they're now well-placed to help the economy grow. Some of the cronies are the biggest
tax-payers in the country." Corruption and sanctions are abstract concepts rarely captured visually, but Al
Jazeera attempted to meet some of the alleged crony capitalists.

3. Khin Shwe, chairman of the property group Zaykabar, speaks to Reuters reporters in Yangon March 10,
2012.
REUTERS/SOE ZEYA TUN
He's the flashiest tycoon in one of Asia's poorest cities, with a canary-yellow Lamborghini parked outside
his neoclassical mansion.Tay Za is also one of the most vilified associates of Myanmar's former junta.
The U.S. Treasury has branded him a "notorious henchman and arms dealer," slapping him with
sanctions that froze his assets and blocked his jet-setting family from cities across the globe.Now, as his
country starts to open up after decades of military misrule, Tay Za is leading a wave of crony capitalists
who are repositioning themselves as the fresh new faces of Myanmar Inc. According to his son, the 44-
year-old multimillionaire has become a semi-retired philanthropist."Everything is all different for him now,"
said Pye Phyo Tayza, 25, over a two-hour dinner at the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel, a teak complex bought
by his father two years ago. "He is doing a lot of foundation work. He is doing more contributions for
society. Less greed."Reuters interviews with Myanmar's most powerful business families reveal a broad
push to cultivate a new image - and retain their position atop the economy of this resource-rich nation of
60 million.Some are promoting charitable work, forging ties with the dissident Burmese Nobel Peace
Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and huddling daily with executives from multinational companies
descending upon one of world's last frontier economies.Many are retooling sprawling business empires
that relied on favors from the state, anticipating an end to sanctions and new competition from foreign
brands. Some are hiving off loss-making assets inherited under a system that reserved lucrative contracts
— often in jade mining, timber and tourism — to favored businessmen, or awkwardly trying to shed an
aura of privilege in Asia's second-poorest country after Nepal.

4. Quietly, they are bringing sons and daughters into play, spawning a second-generation elite that is
consolidating through business and marriage, even as Washington and Brussels debate how to lift
sanctions without enriching the business allies of former dictator Than Shwe.The maneuvering poses a
tricky dilemma for the West. The United States and Europe must embrace Myanmar's political and
industrial leaders in order for reforms to take hold and to counter China's influence in this country at the
crossroads of Asia. But that endorsement, and the impending lifting of trade sanctions, could backfire if
the regime takes a repressive turn or the elite keep a lock on the nation's resources.Myanmar's opening
began last year, when Senior General Than Shwe handed power to a nominally civilian government, and
advanced this month when democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi won election to parliament. That
prompted Washington last week to say it was ready to relax some sanctions, including a ban on U.S.
investments in Myanmar, also known as Burma.But in announcing those steps, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said sanctions and prohibitions will remain "on individuals and institutions that remain on the
wrong side" of reforms.
Myanmar's crony capitalists - a clique of fewer than 20 families - grew rich with help from the dictator who
ruled Myanmar from 1992 until his retirement just last year. Than Shwe led a military junta whose abuses
include killings, torture, rape and forced labor, the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law
School said in a 2009 report.During her visit to Myanmar in December 2011, the first by a U.S. secretary
of state in over 50 years, Clinton called for economic as well as political reforms so that the benefits of
lifting sanctions would "flow to a broad-based group of people and not just to a very few."
That's easier said than done. Even for Clinton: She stayed at the Thingaha, a crony-owned hotel in
Myanmar's crony-built capital city of Naypyitaw.The go-to businessmen of the former military junta are
now the must-see contacts of Western executives wishing to invest in this former British colony, nestled
between booming India and China with strategic ports and untapped reserves of oil and gas.
"TOP CRONY"-Tay Za is perhaps Myanmar's best-known tycoon. Diplomats say he curried favor with
Than Shwe and other generals, giving their children roles in his businesses in exchange for coveted
contracts and import licenses in profitable sectors: trading, logistics, property, agro-industries, tourism, oil
and retail.He has boasted sanctions made him richer and the generals stronger. Washington calls him
"the regime's top crony." But his eldest son tells Reuters his family has suffered under sanctions.
When the military violently cracked down on Buddhist monks and pro-democracy activists in September
2007, the U.S. blacklisted Tay Za and his family under tighter sanctions, citing his links to the junta's inner

5. circle.Around that time, an e-mail purportedly by Tay Za's other son, Htet, circulated on the Internet. It
ridiculed sanctions, poked fun at the unrest, and turned an envious and angry public against the family.
"U.S. bans us. We're still f***ing cool in Singapore. We're sitting on the whole Burmese GDP. We've got
timber, gems and gas to be sold to other countries like Singapore, China, India and Russia," it read. Pye
Phyo Tayza says the e-mail was a fake. The family tracked the ISP address to the United States, he says.
His brother, then 14 years old, was studying in Singapore.
"He didn't write it," says Pye Phyo Tayza.-U.S. diplomats agreed the email was a phony but expressed
little sympathy for Htet. "Tay Za's son does maintain a Facebook page with pictures of him sitting in his
Ferrari with semi-automatic weapons," says a U.S. diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks.
Pye Phyo Tayza says he suffered from depression in 2003 when sanctions foiled his chance at attending
elite schools in London and Sydney. "They said I am not even entitled to apply for a visa," he says.
"Where are my human rights?"He appealed to a European Union high court, arguing he should not be
punished because of his father. The Court of Justice of the EU agreed on March 13 after four years of
costly litigation. A 2008 regulation that froze his funds was annulled. He hopes that will pave the way for a
lifting of his travel ban.Now, as chairman of his father's Yangon United Football Club, one of 14 teams in
a three-year-old national league, he acknowledges pressure to join the family business.His father suffers
health problems, he says, including a damaged kidney and lingering effects of frost-bite after surviving a
helicopter crash last year in northern Myanmar. Tay Za and five others spent three days sheltered by a
rock and snowdrifts at 12,000 feet before being rescued."Those were the worst three days of my life,"
says his son. "And they changed him.""He is doing a lot with his foundation, investing a lot in that area
where he crashed," he says. "He doesn't do anything else. He delegates to the managing director and he
stays at home, reads books, focuses his time on this."
"FRIENDS WITH ANYONE"-Other tycoons are doing more than finessing their image: They're retooling
entire conglomerates.Few are more powerful than Zaw Zaw, whose holdings range from timber, gems
and rubber plantations to construction and luxury resorts. He dominates the lucrative and tightly
controlled auto-import industry. Annual revenues of $500 million make his Max Myanmar Group a
Burmese leviathan.
His friendship with former dictator Than Shwe makes him "a regime crony", according to the U.S.
Treasury Department, which blacklisted him under targeted sanctions three years ago. A 2007 U.S.

