4 4.7 expropriated by the Government and have protested about the deprivation of livelihoods and inadequate conditions in their resettlement area. In addition to the significant confusion caused by different types of land tenure systems in the country, Myanmar has large displaced communities that retain a claim to their lands, even though they do not currently have possession. Some ethnic minorities in the east of the country have been displaced for decades, leading to very weak tenure over their original land, which they may not have occupied for years, and may now be used by others. More recently, since mid-2011 some 200,000 ethnic minority civilians have been displaced in northern Myanmar as a result of ongoing internal armed conflict, and almost 140,000 have been displaced by inter-communal violence in Rakhine State since June 2012. These newly displaced populations may not be allowed to occupy and use their land when they attempt to return to it. As a result, ascertaining the provenance of land ownership in Myanmar is not straightforward: existing land records may not reflect true ownership; many people do not have sufficient documentation of their land rights; and many have claims to land through customary land tenure systems which are not officially recognised by the Government. 494 Land Use for the Telecommunications Sector ICT companies will usually lease (or for some local companies potentially purchase) land for their operations, whether it is for offices, ICT parks or infrastructure development. Compared to some of the sectors increasing their operations in Myanmar such as agriculture and mining, the ICT sector has a smaller and far more dispersed land footprint. The infrastructure is characterised by small tower sites (although nearly 8,000 towers are planned for 2015) as well as over 5,000 kilometres of narrow trenches for laying cable and fibre. The remainder of the footprint is essentially office space for day-to-day operations across the sector, some of which has been grouped together into ‘ICT Parks’. There is negligible manufacturing in the sector so this part of the value chain currently has no footprint to speak of but could increase. For the most part, the ‘over the top’ services sector does not have a physical presence in the country. SIM cards and equipment are distributed through a myriad of small shops, often selling a wide range of goods. Tower construction companies acquire land for towers by leasing the land from the owners for a long-term period of typically 15 years. 495 A mobile operator publicly commented that the Government had set a fixed price for leasing land held by ministries or administrative bodies (such as Yangon City Development Corporation in Yangon) if leased for tower construction. 496 The specific price is not public. As detailed below, companies ask permission from the owners and their immediate neighbours to rent the site and then construct and operate the towers. Some of the land being used for towers is paddy land, 497 which is protected for food security reasons and cannot easily be converted to other uses. Moreover, permission for conversion of paddy land on which rice is being grown needs to be granted by the national level authorities 494 For a more detailed discussion of land issues, see: Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business, “Briefing Paper on Land Issues in Myanmar” (March 2015). 495 Myanmar Times “Ooredoo builds 100 towers as launch looms closer, (26 May 2015). 496 Telenor, “Myanmar Sustainability Briefing” (12 May 2015). 497 Myanmar Farmland Management Rules 210 PAGE CHAPTER 4.7: LAND