Myanmar solicits more foreign investment
Myanmar solicits more foreign investment
BANGKOK (AFP): Myanmar is looking for more foreign investment
in the three key industries of agriculture, building and consumer
products to boost the domestic economy, a government official
said Friday.
Daw Theingi Tin, the director of Myanmar's Directorate of
Investment and Company Administration, said the country had many
incentives for investors such as tax breaks and helpful export
regulations.
"To boost Myanmar's economy we need more investment from
foreign investors in agriculture processing, construction and
consumer products," she told a seminar here on trade and
investment in Myanmar.
The government had already relaxed its investment law for
foreign investors as part of measures aimed at helping Myanmar
join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), she
said.
"Almost 60 percent of tariffs have been cut to zero-to-five
percent to attract the investors and to qualify for ASEAN
regulations," the official said.
Theingi said Myanmar particularly needed investment in
agriculture, which accounts almost 80 percent of national income
and in related industries such as fertilizer and freezer
production.
The second priority of investment was building and
construction because of the need for more basic infrastructure
for the country's development, she said.
"We have only one steel factory and one major cement plant,
which is still under construction," she said.
The official said there was massive demand for the third
investment priority, consumer products.
Myanmar had maintained economic growth at an average of six
percent for five years, she said, forecasting increased growth by
the end of this year on completion of key infrastructure
projects.
According to Myanmarese government statistics, there have been
226 projects with 5.2 billion dollars of foreign capital invested
in Myanmar up to November this year since 1988 when Myanmar
opened its doors to foreign investors.
Pairote Sompouti, assistant secretary-general of Thailand's
Board of Investment said the liberalization of trade in Myanmar
had attracted foreign investors.
"Myanmar is one of the best countries in the region for
investing because of the low wages, plentiful natural resources
and huge domestic market," he said.
Many investors were concerned about the Myanmarese government --
which came to power in 1988 after a bloody crackdown against pro-
democracy demonstrators, he said.
But Pairote said he believed the Myanmarese government was
stable and the situation should not detract investors.
Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called for
economic sanctions to prevent investment which she says only
benefits the ruling military and its associates.