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Sub-title: Amata aims to woo foreign manufacturers with modern industrial zone in Yangon
Description: "Thai industrial estate developer Amata Corp. plans to build an industrial complex with an investment of $1 billion in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city. The complex will provide important industrial infrastructure in a nation with few global-standard industrial zones suitable for foreign companies. Amata recently signed a land lease agreement and joint venture agreement with the Myanmar Ministry of Construction in the country's capital of Naypyitaw, securing the right to use 800 hectares of land in the northeastern part of Yangon for 70 years. Amata's investment will include construction of 600 megawatt power plant. "Myanmar is a gateway to the Indian Ocean for the GMS (Greater Mekong Sub-region). That is why we've chosen Myanmar," Vikrom Kromadit, chairman and CEO of Amata, said during an interview with the Nikkei Asian Review after a ceremony to mark the signing. Amata estimates that tenant companies' long-term investments in the new industrial zone will eventually reach $3.7 billion. As a GMS country along with Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and China, Myanmar once drew strong attention from foreign companies as a frontier market with room for substantial economic growth, but the presence of manufacturers there has not increased as sharply as expected..."
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Date of entry/update: 2020-02-03
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Sub-title: KBZ Bank is suing the owner of Myanmar Industrial Port over alleged unpaid debts of more than US$200 million, in a case that is symptomatic of the problems facing the country’s leading banks as they seek to resolve legacy non-performing loans.
Description: "The country's largest private bank, KBZ, is taking a leading businessperson and his company to court, alleging unpaid debts in excess of US$200 million in what is believed to be Myanmar’s largest ever loan default. KBZ has filed suits against businessman U Ko Ko Htoo and Myanmar Annawa Swan A Shin Company Limited at the Yangon Region High Court, alleging he and the company had failed to repay loans and had accumulated a total debt including interest of around K326 billion (US$221.4 million at current exchange rates). Ko Ko Htoo is the managing director of MAS and his family holds 100 percent of the company, according to the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration. MAS owns and operates one of the country’s busiest ports, Myanmar Industrial Port in Yangon’s Ahlone Township. In 2016, the International Finance Corporation provided a $40 million convertible loan to MAS to expand the port but the relationship later soured over corporate governance issues, according to two sources with knowledge of the deal. The loan was envisaged as the first phase of a $200 million financing package that would also have included $160 million in long-term senior loans from the IFC and other foreign lenders, but the second phase never materialised. IFC confirmed to Frontier that it exited the project in December 2018 after MAS repaid the $40 million loan. KBZ commenced litigation against Ko Ko Htoo and MAS in December 2019 and this month the bank began presenting evidence to support its claim. Frontier understands it is the largest such claim to be heard in a Myanmar court, and that, taken together, Ko Ko Htoo and MAS are possibly the largest private sector debtor in the Myanmar banking system. At a January 13 hearing attended by Frontier, lawyers for KBZ alleged that Ko Ko Htoo owed the bank more than K63 billion in principal and interest as of October 30, 2019. In a separate hearing the following day they alleged that MAS had accrued debt of K262.8 billion to November 6, 2018..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
2020-01-22
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-24
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Description: "The Yangon Region government is planning to develop industrial zones in 10 townships, and the Htantabin Industrial Zone project will be implemented on 2,200 acres of land in Htantabin Township in the northern district of Yangon, where Hline, Kokkowa, and Bawle rivers meet. The industrial zone project was initiated in August, 2018. During a preliminary discussion between the Yangon Region authorities and a foreign company, 1,000 acres was designated for the project. After a feasibility study, the zone will be developed on 2,200 acres of land, which is located a mile away from Htantabin Township and near the point where the Hline, Kokkowa, and Bawle rivers meet. Prior to the project implementation, Naw Pan Thinzar Myo, the Yangon Region Minister for Kayin Ethnic Affairs, Hluttaw representatives, and officials of concerned departments met with the local residents at the Htantabin Township General Administration Department office in a bid to make the project transparent. After four rounds of discussions between the authorities and locals, the project