Thai companies urged to invest in Myanmar 'or miss out'

PETCHANET PRATRUANGKRAI

THE NATION

MANDALAY, MYANMAR

THAI enterprises should not delay when considering business and trade opportunities with Myanmar, otherwise they may lose out to other foreign investors, said Aung Than, vice chairman to the Mandalay Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar.

With the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) scheduled to commence in 2015, Aung Than said many foreign investors, particularly those from China, were already in Myanmar looking to reap benefits from the country's new openness. 

"Thais are still investing less in Myanmar compared with other [regional players]. Although the cost of land is rapidly rising, Thai enterprises still have a competitive edge as there are many Thai industry experts. Thais also have a close relationship with the people of Myanmar," he said.

Japan and China, said Aung Than, were already investing in many industries in Myanmar, especially in Yangon and Mandalay. Aung Than said he wanted to see more Thais investing in those destinations as Thailand's cultural routes were similar to those of Myanmar. He added that Thais were also polite and easy to talk to.

Thai joint ventures would also attract more interest among local people as Thais were trusted and many Thai products were already recognised in the country, he said, adding that Thai goods sold in the country were double the price of Myanmar goods. 

Aung Than suggested that more Thais should also learn Burmese so that they could more easily find partners and understand the local market.

Interesting business opportunities for Thais in Myanmar included manufacturing of consumer goods, construction materials and the service sector industry - such as hospitals. Aung Than pointed out that many wealthy people in Myanmar preferred to travel to Thailand for health checks and medical treatment, because the standard and service was much better than in Myanmar.

Opportunities in farm sector 

Aung Than, also an owner of the Three Star-Gram Mill in Mandalay, said that it would be easy for Thai agriculture and rice producers to find investment opportunities in Myanmar's farming sector, because of their expertise and knowledge in farming technologies. 

U Sai Kyaw Htin, managing director of Anchor-ma, a Mandalay producer and importer of cement blocks, said he hoped the AEC would help increase the competitiveness of Myanmar enterprises.

He said many local enterprises were interested in joint ventures with foreign investors - especially Thais - to help them develop their businesses and become international traders.

Srirat Rastapana, director-general to the International Trade Promotion Department, said there were great opportunities for Thai investors to grow in Myanmar, as there was a high demand for goods and services in the country.

With its emerging growth and large population, many foreign investors had begun pouring investment into Myanmar, and Thailand, which has close ties with Myanmar, should urgently explore the market. She pointed out that some Thai commercial banks had already opened offices there to facilitate Thai investors.

She said Myanmar would be a perfect partner for Thailand if Thai investors promised to recognise local practices and offered mutual benefits. Plenty of opportunities could also be found in all sectors including farming, trade and industry, and service sectors. Besides the local market, Thai investors would also benefit from export privileges granted by Western countries. Thai enterprises should therefore not hesitate to investment, she said.

To facilitate Thai traders and investors, the department has also set up a consultation office in Yangon with in-depth information about the Myanmar economy, its rules and regulations, as well as a list of contacts with local traders.

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Ford Motor to launch auto show room in Yangon

The Ford Motor Company will launch an auto show room, spare parts and services centre in Yangon in September, according to company officials.
The centre will be located in Hlaing Township, in Yangon, displaying a variety of the latest Ford cars being sold around the world.
The US-based automaker is popular in Myanmar and they aim to provide first rate services to customers. The Ford will sell and distribute Sedan, SUV and trucks in for the first time. Ford Motor Company joined hands with Capital Automotive Ltd and long partner of RMA to partner in their business.
Ford Motor will provide services to the customers through certified mechanics who are being trained at RMA Academy.
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker and was founded by Henry Ford in 1903. The company sells cars and commercial vehicles under their Ford brand and luxury cars under the Lincoln brand.
Capital Automotive Ltd is subsidiary of Capital Diamond Star Group and it is also a partner of Diamond Star Company. The Capital Diamond Star Group earns US$400 million annually and joined with Pepsi Company, the soft drink maker in 2012.

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US Treasury to reach debt ceiling in mid-October

The US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said that the country will reach its debt limit by mid-October and called on Congress to act "as soon as possible" to avoid such a situation.

