Mining

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Description: "In 2015, Burma (also known as Myanmar) produced a variety of mineral commodities, including antimony, cement, coal, copper, lead, manganese, natural gas, nickel, petroleum, petroleum products, precious and semiprecious stones, tin, tungsten, and zinc. On July 30, Cyclone Komen brought heavy rains that caused widespread flooding and landslides across 12 out of 14 States and regions in the country. Chin and Rakhine States and the Magway and Sagaing regions were declared natural disaster areas. Basic infrastructure around the country, such as roads and bridges, was severely damaged or destroyed, which impeded traffic within and among the affected areas. In the aftermath, the performance of the mineral industry was affected as many mineral facilities were located in the areas (tables 1, 2; ReliefWeb.com, 2016). According to data published by the Central Statistical Organization, since the opening of Burma’s economy in 2011, many sectors of the country’s economy had seen a surge in foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI in fiscal year 2015 (April 1, 2014, to March 30, 2015) amounted to $8 billion invested in a total of 211 projects. In fiscal year 2016, FDI amounted to $9.5 billion invested in a total of 213 projects, including $4.8 billion invested in 13 projects in the oil and gas sector and $28.9 million invested in 1 project in the mining sector. Investors in fiscal year 2016 included those from Singapore (55 projects), China (43), Japan (25), Hong Kong (23), and India (5), among others. Burma’s leading investor was Singapore, which invested about $4.2 billion, followed by China ($3.3 billion), Hong Kong ($231 million), India ($224 million), and Japan ($220 million) (Central Statistical Organization, 2016). In recent years, many legal instruments had been introduced in Burma’s legal and regulatory framework, mainly to encourage the participation of foreign and local investors in the country’s economy. In June 2015, a new draft of the Myanmar Company Law was published to replace the Myanmar Companies Act of 1914. The new company law was drafted by the Department of Investment and Company Administration of the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank. The new law is intended to update the previous version of the law by incorporating consistent international best practices (Greenlee, 2015). Other legal instruments include the Foreign Investment Law of 2012, the Foreign Investment Rules of 2013, and Notification No. 49/2014 (New Notification) of August 2014, which were issued by the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC). According to the Myanmar Ministry of Mines, the set of laws and notifications related to FDI were created to attract interest from investors and include such provisions as tax exemptions, tax holidays, and income tax relief, granting full venture ownership to foreign investors, and a Government promise not to nationalize businesses while the contract is in place...".
Creator/author: Yolanda Fong-Sam
Source/publisher: United States Geological Survey (USGS)
2018-09-30
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Category: Mining, Oil and gas
Language: English
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