‘It’s unsettling’: A Singapore firm in Myanmar recounts first few hours after military coup, others remain silent

• In the first few hours after the military coup in Myanmar, Mr David Chen from rice farming company Golden Sunland scrambled to contact his employees
• He could not reach his team there and had to seek help from various agencies
• In the last 48 hours, communications have resumed, he said
• Other Singapore firms based in Myanmar did not respond or want to comment when contacted due to political sensitivities

SINGAPORE — The first thing that Mr David Chen did on Monday (Feb 1) was to contact his team of about 60 employees in Myanmar after news of the military coup broke. 

The 35-year-old co-founder of agricultural company Golden Sunland was in Singapore.

Among the 60 employees were its chief executive officer, who is a permanent resident of Singapore, and its chief administration officer, a Singapore citizen.

Unable to reach his staff members through various communication devices, he sought help from the Embassy of the Republic of Singapore in Yangon and trade agency Enterprise Singapore.

Mr Chen, who set up his rice farming firm’s Myanmar operations in 2016, recounted: “On Monday, we woke up to something very different and, frankly, it was unexpected. The first few hours when we couldn't reach our team on the ground were definitely unsettling.”

He finally managed to reach his team in Myanmar within a few hours after the coup took place and is grateful that his team is safe.

The company has also asked the Myanmar office to close for the week until there is greater clarity on the country’s political developments. 

On Wednesday, Mr Chen said that bank and flight operations and most communications have resumed in the last 48 hours and business is back to the “new usual”.

There has not been any material change to the way things were done before the coup, he added.

“The uncertainty is still there. With political change happening during a pandemic, it takes a strong team to get through these unprecedented times,” Mr Chen said. 

Some of his company projects have been halted because they require extensive physical involvement of various parties on the ground. 

“We are doing various scenario planning now and building it up as soon as new information is available,” Mr Chen said. 

On Monday, Myanmar made news headlines around the world when its army staged a coup and arrested its civilian leader, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, who came into power after the 2015 general election. 

She was elected again in a general election last November but the military has declared it as fraudulent. Besides arresting Ms Suu Kyi, several officials from her National League of Democracy party were also arrested. 

After decades of ostracism and economic decline, Myanmar’s military leaders moved to shed the country’s pariah status in 2011 by lifting restrictions on political opponents, freeing political prisoners and relaxing other rules. 

Since its gradual liberalisation, many Singapore companies have set up businesses in the rapidly developing Southeast Asian nation. 

Golden Sunland is one of them. Some other companies include urban development consultancy Surbana Jurong as well as property developers Soilbuild and Tiong Aik.  

TODAY’s interview requests with at least seven other Singapore companies that have expanded to Myanmar have either been turned down or gone unanswered. 

Business associations that tried to reach several small- and medium-sized companies there also did not yield any response. 

Some declined to speak to the media due to the political sensitivity as well as uncertainty over the evolving situation. 

At the close of the stock market on Wednesday after trading resumed, the share price of Yoma Strategic, a conglomerate based in Singapore — with businesses in real estate, food and beverage in Myanmar — plunged 25.45 per cent. 

It called for a trading halt on Monday morning and gave a business update via the Singapore Stock Exchange the following day, stating that its office employees have been asked to work from home for the week due to the uncertain and evolving political situation in Myanmar. 

The business update provided by its chief executive officer Melvyn Pun also stated that some of the group’s businesses were disrupted intermittently on Monday due to outages in telecommunications networks but which have since been restored. 

While several of its businesses have resumed operations and the situation remains calm, Mr Pun said in the filing that there could potentially be a change in business sentiment as the situation evolves. 

“It is still too early to ascertain the longer term impact to the group’s businesses. The company will continue to closely monitor the political developments in Myanmar and provide further updates as and when there are material developments,” he said in the stock exchange filing. 

According to the World Bank, Singapore was the largest foreign investor in Myanmar last year, accounting for 34 per cent of overall approved investment.

The Enterprise Singapore (ESG) website stated that in 2017, the bulk of Singapore’s investment in Myanmar was in the information and communications sector (73 per cent) followed by manufacturing (14 per cent) and real estate (4.6 per cent). Notable investments include Sembcorp industries’ US$310 million power plant in Myingyan.

In response to queries from TODAY, a spokesman from ESG said: “We are deeply concerned about the latest developments in Myanmar.

“Myanmar and Singapore share close bilateral economic ties, and we have ongoing investment projects and business interests in Myanmar. We will monitor the situation closely.”