Why Myanmar built Naypyidaw

A move without warning

Construction began in 2004 on an isolated site near the town of Pyinmana, some 320 km north of Yangon. The government began moving there in 2005, first to Pyinmana and then to the new city, which was proclaimed the capital in March 2006.^[1]

The information minister, Kyaw Hsan, announced the move in November 2005, saying the site was more strategic: “It is centrally located, and has quick access to all parts of the country.” Ministries, including the foreign ministry, began relocating, but foreign embassies and the UN were told there were no plans for them to follow.^[2]

“It is centrally located, and has quick access to all parts of the country”^[2]

Why?

Analysts were at a loss. Some suggested the secretive generals feared a foreign, perhaps American, invasion; others that a central capital would help them control the ethnic Shan, Chin and Karen border states, or simply that a new city in a thinly populated area would be easier to secure.^[2]

A Burma specialist at Rutgers University, Joseph Silverstein, called the plan “totally irrational” and thought the likeliest explanation was the advice of traditional fortune-tellers, on whom an earlier ruler, Ne Win, had depended.^[2]

A city of civil servants

In its early years the new capital was little more than government buildings, luxury hotels, apartments and an airport. It was populated mainly by civil servants, many of whose families stayed in Yangon because there were few shops or restaurants, though the city had something rare in Myanmar: an uninterrupted supply of electricity.^[1]