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.