Myanmar cashes up on energy

YANGON


Most have been left in the dark as blackouts stretch through most of the day, even as reclusive officials in the new administrative capital Naypyidaw in central Myanmar enjoy an abundance of energy.

The sprawling capital, once a mountainous backwater and home to government and military offices since last year, boasts 24-hour electricity, amply lit streets with few cars and fairy lights that twinkle around ministry buildings.

That contrasts starkly with Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, where people and businesses do without electricity for most of the day, and they are hurting.

“Now we average about four hours per day with power in our industrial zone, about a 50 percent decline from eight hours per day in March,” a businessman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

Times of Oman