| Yuzana Company Limited | |
| Founder: | Htay Myint |
| Location City: | Yangon |
| Location Country: | Myanmar |
| Locations: | Yuzana Centre, Shwegondaing Road, Bahan Township |
| Key People: | Htay Myint, Pu Kyi |
| Industry: | Conglomerate |
| Divisions: | Yuzana Construction Yuzana Hotels |
Yuzana Company Limited (Burmese: ယုဇနကုမ္ပဏီလီမိတက်) is a Burmese company involved in the construction, agriculture, hospitality, real estate and fishery industries.[1]
Yuzana Company was established in 1994 by Htay Myint, a businessman with close ties to Khin Nyunt, a former Burmese prime minister and Than Shwe, the former head of the country's military junta.[1] [2] Yuzana began as a fisheries venture in Myeik (Mergui) in Southern Burma's Taninthayi Division.[3] Yuzana Company also owns palm oil, sugarcane, teak, physic nut (Jatropha curcas), and rubber plantations.[2] [3]
Yuzana is one of Burma's largest producers of lahpet (pickled tea leaves), a national dish.[4]
Yuzana is also one of four indigenous Burmese companies that harvests marine shrimps, in a farm.[5]
In 1994, Yuzana Company opened one of Burma's largest shopping centers, Yuzana Supermarket, in Rangoon.[1] In 1997, it opened Yuzana Hotel, a 198-room hotel in Rangoon.[1] In the 1990s, the company constructed Yuzana Garden City, a suburban housing development in Rangoon.[3]
In 2007, Yuzana Company was awarded a build-operate-transfer government contract to redevelop the Stilwell Road, which linked northeast India and China during World War II and collect toll and tax fees for 30 years.[6]
In November 2010, Yuzana Company opened a tapioca powder factory in Kachin State, near the company's plantations in the Hukawng Valley.[7] The factory is reported to be the largest in Southeast Asia.[7]
In 2011, Yuzana Company was named as one of the subcontractors for a major development project, to establish a special economic zone in Dawei.[8]
Yuzana Company currently operates three hotels in Myanmar:
Yuzana Company, as well as its founder Htay Myint, are currently subject to American investment sanctions.[9]
The company has received preferential government loans to subsidize financially unsound projects.[10]
Since 2006, Yuzana Company has seized over 400000acres of land from Kachin State farmers to plant sugarcane and cassava in massive mono-crop plantations.[11] That year, the Burmese government granted Yuzana Company a land concession to develop an agricultural development zone in Kachin State's Hukawng Valley (much of it in the Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve), in Danai and Hpakant Townships.[12] Within the boundaries of the land concession were seven villages that housed approximately 5,000 farmers.[12]
In August 2012, after negotiations with the National Democratic Front, Htay Myint elected to return a more than of farmland to farmers in Hpakant Township.[13] The farmers had sued Yuzana Company for the uncompensated confiscation of of farmland in 2010.[14] of the plantations are in the Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve.[15]
The company has razed forests and destroyed animal corridors in the world's largest tiger reserve.[16] In 2011, Kachin News Group, an ethnic news organization reported that the Burmese military had been stockpiling weapons in Yuzana Company's crop plantations in the Hukawng Valley.[11]
In July 2012, Yuzana Company was named as one of the perpetrators involved in illegal farmland seizures (initially part of a contract farming scheme) in Yangon Region's Dagon Seikkan and East Dagon Townships.[17]