The Myanmar Investment Commission approved 31 new local and foreign projects in January, mostly in the real estate and garments sectors, according to figures published by the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration.
Of these, 15 were foreign, adding to the 138 international investments approved by the MIC since the start of this fiscal year. Most of the foreign investments are garment and shoe factories and property developers.
Local business people believe that an influx of foreign investment will provide major support to economic development. Economist U Khin Maung Nyunt told a business forum last month that while foreign investment is on the rise, Myanmar still needs more.
DICA’s director general U Aung Naing Oo told The Myanmar Times that most foreign investors are still watching domestic political changes before committing to the market. “But foreign investment is likely to rise once the new cabinet is in place. We have fallen behind our investment target but we expect to meet it by the end of the year,” he said.
On January 15, DICA approved nine foreign investments, three local investments and five joint-venture investments, including two housing projects, one private hospital, 10 garment factories, one heavy machinery rental service and two wooden factories.
The housing projects will be developed by Crown Advanced Construction, which is building a US$400 million mixed-use project in Yangon called Times City.
The company’s affiliates including Natural World Company have a number of other projects across Myanmar including a large amount of public parkland in People’s Park near to Shwedagon Pagoda.
Another affiliate, Myanma Saytannar Myothit Public Company, was due to build a 30,000-acre ‘new city’ project to the west of Yangon, but the project has since been suspended.
On January 22, MIC approved four more foreign investments and one joint-venture project, including four garment factories and news broadcasting service Ringier.
On January 30, a further three joint ventures, two foreign investments and three local investments were approved, including one experimental project for mineral extraction, two fibre-optic construction companies and one cement factory. Mandalay-based New Star Light was also given the green light to develop two real estate projects in Shan State.
Myanmar expects to rack up US$6 billion in pledged foreign investment sector for the 2015-16 financial year, and had achieved $4.9 billion as of December 2015.
Source: Myanmar Times
