The Myanmar government will jointly perform a feasibility study with a private company from Thailand to explore the possibility of building a new deep-sea port in the country's southeastern Mon State facing the Gulf of Moattama, state media reported Friday.
The Port Authority of the Ministry of Transport recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Thailand's Emerald Grand Hotel Co. to start conducting, within three months, the feasibility study for the Kalargote deep-sea port project located between Ye and Mawlamyine towns in Mon State, the New Light of Myanmar daily said.
The Kalargote deep-sea port project is part of an old infrastructure development project in Myanmar that never materialized.
If successful, it could be easily linked up to the Three Pagoda Pass route, one of the country's major trading routes with Thailand, the paper said.
The study will also cover the environmental, social and economic impacts that could affect the livelihoods of the local people living in the area, it said.
Earlier local media reports quoting officials have said the project could create about 12,000 jobs.
Myanmar has two other deep-sea port projects, one in Kyaukphyu in the country's western Rakhine State, being developed by Chinese companies, and the other in Dawei in Tanintharyi Region, just south of Mon State.
But the Dawei deep-sea port project, supposed to be built by Thailand's Italian-Thai Development, is facing a series of delays due to financial reasons.
