Myanmar woos Malaysian investors

10-Aug-2012

As Myanmar continues to open and develop its economy to attract more foreign direct investments (FDIs), the reborn Asean nation has identified certain sectors with the highest prospects for global and regional players to enter.

The resource-rich country now has most investments in energy or power, with 46.5 per cent of the US$173 million FDI injected into the sector. Other most invested sectors are oil and gas, mining and manufacturing.

Myanmar Industries Association chairman Zaw Min Win urged Malaysian companies to invest in Myanmar and raise their ranks among the investors that had entered the country as Malaysia was now the seventh largest investor in Myanmar after China, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

“Foreign investors know there is big potential to invest in (power) infrastructures because electricity is crucial to the country's development.

“That is why the Myanmar government is encouraging foreign investors to go into this sector,” Zaw said at the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers conference on Opening the Myanmar Market: New Business Opportunities.

Zaw said this sector was one of the most promising for FDIs because Myanmar's power production capacity was only at 2,000 MW now, resulting in a power shortage that the government wanted to address.

The country boasts various resources like natural gas, coal and hydro-power that can fuel the expansion for energy sector. Other sectors Zaw noted as attractive for investment were fisheries, forestry and tourism.