Risky Business: New hope for Burma's Karen State

A new construction project in Burma's Kayin, or Karen State, is offering hope for new jobs and development in the region.

Much of the state has been a war zone for 60 years - a battleground between government forces and Karen insurgents. It has also suffered from chronic underdevelopment.

Many residents were forced to travel to Rangoon or to cross the border into neighbouring Thailand to find work.

But just outside the state's capital, Hpa-an, construction has begun on its first industrial estate - heralding the start of a new era in Karen.

Jonathan Head reports.