Myanmar Business Today - Vol 1, Issue 46

MYANMAR’S FIRST BILINGUAL BUSINESS JOURNALmmbiztoday.com December 19-25, 2013 | Vol 1, Issue 46

Myanmar Summary

Contd. P 12...Tangled wires are seen with an electric pole in Yangon.

$60m ADB Project Seeks Better Electricity Network

First ADB loan to Myanmar to improve power distribution network’s reach

Oliver Slow

Almost half a mil-lion households in Myanmar are

set to get better access to electricity after the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced that it will provide a $60 mil-lion loan to improve the country’s derelict power distribution network.

loan from ADB since its reengagement with Myanmar last year, ADB said.

The ADB loan will fund improved distribution in four areas of the country – Yangon, Mandalay, Sagaing and Magway re-gions – in some 480,000 households, the lender said last week.

“Access to electricity is crucial to development,” said ADB Vice President

“Repairing and strengthening existing electricity infrastructure will help reduce system

Gerhard Jörén/A

DB

Contd. P 12...

Japan to Loan Half A Billion Dollars to Myanmar

Japan will provide Myanmar with loans of ¥60 billion ($585 million) to help the Southeast Asian nation improve its infrastructure, Japanese media

reported.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was expected

to pledge the loan when he held talks with Myanmar President U Thein Sein over the last weekend, the Kyodo News agency reported, citing an unnamed gov-

The amount comes on top of more than ¥90 billion in loans and grants pledged by the Japanese premier during his visit to Myanmar in May, bringing Japan’s economic aid to more than ¥150 billion.

The report said the assistance was also aimed at limit-ing China’s moves to boost relations with Myanmar, and helping Japanese companies to make inroads into the country’s still undeveloped market.

Abe and Thein Sein were expected to sign a memo-randum of understanding on Japanese support for Myanmar’s health and medical sectors, on the sidelines of a meeting between Japan and leaders of the Associa-tion of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) last weekend.

Kyaw Min

Myanmar Summary

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December 19-25, 2013Myanmar Business Today

mmbiztoday.com

2LOCAL BIZ

Myanmar Summary

Support to Myanmar

Shein Thu Aung

Lits support for My-anmar’s democrati-

sation and national rec-

a visit from its President Choummaly Sayasone to Myanmar.

During his visit, Sayasone met with his Myanmar counterpart U Thein Sein in the capital Nay Pyi Taw, where the pair discussed promot-ing bilateral relations as well as cooperation in the boosting of border trade, in particular in the industries of forestry,

agricultural and livestock breeding. The pair also discussed rural develop-ment, poverty alleviation and education, as well as an air link between the

media reported.The visit was Sayasone’s

second to Myanmar, after

when it was still ruled

2007 and follows U Thein Sein’s visit to Laos in March 2012.

The two countries have long discussed road con-nectivity between the neighbouring countries, and a river-crossing is

currently being devel-oped at the Mekong River Crossing Friendship Bridge, which connects Louangnamtha province of Laos and Kenluk, Te-chilek of Myanmar’s Shan state.

The bridge, which is 690 metres in length and 8.5 metres wide with a two-lane motorway, is about a third completed, according to reports.

Touted for comple-tion by March 2014, the bridge aims to bring an increase in trade between the two countries that have shared diplomatic relations since 1955.

President Thein Sein and his wife Daw Khin Khin Win welcome President of Lao People's Democratic Republic, Choummaly Sayasone and his wife Keosaychay Sayasone.

vmtdkEdkifiHrSor®w Choummaly Sayasone jrefrmEdkifiHodkY vm a&mufcJhpOfü jrefrmEdkifiH\ 'Drdk ua&pDazmfaqmifa&;ESifh trsKd;om;&ifMum;apha&;BudK;yrf;csufrsm; twGuf vmtdkEdkifiHrS taxmuf tyHhrsm;ay;rIudkxyfavmif;twnf jyKajymMum;cJhaMumif; od&onf/

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xdkYjyif aus;vufa'orsm;zGHUNzdK; wdk;wufa&;?qif;&JEGrf;yg;rIavQmhcs a&;? ynma&;ESifh ESpfEdkifiHav aMumif;qufoG,fa&;udpö&yfrsm;udkvnf ; aqG;aEG;cJ h Muonf/ 2007 ckESpf ppftpdk;&tkyfcsKyfpOf umvtwGif; jrefrmEdkifiHodk Y vmtdkor®w Sayasone onf yxrOD;qHk;tBudrfa&muf&SdvmcJhNyD; ,cka&muf&SdvmrIonf 'kwd, tBudrfjzpfaMumif; od&onf/

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MYANMAR’S FIRST BILINGUAL BUSINESS JOURNAL

Board of EditorsEditor-in-Chief - Sherpa Hossainy

Deputy Editor - Oliver Slow

Reporters & WritersSherpa Hossainy, Oliver Slow,

Kyaw Min, Shein Thu Aung, Phyu Thit Lwin, Htet Aung,

Su Su, Aye Myat, Daisuke Lon, Yasumasa Hisada

Art & DesignZarni Min Naing (Circle)

DTPMay Su Hlaing

TranslatorsShein Thu Aung, Phyu Maung

AdvertisingTay Zar Zaw Win, Seint Seint Aye, Moe Hsann Pann

Advertising Hotline - 09 7323 6758

Managing DirectorPrasert Lekavanichkajorn

[email protected]

EmailEditor - [email protected]

Special Publications - [email protected]

Advertising - [email protected]

Designer - [email protected]

PhoneEditor - 09 42110 8150

Deputy Editor - 09 3176 9529

Designer - 09 7310 5793

PublisherU Myo Oo (04622)

No. 1A-3, Myintha 11th Street,

South Okkalapa Township, Yangon.

Tel: 951-850 0763,

Fax: 951-8603288 ext: 007

Penbun Distribution Co., Ltd.

Tel: (662) 6158625-33 Fax: (662) 6158634

Distributor (Bangkok)

Subscription & CirculationAung Khin Sint - [email protected]

092043559

Nilar Myint - [email protected]

09421085511

3December 19-25, 2013

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mmbiztoday.comLOCAL BIZ 4

Myanmar Moving Towards The EITIDaisuke Lon

Myanmar is preparing

Industries Transpar-ency Initiatives (EITI), an inter-national standard that ensures transparency around countries’ oil, gas and mineral resources.

The matter was discussed when Myanmar President U Thein Sein met with visiting Chair of the EITI Board Clare Short in Nay Pyi Taw last week.

Myanmar aims to apply for EITI candidature in the next couple of months, the EITI International Secretariat said.

President Thein Sein ac-knowledged the need for better governance of Myanmar’s natu-ral resource wealth.

He said: “We want to use the EITI to ensure that these resources are developed and managed in a transparent man-

of our people. “Political and economic re-

forms are an important part of the democratisation process. Becoming a member of the EITI will be a tangible result of these reforms.”

In December last year, Presi-dent Thein Sein publicly an-nounced that Myanmar would implement the EITI and ap-pointed U Soe Thane, minister

the EITI process in the country. Two important steps remain to

be completed before Myanmar can submit its EITI application.

stakeholder group. The EITI secretariat said important progress was made at a EITI multi-stakeholder consultation meeting in Nay Pyi Taw last

sentatives from government, industry and civil society met to discuss the process for nomi-

nating members to Myanmar’s EITI multi-stakeholder group.

meeting is an important mile-stone for the EITI process in Myanmar and the openness of

that the transition towards de-mocracy has come a long way,” Clare said.

The second step is for the multi-stakeholder group to develop a workplan that sets

implementation in Myanmar, including what sectors to be

report should look like.

Topics such as contract trans-

and extension to the hydro-power and forestry sectors were also discussed in the meeting.

Clare called on stakehold-ers to maintain an ambitious long-term EITI agenda, but reminded participants that implementation will not be easy and encouraged a step by step approach.

EITI is developed and over-seen by a coalition of govern-ments, companies, civil society, investors and international or-ganisations. All of these groups are represented on the EITI

Villagers pan for gold at the Irrawaddy river near the town of Myitkyina in northern Myanmar. Myanmar aims to apply for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (EITI) candidature in the next couple of months.

Board which is supported by the EITI International Secretariat.

The EITI Standard has a

ogy, which countries adopt to

are facing. When implemented, the EITI ensures more trans-parency in how the country’s natural resources are governed, and full disclosure of govern-ment revenues from its extrac-tive sector.

The EITI International Secre-tariat is located in Oslo, Norway and is headed by Swedish former diplomat Jonas Moberg.

Soe Z

eya Tun/Reuters

Myanmar Summary

jrefrmEdkifiHtaejzifh ExtractiveIndustries Transparency Initiatives (EITI) pepftm; vufcHusifhoHk;&ef twGuf jyifqifaeaMumif; od&NyD;EITI pepfrSm jrefrmEdkifiH\ a&eH? obm0 "mwfaiGUESif h owåKwGif;t&if;tjrpfu@ rsm;tm; ydkrd kyGif hvif;jrifomrI&Sdvmap rnfh tjynfjynfqdkif&m pHEIef;wpfckvnf; jzpfaMumif; od&onf/

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EdkifiHa&;ESifh pD;yGm;a&;jyKjyifajymif;vJrIrsm;rSm 'Drdkua&pDazmfaqmifrIvkyfief;pOf twGuf ta&;ygaom tpdwftydkif;rsm; jzpfNyD; pepftm; usifhoHk;aom tzGJU0if EdkifiHwpfEdkifiHjzpfvmrIaMumifh tqdkyg jyKjyifajymif;vJrIrsm;tm; trSefwu,f qkyfudkifjyEdkifonfh &v'faumif;rsm;jzpfay:vmaprnfjzpfaMumif; ajymMum;cJh onf/

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LOCAL BIZ 5December 19-25, 2013

Myanmar Summary

Myanmar Summary


Myanmar with a unit of Siam Cement Group on a cement production facility with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes per day.

Ker

ek W

ongs

a/R

eute

rs

Aye Myat

CHeavy Industries and Sinoma have

agreed deals totalling $733 million to produce cement in Myanmar and Nigeria, respectively, as they expand in emerging

markets overseas.CITIC Heavy Indus-

tries is collaborating in Myanmar with a unit of Siam Cement Group,

Mawlamyine Cement Ltd, on a cement production facility with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes per day, it said in a statement.

“The signing of the

implementation will have a positive impact on the company’s future opera-tions,” CITIC Heavy said.

“It will also further develop the company’s presence in the southeast Asian cement market, giv-

results.”

million, follows a similar contract that CITIC Heavy and Thailand’s Siam Cement signed in May to build a cement production line in Cam-bodia, CITIC said in the

stock exchange.Sinoma International

Engineering Co Ltd, a unit of China National

Materials Co Ltd, signed a $536 million contract with Nigeria’s Dangote Cement Plc, Sinoma and National Materials said in separate statements.

Sinoma and Dangote, owned by Nigerian bil-lionaire Aliko Dangote who is Africa’s richest man, will be building two clinker cement produc-tion lines, each with a daily capacity of 6,000 tonnes.

In November, China Machinery Engineering Corp entered a $236 million agreement with Kar Group for a 6,000 tonne-per-day cement

with Investment and

American beverage giant Coca-Cola is on track with its

target of investing $200 million and creating

-mar, a top Coca-Cola Co

Coca-Cola in June said it will invest $200 million

in Myanmar in a bid to increase production capacity, grow logistics including sales and dis-tribution operations, and improve marketing and people capabilities.

“In any country com-panies face challenges when launching their businesses. We’ve had

while operating in My-anmar, but Coca-Cola’s goals have succeeded to a certain extent.

