Myanmar Received $5 Bn in Foreign Investment in Current Fiscal Year

By Myo Pa Pa San 14 February 2018

YANGON — Myanmar has received more than US$5.1 billion in foreign investment in the current 2017-18 fiscal year from April to the first week of February, according to the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA).

“We have received more than $4.4 billion in foreign investment as of the first week of February, while existing foreign businesses have increased their investment by nearly $700 million,” said U Than Aung Kyaw, deputy director general of DICA.

“They have increased investment perhaps because they are doing good business. According to international norms, businesses usually add up to nearly 60 percent of their existing investment. But in our country, $700 million is only between 10 to 15 percent,” he added.

The investment goes to manufacturing, transportation and communications, agriculture, livestock and fisheries, animal feed, electricity, oil and gas, property development, hotels and tourism and the service industry, according to DICA.
There is so far no sign of existing foreign investors pulling their businesses out of the country, said U Than Aung Kyaw.

German consultancy Roland Berger and the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry jointly released a survey report in December, stating that business confidence among entrepreneurs in Myanmar dropped drastically in 2017.

In evaluating and approving investment proposals, DICA takes factors into consideration such as economic viability, job creation, amount of payable tax, technology transfer, domestic consumption, environmental management plans, and accountability and responsibility.

Foreign investors are also negotiating with concerned ministries to implement megaprojects like power supply and the Hanthawaddy Airport, said secretary of the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) U Aung Naing Oo.

Currently, 49 countries have invested in Myanmar with China, Singapore, Thailand and the UK topping the list and oil and gas, energy, manufacturing, transportation and communications receiving the larger proportion of foreign investment.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.