Myanmar's media – from official state television to independent newspapers – vying to tell about the difficulties and at the same time the charms of all the work on moving from the old capital, Yangon, to the new one – Naypyidaw. The government of this country decided to move, citing the "need to maintain defense against external enemies." The "external enemies" are not forgotten in Malaysia either, where the small town of Putrajaya snatched the palm of primacy from such a megacity as Kuala Lumpur. And quite recently, a similar move occurred in the very small island state of Palau in Oceania. There, the capital moved from the city of Koror to Melekeok.
Actually, in world practice, moving a capital is a fairly common thing, although it is a fundamentally difficult step both politically and socio-economically. Even in the seemingly conservative Western Europe in this respect, it is not so easy to find a country that does not have relevant experience. The most famous example is, of course, Germany, which only a few years ago finally moved all federal government institutions from Bonn to Berlin. And the ultra-liberal Netherlands still hasn't fully decided on its capital: both Amsterdam and The Hague claim this role. Officially, the capital is in Amsterdam, but the residences of various authorities are located in The Hague.
However, pragmatic leaders often choose small but cozy cities as new capitals. In the last century, Brazilians essentially founded an exemplary settlement, Brasília, on empty land in the center of the country, and the federal government was moved there. And in Australia, capital functions were given not to the millions-strong Sydney or Melbourne, but to tiny Canberra. The United States of America did something similar shortly after declaring independence from the British crown. There, in order not to give any state an advantage over the others, the capital was moved from Philadelphia to a small place called Washington, which since then itself forms a separate "federal subject" (District of Columbia).
True, such attempts are not always successful. In the late 1980s, Argentina actively promoted the idea of moving the capital "Brazilian-style" – from the giant and overpopulated Buenos Aires to the small town of Viedma, located on the undeveloped Atlantic coast. But this was prevented by loud corruption scandals that erupted as soon as the government thought about financing the project.
Anyway, economic considerations are mainly what prompt the relocation of capitals. In Myanmar, although the authorities initially used the image of an "external enemy" (primarily overseas), they soon began to calculate the profits and losses from their initiative. Thus, the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism of this country even issued a special business plan, according to which the move of the capital from Rangoon to Naypyidaw would not affect the country's tourism industry. At the same time, idle foreigners are now lured by special brochures designed to improve the opinion of the country in every possible way.
In Malaysia, opposition parties harshly criticized the decision of the country's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to move the capital from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya. In their opinion, the use of the state budget should have been more rational. At the same time, many agree that the new city actually turned out great. Vyacheslav Urlyapov, a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who worked in this country for a long time, said: "Although Putrajaya is still a somewhat uninhabited, not very cozy city, its beauty, abundance of the most modern services, including excellent roads and interchanges, cannot but impress."
In December 1997, the capital of Kazakhstan was moved from Alma-Ata to Astana, a regional city in the center of the republic. The relocation of the capital is a unique phenomenon in the history of post-Soviet states. The decision to move the capital was made by the Supreme Council of the republic on July 6, 1994. The move of the authorities has already been completed, but representatives of foreign diplomatic missions are in no hurry to pack their suitcases. The official reason for the move was again the geographically and strategically inconvenient location of Alma-Ata. Plus environmental and seismic threats. By the way, as with Putrajaya, it can be said that Astana, blown by all the steppe winds, is probably not yet the coziest city, but a very beautiful and modern one.
• Be that as it may, but ordinary people move more often than state capitals. And whatever the purpose of relocation – a simple change of residence or immigration to a new country – moving services will always remain in demand. Moreover, it is advisable to study the offers on the transport services market in advance in order to choose the most suitable option at the right time.