Than Htay ( my, သန်းဌေး; born 12 November 1954) is a Burmese politician who served as Chairman of the

Union Solidarity and Development Party The Union Solidarity and Development Party ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စုကြံ့ခိုင်ရေးနှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေးပါတီ; abbr. USDP) is a political party in Myanmar, registered on ...

from August 2016 to September 2022 due to medical treatment. He previously served as the Minister for Rail Transportation, and Minister for Energy. He is a retired brigadier general in the

Myanmar Army The Myanmar Army ( my, တပ်မတော်(ကြည်း), ) is the largest branch of the Tatmadaw, Armed Forces (''Tatmadaw'') of Myanmar (Burma) and has the primary responsibility of conducting land-based military operations. The My ...

Early life

Than Htay was born on 12 November 1954 in Ayeyarwady Region. When he was 17, he was accepted into the

Defence Services Academy The Defence Services Academy ( my, စစ်‌တက္ကသိုလ်, ) located in Pyin Oo Lwin, is the premier military service academy of Myanmar, training future officers for all three branches of Myanmar military. The Ministry of Defence ...

and earned a bachelor of arts and a master’s degree in defense.

Military and political career

Serving in the military until 2010, he peaked as a brigadier general. He left the army at the rank of brigadier general in 2003 to become deputy minister of energy, before being promoted to minister in 2011. He joined the Union Solidarity and Development Party at its founding in the lead-up to the 2010 election. He won election to the Pyithu Hluttaw, representing Myanaung township, in the 2012 by-election. In 2013, he became minister for energy and for railways. In January 2013, his ministry awarded two new deep-water oil and gas blocks to Thai energy firm

PTT Exploration and Production PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited ( th, บริษัท ปตท. สำรวจและผลิตปิโตรเลียม จำกัด (มหาชน)), also known as PTTEP, is a national petroleum explora ...

without using a bidding process. The ministry also approved MPRL E&P to extend its contract without a bidding process to operate the Mann oil field in central Myanmar. Due to his controversial decisions over the awarding of exploration licenses and production concessions as a minister, Than Htay was transferred to the Ministry of Rail Transportation on 25 July 2013. He resigned from the post after Thein Sein picked him as a USDP candidate for the 2015 general election. He publicly supported the controversial Protection of Race and Religion Laws — a set of four laws to regulate religious conversion and population-control measures that passed under sustained lobbying from ultra-nationalist groups. In November 2015, he ran for re-election but was defeated. In the 2020 Myanmar general election, he won a House of Representatives seat representing Naypyitaw's Zeyathiri Township.

References

{{reflist Union Solidarity and Development Party politicians Members of Pyithu Hluttaw Transport ministers of Myanmar Energy ministers of Myanmar Burmese military personnel Burmese Buddhists 1954 births Living people People from Ayeyarwady Region Defence Services Academy alumni