“We have plans to invest more and we would like to promote Myanmar’s economic development,” Coca-Cola Myanmar’s

Kyaw Min

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twGuf pkpkaygif; tar&duef a':vm 733 rDvD,Htxd wefzdk; &Sdonfh oabmwlnDcsufrsm;udk jyKvkyfEdkifcJhNyD; ,ckoabmwlnD

twGuf yifv,f&yfjcm;aps;uGuf rsm;wGif aps;uGufcsJUxGifrItjzpf jyKvkyfoGm; jcif; yi f jzpfonf/ CITIC Heavy Industries onf jrefrmEdkifiHrS Mawlamyine Cement Ltd ESifh yl;aygif;í wpfaeYvQif bdvyfajr rufx &pfwefcsdef 5000 weftxd xkwfvkyfoGm;Edkif&ef aqmif&Guf oGm;rnfjzpfaMumif;vnf; od& onf/

pDrHudef;tm; oabmwlvuf rSwfa&;xdk;rIESifh tqifajyacsmarGU pGm taumiftxnfazmfaqmif &GufrIr sm;taejzif h ukrÜPD\ tem*wfvkyfief;aqmif&GufrIrsm; twGuf aumif;usKd;rsm; ouf a&mufvmaprnf jzpfa Mumif; CITIC Heavy rS ajymMum;cJh onf/

udkumudkvmukrÜPDonf aemif vmrnfhig;ESpftwGif; a':vm oef;aygif; 200 &if;ESD;jr§KyfESH&ef ESifh tvkyftudkifaygif; 22000 ausmf zefwD;pDpOfrIrsm;udk jrefrm EdkifiHwGif jyKvkyfoGm;rnfjzpfaMumif; udkumudkvmukrÜPDrefae*sif; 'g½dkufwm Mr. Rehan Khan u ajymonf/

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Mr. Rehan Khan u ]]b,f EdkifiHrSmrqdk vkyfief;pwifwJhtcsdef rSmawmh pdefac:rIawG &Sdygw,f/ 'gayrJh vuf&dS jrefrmEdkifiHrSm vkyf aqmifae&wm pdefac:rIawG&Sd ayr,fh udkumudkvm&JU &nfrSef;



Myanmar Summary

Japan Launches Initiative to “Export” Postal System to Myanmar

Phyu Thit Lwin

Japan has launched an initiative to modernise Myanmar’s postal system

and precise services in the Southeast Asian country.

The initiative is part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic revitalisation plans featuring exports of its advanced tech-nologies and services to other countries, especially developing countries in Asia.

Japan and Myanmar have held three rounds of working-level talks so far, but Japanese

a lot of time to introduce the Japanese-style postal services in Myanmar where people are not even used to writing postal codes.

“It takes a week or so in My-anmar to get mail and parcels delivered from the northern-most to the southernmost part of the country,” said Masatoshi Kawano, a Ministry of Internal

“But media reports that postal items frequently get lost in Myanmar may be exaggerated,” Kawano said.

“We all know Myanmar’s economy will grow more, so

-nitely be necessary to support growth.

“The Japanese postal system delivers 98 percent of all postal items within two days, no mat-ter where in the country the sender and receiver are.

During an inspection of Tokyo

bilateral postal talks in May, Myanmar Communications and Information Minister Myat Hein appeared to have been impressed with Japanese work-

serving customers well.In September, Myat Hein

met again with his Japanese counterpart Yoshitaka Shindo

start actual work in 2014, while Vietnam became the second country to reach a similar postal support agreement with Japan.

Kawano, director of the

the ministry’s Postal Services Policy Department, cited the

workers the Japanese way of providing postal services as his

Files

jrefrmEdkifiH\ pmydkYaqmifrIpepfrsm; tqifhrDwdk;wufvmap&eftwGuf *syef EdkifiH\ jrefqefNyD; vkyfief;aqmif&GufrI ydkif;wGif trSefwu,ftusKd;jzpfxGef;Edkif onfh 0efaqmifrIrsm;tm; jrefrmEdkifiH wGif yxrOD;qHk; vkyfaqmifoGm;awmh rnfjzpfaMumif; od&onf/

,ckuJhodkY jrefrmEdkifiH\ pmydkYpepftm;

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od&onf/ *syefEdkifiHESifh jrefrmEdkifiHwdkYtaejzifh

working-level oHk;Budrfwdwd aqG;aEG;rI rsm; jyKvkyfxm;NyD; *syefEdkifiHrS trIaqmif rsm;u jrefrmEdkifiHwGif *syefEdkifiH\ pmydk Y pepf0efaqmifrIrsm;udk rdwfqufay;oGm; &eftwGuf tcsdef,loGm;&zG,f&SdaMumif; ,HkMunfMuNyD; jrefrmEdkifiHwGif vlrsm; taejzifh pmydkYoauFwrsm;udkyif tuRrf; w0ifr&SdMuaMumif;vnf; od&onf/

Managing Director Rehan Khan said.

He said Coca-Cola aims

-isation in the long-term in Myanmar.

The Atlanta-based

time in more than 60 years, opened a facility in Hmawbi in June to locally bottle Coca-Cola since the company re-entered My-anmar in 2012. Coca-Cola announced in November that it will increase the capacity of its Hmawbi factory.

A second factory at Hla-

ing Tharyar also manu-factures Coca-Cola soft drinks, and the company is planning to build a new bottle manufacturing factory.

“Coca-Cola made long-term investment in the manufacturing infrastruc-ture and new technologies in Myanmar,” Khan said.

A Coca-Cola truck making deliveries in Yangon.

csufawGu twdkif;twmwpfck txd atmifjrifrI&Sdw,f/aemuf

xyfvnf; jrefrmEdkifiHrSm xyfrH &if;ESD;jr§KyfESHoGm;zdkY tpDtpOfawG &S dygw,f/ uRefawmfwdk YtaeeJ Y jrefrmEdkifiH&JU pD;yGm;a&;wpfckvHk; udk zGHUNzdK;wdk;wufatmif vkyf aqmifay;aewJhoabmyg}}[k ajymonf/

udkumudkvmukrÜPDonf tao; pdwfpdppfrIESif h ajzavQmhrIvkyfief; pOfrsm;onf jrefrmEdkifiHtwGif; y kvif;xkwfpuf½Hkopfrsm;ESif h axmufyHhydkYaqmifa&;vkyfief;rsm;

wnf a qmuf a e pOf twGif; udkumudkvm\ pepfwpfcktjzpf qufvufwnf&S doGm;rnf jzpf aMumif; od&onf/

jrefrmEdkifiHodk Y jyefvnf0if a&mufNyD;aemufydkif; udkumudk vm\pepfonf xkwfvkyfa&; vdkif;tajccHtaqmufttHkESif h tat;pufopfrsm; wm&SnfcH &if;ESD;jr§KyfESHrIrsm; jyKvkyfcJhaMumif; od&onf/

The Coca-Cola Founda-tion is also working with

to implement Swan-Yi, a three-year program to empower 24,500 Myan-mar women focusing on

-preneurship and business management.

7December 19-25, 2013

Myanmar Summary

LOCAL BIZ Myanmar Business Todaymmbiztoday.com

Oliver Slow

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will assist

Myanmar in its ongoing

based lender said. The announcement was

made following the visit of IMF Managing Direc-tor Christine Lagarde to Myanmar.

During her visit, La-garde met with Myanmar Vice President U Nyan Tun, where the pair discussed reforming My-anmar’s banking system,

-etary policy as the country emerges from decades of military rule.

As the Myanmar gov-ernment looks to attract foreign investment, the

a key area to show that the country’s reforms are genuine and to give inves-

-ing within the country.

“[Myanmar] is build-ing macroeconomic stability and undertaking the reforms needed for sustaining economic and social prosper-ity,” Lagarde said. “This comes from the recent reforms undertaken by the government, includ-ing adopting a managed

and removing exchange restrictions, establishing an autonomous central

increasing spending on health and education. The next step is to build on these gains and take the path of sustained, strong and inclusive growth – to lower poverty and lift the prospects of everyone in Myanmar.”

Also during her visit, La-garde met with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and delivered a speech at the Yangon University of Economics, where she called on the country to include all Myanmar citizens in the country’s growing economy.

“Economic policy should always have a preference for the poor.

ethics, but because it is good economics too. With rampant poverty, people

are too caught up in their daily struggles to fully develop their potential and contribute to society. It becomes hard to get

She also attended the World Women Forum in Yangon, organised by the

of its kind to be hosted in Myanmar.

The role of women in Myanmar’s society was a key component of La-garde’s speech.

“The evidence is clear, when women do better, the economy does better. We have done some work on this at the IMF, show-ing that if women partici-pated in labour markets to the same extent as men, the gains would be substantial. For example, per capita income could rise by 23 percent in South Asia, and 15 per-cent in East Asia and the

“As the famous Myan-mar proverb puts it, ‘It is the mother’s hands that push the cradle that builds the future of the world.’ I know that Myanmar is blessed with an abundance of female talent from all walks of life. They are ready to contribute and ready to lead.”

IMF predicted that Myanmar’s economy will grow 6.75 percent in the

the country continues its reforms.

The IMF has been as-sisting Myanmar in im-

plementing its policies to ensure economic stability and strengthen reform.

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IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

Reuters



Vietnamese Lessons for MyanmarWhat Asia’s new investment hot spot can learn from the successes – and failures – of the last Big Thing

There’s an undeniable buzz about Myanmar among business leaders these

days, with investors betting on the long-stagnant economy be-coming the next Asian tiger. But as exciting as this situation is, it helps to recall that it is not un-precedented. The case to study is Vietnam, another once-hot economy that has fallen out of

pointers on things to watch out for in Myanmar, as well as tips to Myanmar’s leaders on traps to avoid.

The recent rush of foreign investors to Myanmar is remi-niscent of Vietnam’s reforms of a generation ago. Both countries were similar in their pre-opening phase: politically repressive and economically

world. And liberalisation started in both places suddenly and rather unexpectedly.

In Vietnam, the opening came in 1986 when the Vietnamese Communist Party rolled out its “doi moi,” or “renovation,” pro-gram. Hanoi reduced barriers to trade and foreign direct in-vestment. Other critical reforms over time included abolishing Vietnam’s system of highly cen-tralised management based on state subsidies, and allowing the private sector to compete along with state-owned enterprises in non-strategic sectors.

The policy was an early suc-cess. Investment poured in, particularly attracted by the prospect of inexpensive labour, a stable regime, abundant natu-ral resources and a market that at the time consisted of some 60 million consumers. Growth followed the investment boom, as Vietnam became Southeast Asia’s fastest growing economy, posting annual growth rates above 5 percent and in some years above 8 percent. In 2000, Vietnam signed a free-trade agreement with the US, which is now its largest export market. In

Organization. From 2005-2010, it was one of the world’s top investment destinations.

So far, so similar to today’s Myanmar. Yet, in a cautionary note for Myanmar, Vietnam has squandered many of its advantages mainly by losing its reform momentum. The gov-ernment has shied away from banking reforms and a new tranche of tough liberalisations. State-owned enterprises still account for 40 percent of GDP, yet are characterised by lagging

Curtis S Chin and Jose B Collazo

productivity and allegations of corruption.

And while in retrospect, the prospects for political reform in Vietnam alongside economic opening might have been overstated at times, the lack of political liberalisation now poses an ongoing threat to the economy. For instance, the regime’s inability to foster

along with the political dissent the regime targets. And at-tempts to crack down on online dissent are leading to tighter controls on communications that threaten to dent internet businesses.

Frustration over lack of pro-gress in key reforms is exacer-bating other investor concerns. Labour costs are increasing, and population growth is slow-ing. Foreign direct investment

shows little sign of coming back.Myanmar’s leaders should ask

how they can avoid that fate.

a good start. Myanmar’s eco-nomic opening already has been accompanied by a much greater degree of political reform than was ever the case in Vietnam.

-forms is more aggressive than Vietnam’s. Myanmar’s new for-eign investment rules allow for 100 percent foreign ownership in a range of industries, includ-ing retail, wholesale, agency, franchising, and most food and beverage outlets.

Even in sectors such as con-struction and real estate, trans-port, mining and spirits where

the relatively business-friendly rules allow up to 80 percent foreign ownership. Vietnam’s law, in contrast, still restricts outside investors to 49 percent foreign ownership in numerous sectors.

