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New Myanmar Investment Summit 2012

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Downtown Rangoon facing Sule Pagoda and the Hlaing River

 

CHIANGRAI TIMES  – Investment outlook and opportunities in Burma will take centre stage at the New Myanmar Investment Summit 2012 in Rangoon on June 20-21. The summit will spotlight the latest reforms in what some are calling the next “potential Asian tiger.”

Burma is emerging as a new frontier in various industries such as mining, oil and gas, telecommunications, agriculture, tourism and other areas.

In an April interview with Reuters, the Asian Development Bank director for Burma and Thailand “a huge market waiting to happen and growth will come from many sectors. not one specific sector.” U.S. President Obama said last week, “We have extended our hand, and are entering a new phase in our engagement on behalf of a more democratic and prosperous future for the Burmese people.” The European Union, Australia, Canada, and Japan are among the many nations keen to re-engage in Burma.

The New Myanmar Investment Summit 2012 – a specially structured day and one-half day conference – will review the investment outlook and serve as a platform for foreign investors to attain investor information. Themed “Business Strategies & Successful JVs (Foreign Investment Law Amendment)” the summit will provide pointers on key clauses of the New Investment Law, advice on securing land concessions for investment, financing, foreign loans, as well as security issues on local partnership.

The highlight will be a ministry official’s keynote address titled “New Investment Law and opportunities for Foreign Investors.”

Key authorities on the speaker’s panel include Htin Aung, the director general of Energy Planning at the Ministry of Energy, plus top executives and officials from the DFDL Mekong Group/Myanmar Thanlwin Legal Services; Myanmar Vigour; Aung Naing Thitsar Co., Ltd; Bagan Capital Limited; Japan Bank for International Cooperation; Colliers International Thailand and many others.

The conference will also feature in-depth analysis on:

  • Legal Impact of the New Foreign Investment Law on the key sectors
  • Financing, foreign loans and guarantees
  • Agriculture & plantation investment outlook
  • Latest developments Burma’s oil & gas investment
  • Financiers’ outlook: infrastructure investment & funding
  • Myanmar – one giant leap for real estate: he next four years.

100% ownership for foreign companies, says Myanmar’s draft of new foreign investment rules

Foreigners will no longer need a local partner to set up businesses in Myanmar and may be granted a five-year tax holiday from the start of commercial operations, according to the draft of a new investment law obtained by Reuters.

The long-awaited new investment regulations, along with plans to float its currency, the kyat, from April mark the boldest economic reforms since resource-rich Myanmar emerged from decades of dictatorship last year, its economy decimated by chronic mismanagement and trade-crippling sanctions.

Its nominally civilian government has begun to court Western investors, who have swarmed into the commercial capital Yangon in recent months ahead of a possible end to U.S. and European sanctions in the former Burma.

The draft law adds to other signs of a remarkable economic liberalization in the long-isolated country. Foreigners, it said, can now either own companies 100 percent or set up a joint venture with Burmese citizens or government departments. Such joint ventures must involve at least 35 percent foreign capital.

Foreign investors can also lease land from the state or from private citizens who have permission to use land, the law says. The initial lease would be for up to 30 years, depending on the type and size of foreign investment, and could be extended twice, for up to 15 years on each occasion.

Foreign firms will not be allowed to employ unskilled foreign workers, and citizens of Myanmar must make up at least 25 percent of their skilled workforce after five years, with companies ensuring the necessary training to achieve that.

The percentage rises to at least 50 percent after 10 years and 75 percent after 15 years.

It also dropped a requirement from previous legislation that products manufactured by foreign firms in Myanmar must be entirely for export. The aim is to provide more for the domestic market to reduce Myanmar’s reliance on imports, which are often too expensive for domestic consumers.

NO NATIONALISATION

The draft law goes some way to reassuring investors worried about a reversal of the reforms and the possible seizure of assets.

“The government gives a guarantee that permitted businesses will not be nationalized during the period allowed in the contract or extended in the contract other than by giving compensation based on current prices in the market, in the interest of the general public,” it says, according to a Reuters translation.

The law is likely to be approved by parliament during the current session, which is expected to end later in March. The president then has 14 days to either approve it or send it back to parliament, according to the constitution.

The latest reforms will heighten debate over Myanmar’s economic potential.

As big as France and Britain combined, the resource-rich country sits strategically between India, China and Southeast Asia with ports on the Indian Ocean and Andaman Sea, all of which have made it a coveted energy-security asset for Beijing’s western provinces.

Bordering five countries, Myanmar offers multiple avenues of Asian engagement as U.S. President Barack Obama shifts focus from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan towards economic growth and security in the Asia-Pacific region.

Half a century of isolation has taken its toll on the former British colony. Barriers to progress are formidable: U.S. and European sanctions, woeful infrastructure, a crippled banking system, a shortage of skilled Burmese as well as weak investment laws.

Some expect sanctions to begin to be lifted if by-elections on April 1, in which Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will run for parliament, are free and fair. A November 2010 general election was widely criticized as a sham.

Mizzima is a media partner of the New Myanmar Investment Summit 2012.

For more information, go to http://www.cmtevents.com/aboutevent.aspx?ev=120636&
or call, Ms. Hafizah at 65 6346 9218

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