The government will not be able to borrow if the limit is not raised.
He warned that in such a case it will be unable to meet obligations such as social security payments, military salaries and Medicare reimbursements.
The country's borrowing limit is currently capped at $16.7tn (£10.7tn).
"Extraordinary measures are projected to be exhausted in the middle of October," Mr Lew said in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and other lawmakers.
"At that point, the US will have reached the limit of its borrowing authority, and Treasury would be left to fund the government with only the cash we have on hand on any given day," he said.
The cash balance at that time is forecast to be about $50bn, which Mr Lew said, would be "insufficient to cover net expenditures for an extended period of time".
He said: "Operating the government with no borrowing authority, and with only the cash on had on a given day, would place the United States in an unacceptable position."
There have been tense debates between the White House and congressional Republicans over the government's debt ceiling, spending cuts, and other fiscal matters.

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Worm fertilizer maker set to exportto Europe

Ekosol, a local company that produces organic fertilizer by using various worms, is set to begin exports to European countries next year, as its production has been making remarkable leaps forward since its foundation in 2009.

Ekosol was founded in 2009 as its organic vermicompost fertilizer production doubled between 2010 and 2011 and tripled the following year, General Manager Burçin Karababa said in a recent interview with the Hürriyet Daily News.

Karababa said her first encounter with the Californian red worms, which are used for producing organic fertilizer, was in 2002 because of her daughter’s allergy. “My daughter, born in 2000, had an allergy and I had to feed her with organic foods. A Moldavian colleague told me that they grow their vegetables and fruits with worm fertilizer in their country. Then I started researches on this. I found someone that has these worms in the southern province of Antalya and I bought 50 worms for producing fertilizer in my kitchen,” she said. As the worms reproduce fast, Karababa decided to expand her research by visiting 14 facilities in seven countries.

Between 2002 and 2009, Karababa increased the number of the worms without any sale operations. “I rented an area in Istanbul for reproducing the worms and founded the company in 2005. Ekosol entered into the market after obtaining the production license from the ministry in 2010. We moved to our current production facility on 1,500 square meters area in Istanbul for a more ‘industrial’ production. We posted double production rise in 2011 as our turnout increased by three-fold in 2012 when compared to the previous year,” she said.

Ekosol will start exports to European countries by March 2014, Karababa said, stressing that this would be a success to export organic fertilizer from Turkey to the countries that had their own production. She also added that they had already begun talks with the Turkic republics and they would make exports to them simultaneously with Europe.

450 million worms

The number of the worms increased from 50 in 2002 to 450 million today, Karababa said, noting that they produced around 1,200 tons of organic fertilizer last year.

Karababa said 90 percent of their customers were big agriculture enterprises, 4 percent were markets and 6 percent were e-commerce customers. “We reach the customers that grow organic fruits or vegetables in their gardens or balconies via online sale in 2010. We started to sell our Ekosolfarm products in 1 kg and 1.5 kg packages in the big markets,” she said.

Moreover, Karababa underlined that their job has also a social responsibility dimension. The firm introduced a new product ‘Kompost Box’ that includes worms and soil and enables to gain fertilizer by feeding the worms only domestic waste. It contributes to recycling domestic waste while producing organic fertilizer at the same time, she said, adding that they had sold 3,000 Kompost Boxes to households so far.

Karababa said they established a facility in the Aegean province of Manisa at the beginning of this year with $750,000 of investment for the construction and a $400,000 investment for the new equipment. They aim to make investment in the eastern region in 2016. Also, they plan to grow and sell their organic products in the 2015-2016 period. After accomplishing this process, the company may consider the other investors’ offers, Karababa said, stressing that they shouldn’t evaluate partnership projects without completion of the export phase.

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Deep-sea port to dock 300,000 tonne oil tankers on Madae Island

China has finished constructing a deep-sea port on Madae Island in Rakhine State, according to officials from the ports authority.
The port will dock 300,000 tonne oil tankers as part of the Myanmar-China crude oil pipeline which is still under construction. The port was built in joint venture between China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the Ministry of Energy.
"The deep seaport is reserved for 300,000 tonne oil tankers and 26 metres deep oil tankers," said an official from the Myanmar Ports Authority.
Myanmar-China pipeline will carry 22 million tonnes of crude oil annually. Five process stations from the newly built sea-port will export the oil through pipeline. The pipeline is expected to finish in September.
Myanmar will benefit with a USD$1 per tonne of oil transit fee meaning Myanmar will expect to make have US$22 million per year. In addition, China will pay USD$ 6,905 million per year for right of way.
Myanmar has been exporting natural gas through the Myanmar-China oil and gas pipeline since July 2013. Myanmar will have 2 million tonnes of crude oil and 2 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually from the project, according to CNPC.