Vietnam’s story suggests the most important thing for Myanmar is for leaders to con-tinue and to sustain economic reforms. An early test will be

the government’s implementa-tion of what President Thein Sein has billed as an aggressive, transparent and competitive privatisation strategy for state-owned enterprises. Already Norway’s Telenor and Qatar’s Ooredoo in June were awarded licences to launch nationwide telecom services after a com-petitive tender process.

Now the government needs to extend that pattern to other in-dustries, and especially highly lucrative utility businesses such as electricity and other infra-structure. Vietnam’s experience

shows that if these are not pri-

the rest of the economy while their patrons within the gov-ernment entrench themselves, making reform harder later.

At the heart of Myanmar’s reform process must be a sustained commitment to tear down new “bric” walls built of bureaucracy, regulation, in-terventionism and corruption. The prescription for economic growth is straightforward – im-prove the bureaucracy, regulate

fairly, intervene rarely and stamp out corruption.

The nascent reform process in Myanmar already has led to increased economic activity and opened up new opportunities. The International Monetary Fund estimates that the coun-try’s GDP will grow 6.8 percent this year, compared to last year’s 5.5 percent growth rate. Ultimately, though, it will be a strong rule of law and a growing private sector that will drive and sustain this budding economic growth. Myanmar has a chance now to act on a lesson with which Vietnam still struggles.

Curtis S Chin, a former US Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, is manag-

RiverPeak Group, LLC. Jose B Collazois a frequent commenta-tor on Southeast Asia. WSJ

Myanmar Summary

“Vietnam has squandered many of its advantages

mainly by losing its reform momentum. The gov-

ernment has shied away from banking reforms

and a new tranche of tough liberalisations. State-

owned enterprises still account for 40 percent of

GDP, yet are characterised by lagging productiv-

ity and allegations of corruption.”

losing its reform momentum as the government shied away from banking reforms and a new tranche of tough liberalisations.

Reuters

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FEATURE 9December 19-25, 2013

Myanmar Summary


Oliver Slow

Today Australia is the world’s fourth largest exporter of

wine, with approximately 750 million litres sold around the world every year, of which more than half comes from within a few hours of the city of Adelaide, located in the country’s South Australia state.

from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), one of the leading worldwide organisations in the wine market, Australia ranks seventh in the world in terms of wine production, but fourth when it comes to wine export, behind the three classic European countries of Italy, Spain and of course France.

Back in 1850, one young man from the sleepy English county of Devon boarded a boat for Aus-tralia and, while that man cannot singlehandedly, be thanked for the growth of Australian wine around the world, his name is one of those most closely as-sociated with Australian wine.

of age, Thomas Hardy packed his meager be-longings into a bag and boarded a ship named the British Empire, which was bound for Adelaide. Newly arrived, he found work with a farmer called John Reynell who ran a mixed farm, kept livestock and grew cereal crops.

wine maker in South

Australia, beginning work in 1838, when the colony

looking after cattle and, in his diary, he records that he lost his cattle twice

farmer said, ‘Look, you’re bloody hopeless with cat-tle, I’m going to have to put you in the vineyard where you can’t get into trouble,’” his great great grandson Bill Hardy told Myanmar Business To-day during a recent visit to Myanmar.

Thomas’ entrepreneuri-al spirit drove him across the border into Victoria, which was experiencing a gold rush at the time, and although he didn’t

did recognise that miners needed to be fed and went about setting up a small butcher business.

Thomas ran the butch-ering business for about three years, made enough money to return to South Australia and set up his own farm to produce wine as well as citrus, olives

Thomas Hardys & Sons moved away from the other aspects of the company and began to specialise in wine. While some components of the business have changed since then, the business still holds strong fam-ily involvement, although less than it used to.

Having been family-run for 139 years, in 1992 the fourth generation of Thomas’ descendants de-cided to open up the busi-ness to other investors,

File

s

ian Stock Exchange and becoming BRL Hardys Ltd, after a link-up with a business called Berri Renmano Ltd.

“For those in the family who wanted to sell their shares, they could get out but for those who stayed

in, our family share fell below 50 percent, but the company grew rap-

Constellation Wines [the world’s largest publicly traded wine company] in 2003 and in the 11 years since the original takeo-ver, shares leapt from $1

to $10.50.”In 2011, Constellation

decided to sell a number of their interests, which were bought by an Aus-

to form the company in its current form, Accolade Wines.

“I actually keep an Accolade and a Hardys [business] card, but of course, I like to present

said.Accolades’ portfolio

continues to grow and includes wines from Australia, South Africa, Europe and the US, but Hardys still accounts for about half of the group’s overall sales.

Despite a strong fam-ily background in wine, Bill says that he wasn’t necessarily destined for a career in the industry.

“Look, my mates surfed, so I surfed, my mates drank beer, so I drank beer and I didn’t really care for wine. It wasn’t

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mmbiztoday.comFEATURE 10

Contd. P 22...

until I was in my second year at university, studying an agricul-tural science degree to become a wheatsheaf farmer that I sud-denly realised the position I was in,” he said.

“So I had to go back to my fa-ther [Sir James Hardy, who also awarded a knighthood in 1981 for his services to Yachting] with my tail between my legs and ask

like an absolute cop-out, but my father was fantastic. He said, ‘if the family doesn’t come into the business then there is no family business.’”

Hardys has been distributed within Myanmar for at least the last eight years and Bill says that his visit, which was part of

also included a dinner event at Yangon’s Traders Hotel, is part of a drive to further promote the brand within the country.

“We have found in other markets that if you’re one of the early groups into a market, you can really gain some ownership of the category and we would love to see the name Hardys become associated with Aus-

tralian wine here,” he said. Asia’s wine market is expected

to grow over the coming years. In 2012, China’s wine market, for example, reached $41 bil-

a year previously according

International.“Wine has always been a

fairly aspirational product and, in Southeast Asia many of the economies are growing as lifestyle increases among local people. I think they’re looking more at the world and western trends and I think wine is often seen as part of a sign of success. It’s often seen as something cul-turally for people on the rise, so I think we will continue to see a rise in consumption all across

Asia,” Bill said. James Marsden, who man-

ages the wine arm for Premium Distribution, who distribute Hardys and other wines in the country, said that there had been a certain increase in wine consumption within the coun-try, but that any noticeable shift would take time.

“I think the shift will take time. Australian wine has been very successful here, they were

-anmar from our side, and then you have the French and Italian wines, which remain popular.”

Part of the challenge however, Bill says, is helping people un-derstand what wine is about.

“Because of wine’s variety of styles, if you compare it with

other alcoholic beverages, wine styles are much vaster than beer or spirits. You can generally

almost any food and I think the greatest way you can promote wine is to teach people how to use it, when you should use it and what you can use it with. It’s a special product.”

EDITOR’S NOTE. This inter-view was conducted prior to the government’s recent crack-down on imported alcohol and cigarettes.

Construction workers stand near heavy tractors during the commencement ceremony of Thilawa SEZ Project in Yangon.

U A

ung/

Xin

hua

Myanmar’s Biggest Special Economic Zone

Shein Thu Aung

Myanmar has begun

phase of the Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ)

economic zone of its kind, on the outskirts of Yangon.

covers 400 hectares out of the overall 2,400 hectares.

venture industrial complex -

cial ribbon-cutting and ground-breaking ceremony held at the site.

A consortium, Myanmar-Japan Thilawa Development

-ernment of Myanmar and nine local Myanmar companies will

plans to prepare roads, sewage treatment equipment and other infrastructure.

-tories, high-tech industry, tex-tile, labour intensive industry and manufacturing industry.

Mitsubishi Corp, Marubeni Corp and Sumitomo Corp

stake in the consortium, to be capitalised at $100 million, while the remaining 51 percent will be owned by the Myanmar

tary vice minister of economy, trade and industry of Japan,

Myanmar people.-

portunities can be created by receiving investments from abroad, so that the people of

the reforms.”Isozaki said many Japanese

government and local private companies.

The Myanmar public com-pany is set to sell its shares to the public in early 2014 and the company will start commercial run of the Thilawa SEZ in mid-

Set Aung, chairman of the Thilawa Special Economic Zone management committee,

and stronger relationship and friendship between Myanmar

would open up a new chapter in the history of Myanmar.

He said the development of the zone would not only contribute to the economic development of the country, but also to the locals residing in and around the area with increased employment opportunities, income, and consumption.

would attract more foreign investment to Myanmar, and pledged cooperation with the developers and the investing companies for the successful establishment of the SEZ.

“We stand ready for better coordination, facilitation and to provide any necessary as-sistance to all the stakeholders, especially to the developers as well as investors,” he said.

Yoshihiko Isozaki, parliamen-

companies remain unsure about investing in Myanmar due to procedural complications, so solving such issues to pave the way for potential investors to

locals would be the key to the success.

The site is expected to draw businesses involved in apparel, car manufacturing and other services, upon its completion in

2015.

lies between Thanlyin and Kyauktan townships in Yangon region, has so far been marred by land disputes involving hundreds of farmers, posing a challenge for the implementa-

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LOCAL BIZ 11December 19-25, 2013

Myanmar Summary


Yu Jincui

We drove a 1997 Toyota as we passed by the

Union of Myanmar Fed-eration of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI). The sedan was purchased by a local friend for over $10,000 two years ago after the Myanmar government loosened its secondhand car import regulations. Within hundred metres of the UMFCCI, there were several dozen Japanese secondhand cars for sale.

Japanese secondhand cars, frustrated in the Western market in recent years, have found new ex-port targets in developing countries like Myanmar and African nations. “My-anmar is a paradise for Japan’s used cars!” locals

I recalled my experi-ences hailing cabs when I visited Yangon for the

Japanese used cars domi-nated the roads. Sitting in a rust-bucket that had been on the roads for 20 or 30 years was a nostalgic experience – but you had to tightly grip the door handle in an uncomfort-able seat.

The Myanmar govern-ment released import regulations, and urged car owners to replace their

models in September 2011, with a purpose to improve the speed and ef-

as well as modernize the city appearance to attack more investors.

This created huge op-portunities for Japanese used cars but a messy situation in the importing Myanmar cities.

When I got impatient and restive after waiting at a crossroads for over an hour, an experience all too familiar to me from

told me that she was also losing the thrill of having a new car, due to worries about the mounting pres-sure of emissions, severe

wasting parking.Her worst experience

was driving round a downtown parking lot for half an hour to squeeze her car in.

Japan’s ambition to

Myanmar could be seen through mushrooming Japanese used cars. In fact, the Myanmar media report various forms of Japan-Myanmar coop-eration every day, such as

loans to Myanmar and Japanese enterprises mulling investment in the country or committing funds.

Analysts say Myanmar’s reform provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Japan to reassert its

to kill two birds with one stone through economic diplomacy: grabbing the untapped Myanmar market to spur Japan’s stagnant economy, while

-anmar and the Southeast Asian region.

Expansion of Japanese business in Myanmar is hard to see as purely economic behaviour. It has gained strong back-ing from the Japanese government.

In 2012, Japan an-

Myanmar’s ¥303.5 billion ($3.7 billion) debt and provide a new loan of ¥500 billion for Myanmar’s development.

some insightful Burmese also noticed the condi-tions attached to loans.

As is common with development loans, they can be only applied to Japanese construction

companies and purchas-ing Japanese products and equipment, increas-

With intensifying eco-nomic activities of Japan in Myanmar, questions over the transparency of Japan’s actions are also surging in a highly charged media environ-ment after Myanmar initiated the democratic process.

A recent op-ed published in Democratic Voice of

at the trend of “an alarm-ing lack of transparency” of Japanese diplomacy in Myanmar.

A local businessman told me that such views are held by an increas-ing number of people in Myanmar.

Some MPs demanded Japan to publicise how it

aid to Myanmar’s health sector according to Myan-mar’s Eleven News.

