The 2 most common form of legal entities use by foreign investors to setup a legal entity in Myanmar are:
- Private Company whose liability is limited by share.
- This form is ideal for Commercial For-Profit organization.
- For foreign companies that need to get an import licence or get business permit from the various Myanmar ministries that are issued only to Myanmar citizen – they need to incorporate a JV company whose shareholding ratio is 65%/35% (Myanmar citizen/Foreigner). A 65%/35% JV company of this nature is considered to be a “local” Myanmar company under the Myanmar Companies Law.
- Overseas Corporation.
- This is basically a Myanmar Representative Office of a company that has been Incorporated outside Myanmar. The purpose of the Overseas Corporation is to do liaison work between head office and local partners or government agencies in Myanmar. Overseas Corporation is treated as Cost Center by the tax department.
There is no minimum capital requirement.
What is the minimum to start a limited liability private company in Myanmar:
- Shareholder – minimum of 1 shareholder, can be a foreigner. If you want your foreign JV to be treated as a local Myanmar company and is thus able to apply for an import/export licence and all other business licenses from the various ministries that is available only to a Myanmar citizen then you need to have share ownership structure of 65%/35% (Myanmar citizen/Foreigner)
- Director – minimum of 1 director, must have a least 1 director who is ordinarily resident in Myanmar i.e. spend at least 183 out of 365 days in a fiscal year in Myanmar. The resident director can be a foreigner as long as he/she meets the criteria of ordinarily resident in Myanmar. If you do not have a suitable resident director we can provide a nominee local director for you for a fee.
- Minimum Capital – not required.
- Business Activity– no need to state at registration. However, after incorporation you need to individually apply to the respective ministries for the necessary business license for the industry you are operating in (if any) e.g. micro-finance licence from Ministry of Planning and Finance, inbound or outbound tour license from Ministry of Hotel and Tourism or an employment agent license from the Ministry of Labour.
- A registered office address in Myanmar. You can subscribe to our Virtual Office Service if you do not have a local address at registration.
If you are a Singapore registered company you can get up to 70% funding from Enterprise Singapore for market entry into Myanmar. To learn more click here.
Take note that what you are submitting below is a bare bone draft about the company you are proposing to incorporate. We will still come back to you to discuss about your requirements in more details before sending you a proposal for your approval.
We can incorporate your company in 1 working day once you have given us a copy of the passport (or NRC for Myanmar citizen) for all the shareholders and directors of the proposed company.