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Myanmar to use Indian bank loans for development

Myanmar will implement several projects with loans from the Export-Import Bank of India according to a government report.
The Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank) has provided loans of up to US$ 500 million which will be used on infrastructure projects including communications and transport. Details were released in the Myanmar government’s 2013-2014 fiscal year report.
Some of the projects include the construction of a microwave station linking the southern and northern parts of Chin State, as well as the building of power stations, constructing dams and irrigation systems and improving basic infrastructure.
These projects will be carried out by various government ministries, as the loans will target sectors from agriculture, to electricity, communications and transportation.
In the 2013-2014 fiscal year, Myanmar will be provided foreign development aid from Austria, China, India, Japan, Korea, Germany, Britain, Denmark, New ZeaLand and France.
The World Bank, Asia Development Bank, UN organisations and international NGO's will also provide assistance.
Myanmar will also get access to the Indian assistance to implement advanced agriculture and educational research departments and the production of dairy products.
The Indian government agreed to lend Myanmar US$ 500 million to implement basic infrastructure projects after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Myanmar last year.

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Microsoft Establishes Presence in Myanmar

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar –  Technology giant Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Thursday established a presence in Myanmar for the first time, forming an exclusive partnership with local firm Myanmar Information Technology as the central supplier for all of its products in the emerging market.

The move represents the "first step" in Microsoft's plans for the market, with the company focusing on distributing its products rather than any manufacturing operations, Jamie Harper, president for new markets in Southeast Asia at Microsoft, said in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on East Asia.

"All infrastructure in the country depends on computing power," said Mr. Harper, who sees most opportunities for Microsoft in Myanmar's large government sector and in business-to-business operations.

Myanmar offers rare growth opportunities for information technology firms, with an internet penetration of just 0.4% in the country of 60 million. The government has pledged to open up the sector to foreign investments, including offering two telecommunications licenses, and aims to bump internet penetration up to 80% in the next few years. Bidders for the telecom-license tender include Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (Z74.SG) and Bharti Airtel Ltd. of India (532454.BY), with license winners expected by June 27.

Mr. Harper declined to comment on specific investments in Myanmar, but said that its partner, Myanmar Information Technology -- which set up the first ATMs in the country last year -- has "the resources of Microsoft behind it".

The American technology company also has its eye on other emerging markets in the region, particularly tiny Laos, where it doesn't currently have a formal presence.

"We don't have the same relationship [in Laos that] we have here in Myanmar, but we are very interested in doing something like that there," Mr. Harper said.

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Burma readmitted to EU trade scheme

By AFP & DVB

The European Union on Wednesday readmitted Burma to its trade preference scheme, saying it wanted to support reform in the once pariah state through economic development.

Burma’s membership of the scheme was withdrawn in 1997 due to concerns over the use of forced labour under the then-military junta.

But the EU said the International Labour Organisation had last year reported “necessary improvements” to labour practices in Burma, which was formerly known as Burma.

The Irish presidency of the EU and the president of the European parliament signed legislation on Wednesday confirming Burma’s readmission.

“Given the positive developments in Myanmar/Burma in the recent past, it is important that the EU supports this by facilitating economic growth and development opportunities,” said Irish jobs and enterprise minister Richard Bruton.

The EU scheme grants developing nations preferential access to the 27-nation bloc for several products in the form of lower tariffs.

In London, Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary, welcomed the news.

“We have been calling for the EU to recognise that Burma’s standards are improving and this is great news,” she said.

“Boosting trade and exports is vital if Burma is to develop its economy and escape years of poverty.”

The EU in April agreed to lift the last of the bloc’s trade, economic and individual sanctions against Burma in response to the military’s progressive ceding of power to civilians.

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Burma to give central bank more autonomy

Burma is set to enact a new law in the coming days giving greater independence to its central bank, officials said Wednesday, in the latest economic reform aimed at enticing foreign investors.

The new legislation was approved by lawmakers on Monday and is expected to be signed into law by President Thein Sein by this weekend, although the details have not yet been made public.

“The significant thing is that the central bank will be an independent body and will not be under the finance and revenue ministry anymore,” a central bank official who did not want to be named told AFP.

“The central bank’s mandate will be in line with international standards,” the official said, adding that the president would appoint a governor and three deputy governors with the approval of parliament.

An official in Thein Sein’s office said the former general would sign the bill before he leaves on a visit to Europe on Sunday.

Burma’s quasi-civilian government has announced a series of political and economic reforms since coming to power more than two years ago following the end of nearly half a century of military rule.

In April of last year it began to overhaul the country’s complex foreign exchange system in a bid to facilitate trade and investment.