There are also many criticisms of Japan’s silence over compensa-tion for land grabs in the process of developing the Thilawa Special Econom-

establishing a low-cost manufacturing base, will stimulate Myanmar’s economy and employ-ment if successfully carried out, but progress has been slow due to local

“closed-door” dealings targeted by the media.

The Myanmar public has a high standard for foreign economic ac-tivities in their country. It remains to be seen

-ing ambitions.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times.

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Myanmar Summary

Philippine President Benigno S Aquino III (R) welcomes Myanmar President U Thein Sein in Manila, the Philippines.

Xin

hua

Aye Myat

The Philippines and Myanmar signed six agreements aimed at

strengthening bilateral ties between the two countries dur-ing President U Thein Sein’s recently-concluded three-day visit.

The agreements were signed -

ments, energy, agriculture,

Under the memorandum of

understanding (MoU) on food security, the two countries would work together to ensure food security and the promo-tion of investments through

the agricultural sector.The memorandum of

agreement (MoA) on renew-able energy would enable the Philippines and Myanmar to exchange technical expertise,

activities in renewable energy resources.

The MoU on information cooperation aims to provide an

cooperation between private

of best practices in media's role in national development and

exchanges, radio and television

public relations, printing and publishing.

An MoA on visa-free entry to Myanmar that would allow Fili-pinos to stay in Myanmar for up

to 14 days without the need for a visa was also signed. It also permits Myanmar nationals to visit the Philippines without a visa for up to 30 days.

The two countries inked an MoU on trade and investments which aims to facilitate the dissemination of investment information and consultations with the business community in the two countries.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Federa-tion of Chambers of Commerce and Industry also signed an MoA which enables both groups to establish business contacts via conferences, seminars, study tours, exchange of trade groups, and participation in trade fairs.

-bert del Rosario and Myanmar Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Myat Myat Ohn Khin exchanged notes on the turnover of Myan-mar’s donation amounting to $150,000 for the victims of the earthquake and typhoon Hai-yan, locally named “Yolanda,” in central Philippines.

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losses, use resources more

people to the electricity grid more quickly,” he added.

The loan will fund improve-ment works so electricity can

-cluding upgrading substations, replacing existing distribution lines and transformers as well as upgrading digital revenue meters.

Other improvements include replacing outdated electric-ity lines, which can often cause health and safety problems, particularly in built-up areas.

-tion loss by 4 percentage points, the Manila-based lender said.

Technical and non-technical losses from Myanmar’s aging distribution system were as high as 18.2 percent in 2012,

power generated was lost before reaching customers, according to the ADB.

Despite ongoing reforms aimed at pulling Myanmar out of decades of economic stagna-tion, electricity remains a key issue, with regular electricity available to only 30 percent of the estimated 60 million population.

Even the country’s most populous city Yangon, which is working hard to attract foreign

from regular powercuts, which is making foreign businesspeo-ple and big manufacturers ap-prehensive about moving into the country.

Myanmar’s average electri-

percent in 2006 to 28 percent in 2012, but only about one in

-nected to the electricity grid. Currently, Yangon has the high-est access to electricity at 72 percent, followed by the capital Nay Pyi Taw with 65 percent and Mandalay with 35 percent, according to the ADB.

The lender said improving distribution in the four regions should reduce system losses and subsequently provide increased opportunities for large industries and small and medium-sized enterprises to expand their services, enhance living conditions, and improve services at community facilities like clinics or schools, which should contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction.

In addition to providing sup-port for transmission updates and preventing technical losses, ADB is working with the

National Energy Management Committee to improve coor-dination between ministries responsible for the country’s energy.

ADB is also assisting the government in preparing Myanmar energy sector policy, revising the Electricity Law, setting the national transmis-sion and distribution code, and establishing electric equipment standards. A 20-year, long-term energy master plan is also being formulated.

The bank said future activities in the energy sector will also

rural energy access and helping the government establish the public-private partnerships

power system expansion.ADB, together with the World

Economic Forum and Accen-ture, has also conducted an as-sessment of the nation’s current energy architecture challenges. A report providing an overview of a path to a “New Energy Architecture” was published in June.

In 2012, ADB developed a road map toward the resumption of normal operations within Myanmar including economy assessments of key sectors, pro-vision of technical assistance

of an interim country partner-ship strategy.

the country’s dictatorship at the time ceased paying loans to the bank.

ADB returned to Myanmar in 2012 after the country con-tinued its impressive range of reforms and has been involved in a number of programmes aimed at improving the coun-

economy.

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REGIONAL BIZ 13December 19-25, 2013

Myanmar Summary

Contd. P 17...


Thai PM offers to help US and UN to investigate allegations of trafficking

Andrew RC Marshall, Jason Szep and Arshad Mohammed

The United Nations and the United States called for investigations into

moved Myanmar refugees into

The report, published on December 5 and based on a two-month investigation in three countries, revealed a clan-destine policy to remove Roh-ingya refugees from Thailand’s immigration detention centres and deliver them to human traf-

The Rohingya, stateless Mus-lims from Myanmar, are then transported across southern Thailand and held hostage in camps hidden near the border with Malaysia until relatives pay ransoms to release them, according to the Reuters report. Some are beaten and some are killed.

“These allegations need to be investigated urgently,” UN refugee agency spokeswoman Vivian Tan said in a statement. “We have consistently asked countries in the region to provide temporary protection, including protection against abuse and exploitation.”

Washington issued a similar call hours later. “We are aware of reports alleging that Thai

selling Rohingya migrants to

Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. “We urge the Thai government to conduct a serious and transparent investi-gation into the matter.”

“We remain deeply concerned about the safety of and humani-tarian conditions for vulner-able communities in Burma, including refugees and asylum seekers on Burma’s borders and elsewhere in the region,” Harf added.

the Royal Thai Police in Bang-kok was quoted in the Reuters report saying that there was

the Rohingya to Myanmar. He called this “a natural way or option two.” But he said the Rohingya signed statements in which they agree they want to return to Myanmar. These statements, however, were at times produced in the absence of a Rohingya language transla-tor, Reuters found.

“The detainees also need to be informed about their options in a language they understand,” said Tan, the UN spokeswoman. “Any decision to leave must be voluntary, and those who choose to leave must be protected against abuse and exploitation by smugglers.”

However, Thai Prime Minis-ter Yingluck Shinawatra said Thailand will help the UN and the US with any investigation

Shinawatra, who chairs a government committee on

asked about her reaction.“I cannot comment on the

Rohingya issue and reaction as this is the responsibility of the Foreign Ministry to handle,” she said in a comment to Reu-ters, delivered through an aide.

“The ministry will liaise with the United States and the UN to

help with any investigation they need.”

Possible sanctionsNew York-based watchdog

group Human Rights Watch criticised Thailand for mov-ing detainees into established

and warned Thailand could face a possible downgrade in a US list of the world’s worst enforc-

Such a downgrade would place Thailand, a close US ally and Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy, at risk of US sanctions and put it on par with North Korea and Iran among

“The Thai government has some serious explaining to do before the international com-munity,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

The US State Department is gathering information for its

(TIP) report, due to be pub-lished in June. Thailand faces an automatic downgrade to Tier 3, the lowest rank, unless it makes

-ing, the State Department says. The Tier 3 designation could

sanctions.

Contd. P 17...

Men stand in boats crossing the invisible maritime border between Thailand and Myanmar near the Thai port city of Ranong.

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mmbiztoday.comREGIONAL BIZ 14

Myanmar Summary

Drives Location

Many Beijing residents are willing to pay over the odds to secure homes near to high-quality schools in China's competitive education market.

Reu

ters

Li Hui and Ben Blanchard

Zhong Jian and his wife are willing to pay double the going rate for a tiny home

their 18-month-old daughter will be eligible to attend a top primary school nearby.

Because public primary schools in many Chinese cities have to admit children who live locally, parents like Zhong are driving up property prices in areas that have the most popu-lar schools. The trend is set to accelerate with a baby boom expected after China eased its one-child policy last month.

"I don't have a choice. I want the best education for my daughter and this is the only way," said Zhong, who has hunted in the alleyways near the

Primary School for six months without any luck.

Prices for pre-owned homes

19 percent in October from a year ago, a dizzying pace for those trying to get a foothold in the Chinese capital.

But the spike is far greater in the areas young families covet - neighbourhoods near the best schools, which are often clustered in the older parts of

apartment complexes.On average, pre-owned homes

close to good schools are 50 percent more expensive than similar ones in comparable areas, and the gap has widened over the past year, said Chinese real estate agency and consul-tancy HomeLink. Supply is also

very tight, half a dozen parents told Reuters.

China loosened its family planning rules last month to al-low couples to have two children if one of the parents was an only child, a measure demographers say will apply to tens of millions of families.

"The new policy will widen the supply-demand gap for school-area houses in the next three to

-guo, an analyst with HomeLink. "Prices will go even higher."

Zhong, a 32-year old elec-tronics salesman, said he was ready to pay two mil-lion yuan($328,200) for a tiny home with one room the size of about four king-size beds, in a shabby alleyway near the

Primary School.The home, which doesn't even

have a bathroom, sits in a run-down Chinese-style courtyard with other small homes. That would have been more than double the cost for a similar

real estate agent said.But the owner still wanted

more, so Zhong had to say no.Other parents said they were

willing to pay high prices and endure less than ideal living conditions to get their child into a top primary school.

Chinese families put enor-mous emphasis on education. Many parents believe that choosing the right primary school for their child is vital to getting them into a good high school followed by a prestigious university.

"Education is very competi-

tive," said a parent surnamed Wang, the father of a two-year old boy.

"We don't have the connec-tions to get him into a good school, so we can only buy a school-area home," added Wang, who declined to give his full name.

Zhong said he and his family had not planned to live in the courtyard home, about 3 km (1.9 miles) from Tiananmen Square.

But the purchase would have enabled him to move his household registration and thus meet the school's requirement of three years of neighbourhood residency before his daughter began classes.

"These owners know that what they are really selling is the school opportunity," said Zhong.

fair access to education, the government has for years re-quired public primary schools to admit students from local neighbourhoods in many cities.

However, a nationwide sys-tem for ranking schools accord-ing to academic results has led

selected key schools getting more funding as well as better facilities and teachers.

Indeed, experts say the quality of education varies greatly be-tween the top primary schools and the rest.

"This is social inequality, public schools use government resources and funding, but

buy a school-area home," said Tan Fang, a professor at the SouthChina Normal University in southern Guangzhou city.

The Ministry of Education, in a statement to Reuters, said the government had sought to strengthen the quality of basic

parents will be content to let their children go to nearby schools".

School-area housing has

in real estate markets, not only

also in less developed cities that have millions of people but fewer high-quality schools.

Most buyers of school-area

parents who give up bigger and newer houses to live near good schools, which are often sur-rounded by small, older apart-ments, said HomeLink analyst Zhang.

There are other concerns for parents.

In principle, children are admitted based on the address on the household registration, or hukou, of their family.

Many schools require families to have lived in the neighbour-

enrolment. Relocating a hukou,

time. And parents often don't know if their child has been accepted until they reach school age.

More equitable education was highlighted in reforms announced last month, along with a relaxation of the one-child policy and many other economic measures.

The reform document called

the quality of education among urban and rural areas.

Change may not come soon enough for parents like Zhong.

"I feel very tired and helpless," said the weary father. "It's a lot of pressure." Reuters

Zhong Jian

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“I don’t have a choice.

I want the best education

for my daughter and this is

the only way.”


Myanmar Summary


Steelmakers Shift to Low-Grade Iron OreLow-grade iron ore tends to consume more coal in steelmaking; Domestic mining bans lead to paucity of superior iron ore grades

Krishna N Das

India’s coking coal imports could see a double-digit per-

year as a scarcity of high-quality iron ore after a mining ban is forcing steelmakers to use infe-rior grades that need more coal to process into steel.

The world’s third-largest importer of coking coal shipped in 32.2 million tonnes last year. The use of low-grade iron ore would mean more coal purchas-es from traditional suppliers such as Australia, South Africa and the United States – helping support prices even if demand from China tapers.