6. diplomatic cable described how "Zaw Zaw actively seeks favor with the senior generals."Zaw Zaw is
shifting strategy. Banking, hotels and tourism are his priority, he says. Construction is a "big headache",
suggesting an exit from a crony-dominated industry whose state contracts made him a fortune."You
cannot manage everything yourself," he says in an interview from his Yangon office. "We have to look at
which business is good for the future, which business we can partner with foreign companies."Dressed in
a crisp white shirt and a traditional Burmese sarong, the affable 44-year-old expects sanctions to be lifted
soon, first by Europe and then by the United States. As Myanmar overflows with tourists and frontier-
minded investors, he wants to "inject more" into his hotel business.He is constructing a 400-room hotel in
Yangon, the dilapidated commercial capital of 5.6 million people, whose 1,500 hotel rooms are chronically
overbooked. He says he is in talks with global five-star hotel groups to operate it. "If I manage it," he
jokes, "it will be one star."But his dream, he says, is to build an international brand for his nearly two-year-
old bank, Ayeyarwady. He meets almost daily with officials from foreign banks and other multinationals to
discuss potential deals and alliances, he says.Asked whether he and other tycoons are lackeys of
dictators, as often depicted, Zaw Zaw shakes his head. The junta favored him for the quality of his work,
he says. "We have never done any business that is illegal."He described his friendship with retired
dictator Than Shwe as pure business: "I can make friends with anyone." Yet he agrees friends get favors.
When he built the Royal Kumudra Hotel in the new capital city of Naypyitaw, he was paid not with money
but with 10 permits valued at $180,000 each to import automobiles.He was also rewarded when about
300 state-owned assets - from real estate to gas stations and an airline - were doled out two years ago in
the largest privatization in Myanmar's history. Junta allies hit the jackpot. Zaw Zaw won a banking license
and a cement factory. "For those two, I really appreciate it. I want to say ‘thank you' to the previous
government," he says.
He also lauds the work of Suu Kyi. As the head of the Myanmar Football Association, he invited her to a
recent game, where the two were photographed. Some Suu Kyi allies fumed that she had sold out. But
the image underscores the scale of change in Myanmar, as Suu Kyi prepares to enter parliament after
her party's landslide by-election victory on April 1.Suu Kyi's spokesman, Nyan Win, declined to comment
on her relationship with Zaw Zaw or other well-connected tycoons.
GEM-STUDDED RECLUSE-While Zaw Zaw reshapes his empire in the hope of forging post-sanctions
deals with multinationals, other top cronies seem intertwined with the junta that enriched them.
KBZ Group controls two airlines, the country's largest private bank, and lucrative jade and gem mining
concessions. Its chairman is Aung Ko Win, a former schoolteacher whose connections with General

7. Maung Aye, 74, formerly the junta's second-in-command, first showered him with riches.They also won
him a place on the EU sanctions list, along with his wife, Nan Than Htwe, and Nang Lang Kham, one of
three daughters being groomed to take over the business. The family are "very shy, very religious, very
good-hearted," says Nyo Myint, a KBZ Group consultant.Aung Ko Win steers clear of the media, although
in January the chairman - wearing a trilby hat, Ray Bans and a diamond-studded gold watch - was
spotted aboard an Air KBZ flight by Reuters staff on assignment in Myanmar. An attempt to interview him
was cut short by the pilot, who emerged from the cockpit to shoo a reporter away.But his daughter Nang
Lang Kham and consultant Nyo Myint agreed to meet at KBZ Bank's headquarters in Yangon.Aung Ko
Win is closely associated with the former junta. Photos of him inspecting chunks of jade with retired
dictator General Than Shwe adorn the bank's walls.Aung Ko Win struck it rich at ruby and sapphire mines
in the early 1990s in a region of Shan State where Gen. Maung Aye was a commander. "My dad was an
entrepreneur," says Nang Lang Kham.But during a 2008 meeting with U.S. diplomats, Aung Ko Win
admitted Maung Aye gave him jade and gem mining concessions, and that he remained close to the
general.That intimacy appeared to help his KBZ Bank fend off the rival Co-operative Bank in a 2010
dispute over the ownership of Myanmar International Airways. Ultimately, KBZ Bank secured 80 percent
of the airline. Co-operative endured a run by depositors who feared their bank might not survive a conflict
with a powerful crony.But influence cuts both ways. The following year, amid rumors of Maung Aye's
ouster, KBZ itself suffered mass withdrawals by "anxious depositors concerned that the star of Aung Ko
Win was also on the wane," wrote economist Sean Turnell, a Myanmar banking expert at Macquarie
University in Sydney.
KBZ Bank has since become Myanmar's largest private bank, although the sector remains tainted by
allegations of money-laundering and ties to drug traffickers. Myanmar is the world's second-largest
producer of opium after Afghanistan and a leading supplier of methamphetamine.A Financial Action Task
Force of U.S. and Japanese officials concluded after a 2006 visit to Myanmar that KBZ Bank was "weak
in promoting a culture of AML (anti-money laundering) compliance," says a U.S. diplomatic cable.
KBZ Bank denies those allegations. In a statement, it said it "participates enthusiastically in anti-money
laundering activities."The Task Force also noted that brisk trade in gold, gems and jade "provided ample
opportunities for abuse."Gem and jade remain KBZ Group's primary cash cow. Every few months,
Myanmar holds gem emporiums at which KBZ racks up sales of between $40 million to $50 million,
according to a company document seen by Reuters. This figure excludes one-off sales. In 2011, a
Chinese buyer snapped up a $44 million chunk of imperial jade.

