Punam Sinh, a spokesperson with the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, told Reuters the department would examine whether the use of private land would violate the rights of the landowners.

“The land owners are not doing anything wrong,” Sinh added. “We have been negotiating with the owners for two years but it needs to be fixed before we can proceed.”

In the meantime, local government leaders hope that the deal could pave the way for land purchases by some investors. In a way, the land dispute has served as the sort of test case that might help open the door for a few investors who come on board with less political baggage.

Land disputes are not hard to find in Myanmar. The country has been struggling economically and in years past it had a law that forced people to sell their lands at high prices, in return for compensation. But a new market has emerged, with more investors keen to buy land from property-hungry farmers. Land disputes are also seen as a good way to keep people who have a bad image in Myanmar out of key public companies.

Land is a key issue in Myanmar, where the government has struggled to secure land, and land ownership is regulated under the state land ownership act. The government is trying to sell large tracts of land to foreign investors and has said the land purchase would benefit rural citizens — though most of those involved in the plan say they are rural locals, not foreigners.

Hau Kin, a farmer who helped negotiate the agreement, said on Thursday he would accept a share in a private investment because the government had done nothing to prevent him from losing the property.

But critics questioned whether a deal in which people will not be paid, as demanded by land rights groups, could eventually be reversed.

“The government might say: ‘You were promised what you wanted, just give it up now and let us recover the money. Just give up now, we don’t want it to go that way,'” said Wae Hak, an advisor to Human Rights Watch.

In a rare move, activists also filed a case last month against the head of the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, requesting he be removed from his position to ensure he respects the rights of rural farmers, who oppose the deal.

The government initially tried to negotiate with the group, calling on it to work with the government from above. But the activists say they refused and that the