But it would not help in the

weak rupee currency.“Some of the lower-quality

iron ores mined in India have a higher than normal alumina content, which leads to higher slagging (residue from smelting of ore) in the blast furnace,” said Jim Truman, principal coal analyst at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

“As a result, when using more of this product, blast furnaces require higher levels of heat.”

Domestic steel companies have traditionally preferred high-grade ores as every per-centage point increase in iron content improves productivity by 2 percentage points and re-duces coking coal consumption by 1 percentage point, according to the Indian Bureau of Mines. Ore with more than 64 percent iron is regarded as high grade.

But mining bans in key producing states have forced Indian steel companies to adopt methods to be able to use even

low-quality ores – containing as low as 48 percent iron – ac-cumulated over the years.

Many of the so-called ben-

waste material from ore and increase its iron concentra-tion – built by companies such as JSW Steel Ltd, Essar Steel and Monnet Ispat & Energy are struggling with the high percentage of alumina as well as silica.

“The problem that is coming up today is that low-grade ores contain very high alumina and silica which cannot be taken

process,” said Seshagiri Rao,

Steel, India’s third-biggest steel

when fuel consumption goes up.”

Rao said the company’s cok-ing coal consumption could

year mainly due to the use of low-grade iron ores. JSW Steel imports all of its coal needs – about 14 million tonnes last

at home.Kalyani Steels Ltd’s imports

of coke – derived by heating coking coal – would rise 50 percent to 150,000 tonnes this

iron ore and adds capacity, Managing Director RK Goyal told Reuters.

About 770 kg of coking coal and 1,400 kg of high-grade ore are required to produce 1 tonne of steel, according to industry estimates. Though coking coal is slightly costlier than iron ore, steelmakers prefer importing coal due to the lower volume.

India produced 49.4 million

year, with state-run monopoly Coal India Ltd accounting for most of that.

The miner’s inability to raise output of thermal and cok-ing coal in line with demand has meant India has become the third-largest importer of the fuel despite sitting on the

per a BP Plc estimate.

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Workers clear a track in a railway coal yard on the outskirts of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. India's coking coal

forcing steelmakers to use inferior grades that need more coal to process into steel.


mmbiztoday.comREGIONAL BIZ 16

Myanmar Summary

Southeast Asia' power sector will move away from gas to use more coal by the end of the decade, experts warn.

Turns Away from Gas

Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen

Southeast Asia's power sec-tor will tilt away from gas to use more coal by the end

of this decade, chipping away at

gas as the region of more than 600 million people tries to cut costs to meet soaring electricity needs.

due to come online this decade, this shift in consumption from a region long expected to be a key growth market could help take some of the heat out of rising Asian prices of the cleaner fuel.

Gas prices in Asia are about

in the United States, driven by demand for LNG from countries such as Japan and South Ko-rea - whose nuclear power sectors are in crisis, and China, where stringent pollution control measures are driving a switch from dirtier coal.

Demand for more coal could

of the fuel by at least partially compensating for China's move to cleaner energy sources.

Currently coal accounts for a third of Southeast Asia's energy mix and gas for 44 percent, with the bulk supplied by the region's own gas reserves, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which formulates

energy policy for industrialised countries.

"People in this region keep talking about green growth, but when I look at the numbers, the growth is not green. It is black as coal," said Fatih Birol, the IEA's chief economist.

Power generation capacity in Southeast Asia is set to rise by 50 percent during the current decade, of which more than half

the IEA said, indicating slow growth in LNG imports.

seem to feel that the advantage of gas is being eroded by the higher price," said Fereidun Fesharaki, chairman of en-ergy consultancy Facts Global Energy.

Asian country to import LNG, is only using 30 percent of the 5 million tonne-per-year import terminal that it brought online in 2011 as high prices of the super-cooled fuel have quashed demand.

Spot LNG prices LNG-AS have surged 85 percent in Asia since the Fukushima disaster in March 2011 shut Japan's nuclear reactors and forced it

power plants. Coal has slumped 30 percent over the time.

power is currently around twice

in Asia, according to the IEA.New LNG supplies from

Australia, North America and East Africa set to come online in the second half of the decade could help narrow this gap, but a rise in global LNG demand of around 7 percent a year until 2020 will still result in a tight market, analysts said.

This should keep coal's cost advantage intact, undermining gas demand from Southeast Asian nations that are already saddled with expensive fuel subsidies and huge trade

Fifteen gigawatt of new gas-

ity that will come online across Southeast Asia over the next

while 20 gigawatt of new coal-

mostly full capacity, according to energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

which turned to LNG imports to meet rising demand for power in locations far from its gas-producing regions, is construct-

as it seeks to curb overseas purchases of the expensive fuel.

Indonesia, for decades one of the world's top LNG exporters but now facing declining out-

LNG import deal with deliveries to begin in 2018.

Still, coal is set to remain the dominant fuel in Indonesia, the world's top exporter of thermal

power stations to reignite demand and counter a drop in prices due to softer demand from China.

Wealthy Singapore is the only outlier with a near total dependency on gas, and LNG sales from its terminal hitting 90 percent of its capacity fol-lowing commissioning earlier in 2013.

Thailand has plans to double the capacity of its LNG import terminal but is in no position to compete for supplies with utilities from Japan, which has deeper pockets and long-stand-ing relationships with sellers.

If planned terminals come online, Southeast Asia's capac-ity to import LNG could triple to nearly 50 million tonnes per year by 2018. But as long as the

the outlook for the region's LNG demand will be bleak.

Also, many Southeast Asian governments face less public opposition to burning dirty coal, with surging demand for power and budget constraints eclipsing attention on cleaner

air."Coal is now making a sneak

return," said Fesharaki from Facts Global Energy.

"Sellers of LNG believe the buyers have no choice. But they do, it is coal.

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“People in this region keep talking about green growth, but when I

look at the numbers, the growth is not green. It is black as coal.”


Myanmar Summary


In Congress, Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pennsylvania) urged the State Department to press both Myanmar and Thailand to act. “When a minority group is con-sistently denied human rights, we shouldn’t be surprised that they would become susceptible and fall prey to the vile crime of

a statement. “I call on the State Department to do everything within its authority to work to end this heinous practice, both in Burma and in Thailand.”

Sek Wannamethee, a spokes-man for Thailand’s Foreign Ministry, said the Rohingya issue was one of several the United States would take into consideration before deciding whether to downgrade or up-grade Thailand.

“The United States will look at the overall progress of Thai-land,” he said. “The focus is on persecution and convictions, and Thailand has made sub-stantive progress.”

The numbers suggest enforce-ment is losing steam. Nine people have been arrested in Thailand in relation to Rohing-ya-smuggling in 2013, includ-

according to police data. None of the arrests has led to convic-tions, however.

Thailand prosecuted 27 peo-

from 67 the previous year, ac-cording to the 2013 TIP Report by the US State Department. Reuters

Lowers SE Asia ForecastYasumasa Hisada

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) last week slightly raised its growth

forecast for China this year and the next, aided by the impact of government reforms and better prospects for key trading partners.

The Manila-based bank lifted its 2013 forecast for China to 7.7 percent, from 7.6 percent in Oc-tober. It now sees 2014 growth at 7.5 percent rather than 7.4

percent. However, the ADB lowered

estimates for Southeast Asia this year and in 2014, in the wake of a strong typhoon in the Philippines and political uncer-tainties in Thailand.

The bank kept its growth forecast for developing Asia at 6 percent this year and 6.2 percent next year.

Heineken Becomes Top Shareholder in India’s United Breweries

Buys 1.3 percent, raising stake to 38.7 percent

The Netherlands’ Heineken NV has become the larg-est shareholder of India’s

United Breweries Ltd after its stake inched past that of liquor

Heineken, the world’s third-largest brewer, now owns 38.7 percent after buying 1.3 percent last week from Citicorp Finance India, showed data on the Na-tional Stock Exchange. Mallya owns 37.4 percent.

United Breweries makes

biggest-selling beer, as well as London Pilsner and Kalyani Black Label.

Heineken’s new shares had been pledged as collateral for a loan it extended to parent UB Group, which is controlled by Mallya, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter

Mallya, who also owns

Ltd, owed lenders about 60 bil-lion rupees ($982.08 million) as of September. Last year, he sold

Ltd to British drinks maker Diageo PLC for $2.1 billion.

In 2004, United Breweries

with Scottish and Newcastle India Pvt Ltd, now owned by Heineken, to make and market a number of beverages. In 2009, it started to manufacture

Myanmar Summary

and distribute Heineken beer in India.

Heineken spent 2.8 billion rupees on 3.5 million United Breweries shares at 772.9 rupees each, exchange data showed. Reuters

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mmbiztoday.comINTERNATIONAL BIZ 18

Myanmar Summary

Victoria Bryan

When football teams battle for the World Cup in Brazil next

supremacy will be played out on the pitches - between Adidas and Nike.

In the next round of their tussle to be the world's biggest sports brand there is everything to play for.

Nike currently owns 14.6 per-cent of the global sporting goods market to Adidas' 11.4 percent, and is whittling away at the German brand's number one position in Europe. Adidas held 13.2 percent of the western Eu-ropean sporting goods market in 2012 to Nike's 12.4 percent, according to Euromonitor data.

"It's not easy to evaluate (next year's) collections. Adidas is

into winning lost ground, but a company like Nike won't rest on its laurels," said Hans Allmend-inger, head of marketing for German sporting goods retailer Sport2000.

Adidas has for more than 40 years decorated soccer kit and shoes with its distinctive parallel lines logo. It has strong partnerships setting it up well for the coming challenge: a close relationship with German club Bayern Munich, of which it owns 9 percent, and with FIFA, soccer's world governing body,

World Cup kit.Adidas has forecast record

2014 soccer sales of over 2 bil-lion euros and aims to boost group sales to 17 billion euros ($23 billion) in 2015.

US Nike, meanwhile, only entered the soccer market in 1994. But already it has several

including English champions Manchester United.

The owner of the distinctive 'swoosh' or tick logo, does not give forecasts for individual sport categories, but it is pre-dicting group sales of up to $30 billion by 2015 - suggesting it

strong performance during the World Cup to stretch its global lead over the German company - and maybe beat it at home too.

of 2013, ended August 31, it

sales in Europe. Over the same period, Adidas' European sales fell 7 percent.

Adidas is pulling out all the stops to make its presence felt in Brazil, where Nike sponsors

Sportswear giants Adidas and Nike will use next year's FIFA World Cup, hosted in Brazil, to continue their ongoing brand battle.

Reuters

the national team.Brazil have won the World

country is a byword for stylish soccer, meaning there is a huge buzz around the tournament - and Nike's designs.

Adidas is aiming to make its presence felt with players like Lionel Messi and Mesut Ozil, who play for Adidas-sponsored national teams Argentina and Germany - and the launch of

-zuca" - on sale for $160 but free to Brazilians born on its launch day.

Given the scale of the battle however it will also be using what is politely known as "ambush marketing." Soccer watchers cite as an early ex-ample in this year's World Cup campaigns the launch of a new soccer top for the Palmeiras club in the yellow, green and blue worn by the Brazil national team.

feathers," said Berenberg Bank analyst John Guy. "They've cer-tainly got a few tactical moves up their sleeves to consolidate their position against Nike and that's good to see."

Klaus Jost, president of the world's largest sportswear retailer Intersport, said Nike's roster of top soccer players like Frenchman Franck Ribery and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo was one of the reasons for Nike's increasing sales in Europe.

"It's much more about creat-ing the right image," he told Reuters. "Stars like Ribery, Ronaldo and (Zlatan) Ibrahi-movic have such an attraction that many kids want to copy them."

Big name endorsements are also responsible for Nike's broader success.

Retailers say the US brand has gained market share this year thanks to well designed, com-fortable products such as the top-selling Nike Free trainer - and getting its performance-enhancing shoes on the feet of the biggest sports stars.

