Myanmar quietly announces plans to study controversial Chinese dam project suspended 13 years ago

By GRANT PECK
Associated Press

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Myanmar’s military government appears to be considering reviving a massive China-backed hydroelectric dam project. Work on it was suspended more than a decade ago after protests over its possible impact on the environment. A notice from the Information Ministry published in the latest issue of the government gazette announced a new leadership team for the Myitsone hydropower project, which was put on hold in 2011 by Myanmar’s military-backed former  president, Thein Sein. The $3.6 billion project in the northern state of Kachin, along the country’s Irrawaddy River, was supposed to export about 90% of the electricity it generated to China, Myanmar’s northern neighbor.