YANGON (Reuters) - The new government of Myanmar has been grappling with its first crisis of economic management, such as a traffic jam weeks of cargo ships in the country's largest port threatens to scare potential investors distance and smother the nascent economic growth.
The bottleneck at the port in ruins was caused by an increase in demand for goods such as opening the economy of a historic win election by the National League for Democracy (NLD) is then accelerates in November Aung San Suu Kyi.
"Due to the overall growth of the economy that are packed. The ships have nowhere to go," said Ma cherry Trivedi, CEO of Ayudroma International, adviser to Myanmar Industrial Port (MIP), where congestion has been worse.
Myanmar has one of the fastest growing economies in the world, expanding at 7-8 percent in the years since the military left the direct control in 2011.
However, its main port has changed little since the end of British colonial rule nearly 70 years ago - emblem of the dilapidated infrastructure that may contain foreign investment Suu Kyi has to meet the expectations through the roof and rebuild a country impoverished by decades board rule.
The number of ships calling at Yangon has doubled in the last decade and the number of containers has increased four times, the data show, obstruction of insufficient storage space, sclera overwhelming logistics systems and delaying deliveries.
"We bring in the steel, cement, everything you can think of ... as infrastructure grows, which is the key aspect of any development in a country like Myanmar, is going to see a massive growth of imports," he said cherry Ma Trivedi.
Western shipping lines are essentially limited to a single terminal within the port crunches due to reluctance to use other facilities operated by Asia World, whose majority owner Steven Law continues to be subject to US sanctions.
WORK 24/7
The turning point came when a crisis MIP miscalculated the volume of inbound shipments before a vacation of three weeks in April when the country largely closed down, said shipping companies operating in the terminal. That meant delays up to 10 boats, always facing two weeks of having discharged its cargo, causing the largest port jam had seen in modern times.
Industry sources said the cost Hold Up main shipping companies millions of dollars a week.
"There was good cooperation between shipping lines, storage facilities and container terminal operators. Chaos," said Aye Lwin, Joint Secretary General of the Chamber of Commerce of Myanmar, who was involved in efforts to resolve the jam.
Myanmar's presidential office announced emergency measures in mid-May to address congestion, including exploitation of ports and 24 hours customs clearance, and ordered the daily reports of the ministers of trade and transport.
Some of the largest transport companies, such as the Danish Maersk Line Ltd, sent its own specialists to help manage the situation.
By Thursday, the portfolio had been cleared largely Cherry Ma said Trivedi, although additional staff flown by shipping lines remained in place, as well as emergency measures to avoid accumulating charges again.
Tatsuya "Ricky" Ueki, managing director of shipping company MOL Myanmar, said the port infrastructure has not been updated with the economic development of the country.
"There is no easy way out of this, but billions of dollars in the country's development hinge on the aggressiveness of the government in solving the problem," Ueki said.
Jam port highlight the challenges of government Suu Kyi faces to sustain growth and attract investment going to a country struggling to compete with neighbors in sectors such as garment exports, which depend on the precise delivery and appropriate.
"Delivery times are very important," said Jacob Clere, working on a project funded by the European Union to improve the garment industry in Myanmar.
"Taking a few days longer than those in the region, they (the brands of clothing) avoid Myanmar until the waiting time is shortened."
Not So Sweet
Another factor contributing to the disruption of the port has been a crackdown by China on smuggling of sugar, according to authorities.
Up to 1 million tons of sugar as a commodity to China every year, according to experts, especially entering the country from India and Thailand through Myanmar.
In March, just before the handover of power, the outgoing government of Myanmar issued "re-export license" additional sugar traders, Aye Lwin of the chamber of commerce, said.
That meant that, like port operations were closing for the long holiday April ", four ships were discharged and about 20,000 or 30,000 containers," said Aye Lwin. "These containers could not move for the time, they were blocked."
As China intensified inspections, he said, "our cargo got stuck at the border. So many of the containers can not move and a traffic jam formed all the way to the pier in Yangon".
"There should be quotas and some degree of predictability," said Aye Lwin. "Our governments should talk about it. Otherwise, it is a total disaster."