Nike's impressive roster of sponsorship deals includes current names like soccer star Ronaldo, tennis player Roger Federer, golfers Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and legendary

Lewis and Michael Johnson."Nike has done a really good

as the true brand for perfor-mance," Tammy Smulder, managing director at marketing consultancy SCB Partners, told Reuters.

"Nike says, 'We will be as-sociated with the top athletes, whatever the sport'. You can't dispute that," she added.

Adidas chief executive Herbert Hainer said this week the group had made some mistakes, but added: "We believe we can grow the business by launching a lot of new innovative products. Our pipeline of new products is full."

One of the ways Adidas is hoping to grow sales is by using the cushioning technology in its Boost running shoes for other categories such as basketball. That could enable it to increase sales of Boost shoes to 15 mil-lion pairs in 2015, after having only introduced the line earlier this year.

It has signed big names in sports other than soccer in a bid

to gain market share from Nike. But its partnership with U.S. basketball star Derrick Rose

the court for months.The biggest challenge in the

battle of the brands is to win the crown of cool - something

designing a new product.At the moment, say market

watchers and consultants, Nike seems to be stealing a march on Adidas thanks to early adoption of new technologies which it is then harnessing to a bigger social media presence.

"They have a good hunch for

a generation," Lea Simpson, strategy director at digital strategy agency TH_NK, told Reuters.

now it's tech and sustainability."Nike has almost 2.5 million

570,000 for Adidas. It also has higher Facebook engagement rates, showing its fans interact better than Adidas fans with posted content.

Its Nike+ Fuelband and other apps track training and can then post results on social media sites - a far more power-ful demonstration of brand involvement than a Facebook 'like', Simpson said.

Adidas CEO Hainer said this week that the company would shift "much more money" into digital and social media.

Garth Farrar, global head of digital at Repucom, noted Adi-das had already been producing more Vine clips, Facebook posts and tweets over the last months.

He said Adidas' social media campaign looked geared to "give the brand more cultural relevance beyond Europe .. and help protect the brand from any ambush stunts from Nike around the World Cup."Reuters

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INTERNATIONAL BIZ 19December 19-25, 2013

Myanmar Summary


-tage of its broad global network to win more corporate customers, the company's president said.

Carlo A

llegri/Reuters

Karen Jacobs

American Airlines Group, the world's biggest airline after AMR Corp’s

merger with US Airways Group, intends to take advantage of its broad global network to win more corporate customers, the company's president said.

American Airlines par-ent AMR Corp and US Airways sealed their $18 billion merger on Monday. Shares of the car-rier are trading on Nasdaq un-der the symbol "AAL."

"We will now have a network that can get customers every-where they want to go. Because of that, we have more ability to compete for corporate cus-tomers," said Scott Kirby, the former president of US Airways who has that role at the new American.

Corporate customers can spend three times as much as leisure travelers, making them a lucrative segment for airlines. Kirby said corporate accounts could bring in "hun-dreds of millions of dollars.”

Kirby said New York was a prime example of an area where American could make corporate customer inroads and compete better with rivals such

an international network as well as domestic shuttle service for business passengers.

The combination will enable the new American Airlines to combine the former American's international route map with US Airways' shuttle service, Kirby said. "We'll now eliminate that competitive advantage and

both Delta and United compet-ing for corporate customers," Kirby added.

At its Fort Worth, Texas, headquarters, American marked the merger completion with a ceremonial bell-ringing to open trading on Nasdaq.

"American has a tremendous legacy and knows what it feels like to be the best," Chief Execu-tive Doug Parker, who had held that title at US Airways, said. "The new American is about getting that feeling back."

American Airlines, once the largest U.S. carrier, had fallen to third place behind United Con-tinental Holdings and Delta, both of which used Chapter 11 to cut costs. For years, Ameri-can's higher cost structure had put it at a disadvantage.

"In order to compete sat-

isfactorily with Delta and United, it needed the additional destinations and the addi-tional frequency that US Air will bring it," Robert Crandall, the former AMR Corp CEO who attended the Dallas event at Parker's invitation, said in an interview.

AMR declared bankruptcy in November 2011, citing high labor costs, and eventually reached cost-saving contracts with its three primary unions, including its pilots, after bitter negotiations. Parker reached agreements with American's biggest unions to secure their support for his merger pursuit.

The new American Airlines Group has annual revenue of

about $39 billion based on 2012

on both U.S. coasts and on North Atlantic routes, given American's revenue-sharing

Airways and Iberia. The new carrier has hubs in Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Washington, Philadelphia and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Reuters

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UK’s Prudential Sets ‘Aggressive’ Growth

Asia underlying free surplus cash target £900m to £1.1b

Chris Vellacott

British life insurance group Prudential laid out an “aggressive” growth plan

last week, targeting at least 10 billion pounds of cumulative cash generation by the end of 2017 driven primarily by demand from Asia’s wealthy middle classes.

In a statement ahead of pres-

entations to investors, Pruden-tial said it expected 15 percent annual pretax IFRS operating

Asian life and asset manage-ment business.

The group said it was aiming for underlying free surplus cash generation in Asia of £900 million to £1.1 billion in 2017, compared with £484 million in 2012.

“Our exposure to fast-growing sweet-spot markets, increas-ing demand for savings and protection products from a rapidly emerging and increas-ingly wealthy middle class, and our track record of execution underpin our two new 2017


mmbiztoday.comINVESTMENT & FINANCE 20

Myanmar Summary

Potential in Myanmar Oliver Slow

Malaysian exporters

milder, weaker ver-

– are looking towards Myanmar to export their products as the country opens up from decades of self-imposed isolation.

Speaking at Intrade Malaysia 2013, a trade event to promote Malaysian exports in Kuala Lumpur last month, exporters of the product said that they see opportunities within Myanmar as the country opens itself up

its citizens look to diversify the range of products they consume.

“We started to look [at ex-porting to Myanmar] about a year back,” said Christopher Tay, executive director of Bangi Kopitiam, a Malaysian company which brews its own

“Myanmar is considered the last frontier, and it is likely that many of the citizens there have not had much opportunity to be exposed to new products,” he said, adding that there is also

workers living in Malaysia, so they will likely be already exposed to Malaysian products.

varying forms – Middle Eastern countries often have their own version - the Malaysian version

a former British colonial town 200 kilometres north of Kuala Lumpur.

Located in the lush Perak state, brewers began their own version in order to make a more

at a lower temperature than the

is roasted in margarine, giving it a brown tint.

believes that it is a product that is popular across all of Asia, due to the migration of citizens across the region.

“Countries like Vietnam and Indonesia have long been tradi-

-cause of that, local people have

said. “In Malaysia, we attracted a lot of migrants from these

when they arrived here, many were often poor. While they

had to produce it using much simpler and cheaper techniques – often which involved diluting it. Over time, that technique

White Coffee originated in the town of Ipoh, which is located in the lush Perak State.

Files

has evolved and people have become more and more use

also expressed an interest in expanding their product into the Myanmar market.

“We are looking to expanding our operations across all over Asia at the moment and see par-ticular interest in exporting our product to Myanmar, where we

said Farah Ain, a representative from South Street, who produce their Kopi Putih Ipoh brand at their factory in Seremban, south of Kuala Lumpur. Ain added that while South Street was looking at expanding their operations into Myanmar, they were still looking for a distribu-

tor within the country.Representatives from Old

Ipoh also expressed an interest in exporting their products to Myanmar, although admitted that they were not ready to begin straightaway.

Tay said that in the future, he saw further opportunities to expand their business opera-tions within Myanmar. Adding diversity to their product range, Bangi Kopitiam have added

added sugar and a Durian White

particular reporter struggled very much to keep down - and

well across the region.“For Durian, you either love it

or hate it. I can see that you hate

it, but many people across Asia love it,” he said.

Insurance industry specialist Eamonn Flanagan at Shore Capital Stockbrokers said

appear pretty stretching and aggressive” but added: “To us, they are a sign of the drive and determination of the group’s management to deliver real value for shareholders.”

The insurer’s targeted £10 bil-lion of cash generation over the next four years equals a third of its overall worth on the basis of current share prices, Thiam noted.

The new goals come as the group approaches growth targets set in 2010 following a failed bid to buy Asian rival AIA.

Thiam said Prudential was on

in spite of disruption caused by

He also said that beyond 2017, the group would seek invest-ments in new markets that can emulate Asian characteristics such as young populations and an expanding middle class but are as yet untapped by the industry.

Thiam said the group was ex-ploring the possibility of setting up in Saudi Arabia and had al-ready made initial investments in Cambodia, Myanmar, Poland and Ghana.

“Our overall scale and the core skills we have developed in Asia enable us to develop new mar-kets at low opportunity cost,” Thiam said. Reuters

Myanmar Summary

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INVESTMENT & FINANCE 21December 19-25, 2013

Myanmar Summary


Protect Yourself at the ATMDavid Mayes

In today’s world we are increasingly relying on technology in new areas of

seeing ATM machines installed in more and more places, most of us are very ecstatic at how convenient it is to be able to

around stacks of hundred dollar bills.

While this is likely the begin-ning of the end of your worries that your money is now worth-less in country because you somehow accidentally allowed a small crease to form in one corner of the bill, the modern practice of skimming is now more likely to cause you a much bigger headache if you get caught unaware by this scam.

While this problem has yet to largely spread to Myanmar as far as I am aware, foreign crimi-nals have been targeting many of the other countries in the region. It is only likely a matter of time before they show up and

have not yet taken preventative measures against skimming. The skimming scammers tend

the industry here grows it is not likely to go unnoticed.

Skimming is basically a blanket term to refer to one of many ways that criminals access your bank account by copying your card data, obtain-ing your password, and then creating a fake card to drain your account by accessing vari-ous ATM machines to draw out

your money. It usually involves the crooks installing electronic devices to the ATM machine to copy the info on the card when it is inserted. Next they install a hidden camera somewhere to

the password.

help protect yourself is easy, you simply cover up the key-pad with your free hand while entering your password. This way even if they can copy your card, if they haven’t gotten the password they still cannot draw any money out.

I take things one step further because I like to make sure in the worst case scenario I am

up one bank account which is

and I only transfer about one month’s worth of discretionary spending cash into this account at a time. This way if you still manage to fall victim to skim-ming somehow, it is not your life savings they can damage.

However, I still like to have emergency access to some more cash, so I have one ATM card which I never use linked to an

cash in it. In the event you ever need to use this card, you simply call the bank as soon as possible after using it and request a pin change.

Unfortunately in today’s -

tween giving yourself conveni-ent or even emergency access to your money and opening yourself up to the new modern forms of robbery. While hav-

ing your ATM skimmed is still

the old fashioned gun in the face method criminals used to use, my guess is most of you out there would probably prefer to avoid both. With a few simple steps and forethought it is actually quite easy to protect yourself, so don’t wait until it’s too late.

David Mayes MBA provides wealth management ser-vices to expatriates throughout Southeast Asia, focusing on UK pension transfers. He can be reached at [email protected]. Faramond UK is regulated by the FCA and provides advice on taxation and pensions.

A man uses an automated teller machine (ATM) machine at a shopping centre in Yangon.

Soe Z

eya Tun/Reuters

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mmbiztoday.comINVESTMENT & FINANCE 22

Myanmar Summary

their products to the country.

File

s

Pakistan Keen for Myanmar Exports

Oliver Slow

Phave urged Myan-mar exporters to

begin looking at distrib-uting their products to the country, due to the

Representatives from the Karachi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) met with Myan-mar’s Ambassador in Pa-kistan San Myint Oo, last week to exchange views on a range of areas. The meeting was attended, on the Pakistani side, by Abdullah Zaik, KCCI

vice chairman of Busi-

A Malik, senior vice presi-dent of KCCI and other management committee members.

Speaking at the meeting, San Myint Oo highlighted the overall export and im-

port performances of My-anmar to various countries around the world, pointing out that Myanmar was currently a huge exporter of products such as rice, corns, vegetables and other edible products which can also be exported to Paki-stan. Inviting the Pakistan business community to invest in Myanmar’s grow-ing economy, he spoke of the huge potential on

population does not have access to mobile phones, an area where Pakistan is traditionally strong.