8. U.S. investment restrictions are unlikely to be lifted soon on gems, timber and some other resource-
related industries, even if Washington relaxes sanctions, said a U.S. official in Washington, as they are
"regressive sectors" in ethnic minority areas known for human-rights abuses.One part of Aung Ko Win's
empire is struggling. In 2010, he launched a domestic airline called Air KBZ. One of its three aircraft
crashed at Thandwe airport in February. No injuries were reported among the 51 passengers, who
included foreigners bound for Ngapali, Myanmar's best-known beach.Air KBZ's chairman is the tycoon's
daughter, Nang Lang Kham. "I still have a lot to learn from my father," she says. "We are trying to
modernize our banking business and restructure our organization as well."
CRONIES REBORN?-Not every tycoon is a crony. Michael Moe Myint was identified in a 2009 U.S.
embassy cable as "one of Burma's most successful businessmen, and perhaps the most legitimate."
His 23-year-old Myint & Associates is Myanmar's biggest contract oil and gas services provider, with
annual revenues this year of about $12 million. He also runs a $40 million oil and gas exploration and
production company.A former commercial pilot, Moe Myint, 59, studied and worked briefly in the United
States before returning to Myanmar in 1989 to emulate his late father, a geologist who advised Shell.
"You just don't do it," he says of cronyism, "though sometimes it is very hard."In the late 1970s, he
planned flights for General Ne Win, whose 1962 coup began Myanmar's dark years of army rule. He
worked closely with a Ne Win protégé, Khin Nyunt, who would become the much-feared chief of military
intelligence.Years later, when Khin Nyunt offered him lucrative state contracts, Moe Myint says he said
no. "That's not the way I wanted to earn my money."Today, he is close to Suu Kyi, hosting a Japanese-
themed dinner for her and 250 guests in January. She also dined with his family on Christmas day, urging
his son, a petroleum engineer with Chevron in Australia, to return home. "She convinced him to leave
Chevron and come back and help the country," he says.But he is scornful of the U.S. sanctions against
him and his family, which were imposed in 2008 due to what a U.S. diplomatic cable described as
production-sharing contracts with the former military government. He says the U.S. measures were
hypocritical. While U.S. companies cannot invest in Myanmar, his company employed Americans and had
contracts with U.S. companies. "Yet because I am working in oil and gas in Myanmar, I am denied a
visa."A year later, U.S. diplomats urged Washington to reverse the decision, saying in a March 2009
cable that "he does not provide and/or derive significant support to or from the regime." The sanctions
were removed only last month.Sanctions often missed their mark, says Serge Pun, chairman of SPA
Group, whose interests include real estate and financial services.

9. "How could they be effective when you have China on one side and India on one side that didn't bother
about the sanctions?" In the 2010-11 (April-March) fiscal year, for instance, China pledged $14 billion of
investment, pushing total foreign direct investment promises to $20 billion, official data show.
Among those doing business with China is Myanmar's most reclusive crony: Tun Myint Naing, 53, better
known as Steven Law. A soft-spoken ethnic Chinese, Law owns a huge construction and trading
company, Asia World, that built Yangon's busiest port, an extension to its international airport and one of
the best-known hotels, Traders.It also helped create the capital Naypyitaw, throwing up hotels, ministries
and a retirement mansion for strongman Than Shwe.
Asia World was founded by Law's father, Lo Hsing Han, described by the U.S. Treasury in a 2010
document as the "Godfather of Heroin" and "one of the world's key heroin traffickers dating back to the
early 1970s." Law, the document adds, "joined his father's drug empire in the 1990s and has since
become one of the wealthiest individuals in Burma." Law has denied involvement in drug trafficking.Asia
World has profited from Law's "excellent personal relationship with senior generals," including Than
Shwe, and from sealing business deals between Chinese companies and the military regime, U.S.
diplomatic cables say.Yet when reformist President Thein Sein visited China in May, Law was in the
delegation, suggesting that he will remain "very influential" as a Chinese-speaking intermediary, predicts
Sumana Rajarethnam, an analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit. Asia World is involved in some of
Myanmar's biggest and most controversial Chinese-led projects, including the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port
complex overlooking the Bay of Bengal and the trans-Myanmar pipelines that will carry oil and gas into
China.
Law declined to speak to Reuters for this story.Even if cronyism fades, it's likely legacy is a class of
entrenched business dynasties. One is led by Khin Shwe, a property tycoon and member of the upper
house of parliament who is listed under U.S. and European sanctions.His son, Zay Thiha, is vice
chairman of their property group, Zaykabar. Zay Thiha's sister, Zay Zin Latt, is married to Toe Naing
Mann, founder of telecoms group Redlink Co. Toe is the son of lower house speaker Shwe Mann, a
former general and a possible future president.This second generation is less tainted by Myanmar's
military past, and the first generation is relying on them in its quest for legitimacy in the new Myanmar.
"Actually we want to rest," says Khin Shwe in an interview, with his son sitting nearby. "But we cannot."
(Additional reporting by Aung Hla Tun and Paul Eckert; Editing by Michael Williams and Bill Tarrant)

10. http://qz.com/73370/crony-capitalism-gas-station-row-in-myanmar-highlights-difficulty-of-investing-there/
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2014/01/pictures-myanmar-crony-capitalists-
2014117122343534897.html
http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/editorial/crony-capitalism-and-corruption
http://www.forbes.com/global/2011/1010/feature-people-burma-showy-crony-capitalism-luxury-za-
montlake.html
http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2015/07/20/the-irresistible-rise-of-colonel-sanders/
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/crony-capitalism-myanmar-makes-foreign-034257377.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-cronies-image-idUSBRE83B0YU20120413
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Civil-society-condemns-crony-capitalism-30249938.html
http://yangon.coconuts.co/2015/07/21/myanmar-cardinal-blasts-ruling-politicians-protectors-crony-
capitalism
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/NE17Ae01.html
A capitalist class emerges in Myanmar
By William Barnes
BANGKOK - Myanmar has a widely underestimated array of home-grown business families who are likely
to provide the foundation of the country's future capitalist class - and a bulwark against any attack on the
core privileges of the military-linked elite.
In the excitement over the opening of the "biggest emerging market opportunity since China",
commentaries have portrayed Myanmar in words and images akin to those used in describing America's
19th century Wild West.
The Economist Intelligence Unit recently espied "vast untapped natural resources and land". The
International Monetary Fund says the country could be "the next economic frontier in Asia". Local pundits
agree: "Myanmar is the last resourceful investment destination in the Southeast Asian region," said Thinn
Htut Thidar, a Yangon-based consultant.
There is undoubtedly truth in these words but they overlook the local tycoons, often disparaged as
cronies of the regime, as well as myriad lesser entrepreneurs, whose businesses fill out the space left by
the military's own large economic presence.
Considering these well-established homegrown commercial interests, the "untrodden fields" talk is in
many ways overdone and misleading. An Asia Society "Task Force" that advised Washington in 2009 on
who to deal with if Myanmar opened up, for example, did not mention the indigenous business sector.
Myanmar's official statistics place its per capita economy on a level with a sub-Saharan basket case. Yet
anyone who has been stuck in the traffic jams of shiny four-wheel drives in the commercial center of

