Myanmar's dusty new capital Naypyidaw is filled with glum civil servants shuttling between their stifling new apartment blocks and faceless ministries. But some wily business people are smiling. Entrepreneurs from around the country have spotted an opportunity and their profits are soaring at the handful of small businesses that have opened in the purpose-built city.
The military junta which rules impoverished Myanmar began moving to this remote central location in late 2005, and as more civil servants arrive to fill up the ministries, they are searching for places to shop, eat and relax.
Myoma Market, a dun-coloured block cut into red dirt hills, is the commercial centre of Naypyidaw, a city that foreign diplomats have described as a "construction site" or "resembling a barrack". It may not be paradise, but for Sai Lone Kyio, 30, it has offered a chance to start a business he could not afford in the old capital Yangon, 400 kilometres (250 miles) to the south.
"At first, nobody wanted to work here, now more people are living here. I took a risk when I decided to come and invest here," he says. Sai Lone Kyio, who has one daughter and is originally from eastern Shan state, opened his restaurant in April last year and has seen profits soar.
"At first when I started my business here I sold about 10,000 kyat (eight dollars) but now sometimes I can sell 30,000 kyat in one day," he says. That's how much entry-level civil servants earn in an entire month. "My life is much better here. In Yangon I was just a vendor because rent was so high."
Sai Lone Kyio is taking full advantage of the lack of competition. He has also opened a beauty shop and has an application pending for a vegetable stall. His story is repeated throughout Myoma Market. Kyu Kyu Mar, 32, opened a bra stall after her husband moved here for work, and has seen profits triple since she opened up six months ago. But not everyone is so impressed with the prospect of a new life in Myanmar's central scrubs.
"I have the feeling the civil servants are very sad about the situation there, it is very harsh," says one foreign economics expert based in Yangon. Civil servants were ordered to leave their homes in the early hours of November 7, 2005 and were bussed to desolate Naypyidaw, with no facilities and few ways to keep in touch with the outside world.
But the population explosion -- the junta says 925,000 people now live in Naypyidaw -- has created opportunities. "The power and the money will be there so there is a lot of attraction," the economics expert tells AFP. "That money is injected into the economy and it should generate some growth."
It is not just small businesses in Naypyidaw that are experiencing a mini-boom. The number of trains travelling between here and Yangon has increased, and vendors en route are reaping the benefits.
Mie Mie has been selling rice and curry at Bago station 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Yangon for 15 years, and has seen a 10 percent increase in sales since Naypyidaw was built. "I hope for the best in the future because there are more trains to Naypyidaw," she says gesturing to the track where dogs, cows and goats are grazing on overgrown weeds.
Authorities are also improving the 400-kilometre (250-mile) road linking Yangon and Naypyidaw. Along the bumpy highway, men, women and children balancing buckets of stones on their heads shuffle past smoking barrels of black tar. They are resurfacing the road, although one restaurant owner along the route says the highway has a habit of washing away in the rainy season.
One place which has undoubtedly seen a boom is Pyinmana, a small logging town that was literally engulfed as Naypyidaw was built around it. Any businessman or official leaving the station will walk into a bustling market full of vendors offering snacks and supplies.
But food and drink are not the only services people crave. Myanmar's police chief claims Naypyidaw is crime free, but aid workers and foreign officials say that with any concentration of people, sex workers will follow. "I would say prostitution is already there," says a western diplomat.
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