Policy Project Affected Persons (PAPs)
The relocation and resettlement of Project Affected Persons (PAPs) is the responsibility of the Yangon Regional Government (YRG); however, the Thilawa SEZ Management Committee and the YRG cooperated to undertake the relocation and resettlement of PAPs by adhering as much as possible to the international practices.
As a result, the Thilawa SEZ project is the first project in Myanmar that has greatly attempted to follow the international practices in relocating and resettling the PAPs and it has been successful to a great extent despite misunderstanding in some areas.
Although the full amount of compensation for relocation, houses, crops and livestocks was provided to every PAP and the Income Restoration Program (which was never the case in Myanmar) was fully implemented, the major misunderstanding arised from whether some PAPs were entitled to compensation for land because the land in some places in the project area had been compensated previously and the replacement land had been provided, as a result, the compensation of land in these areas was not paid.
Although the majority of PAPs was satisfied, misunderstanding of some PAPs existed and as a result, JICA sent independent assessment teams two times to monitor whether or not JICA's standards were not met in the relocation and resettlement process. The results of the independent assessment teams concluded that JICA standards were not violated and provided some recommendations for further improvements.
Hence, the policies for Project Affected Persons (PAPs) are that the Thilawa SEZ Management Committee continues to cooperate with the Yangon Regional Government in order to continue adhering to international practices in relocation and resettlement process, to continue cooperating with the INGOs, local NGOs and other stakeholders, and continue implementing the income restoration program.