11. Yangon knows there is something amiss in this statistic, which largely fails to measure the country's huge
informal and illicit economies.
"Most business families have tried to keep a low profile and to hide their wealth for obvious reasons. The
clever ones made money even in the [eccentric late strongman] Ne Win era. Ultimately even the military
knew it has to keep the economy ticking over somehow. These families - big and small - they will all now
try to emerge strongly," argued one European banker.
"I would put down money that the families who were able to cope with the generals are going to be the
best at managing the coming boom. The result might not be pretty but it will be effective," he said.
Some, perhaps many, of these tycoons will stumble and fall, and many newcomers and returnees will
also likely emerge. But in the years it takes Myanmar to reach its version of democracy there will be time
for the owner class to consolidate its gains and arrange political protection.
An important test will come in 2015 when a general election is due, although the military will still have a
guaranteed 25% appointed representation in parliament.
Thomas Carothers of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank recently pointed out
that Brazil's emergence from a much shorter period of authoritarian rule took two "long and turgid"
decades.
"More than 10 years elapsed from the opening of political reform in 1974 until a civilian president took
power through credible elections," Carothers noted. "It was almost another 10 years after that until the
system really worked through many of the toxic legacies of previous authoritarianism."
Myanmar's reformist President Thein Sein has talked about re-examining certain "crony" contracts, but
this isn't expected to tilt the commercial balance any time soon away from military-linked enterprises.
Investment vehicles like Myanmar Economic Holdings, which owns three dozen businesses and several
joint ventures with foreign firms, is believed to be 70% owned by serving and retired military officers.
Five years ago, one of the leaked American diplomatic cables argued that true reform would only come
when the entire economy was turned over.
"The generals' economic power cannot be separated from their political power. Over the last forty-five
years, the regime has built an elaborate system of patronage where the generals and their military-owned
enterprises dominate every profitable natural resource industry and profit-making enterprise."
The cable added that "True economic reform would require the dismantlement of this elaborate structure,
threatening their powerbase."
The International Crisis Group (ICG), a non-governmental organization that has advocated for the
removal of Western economic sanctions against Myanmar, reported recently that popular expectations
are running high and that "in order to bolster the broader reform effort, it is vital to provide quick wins to
the population" especially in the most deprived areas.
At the same time, the government is already close to being overwhelmed by the foreign in-rush: "So many
offers of assistance are coming, we have no time and capacity to handle them. The risk of burn-out is
real, and in some ways, things are moving too fast," said one official quoted by ICG.
Military-entrepreneur complex
So who is going to supply the "quick wins"? A certain mystery still hovers over the decision of the military
establishment to risk easing its repressive hold on the country when it was neither broke nor under dire
internal political pressure. Indeed, there were a number of countries edging closer diplomatically without
promises of sweeping reforms.
Part of the answer may be found in the military-entrepreneur complex. It has been obvious to all but the
dimmest general that vastly greater profits were to be had if the economy was permitted to engage more
with the global marketplace. The ensuing growth would also enable a revamped military-entrepreneur
class to nail down a long-term existence behind the screen of economic progress and political
transformation.
This was actually been tried before in Myanmar, albeit in a limited way, something that has been
overlooked in most recent commentaries on the country's unprecedented opening.
Myanmar actually "opened" its markets 20 years ago, when it also set up grandiose vehicles like
Myanmar Economic Holdings. Then, the idea was to move away from the decades of eccentric pseudo-
socialism under former dictator Ne Win.
That early attempt to take a "modern" authoritarian growth path prompted a host of mostly Asian
corporations to scramble for opportunities in the 1990s. The initiative largely fizzled away because of the
military's suffocating grip and the lack of both international institutional lending and proper legal security
for investments.

