The Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) near Rangoon will start production in the middle of next year, creating 40,000 jobs for local residents, The New Light of Myanmar reported on Saturday. Win Aung, chairman of Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings Public Ltd (MTSH), said that the earthwork had been completed for the Class A Project, which covers 396 hectares of the total land area of 2,342 hectares to be employed by the Thilawa SEZ. He added that the MTSH had received many letters of intents from companies around the world, especially Japan, Hong Kong and Europe, on investing in the project. MTSH has offered to sell 2,145,000 shares through public offering in Burma via 450 bank branches to raise funds for construction of the project.