An independent monetary policy is seen as a hallmark of a modern free-market economy, but it is unclear how much freedom the Central Bank of Myanmar (CMB) will enjoy.

Its main role up to now, experts say, has been to print money to fund the government’s budget deficit.

Unlike independent central banks such as the US Federal Reserve or the European Central Bank, the CBM does not increase or reduce official borrowing costs as a way of preventing the economy overheating or cooling too rapidly.

“It would be very hard for the CBM to conduct an effective anti-inflation monetary policy if it simultaneously had to lend to the government through bond purchases to finance the budget deficit,” said Sean Turnell, a Burmese economic expert at Australia’s Macquarie University.

“In other words, government spending and taxation matter too,” he added.

A lack of technical expertise is seen as another hurdle for the central bank.

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Myanmar Stock Exchange To Launch After Security Exchange Law Passed

International Business Times
By Sophie Song

Myanmar will have its own stock exchange soon, according to the country’s deputy minister for finance and revenue, Maung Maung Thein. Preparations and implementations for the market are already underway.

“Earlier we planned to begin in 2015, but it would be too late. So, we are beginning this year,” said Thein, according to Mizzima, a Myanmar news portal based in India.

To establish the stock exchange, the Central Bank of Myanmar is cooperating with the Daiwa Institute of Research Group, a leading Japanese think tank with expertise in economics and financial capital markets, and Japan’s Tokyo Stock Exchange. Later this month, there will be a demonstration of the operation of the stock exchange with the help of a Myanmar information technology company, Thein said.

A “Security Exchange Law” has been introduced to the lower house of parliament, Thein added. Shortly after the bill is approved, the stock exchange will be established.

A relevant committee has also been formed in order to ensure a smooth launch for the exchange.

“Myanmar needs a huge market to attract financial investments,” said Thein. “Myanmar did not have that market. To establish that market [stock exchange], we have prepared for many years.”

The legal establishment of a stock market is only the first step in creating an authentically liquid equity market in the nation.

“It’ll be surprising if the stock exchange can be established in late this year,” said Hla Maung, an economist. “The sooner the better. But it is a financial market, so we need to have public companies and corporations that can sell shares. If not, the market will be weak and unsuccessful.”

Public companies that wish to be listed in Myanmar’s stock exchange will need to submit applications to the supervising committee. However, experts said this may prove a big challenge for existing Myanmar companies, as they struggle to deal with problems related to taxes.

The stock exchange will be located near Bandoola Garden, where Myawaddy Bank currently stands. The building formerly owned by the Finance and Revenue Ministry is due to be returned to them later this year, according to Mizzima.

It was announced earlier that Toshiba Corp. (TYO:6502) has won an order from Daiwa to supply the data center for the Myanmar stock exchange. The company has had a long and successful history in Myanmar, Mizzima reported.

Hidejiro Shimomitsu, corporate senior vice president of Toshiba, said the company's home appliance business in Myanmar started in the 1980s. Its washing machines are still the most popular brand in Myanmar.

Toshiba launched a branch office in Yangon on July 3, according to Mizzima.

Myanmar’s neighbors, Cambodia and Laos, two of the poorest countries in the region, launched their stock exchanges two years ago, but neither market is seeing much activity. The Lao Securities Exchanges has only two listed companies, while the Cambodia Securities Exchange has only one

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ကိုးႏိုင္ငံ စီးပြားေရး သံမွဴးမ်ားႏွင့္ ခ်ိတ္ဆက္၍ လယ္ယာထြက္ကုန္ သီးႏွံမ်ား ေရာင္းခ်ႏိုင္ဟုဆို

မႏၲေလးၿမဳိ႕ေတာ္ရွိ လယ္ယာထြက္ကုန္ သီးႏွံမ်ား ျပည္ပသို႔ တိုက္႐ိုက္ တင္ပို႔ ေရာင္းခ်ႏိုင္ေရးအတြက္ ႏိုင္ငံေပါင္း ကိုးႏိုင္ငံတြင္ ခန္႔အပ္ထားေသာ စီးပြားေရး သံမွဴးမ်ားႏွင့္ ခ်ိတ္ဆက္ ေဆာင္႐ြက္ႏိုင္ေၾကာင္း ကုန္သြယ္မႈ ျမႇင့္တင္ေရး ဦးစီးဌာန ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္ ဦးတိုးေအာင္ျမင့္ က ေျပာၾကား သည္။