received the support of the local residents. The Htantabin Industrial Zone will be set up in three phases. An Industrial Zone, Development Zone, and Residential and Green Zone will be constructed under each phase. Golden Myanmar has drafted plans to construct a management center, hospital, fire department, school, sewage treatment plant, logistics port, generator, cargo port, and water treatment plant. The industrial zone will be shaped like a tortoise. A floating market will be included in the project. The market will be over 200 acres wide and will be located at the head of the industrial zone. A Taipei company will develop the floating market. The China (Taipei) company will construct a US$30-million rainbow-shaped bridge, connecting Htantabin Township to Hmawby Township. Necessary measurements are being taken for that bridge project, which will directly link the industrial zone in Htantabin Tonwship with Sanpya village in Hmawby Township. It will become the main access for container vehicles and ensure smooth trade flow between Htantabin and Hmawby towns. The river crossing bridge will be constructed on the Hline River..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Water Portal "Global New Light Of Myanmar"
2019-05-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-26
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Description: "...we should look back Myanmar?s history on industrial policy. Every government to date since independence, either civilian or military, and either democratic or socialist, has approached the problem of the pri?vate sector with great concern and trepidation. Whenever they wanted to accommodate and integrate the energy of private enterprises into the na?tional economy, the socialist philosophy, anti-capitalist attitude, control-prone disposition and xenophobia based on the bitter colonial experiences provided obstacles, with the redefinition of the role of the private sector being left vague and halfway. The transition to market-oriented economy in the 1990s seems to be a his?torical exception. The various reform measures taken by the military gov?ernment apparently show their strong commitment toward a full-fledged market economy. The author calls the present transformation of the economy the Third Wave, and assures himself that it has been the biggest wave of liberalization in Myanmar?s industrial history. Compared with the previ?ous two waves, which the author thinks occurred in the latter half of the 1950s and in the mid-1970s, the present regime has committed itself much more clearly to market economic principles and the enhanced role of the private sector. Nevertheless, the history still exhibits a reserve to be fully confident in government policy toward a market economy. Recent backtracking of eco?nomic reforms is certainly something to be worried. It would be necessary for the military government to commit itself again to such ideas as open markets, free competition, transparency, accountability, consistency, level playing field, freedom of information and rule of law, which are the foun?dations for a free and fair market-oriented economy. Without the govern? ment?s commitment to those ideas, the private sector would never be con?fident on public polices, and as a result, the full-fledged investments would never be forthcoming." See Toshihiro Kudo, ?Industrial Policy in Myanamr: Lessons from the Past? in Industrial Devel? opment and Reforms in Myanmar: ASEAN and Japanese Perspectives, (Bangkok, The Sasakawa Southeast Asia Cooperation Fund, 1999). 43
Source/publisher: IDE- Institute of Developing Economies / JETRO - Japan External Trade Organization
2001-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2012-09-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 644.29 KB 381.32 KB
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Description: "Industry in Burma lags well behind that of its neighbors largely because of double standards, military meddling, and now, stiffer US economic sanctions... Small may be beautiful but it is also vulnerable. And as increased US sanctions on Burma halt imports to American markets, all but the largest private garment factories in Burma are falling like dominoes. On the outskirts of Rangoon, several private garment firms with fewer than 100 employees are shutting down, explains the editor of a business journal in the capital. Signed into law on July 29, America?s severe sanctions will likely eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs. The ban on imports threatens to cripple Burma?s entire labor-intensive garment industry. Even the big manufacturers are buckling under the weight of US pressure. "We are almost dying. The future for our business looks so bleak," says a South Korean manager from Myanmar Daewoo International in Rangoon, speaking to The Irrawaddy on the condition of anonymity..."
Creator/author: Min Zin
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 11, No 7
2003-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-11-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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