12. Some cynics think the recent political theater is merely the military's recalibrated attempt to create a
business boom without inviting social unrest. If a military-entrepreneur complex were able to prosper,
then even a lively democratic facade would be acceptable to the military, in this view.
"The generals own the country and have survived in spite of sanctions and [international] condemnations.
What they crave is what they cannot buy or be gained by oppression - legitimacy," said a former Western
diplomat in Yangon and keen observer of the Myanmar military.
"I liken all of this to a Mafioso who wants to become a legitimate businessman by laundering his money,
sending his kids to Ivy League schools and so on, and letting others do the dirty work so he can make
claims of plausible deniability while he continues to reap the profits," he said.
Myanmar's uniformed rulers have frequently proven abrasive patrons, even of their favored quasi-
capitalists. Yet the linkages of profit, protection, friendship and family are myriad, if not always
transparently obvious.
So the most likely replacement for President Thein Sein, if he retires in 2015, is the speaker of the lower
house, Shwe Mann, who has been linked to the showiest of the regime's entrepreneur favorites, Tay Za.
Shwe Mann's three sons are also reportedly heavily involved in crony enterprises.
Critics have frequently railed about "toadies" vying for privilege in the debilitating Myanmar version of
India's "License Raj". Yet this maneuvering is in line with the defining characteristic of so many successful
Southeast Asian business families: the ability to connect the ruling elite with economic opportunity.
Leading businessmen have complained bitterly behind closed doors about the bottomless incompetence
of Myanmar's military leaders, even as they paid kickbacks and sought to ingratiate themselves with
them.
One prominent Western academic has long contended privately that the arrival of opposition icon Aung
San Suu Kyi on the political scene in 1988 froze the "natural" emergence of political factions backed by
various military and corporate cliques, such as seen historically elsewhere in the region.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy still enjoys massive popularity but has been, in difficult
circumstances, notoriously lacking in aggressive energy. It would be remarkable if, like the bureaucracy, it
were not overwhelmed by the upcoming challenges caused by rapid political and economic opening.
Jennifer Quigley, advocacy director of the US Campaign for Burma (as the country is still referred to in
some quarters), recently told Inter Press Service that she feared the current eagerness by investors to
exploit Myanmar's riches risks letting the regime renege on moves towards democracy.
"If we go in and allow foreign investment, there won't be any motivation for the government towards
political resolution," Quigley said.
The reality, however, is likely to be that business becomes politics in a way seen across developing Asia.
And the military appears to be gearing up for this scenario.
About two years ago, the outgoing military regime sold off a swathe of state assets - from colonial-era
buildings, to ports and cinemas - in sales that seemed designed to favor itself and its cronies just before
the big political opening. Reports of military-linked land grabbing have also become more frequent with
economic opening.
When the International Monetary Fund visited five years ago, one disgruntled local businessman told
them that if they really wanted to catch the attention of the notoriously superstitious generals they should
bring an astrologer along next time. The IMF can save its money, for military leaders are now firmly
focused on the economy and multilateral lender advice on how to spark growth - and in the process
enrich themselves and their crony capitalists.
William Barnes is a veteran Bangkok-based journalist.
(Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales,
syndication and republishing.)
THREE years after profiling Burma’s most successful tycoons in its September 2005 issue, The
Irrawaddy is again directing attention to the men who govern the country’s business world. They continue
to prosper, and have been joined by others, yet they are coming increasingly under the international
spotlight and critical scrutiny.

13. Many of those who featured in our September 2005 issue found themselves on another list last year—
penalized by US and EU sanctions because of their relationship with, and unquestioning support for,
Burma’s military regime.
The sanctions list contained such names as Tay Za and his elder brother, Thi Ha; Asia World’s director
Tun Myint Naing; Aung Thet Mann, whose father is the regime’s third most powerful general; and Khin
Shwe, who faithfully attended the regime-sponsored National Convention and is well connected to the top
junta leaders.
They were penalized by the US shortly after the regime they so assiduously back brutally suppressed
demonstrations last September demanding changes that would advance prosperity and freedom for all,
not just a favored clique.
The US sanctions were also clamped on 25 top military generals and ministers who keep the tycoons in
business—including the junta’s triumvirate of Snr-Gen Than Shwe, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and Gen
Thura Shwe Mann.
The targeted sanctions were applied under Washington’s Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, which
came into force in July 2003 after junta-backed thugs ambushed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
her supporters in Depayin, Sagaing Division.
Although the list of military leaders, family members and their business cronies is long, many other names
deserve to be added to it. There are also doubts whether the sanctions have a real effect on the
privileged lifestyle of the generals and their business cronies. They continue to enjoy the good life while
the masses live in poverty.
By naming these members of an uncaring caste, we hope to shame them. It won’t be the last list we’ll
publish—the clique is growing, but so is international awareness of its members’ perfidious practices.
The Irrawaddy
Tay Za
Htoo Trading Company
The 44-year-old CEO and managing director of Htoo Trading
Company plays a major role in the Burmese economy. His
business activities range from logging, tourism, hotels, air transport
and construction to technological investment in the regime’s newly
built Yadanabon Cyber City in Upper Burma.
Tay Za’s connection to the regime is the key to his success. He is
known to be close to Burma’s top leaders, including Snr-Gen Than
Shwe and Gen Shwe Mann.Tay Za (Photo: AFP)

14. Than Shwe once stayed at Tay Za’s beach resort in Ngwe Saung and the senior general was reportedly
impressed by his meeting with the young tycoon there. Since then, Tay Za has been offered more and
more lucrative business concessions.
Tay Za, or Teza, is especially close to Gen Shwe Mann, who he has known since the general was
regional commander in the Irrawaddy delta.
After setting up the Htoo Company in the early 1990s, Tay Za dramatically expanded his business empire
by working closely with the military regime. Myanmar Avia Export Co Ltd, a company he created to supply
the Burmese military with spare parts for its aircraft, is Burma’s sole representative of Russia’s Export
Military Industrial Group, known as MAPO, and of the Russian helicopter company Rostvertol.
Because of his Russian connections, he was said to be instrumental in the junta’s purchase of advanced
MiG-29 fighter-bombers and military helicopters. The company denied this, saying it helped to purchase
only civilian helicopters for the regime.
Last year, Tay Za expanded his empire by entering the airline business with the launch of Air Bagan,
which began its operations with domestic and regional routes.
Faced with US sanctions in October 2007, however, the airline suspended its flights to Singapore, citing
the effects of the punitive measures.
Tay Za’s wife, Thida Zaw, and oldest son, Pye Phyo Tay Za, were also put on the sanctions list. His son’s
lavish lifestyle in Singapore was exposed by pro-democracy blog sites, causing an outcry.
Page 2 of 7)
Thida Zaw recently bought the London Cigarette Company and is believed to control Burma’s tobacco
industry.
During the crackdown in September 2007, a rumor spread that Tay Za had helped Than Shwe’s wife,
Kyaing Kyaing, and members of her family to fly to Dubai to seek refuge there. Tay Za’s relatives denied
the rumor, saying that although Tay Za and business associates traveled to Dubai during the turmoil in
Rangoon, Kyaing Kyaing was not with them.
Despite the sanctions, the young tycoon is still thriving in Burma’s struggling economy. His company
claims that it spent about US $3 million on rescue and rehabilitation work following Cyclone Nargis.
Observers noted that Tay Za received lucrative trade concessions from the junta in exchange for
donations to the relief effort.
Tun Myint Naing (aka Steven Law)
Asia World Co

