Myanmar allows more enterprises to make investment this month

Myanmar has allowed five foreign and six local enterprises totaling 11 to make investment in the country so far this month, sources with the Myanmar Investment Commission said Tuesday.

The approved businesses involving fully-owned and some joint ventures cover manufacturing of garment, bags and plastic bags under the Cut-Make-Pack system, production of aluminum, glass, metal, steel, furniture, sawn timber, flooring materials as well as establishment of data center and related service businesses.

Last month, the commission had granted nine investment businesses, including building a satellite pay TV operator in Yangon, a hotel in Ngpali beach, western Rakhine state, facilities for clothing manufacturing, wood processing, value-added agricultural products processing and exportation, tri-motorcycle assembling and fire brick production, among others.

According to the commission, annual contracted foreign investment nearly doubled from 4.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2013-14 to 8.01 billion USD in 2014-15, expecting to receive 6 billion USD in the current fiscal year of 2015-16.

Official statistics show that foreign contracted investment in Myanmar hit 56.62 billion U.S. dollars as of June 2015 since late 1988 when the country opened to such investment.

China remains the top foreign investor with 14.78 billion USD since 1988, followed by Thailand with 10.285 billion USD and Singapore with 10.249 billion USD. Endi