Pakistan exported $8.21 million of goods to My-anmar, an increase from $5.21 million a year pre-viously, while Pakistani import from Myanmar dropped from $570,000 in 2011-2012 to $280,000 in 2012-2013, Zaki said at

the event.“Trade balance remains

in favour of Pakistan, thus both countries need

trade volume in the com-ing years,” he said.

Zaki added that he is of the view that Myanmar and Pakistan hold sig-

potential in a number of areas that, if traded, could substantially boost bilateral trade relations.

“We believe that bolster-ing bilateral relations and economic activities could help countries speed-ily grow and prosper on a sustainable basis,” he added.

He stressed the need for an exchanging of trade delegations, individual visits for businessmen

and facilities.

Speaking at the event, Nisar urged Myanmar ex-porters to enhance their exports to Pakistan, which holds a huge middle-class

potential for Myanmar’s consumer goods.

“It is high time to explore the possibilities

which will certainly prove -

tries,” he said.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

Development Assistance (ODA) to Myanmar in June.Of the ¥51.05 billion loan, ¥20 billion is for develop-

ment of infrastructure in Thilawa SEZ and ¥14.05

stations in Yangon.With 121 companies already investing in Myanmar,

the Japanese investment in the country reached $273.42 million as of July, making it 11th in Myanmar’s foreign investment line-up.

Myanmar Summary

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INVESTMENT & FINANCE 23December 19-25, 2013

Myanmar Summary


Myanmar to Allow Foreign Banks to Begin Some Operations Next Year

Aung Hla Tun and Jared Ferrie

Myanmar will allow some foreign banks

year, a senior central bank -

east Asian country slowly opens up its banking sector following a series of economic and political reforms.

Thirty-four interna-tional banks have rep-

country, but they have thus far been forbidden from opening branches

than advising clients. Ac-cording to a decades-old plan, the government will

eventually allow them

with local banks before allowing them to open independent branches.

the central bank is now formulating a plan to speed up the process by letting a select number of foreign banks begin oper-ating in 2014 in “certain areas of banking services”,

“Since things have changed rapidly with the passage of time, we

something laid down about 20 years ago if we really want to carry out meaningful reforms,” he said, requesting anonym-ity because he was not authorised to speak to

media.-

ties have yet to decide how they would chose among the foreign banks with

which include Standard Chartered, Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group.

Foreign involvement would help reform the antiquated banking sys-tem in Myanmar, Asia’s second-poorest country after Afghanistan, which has been looking to at-tract foreign investment since a quasi-civilian

2011 after half a century of military rule.

Foreign banks could -

nomic development by providing access to much-

corporate clients, accord-ing to Khwima Nthara, a senior country economist with the World Bank.

“I do not doubt the gov-ernment appreciates the role that foreign banks can

Limited RoleNthara added that au-

thorities are right to move slowly in opening up the banking sector.

Strictly limiting the role of foreign banks could help insulate the economy

crisis that could see them withdraw capital, and it would allow the domestic sector to develop without being swallowed up by the internationals, he said.

“The question is really how best to have them in-volved so you increase availability of credit, of

local banks’ capacity is strengthened,” he said.

Zaw Lin Htut, deputy manager of Myanmar’s biggest private bank, Kanbawza Bank Ltd, said he had not yet heard of the plan to allow some foreign banks to begin operating next year, but he welcomed the idea.

“Foreign clients need funding and it’s not a small amount to invest in Myanmar,” he said. “As domestic banks, we cannot fund too many corporate customers.”

He added that domestic

learning about corporate investment from the international banks.

“Corporate clients need local banks as well,” said Zaw Lin Htut. “I’m sure we can work together in the future.”

Myanmar’s banking sector was crippled by dec-ades of mismanagement under military regimes

the global economy due to western sanctions. The European Union, Australia and other countries have lifted sanctions in response to widespread political and economic reforms.

The United States has eased sanctions and the Treasury Department is-sued a general license to Myanma Economic Bank, Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank, Asia Green Development Bank and Ayeyarwady Bank.

A general licence eases restrictions and lets the banks deal with US citizens and companies, but leaves sanctions laws on the books, giving Washington leverage should Myanmar start to backslide on reforms.

The World Bank is advising the govern-

and country manager Kanthan Shankar told Reuters in October that a draft of the new banking law would be completed by the end of this month. Reuters

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Thailand's Siam Commercial Bank's (SCB) representative branch on Kabar Aye Pagoda road in Yangon.


mmbiztoday.com

24

Fligghhtss ffroom Yanggon (RGNN) to Bangkok ((BKK) Fligghhtss ffroom Banggkok (BKKK) to Yaangon (RGN)Flight No. DDayss From To ETD ETA Operated by: Flight No. DDayss From To ETD ETA Operated by:PG 706 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN BKK 7:15 9:30 Bangkok Airways DD4230 1 3 5 7 DMK RGN 06:30 07:55 NOK AirlinesDD4231 1 3 5 7 RGN DMK 8:00 9:45 NOK Airlines 8M336 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 BKK RGN 6:40 7:25 MAIFD2752 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN DMK 8:30 10:15 Thai AirAsia FD2751 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 DMK RGN 7:15 8:00 Thai AirAsia8M335 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN BKK 8:40 10:25 MAI TG303 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 BKK RGN 8:00 8:45 Thai AirwaysTG304 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN BKK 9:50 11:45 Thai Airways PG701 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 BKK RGN 8:50 9:40 Bangkok AirwaysPG702 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN BKK 10:45 12:40 Bangkok Airways FD2755 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 DMK RGN 11:35 12:20 Thai AirAsiaY5-237 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN BKK 18:05 19:50 Golden Myanmar Airlines PG707 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 BKK RGN 13:40 14:30 Bangkok AirwaysTG302 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN BKK 14:45 16:40 Thai Airways Y5-238 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 BKK RGN 21:10 21:55 Golden Myanmar AirlinesPG703 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN BKK 15:20 17:15 Bangkok Airways FD2753 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 DMK RGN 16:35 17:20 Thai AirAsia8M331 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN BKK 16:30 18:15 MAI PG703 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 BKK RGN 16:45 17:35 Bangkok AirwaysFD2754 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN DMK 17:50 19:35 Thai AirAsia TG305 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 BKK RGN 17:55 18:40 Thai AirwaysPG704 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN BKK 18:25 20:20 Bangkok Airways 8M332 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 BKK RGN 19:20 20:05 MAITG306 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN BKK 19:40 21:35 Thai Airways PG705 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 BKK RGN 20:00 21:15 Bangkok Airways

FFligghhtss ffroomm Yangoon (RGN)) to Chiaang Maii (CNX) FFligghhtss ffroomm Chiangg Mai (CCNX) to YYangon (RGN)W9-9607 4 7 RGN CNX 14:50 16:20 Air Bagan W9-9608 4 7 CNX RGN 17:20 17:50 Air Bagan

Flligghtss ffroom Yanggon (RGNN) to Sinngapore (SIN) Flligghtss ffroom Singaapore (SIN) to Yangon ((RGN) Y5-233 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN SIN 10:10 14:40 Golden Myanmar Airlines Y5-234 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 SIN RGN 15:35 17:05 Golden Myanmar AirlinesMI509 1 6 RGN SIN 0:25 5;00 SilkAir SQ998 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 SIN RGN 7:55 9:20 Singapore Airline8M231 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN SIN 8:30 13:00 MAI 8M6231/3K585 1 3 4 5 6 SIN RGN 9:10 10:40 Jetstar AsiaSQ997 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN SIN 10:25 14:45 Singapore Airline 8M232 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 SIN RGN 14:10 15:40 MAI

8M6232/3K586 1 3 4 5 6 RGN SIN 11:30 16:05 Jetstar Asia MI518 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 SIN RGN 14:20 15:45 SilkAir8M233 5 6 7 RGN SIN 13:45 18:15 MAI 8M235 5 6 7 SIN RGN 19:15 20:45 MAITR2827 1 6 7 RGN SIN 15:10 19:35 TigerAir TR2826 1 6 7 SIN RGN 13:00 14:30 TigerAirTR2827 2 3 4 5 RGN SIN 17:10 21:35 TigerAir TR2826 2 3 4 5 SIN RGN 15:00 16:30 TigerAirMI517 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN SIN 16:40 21:15 SilkAir MI520 5 7 SIN RGN 22:10 23:35 SilkAir

FFliightts frromm Yangonn (RGN) tto Kualaa Lumpuur (KUL) Fligghtts frroomm Kuala LLumpur (KUL)too Yangonn (RGN)AK1427 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN KUL 8:30 12:50 AirAsia AK1426 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 KUL RGN 6:55 8:00 AirAsia8M501 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN KUL 8:55 12:55 MAI MH740 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 KUL RGN 10:05 11:15 Malaysia AirlinesMH741 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN KUL 12:15 16:30 Malaysia Airlines 8M502 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 KUL RGN 14:00 15:00 MAI

Fligghtts frrom Yanngon (RGGN) to HHanoi (HHAN) Fligghtts frrom Hannoi (HANN) to Yanngon (RRGN) VN956 1 3 5 6 7 RGN HAN 19:10 21:30 Vietnam Airlines VN957 1 3 5 6 7 HAN RGN 16:35 18:10 Vietnam Airlines

Flligghhtss ffroomm Yangon (RGN) to Ho CChi Minhh (SGN) Flligghhtss ffroomm Ho Chii Minh (SSGN) to Yangonn (RGN) VN942 2 4 7 RGN SGN 14:25 17:10 Vietnam Airlines VN943 2 4 7 SGN RGN 11:40 13:25 Vietnam Airlines

Flligghtss ffrom Yanngon (RGGN) to TTaipei (TTPE) Flligghtss ffrom Taipei (TPEE) to Yanngon (RGN)CI7916 1 2 3 4 5 6 RGN TPE 10:50 16:10 China Airline CI7915 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 TPE RGN 7:15 10:05 China AirlineBR288 2 5 6 RGN TPE 11:35 17:20 EVA Air BR287 2 5 6 TPE RGN 7:30 10:35 EVA Air

Flligghhtss ffroom Yanggon (RGNN) to Kunming(KMG) Flligghhtss ffroom Kunmming(KMMG) to Yangon ((RGN)CA906 2 3 4 6 7 RGN KMG 14:15 17:35 Air China CA905 2 3 4 6 7 KMG RGN 12:40 13:15 Air China

MU2032 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN KMG 14:40 17:55 China Eastern MU2031 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 KMG RGN 13:30 14:00 China EasternMU2012 3 6 RGN KMG 12:20 18:10 China Eastern (via NNG) MU2011 3 6 KMG RGN 8:25 11:30 China Eastern (via NNG)

Flligghtss from Yanngon (RGGN) to BBeijing (BJS) Flligghtss from Beijjing (BJSS) to Yanngon (RRGN)CA906 2 3 4 6 7 RGN BJS 14:15 21:55 Air China (via KMG) CA905 2 3 4 6 7 BJS RGN 8:05 13:15 Air China (via KMG)

Fligghhtss ffroom Yanggon (RGNN) to Naanning (NNG) Fligghhtss ffroom Nannning (NNNG) to Yaangon ((RGN)Flight No. DDayss From To ETD ETA Operated by: Flight No. DDayss From To ETD ETA Operated by:MU2012 3 6 RGN NNG 12:20 16:25 China Eastern MU2011 3 6 NNG RGN 10:15 11:30 China Eastern

FFligghhtss ffroomm Yangoon (RGN)) to Honng Kong (HKG) HHonngg KKoong (HKG) Flights from Yaangon ((RGN) KA251 1 2 4 6 RGN HKG 1:10 5:35 Dragon Air KA250 1 3 5 7 HKG RGN 21:50 23:45 Dragon Air

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FFlighhts ffroom Yanggon (RGN) to Koolkata (CCCU) FFlighhts ffroom Kolkkata (CCUU) to Yaangon (RRGN) Flight No. DDayss From To ETD ETA Operated by: Flight No. DDayss From To ETD ETA Operated by:

