Thein Zaw (Mgdaw), 29 June 2019  

Global Treasure Bank becomes the only serviceable bank for the localpeople of money operation in Mrauk Oo and the shutdown of internet impactssignificantly on the daily money operation, the local people said.

Since the local business sectors rely on internet and mobile phoneoperators in terms of money withdrawing and transferring, the local people havenow the only choice to go to the only Global Treasure Bank of Mrauk Oo whileWave Money and True Money services are no longer available due to the networkban by the Union Government last week.

U Zaw Tun, a high school teacher of Mrauk Oo said, “There are three mainchallenges. The first one is not operation of the KBZ bank. So, people just goto the GTB bank. Then, internet shutdown means all the money operation servicesof such as Wave money and True Money have to be unavailable. Thus, every onegoes to GTB bank which is the only bank operation here.”

Besides, many local people are casual workers and the impacts of clashesand instability of the region brings series of challenges for business recoveryand money operations especially, many migrant workers who employing in abroadfind proper difficulty in money transferring to their families. 

A local businessman said that it takes for ages to withdraw and transfermoney in the GTB bank as the bank is crowded with the entire customers from theregion.

He added that “ some customers cannot wait and go back home. They have towait a long queue. Yet, the bank has just a handful of staff resource which isnot enough to provide the service.”

It has been learned that the operation of KBZ Bank has been unavailable sinceMarch 15, when the bank was hit bullets form Tatmadaw (Myanmar Army) openedfiring in the down town at night. Since then, the CCTV installation from theKBZ bank has also been seen and the bank is still being close.