15. Tun Myint Naing is the managing director of Asia World Co,
Burma’s biggest firm. He is also well-known as the son of former
drug kingpin and militia leader Lo Hsing Han, who controlled the
opium business in Shan State in the 1970s. Lo Hsing Han assisted
the regime to reach a ceasefire agreement with Wa and Kokang
insurgents in early 1990.
Asia World was founded on June 5, 1992, and has developed into
the country’s biggest business conglomerate, with interests
ranging from transport to construction and retailing. The
company’s many government contracts include road building in
Shan State, the renovation of Rangoon’s international airport, and
the construction of a deepwater port and toll highways.
Tun Myint Naing and Lo Hsing Han were put on the US sanctions
lists in February 2008, along with their companies Asia World Co
Ltd, Asia World Port Management, Asia World Industries Ltd and
Asia World Light Ltd.
Golden Aaron Pte Ltd and nine other Singapore-based companies managed by Tun Myint Naing’s wife
Cecilia Ng were also targeted, as was Ng herself.
Golden Aaron Pte Ltd is associated with a contract between Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise and a
business group—including the China National Offshore Oil Company Myanmar Ltd—to carry out oil and
gas exploration in Kyauk Phyu, Arakan State.
Asia World built a port for cargo ships on the island of Ramree specifically to service China’s shipping
needs. The port at Kyauk Phyu was connected to a new 1,950-km (1,220-mile) highway to be built
through Burma directly to Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan Province.
Asia World has been assigned to build hydropower projects across the country and is now involved in
constructing the Myit Sone hydropower project, 42 km (26 miles) north of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin
State.
Company business is still going strong, thanks to Tun Myint Naing’s connections in China. Beijing has no
interest in imposing sanctions on Burma as long as it enjoys a special relationship with the Burmese
regime and its cronies.
The company maintains a very close relationship with the regime. Tun Myint Naing recently accompanied
Snr-Gen Than Shwe on a visit to cyclone-affected areas of the Irrawaddy delta and has been given
contracts for reconstruction projects in the region.
Zaw Zaw
Max Myanmar Group of Companies
Tun Myint Naing
(Illustration Harn Lay/The
Irrawaddy)

16. Zaw Zaw, 42, is the managing director of the Max Myanmar Group of Companies, which he founded in
1993.
The conglomerate is involved in the beverage market,
gems and jewelry, transportation, civil construction, hotels
and tourism, palm oil production, rubber plantations and
mechanical engineering exports and imports. The company
operates a three-star hotel in Chaung Tha, a popular resort
town, and the Royal Kumudra Hotel in Naypyidaw. It is also
involved in the construction of an expressway and an eight-
lane road in Naypyidaw.
Like Tay Za and Tun Myint Naing, Zaw Zaw played a very
visible role in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. The three
top businessmen accompanied senior generals on trips to
the devastated Irrawaddy delta and were instructed to
contribute to reconstruction projects in the region.
(Page 3 of 7)
According to Burmese media reports, Max Myanmar
contributed $1.6 million to the relief effort.
Besides his business interests, Zaw Zaw is the chairman of
the Myanmar Football Federation and the Myanmar Tennis Federation. He is considered to be very close
to the grandson of Than Shwe.
Pyi Aung & Nay Aung
Aung Yee Phyo Co Ltd and IGE Co Ltd
Brothers Nay Aung and Maj Pyi Aung, two rising businessmen, are no strangers to the world of crony
business in Burma. They are the sons of Aung Thaung, the powerful Minister for Industry (1). Aung
Thaung, a known hardliner in the cabinet, is close to both Than Shwe and Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye. His
son, Pyi Aung, is married to Nandar Aye, daughter of Maung Aye.
Pyi Aung and Nay Aung founded Aung Yee Phyo Co Ltd and IGE Co Ltd, gaining a foothold in the oil,
gas, agricultural products and timber trading industries. IGE was established in 1994 and registered in
Singapore in 2001, when the company opened its office in Shenton Way, an exclusive area of the Lion
City.
IGE is one of Burma’s leading companies. It is a major supplier of materials used in the construction of
electrical substations and transmission lines, and sells equipment and machinery to both private- and
public-sector companies in the oil and gas industry. It also provides compressed natural gas (CNG) filling
stations for government projects. The company exports rice and imports machinery and spare parts for
electrical generating projects, as well as steel, fertilizers and chemicals.
(Photo: Cristina Dorada/The Irrawaddy)

17. In March 2007, IGE signed a contract with little-known Rimbunan Petrogas Ltd, a partner in a joint
venture with the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise to explore for offshore oil and gas in Block
A, off the Arakan coast. According to a report in The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, Rimbunan
Petrogas Ltd is registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The two brothers reportedly own three US-made Hummers, the civilian version of the military Humvee.
They are banned from traveling to Australia or the European Union, but have managed to avoid becoming
targets of US sanctions by maintaining a low profile.
Aung Thet Mann
Ayer Shwe Wah Company
A graduate of the Rangoon Institute of Economics, Aung Thet Mann,
33, set up the Ayer Shwe Wah Company several years ago. The
company is involved in construction, palm oil production and the
import and export of chemical fertilizers and agricultural products.
When his father, Gen Thura Shwe Mann, was the regional
commander in Irrawaddy Division, Aung Thet Mann received
lucrative government contracts to supply fertilizers to farmers
throughout the delta region. More recently, his company has been
involved in construction projects in the new administrative capital of
Naypyidaw.
Ayer Shwe Wah is a subsidiary of Htoo Trading Company, which
Aung Thet Mann joined in 1997 after he was recruited by CEO Tay
Za. In 2001, the regime gave Ayer Shwe Wah more than 30,000
acres of wetlands and rice paddy in the delta region. In 2005, it
became the first private company to receive permission to export
rice to Bangladesh and Singapore.
Business rivals accuse Aung Thet Mann of using access to government supplies of cheap cement to
underbid them for construction contracts related to the Defense Ministry’s relocation to Naypyidaw.
In an interview with The Irrawaddy, Aung Thet Mann claimed that he provided $1 million in emergency aid
to victims of Cyclone Nargis. He also called for more international assistance and urged the US to lift its
sanctions. Last year, the US placed his company on the sanctions list.
His younger brother, Capt Toe Naing Mann, also has close connections to the business community. He is
married to the daughter of another tycoon, Zaykabar Khin Shwe.
Michael Moe Myint
Myint & Associates Group
Aung Thet Mann (Illustration
Harn Lay/The Irrawaddy)

