Ministry of Environment, Supporting Domestic Companies to Enter Myanmar's Environment Industry

Reporter Kim Kyu-hoon | kghzang@energydaily.co.kr | Approved 2019.12.06 13:02

Opening of the Korea-Myanmar Vice Environment Ministers' Meeting and the Kachin State Biodiversity Research Laboratory

[Reporter, Kim Kyu-hoon of Energy Daily] The government will lay the groundwork for domestic environmental companies to enter the Myanmar market to secure overseas greenhouse gas emission rights (two million tons per year).

In a bid to support local environmental companies' advance into Myanmar, the Ministry of Environment (Minister, Cho Myung-rae) sent an environmental cooperation team led by Vice-minister of ministry of Environment Park Chun-kyu to the region for a five-day visit from 4^th of Dec.

An environmental cooperation team was established in November this year to strengthen public-private environmental cooperation between the two countries as part of follow-up measures to the South Korea-U.S. summit. Eleven major domestic environmental companies, including HANATECH and Ecoeye, participated.

Through the dispatch, the Ministry of Environment has started to support the Korean company's project to collect landfill gas at the Zani Khan landfill in Mandalay, Myanmar, and to supply high-efficiency Cookstoves, a stove-type cooking device.

In particular, the government will push for high-level diplomacy to win the project to burn landfill gas at the Zani Khan landfill in Mandalay, which is being promoted by HANATECH, which has domestic technology for the only landfill gas power generation facility in Korea.

It is expected to secure up to 2 million tons of carbon emissions per year with local support for the high-efficiency Cookstove supply project being pursued by Ecoeye.

Twenty-four major environmental companies and institutions from the two countries attended the "Korea-Myanmar Environmental Enterprise Roundtable" held on the afternoon of 4^th of Dec., in the Lotte Hotel, Yangon in Myanmar, providing an opportunity to further expand environmental cooperation between the two countries.

On 7^th of Dec., the "5th Korea-Myanmar Vice-minister of Ministry of Environment’ Meeting" will be held at the Putao Hotel in Putao, Myanmar.

Vice-minister of ministry of Environment, Park Chun-kyu and Myanmar's Vice Minister for Natural Resources and Environment Conservation, Ueminseo will discuss ways to follow up on the summit's performance projects, including how to operate the Korea-Mekong Biodiversity Center and detailed implementation plans, which they agreed to establish at the Korea-Mekong summit.

The Korea-Mekong Biological Diversity Center, which will be set up in Nefido, Myanmar in 2026, will be equipped with a sample storage, laboratory, natural product lab, and mass growth plant, preserving biodiversity in the Mekong region such as Myanmar, and making sustainable use of biological resources. Both countries plan to develop the institution as a pivotal institution for win-win cooperation between South Korea and Mekong.

Prior to the talks, the opening ceremony of the "Korea-Myanmar Kachin State Biodiversity Research Laboratory" will be held in Putao, Kachin State, Myanmar.

The institute was established after the agreement reached at the third Korea-U.S. Undersecretary of Environment meeting to promote joint research on biodiversity in Kachin State, northern Myanmar, in a more systematic and efficient manner in June last year.

The opening ceremony will be attended by some 40 officials from the central and local governments of the two countries, including Park Chun-kyu, Vice-minister, Uket Aung Kachin, Governor of Myanmar and Ueminseo, Vice-minister of Natural Resources and Environment Conservation.

The National Institute of Biological Resources, affiliated with the Ministry of Environment, has been conducting joint research on biodiversity with Myanmar for 8 years since 2011, and has been conducting joint research on Khakaborazi and Poncari National Park in Kachin State since 2017.

On Nov. 26^th, this year, Environment Minister Cho Myoung-rae and Ambassador Danshin of the U.S. Forces Korea expanded and supplemented a memorandum of understanding on environmental cooperation between South Korea and Myanmar on the occasion of the "Korea-ASEAN Special Summit" in Busan. Both countries pledged to expand cooperation in various environmental areas, including environmental policy and technology, biodiversity conservation, climate change and waste management.

Vice-minister of ministry Environment, Park Chun-kyu said, "We will make efforts to expand cooperation with Myanmar to the entire environmental sector so that we can seek ways to preserve the environment and co-prosperity of the two countries and visualize the results of the New Southern Policy."

​

​

(Vice-minister Park Chun-kyu visiting the Zani Khan landfill in Myanmar)

​

​

(Vice-minister Park Chun-kyu visits Hteinpin landfill site in Yangon, Myanmar.)

​

​

(Vice-minister Park Chun-kyu attends 'Korea-Myanmar Environmental Enterprise Business Roundtable')

​

​

(Vice-minister Park Chun-kyu and Mandalay Mayor Greetings, December 5^th, 2019)