မႏၲေလး ကုန္စည္ဒိုင္ႏွင့္ ဆန္စပါး ကုန္စည္ဒိုင္တြင္ ၾသဂုတ္လ ၂၄ ရက္ေန႔ နံနက္ပိုင္းက က်င္းပသည့္ ကုန္သြယ္မႈ ျမႇင့္တင္ေရး ေဆာင္႐ြက္ေနမႈ မ်ား ေဆြးေႏြးပြဲတြင္ ၎က အထက္ပါအတိုင္း ထည့္သြင္း ေျပာၾကား သြားေၾကာင္း အဆိုပါပြဲ တက္ေရာက္သူမ်ားထံမွ သိရသည္။

ေဟာင္ေကာင္၊ ဂ်ပန္၊ တ႐ုတ္၊ အိႏၵိယ၊ ထိုင္း၊ ေတာင္ကိုရီးယား၊ အေမရိကန္ျပည္ေထာင္စု၊ စင္ကာပူ၊ ဘယ္လ္ဂ်ီယံ ႏိုင္ငံမ်ားတြင္ စီးပြားေရး သံမွဴးမ်ား ခန္႔အပ္ၿပီး ျဖစ္ရာ ၎တို႔မွ တစ္ဆင့္ စီးပြားေရး သတင္း အခ်က္အလက္မ်ား ရယူႏိုင္ေၾကာင္း ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္ ဦးတိုးေအာင္ျမင့္ က ေျပာၾကား သည္။

“သံမွဴးေတြရဲ႕ အီးေမးလ္ လိပ္စာေတြ ေပးသြားတယ္။ သူတို႔နဲ႔ ခ်ိတ္ဆက္ ေဆာင္႐ြက္ဖို႔၊ သတင္း အခ်က္အလက္ေတြ ရယူႏိုင္ဖို႔ ေျပာတယ္” ဟု မႏၲေလး ဆန္စပါး ကုန္စည္ဒိုင္ အတြင္းေရးမွဴး ဦးထြန္းထြန္းႏိုင္က ဆိုသည္။

စီးပြားေရး ေစ်းကြက္ႏွင့္ ကုန္သြယ္မႈ အခြင့္အလမ္းမ်ား ေပၚေပါက္ လာေစေရးအတြက္ ကုန္သြယ္ဘဏ္ ႏိုင္ငံမ်ားအၾကား ေျမျပင္ သတင္း အခ်က္အလက္မ်ား ရရွိႏိုင္ေစေရး ေဆာင္႐ြက္ေနၿပီ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း အျပည္ျပည္ဆိုင္ရာ ကုန္သြယ္မႈ ျမႇင့္တင္ေရး ဌာနမွ တာဝန္ရွိသူ တစ္ဦးက ေျပာၾကားသည္။

“အဲဒီႏိုင္ငံမွာ ေစ်းကြက္ ဘာလိုအပ္ခ်က္ ရွိလဲ၊ ကိုယ့္ႏိုင္ငံကေန ဘာေတြ တင္ပို႔ ေရာင္းခ်ႏိုင္မလဲ၊ ႏွစ္ႏိုင္ငံ ကုန္စည္ျပပြဲေတြ၊ စီးပြားေရး ေဆြးေႏြးပြဲေတြ ပိုလုပ္လာႏိုင္တာေပါ့” ဟု ၎က ဆိုသည္။

မႏၲေလးၿမဳိ႕ေတာ္ရွိ ကုန္သည္မ်ားအေနႏွင့္ ႏိုင္ငံျခား ကုန္သည္မ်ားႏွင့္ တိုက္႐ိုက္ ဆက္သြယ္ ေရာင္းခ်သည့္ အေနအထား မရွိသျဖင့္ မိ႐ိုးဖလာ ကုန္သြယ္မႈ အဆင့္တြင္သာ ရွိေနေၾကာင္း မႏၲေလးၿမဳိ႕ေတာ္ အေျခစိုက္ ပဲကုန္သည္မ်ားက သုံးသပ္ ေျပာၾကားသည္။

“ျပည္ပနဲ႔ တိုက္႐ိုက္ ေရာင္းႏိုင္ဖို႔ဆိုတာ ထင္သေလာက္ မလြယ္ပါဘူး၊ ဒီလိုပဲ ျပည္တြင္းေစ်းကြက္မွာပဲ ေရာင္းလိုက္ ဝယ္လိုက္ပဲ ရွိေနမွာပါ” ဟု မႏၲေလး ကုန္စည္ဒိုင္မွ ပဲကုန္သည္ တစ္ဦးက ဆိုသည္။

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