Foreign Investment: Myanmar Targets Around 7 Bil USD At The End Of March

5:16 PM MMT, Sun March 20, 2016

In accord with the ongoing investment promotion plans as well as the country’s political transaction, Myanmar Investment Commission said that the country will get more foreign investment when the new government takes office.

Foreign investments in Myanmar topped 6.01 Billion US dollars by the end of February this year, and MIC predicts the amount will reach around 7 Billion USD at the end of this month.

Oil and gas sector continues to dominate the list with over 2 Billion USD, followed by telecommunication and manufacturing sectors.

MIC also pointed out that they have much potential to attract more investment opportunity from manufacturing sector as well as Special Economic Zones in the country in coming years.

SECRETARY, MYANMAR INVESTMENT COMMISSION, AUNG NAING OO: "... The investment in natural resource based industry were quite strong, over 85% of total FDI in Myanmar were resource based.. We are now at the beginning of the ASEAN Economic Community. So, we can attract more FDI from non-ASEAN countries to come in. Thilawa will be still one of the tool for investment promotion for us. We expect, there will be more investment after the new incoming government taking place in the country..."

According to the MIC, Myanmar Investment Law and Myanmar Companies law are still under the process of approval and priority must be undertaken to improve the legal framework in order to create a friendly environment for investors.

SECRETARY, MYANMAR INVESTMENT COMMISSION, AUNG NAING OO: "... There are two important business laws in the pipeline to be approved.. Priority for the incoming government is to improve the legal framework that will create some trust of the investor, and also that will help promote the domestic SMEs in the country..."

Over 100 foreign investment proposals are still to be sought for approval and most of them are for manufacturing sector. MIC says those will be approved by the new members of MIC selected by the incoming government.