18. A former senior pilot at Myanmar Airways, Michael Moe Myint later worked at an airways equipment
export company in California. He founded Myint & Associates Group Companies in 1989 and currently
serves as the managing director.
(Page 4 of 7)
Myint & Associates was the first private Burmese
company to enter the oil and gas industry as a
service contractor and is now recognized one of
the top 10 companies in this booming sector of
the Burmese economy.
The company provides a wide range of services,
including warehouse construction and rental,
logistics, maintenance, procurement, equipment
rental, engineering, agency representation and
general services related to oil and gas exploration
and production.
Myint & Associates is currently excavating raw
petroleum in Minbu, Magwe Division, and is
involved in the Yadana and Yetagun gas projects.
Michael Moe Myint has several international
business connections. He served as a consultant
and local agent for the American-owned Baker
Hughes and FMC Group, Japanese-owned Mitsui
& Co Ltd, McDermott International Inc, UK-owned
Bredero Price International, and Thai-owned Shinawatra International.
The company’s clients include Total, Unocal, Halliburton, Premier Oil, Petronas and Daewoo.
Michael Moe Myint proudly claims that he is one of the few businessmen in Burma who pay tax to the
government (about $1 million per month) and is considered to be one of the 10 richest people in Burma.
Ne Win Tun
Ruby Dragon Jade & Gems Co Ltd
(Photo: PTTEP)

19. Ne Win Tun, the CEO of Ruby Dragon Jade & Gems Co Ltd, is the
right-hand man of Aung Kham Hti, the leader of the Pa-O National
Organization (PNO) from southern Shan State. After reaching a
peace agreement with the regime in 1991, the PNO set up Jade
Dragon (Gems) Co Ltd, the parent company of Ruby Dragon Jade
& Gems Co Ltd, and appointed Ne Win Tun to run the business.
Ne Win Tun operates gold and gem mines in Mong Hsu in Shan
State, Pha Khant and Tawmaw in Kachin State, Kawlin and Khamti
in Sagaing Division and Mogok in Mandalay Division.
He has also diversified into other sectors. In 2004, his Ruby
Winery Factory went into operation in Nyaung Shwe in southern
Shan State, with a total investment of $3 million. In 2005, he built
the Dragon Cement Factory on a 728-acre site in Tigyit, Shan
State, with an initial investment of about $21 million. And in March
2007, he opened the Ruby Jade Hotel Resort and Spa in
Rangoon.
It is widely believed that high-ranking Burmese
generals are shareholders in Ruby Dragon Jade &
Gems Co Ltd, the largest company of its kind in
Burma. In the early 2000s, the company donated a
massive 3,000-tonne slab of jade to the junta.
Ne Win Tun is regarded as one of the 10 richest
people in Burma. Observers say that it is unlikely
that the US Block Burmese Jade Act of 2008 will
have much impact on his gem-trading business,
since most of his customers are from China.
Khin Shwe
Zaykabar Company
Ne Win Tun
(Illustration Harn Lay/The
Irrawaddy)
(Photo: Azuna Ali/The Irrawaddy)

20. A pioneer in the Burmese real estate industry, 58-year-old Khin
Shwe runs Zaykabar Company, the country’s leading property
developer. The company has been behind numerous high-profile
projects, including the Yangon Industrial Park, the Royal
Mingaladon Golf and Country Club, the Kandawgyi Nature Park
and Recreation Zone, the Mya Yeik Nyo Royal Hotel, the Pyay
Garden Condominium and the Karaweik Palace reception hall and
restaurant on Rangoon’s Kandawgyi Lake.
As president of the Myanmar Construction Entrepreneurs
Association and chairman of the Myanmar Hotelier Association,
Khin Shwe has played a major role in developing and promoting
Burma’s tourism industry. He has also served as chairman of the
Myanmar-Japan Friendship Association, the Myanmar-Korean
Friendship Association and the Myanmar Thai Development Co.
(Page 5 of 7)
In 1997, he hired an American PR company, Bain and Associates
Inc, to improve relations with the US. However, in 2007, he was placed on the US sanctions list for his
close ties to the regime.
Khin Shwe is an active supporter of the regime’s “road map” and attended the National Convention to
draft a junta-friendly constitution. His daughter is married to the younger son of Gen Thura Shwe Mann,
the country’s third most powerful general.
Htay Myint
Yuzana Company
Htay Myint, who founded the Yuzana Company in 1994, started out in business with investments in a
fisheries venture in Mergui. He later entered Rangoon’s residential and commercial property markets,
embarking on his biggest project, the Yuzana Garden City, a suburban housing development, in the mid-
1990s.
The Yuzana Company has interests in a number of industries, including transportation, construction, hotel
and tourism, palm oil production and rubber plantations. The company also owns the Yuzana
Supermarket and Yuzana Hotel in Rangoon and has established an oil refinery in Rangoon’s Thaketa
Township.
Htay Myint is also chairman of the Myanmar Fisheries Federation, president of the Construction Owners
Association and president of the Fishing Vessel Owners Association. He is now on the US sanctions list.
Khin Shwe
(Illustration Harn Lay/The
Irrawaddy)

21. Eike Tun
Olympic Construction Co
The managing director of Olympic Construction Co and vice president of Asia Wealth Bank (AWB), Eike
Tun is an ethnic Kokang-Chinese from Shan State. He was one of the first to establish a private bank in
Burma after the ruling regime introduced limited economic reforms allowing private investment in the
financial sector in the early 1990s.
AWB suffered a major blow in 2003 when a banking crisis hit the country and the bank came under
scrutiny from the US Treasury Department. The US imposed special sanctions on AWB because of its
alleged involvement in money laundering. In March 2006, the Burmese regime forced the bank to close
for failing to abide by currency regulations.
Eike Tun’s other major operation, the Olympic Construction Co, continues to thrive, however. The
company invests heavily in residential property and hotel development in Rangoon. Olympic is also
involved in hydroelectric projects and plans to build the Baluchaung 3 hydropower dam in Karenni State.
Chit Khaing
Eden Group
Chit Khaing, a leading property developer, is the managing director
of Eden Group, a major player in the construction industry in
Rangoon, Pagan, Naypyidaw and Kachin State.
The regime has granted him lucrative construction projects,
including government buildings. Eden Group owns the Aye Tha
Yar Golf Resort in Taunggyi and numerous hotel complexes in
popular tourist spots around the country.
Chit Khaing’s name rarely appears in the local media. Business
sources in Rangoon claim that he is involved with Russian
companies exploring for uranium and minerals in Mandalay
Division and Arakan and Kachin states.
Aung Ko Win
Kanbawza Bank
Aung Ko Win is the president of Kanbawza Bank, one of the largest private banks in Burma. He also
heads several other successful enterprises, including Myanmar Billion Group Co Ltd, Nilar Yoma Co Ltd,
Kanbawza Hospital in Taunggyi and Shwegonedaing Specialist Client in Rangoon.
Nilar Yoma Co Ltd operates gold and gem mines in Mong Hsu in Shan State. Aung Ko Win also has a
stake in a cement factory in Pimpet in southern Shan State.
Chit Khaing
(Illustration Harn Lay/The
Irrawaddy)

