Foreign direct investment into Myanmar has topped $1 billion so far this fiscal year, meaning the country is comfortably on course to meet its target of $6 billion by the end of March next year.
The figures come from the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA) and cover the period from the start of April until the third week of May.
To stay on track to hit its target, the country will need to attract an average of at least $1 billion every two months.
In April alone, $656 million worth of projects were approved by the investment body; Myanmar’s headline FDI figures are calculated using the projected value of approve projects, rather than actual inflows.
However, the $6 billion target is modest compared to the levels of FDI that flowed into Myanmar under the USDP government, topping $9 billion.
At the start of the previous financial year, FDI inflows were put on hold because the government failed to appoint new members to the Myanmar Investment Commission, which works alongside DICA to approve investments.
The DICA figures also show that oil and gas is the most lucrative sector since records began in 1988 for foreign investment, attracting over $22.4 billion up to May this year.
That is closely followed by the power generation sector, which has drawn in $20.5 billion since 1988. Transport and communication has attracted a total of $8.2 billion dollars in the same period.
Much of that entered the country in recent years following the liberalisation of the mobile phone network market and the end of the military-backed monopoly on internet services.
Source: Myanmar Business Today
