Preparations for the first section of the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (sez) included clearing nearly 400 hectares of land and building roads to a nearby port. The industrial park is scheduled to open in the middle of next year and some of the 22 companies set to move in will begin building their factories by the end of the month. Yet the most immediate beneficiary will not be Myanmar's economy. Takashi Ya-nai, head of the Burmese-Japanese joint venture developing Thilawa, jokes that the monastery sitting in a finger of forest jutting into the park has much to gain. "You cannot touch a monastery in this country," says Mr Yanai. With every corporate groundbreaking will come a donation to the monks that may one day pay for a grand golden stupa.
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