22. Aung Ko Win, sometimes known as “Saya kyaung,” once taught the daughter of Vice Snr-Gen Maung
Aye and is still believed to be close to the junta’s second most powerful general. His decision to move to
Taunggyi in Shan State earlier this year fuelled speculation that Maung Aye’s influence was on the wane.
Page 6 of 7)
In July, Aung Ko Win and his managing director, Zaw Win Naing,
came under investigation for suspected money transfer irregularities.
Aung Ko Win is a patron of the national football squad and has
donated large sums of money to the team, in addition to contributions
of more than $2 million to various public projects.
Serge Pun
(aka Theim Wai)
Serge Pun & Associates (Myanmar) Limited
Serge Pun left Burma for Beijing in 1965 and spent many years in China and Hong Kong, where he
began a business career in real estate.
He returned to Burma and founded the multinational Serge Pun & Associates (Myanmar) Limited in 1991.
He established Yoma Bank the following year.
SPA Myanmar is a successful conglomerate of some 40 business enterprises with interests in financial
services, manufacturing, technology, construction, real estate, the automotive industry and health care.
Foreign joint venture partners include multinational corporations such as the Nissan and Suzuki
automobile companies and Sumitomo Corporation of Japan, as well as international private investment
companies and investors from North America, Europe and Asia.
He is also chairman of First Myanmar Investment Co Ltd, a publicly traded company holding a 35.6
percent stake in Yoma Bank. Rumors circulated last September that the regime revoked the banking
license for his bank and that it was subsequently unable to complete money transfers. However, the
rumors proved to be untrue.
Kyaw Win
Shwe Than Lwin Company
Aung Ko Win
(Illustration Harn Lay/
The Irrawaddy)

23. Kyaw Win is the chairman of the Shwe Than Lwin Company, which imports vehicles, construction
materials and heavy machinery to Burma. He also engages in business with ethnic insurgent groups,
especially the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which has reached a ceasefire agreement with the
regime.
Shwe Than Lwin is one of the few companies allowed to import coconut cooking oil. It is also involved in
cement and agricultural projects in Irrawaddy Division and is the sole distributor of tires from Thaton Tire
Industry, under the Ministry of Industry (2).
Win Aung
Dagon International Ltd
Win Aung (better known as “Dagon” Win Aung) is the CEO of
Dagon International Ltd.
He co-founded the company with former army captain Win Thein in
the early 1990s to invest in construction projects in Rangoon.
Dagon International Ltd was granted a construction license to
upgrade the Rangoon-Mandalay highway and extension, as well
as several agricultural and irrigation projects across the country.
He is also involved in the timber trade, construction and import-
export. His business licenses and contracts are usually approved
without delay as he has close connections with the ruling generals.
Interestingly, his partner, Win Thein, was involved in a failed
assassination plot against former dictator Gen Ne Win in 1976.
Win Thein became a government witness in the case against
Captain Ohn Kyaw Myint, who was later sentenced to death as the
leader of the would-be assassins.
In recent years, Dagon International Ltd has made its mark on
Rangoon with the construction of a modern shopping complex, the Dagon Center, in the main commercial
district of the city. Win Aung also invests in tourism and has opened resorts at Ngwe Hsaung beach in
Irrawaddy Division.
Aung Myat
Mother Trading Company Ltd
Win Aung
(Illustration Harn Lay/The
Irrawaddy)

24. The founder of the Mother Trading Company Ltd,
Aung Myat, has invested heavily in the country’s
cement industry. The young Chinese
businessman embarked on building his cement
empire in the early 1990s, and is now assured of
lucrative construction projects from government
ministries.
He is said to be a welcome visitor at the homes of
Snr-Gen Than Shwe and Minister of Industry (1)
Aung Thaung.
(Page 7 of 7)
Rumor has it that he usually pays respect to the paramount leader by always sitting on the floor and
addressing him with royal titles.
Tin Win
Tin Win Tun Company
The managing director of Tin Win Tun Company is heavily involved in teak plantations and in the hotel
industry. The company is ranked as the second largest timber enterprise in Burma and is a major exporter
of teak and other rare hardwoods. Tin Win was closely associated with the late Prime Minister Gen Soe
Win.
Maung Weik
Maung Weik & Family Company
Maung Weik founded the Maung Weik & Family Company a
decade ago as the biggest importer of steel and gilding glue for
use in the building and maintenance of pagodas.He stirred up
controversy in 2004 with the purchase of the 44-acre Rangoon
Hlaing Campus, formerly known as Regional College No. 2. The
purchase was reportedly approved by then Prime Minister Gen
Khin Nyunt.-He still has strong connections within senior army
officers, but his future doesn’t look bright. He was recently arrested
and charged with drug abuse and importing ecstasy and ketamine.
He reportedly catered to wealthy young people, notably the sons of
the generals. According to the semi-official Myanmar Times, he
has engaged in drug trafficking from Malaysia to Burma since
2003.-Maung Weik and his young followers often threw lavish
parties attended by celebrities and models, who also allegedly
purchased drugs from him. As an extra service, he reportedly -
provided high-end prostitutes and celebrity girls to military
officers.Written by Aung Zaw. Min Lwin, Wai Moe and Ko Htwe
contributed to this report.
(Photo: AFP)
Maung Weik
(Illustration Harn Lay/The
Irrawaddy)