Myanmar is planning to form the coast guard to protect Myanmar coast and sea territory, to perform search and rescue operations in sea and to uphold safety measures in the sea, according to Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications.

Myanmar has total of over 1,300 miles long coastlines and the duties of coast guard are to protect offshore oil explorations, deep seaports, natural resources, human trafficking, illegal entry, black market trade, illegal drug trade and illegal fishing in addition to the above mentioned tasks, according to the ministry.

The meeting to form coast guard was held at the office of the ministry in Nay Pyi Taw on January 21.

“There are four types of coast guard in foreign countries. Some coast guard forces are under the Ministry of Defence in some countries. Some are under the Ministry of Home Affairs and some are under the Ministry of Transport. The last one is directly supervised by President or Prime Minister’s office. We advised to the government that the country needs to form coast guard to tackle crimes related with maritime routes. The government instructed us to scrutinize to form coast guard to solve the crimes,” said Thaung Kyaing, Director General of Department of Marine Administration.