Teachers and students sing a song at a school sponsored by Petronas in Tanintharyi Division. Pic: Petronas

MYANMAR’S abundant natural gas and oil reserves supply heavy profits to a number of foreign-owned companies and provide the government with much-needed foreign currency reserves.

Several of these firms also have socioeconomic programs in place that give back to the people by donating money and services to healthcare, infrastructure and education. These programs have – in their own way – contributed to Myanmar’s ongoing development.

French oil giant Total – which earns hundreds of millions of dollars annually from Myanmar – states on its website that it donates funds to orphanages in Yangon, supports a national blindness prevention program and assists several hospitals.

Total operates the Yadana gas project and exports 600 million cubic feet of gas a day to Thailand.

Launched in 1995, even before the fieldwork began at the exploration site, Total’s socioeconomic programs have always been considered an integral part of the Yadana project, according to its website.

Its priorities, which were defined after consultation with villagers, focus on four key areas: healthcare, education, economic development and infrastructure.
The program expresses a long-term commitment to Myanmar’s people by all investors involved in the Yadana project, which include Total, Unocal, Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration & Production (PTTEP) and Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE).

Total’s socioeconomic program provides equipment, medicine, training and specialised staff for a blindness prevention program in a country where six out of every 1000 people is blind.

In 63 percent of these cases, the cause is easily reversible cataracts, according to Total’s website.

The program assists the ophthalmology departments at the Yangon Eye Hospital and Mandalay Eye, Nose and Throat Hospital, plus seven smaller clinics – Shwe Bo, Sagaing, Meiktila, Myaing, Taung Dwingyi, Minbu and Myingyan.

Total also joined a public health initiative in Myanmar designed to support and treat people living with HIV/AIDS in the Mandalay region, its website states.
It is estimated that 75pc of HIV-positive people in Myanmar are, or will be, affected by tuberculosis. Long active in the Mandalay region, Total has supported the treatment HIV/AIDS patients further affected by tuberculosis.
Daewoo International – which operates the A-1 and A-3 blocks – is also a strong contributor to socioeconomic programs and a company spokesman said the goals of this assistance are clear.

“By implementing socio-economic programs we can help to raise the living standards of local people by providing better education and healthcare, including the provision of safe drinking water,” said Mr Jong Bin Choi, director of the business development at Daewoo International.

Daewoo started its program in October 2006 with a US$200,000 fund contributing to 22 schools. In combination with the Union Solidarity and Development Association, Daewoo has built 11 water ponds and 10 rural healthcare centres in Rakhine State.

In Myaypon township, Daewoo contributed to the construction of a 5000-gallon rain collection tank, while the donation of two refrigerators to the Sittwe and Kyauk Phyu Hospitals are being used to store blood for needy patients.
“We also provide medicine and nutrition for HIV-positive children at the Waibargi Hospital in Yangon,” he added.

Daewoo International was invited by Myanmar’s government to look into oil and gas exploration in the country in the late 1990s and it found commercial gas deposits at the A-1 and A-3 blocks in Rakhine state. Demand for this gas has already come from China, India and Thailand, with competition fierce.

But this competition is almost sure to benefit Myanmar’s people.

“In the long run, socioeconomic activities will bring sustainable benefits and a brighter future for local people,” Mr Jong Bin Choi said.