AI228 5 RGN CCU 18:45 19:45 Air India AI227 1 5 CCU RGN 10:35 13:20 Air IndiaAI234 1 5 RGN CCU 13:40 16:55 Air India (via GAY) AI233 5 CCU RGN 13:30 18:00 Air India (via GAY)

Fligghhtss ffrom Yanngon (RGGN) to GGaya (GAAY) Fligghhtss ffrom Gayya (GAY) to Yanngon (RGGN) 8M 601 1 3 5 6 RGN GAY 10:30 11:50 MAI 8M 602 1 3 5 6 GAY RGN 12:50 16:00 MAIAI234 1 5 RGN GAY 13:40 15:00 Air India AI233 5 GAY RGN 15:00 18:00 Air India

Fligghtts frrom Yanngon (RGGN) to TTokyo (NNRT) FFliightts frrom Tokkyo (NRTT) to Yaangon (RRGN)NH914 1 3 6 RGN NRT 22:00 06:40+1 ALL NIPPON Airways NH913 1 3 6 NRT RGN 11:10 17:05 ALL NIPPON Airways

FFligghhtss ffrom Yanngon (RGGN) to SSeoul (ICCN) FFligghhtss ffrom Seooul (ICN)) to Yanngon (RGGN)KE472 1 3 5 7 RGN ICN 0:05 8:00 Korean Air KE471 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ICN RGN 18:40 22:55 Korean Air

OZ7463 4 7 RGN ICN 0:50 8:50 Asiana OZ4753 3 6 ICN RGN 19:30 23:40 Asiana

Flligghtss ffrom Yanngon (RGGN) to DDoha (DOOH) Flightts frrom Dohha (DOH) to Yangon (RRGN)QR619 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN DOH 8:00 11:45 Qatar Airways QR618 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 DOH RGN 21:05 06:29+1 Qatar Airways

Flligghhtss ffroomm Yangon (RGN) to Nay Pyi Taww (NYT) Flligghhtss ffroomm Nay Pyyi Taw (NNYT) to Yangonn (RGN)Flight No. DDayss From To ETD ETA Operated by: Flight No. DDayss From To ETD ETA Operated by:FMI-A1 1 2 3 4 5 RGN NYT 7:30 8:30 FMI Air Charter FMI-A2 1 2 3 4 5 NYT RGN 8:50 9:50 FMI Air CharterFMI-B1 1 2 3 4 5 RGN NYT 13:00 14:00 FMI Air Charter FMI-B2 1 2 3 4 5 NYT RGN 14:20 15:20 FMI Air CharterFMI-C1 1 2 3 4 5 RGN NYT 16:30 17:30 FMI Air Charter FMI-C2 1 2 3 4 5 NYT RGN 18:00 19:00 FMI Air CharterFMI-A1 6 RGN NYT 8:00 9:00 FMI Air Charter FMI-A2 6 NYT RGN 10:00 11:00 FMI Air CharterFMI-A1 7 RGN NYT 15:30 16:30 FMI Air Charter FMI-A2 7 NYT RGN 17:00 18:00 FMI Air Charter6T211 1 7 RGN NYT 15:30 16:25 Air Mandalay 6T212 1 7 NYT RGN 16:45 17:40 Air Mandalay

FFliightts frrom Yangoon (RGN) to Manndalay ((MDY) FFliightts frrom Manddalay (MDDY) to YYangon (RGN)Y5-234 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN MDY 6:15 7:30 Golden Myanmar Airlines Y5-233 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 MDY RGN 8:10 9:25 Golden Myanmar AirlinesYH 909 2 4 6 7 RGN MDY 6:30 8:10 Yangon Airways YH 910 1 3 MDY RGN 7:40 10:30 Yangon AirwaysYH 917 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN MDY 6:10 8:30 Yangon Airways YH 918 1 2 3 4 6 7 MDY RGN 8:30 10:25 Yangon AirwaysYH 727 1 5 RGN MDY 11:15 13:25 Yangon Airways YH 728 1 5 MDY RGN 9:10 11:05 Yangon AirwaysYH 731 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN MDY 15:00 17:10 Yangon Airways YH 732 1 2 3 4 5 6 MDY RGN 17:10 19:15 Yangon AirwaysW9 501 1 2 3 4 RGN MDY 6:00 7:25 Air Bagan W9 502 1 2 3 4 MDY RGN 16:10 18:15 Air BaganK7 222 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN MDY 6:30 8:40 Air KBZ K7 223 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 MDY RGN 9:00 11:05 Air KBZYJ 201 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 RGN MDY 11:30 12:55 Asian Wings YJ 202 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 MDY RGN 16:00 17:25 Asian Wings

Days - (1) Monday (2) TTueesdaay (33) WWeddnessdaay (4) Thursdayy (5) Friday (6) SSaturday (7) Suunday Days - (1) Monday (2) TTueesdaay (33) WWeddnessdaay (4) Thursdayy (5) Friday (6) SSaturday (7) Suunday

PROPERTY & REAL ESTATE 25December 19-25, 2013


Myanmar Summary

File

s

Accor Inks JV Deal for Three Myanmar HotelsOliver Slow

Hotel group Accor has signed an agreement with

local company Myat Min Co to develop three new hotels in Myanmar.

The hotels will be located in Yangon and Inle Lake, Shan state and will be named Pullman Yangon Myat Min, The Sebel Yangon Myar Min and Novotel Inle Lake Myat Min, according to industry reports, which will bring Accor’s devel-opment within Myanmar

next three years. “Accor is proud to an-

nounce the signing of three hotels with our new partners, Myat Min Co Ltd, making this one of the largest hos-pitality partnerships in Myanmar,” said Patrick Basset, Accor’s Senior Vice President for Asia

has long been a strategic market for Accor, and as Myanmar’s tourism industry develops, we see

-

tential in this country as well. With this milestone, we have announced a

in Myanmar and we look forward to helping to fur-ther develop the country’s tourism infrastructure in the years to come,” he added.

Phyo Hla Wai, manag-ing director of Myat Min Co Ltd, said, “We are excited to partner with Accor, one of the world’s leading hotel operators. This partnership will un-questionably enhance the capability to drive more business into the hotels from this international market through their strong distribution chan-nel and renowned hotel brands. We are excited about the opportunities that this partnership presents for both our companies.”

The Pullman Yangon

Pullman-brand hotel in the country. Expected for completion by 2015, it will house 300 rooms as well as a host of other facilies including a swimming

Shangri-La Group to Open Second Yangon HotelSu Su

Shangri-La Inter-national Hotel Management Ltd,

who operate the centrally-located Traders Hotel in Yangon, will open its in second hotel in the city in 2017.

Located on the banks of Kandawgyi Lake, the 350-

room Lakeside Shangri-La Yangon, will be located near the Shangri-La Resi-dences that have recently been opened, and are also operated by the group.

Speaking at the of-

ceremony for the new hotel development on December 8, Greg Dogan, Shangri-La president and

pool and spa facilities. The Sebel Yangon Myat

Min will be serviced apart-ments with 100 rooms, aimed at guests staying in the city for longer stays.

The Novotel Inle Lake Myat Min will be an upper-midscale hotel with 121 rooms, located on the banks of Inle Lake, one of the country’s most popular tourist destina-tions. It is scheduled to open in 2014.

Accor is one of the world’s leading hotel operators and is present in 92 countries with nearly 3,600 hotels and 460,000 rooms. It’s brand portfolio

MGallery, Grand Mercure, Novotel, Mercure and Ibis.

Myanmar Summarysaid, “The steady increase of domestic and foreign investment in Myanmar’s economic capital makes Yangon an important commercial centre. Along with the city’s period buildings, traditional ar-chitecture and historic charms, it’s easy to see the multi-faceted at-

tractions of Yangon. We look forward to further contributing to the city’s tourism and welcoming visitors with Shangri-La’s hospitality from the heart.”

The development will also include three restau-rants, two bars, meetings

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mmbiztoday.com

26PROPERTY & REAL ESTATE

and convention space, a health club and an outdoor swimming pool. Guests will also have ac-

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Savills' Indochina and Myanmar branch will be headquartered in Vietnam.

Oliver Slow

Global real estate

announced further expansion of its Southeast Asia operations with the establishment of its new Indochina and Myanmar Real Estate Consulting Practice.

Headquartered in Vietnam, Savills’ new op-eration will operate within Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, with Myanmar be-ing a particular place of interest due to the ongoing economic reforms that are taking place in the country.

“I am delighted to an-nounce Savills’ increased involvement in the Myan-mar and Indochina mar-kets,” said Chris Marriott, CEO of Savills South East Asia. “This is a continua-tion of our vision to build strength into the ASEAN region as a precursor to the establishment of the new economic commu-nity [ASEAN Economic Community, a Southeast Asia-wide economic bloc that will begin operations

File

s

in 2015].”According to a release

from Savills, their My-anmar operations have seen outstanding per-formances over the past

rent rise of 80 percent, 5-star hotel room rate rise of 70 percent, a 50 percent growth in service apartment rents and a

rents.“There has been an

rewards from early entry

Myanmar Summary

cess to the 44.5-hectare Kandawgyi Nature Park and the Yangon Zoologi-cal Gardnens, both which surround the lake.

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into Myanmar and Indo-china and our extensive emerging markets experi-ence, and boots-on-the-ground gives us and our clients an edge over other more desktop drive advi-

deputy managing director of Savills Vietnam.

With interest in Myan-mar increasing so rapidly, Marriott said that he is expecting Savills to play

markets.

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Savills South East Asia rS

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IT & TELECOM 27December 19-25, 2013

Myanmar Summary


to Become EntrepreneursShein Thu Aung

Ooredoo are teaming up with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women

to develop a franchise model that will enable 30,000 women in Myanmar to become entre-preneurs by selling prepaid Ooredoo airtime within their communities.

The programme will equip women with a business kits that will contain a mobile phone, promotional materials and an operating manual. The women will also receive hands-on training on how to run their business.

“Across our footprint, we seek to partner with grassroots or-ganisations and NGOs to deliver on-the-ground support that will empower women,” said Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani, chairman, Oore-doo. “As we begin operating in Myanmar, we’re looking to create tens of thousands of new

particular focus on engaging women microentrepreneurs.”

According to research con-

ducted by the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, women

-cant value to the operations of mobile companies, selling products such as SIM cards and mobile airtime.

According to a statement from Ooredoo to announce the

programme, the women mobile -

tional income and can reinvest

families and communities. Oth-er advantages include the need for less start-up capital as well as being generally more trusted by other women, meaning they

can reach a wider cross-section of society.

Ooredoo, one of two inter-national companies that won international telecommunica-tions licences in June, also recently announced that it has recently began operating out of a new location at Yangon’s MICT Park in Hlaing township.

Speaking at the venue’s open-ing ceremony, Ross Cormack, CEO of Ooredoo Myanmar said, “We are committed to working closely with Myanmar Infor-mation and Communication Technology community, the ministry and the government as it institutes a legislative framework for the telecom-munications industry that is aligned with international and GSM standards. We continue to work alongside the appropriate regulatory authorities as we advance towards the next stage in this process.”

Ooredoo said it will train 30,000 women as Ooredoo mobile retail agents in Myanmar.

Soe

Zey

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rs

Twitter Users Revolt Over

Behaviour PolicyGerry Shih

Ttime as a public company after it tweaked its “block” function last week, prompting an outcry

from those who said the new policy empowered perpe-trators of online abuse.

Users could previously prevent their harassers from following them or interacting with their tweets. Under the new rules, a blocked user can view or tweet at the person who blocked him or her, but that activity will

account did not exist.Twitter said Thursday last week that the change was

meant to protect victims of harassment who wanted to

blocking a user would prompt retaliation.Responding to a wave of criticism, Chief Executive

Dick Costolo said on Twitter that the new features were widely requested by victims of abuse. Reuters

Myanmar Summary

Ooredoo onf Cherie Blair Foundation for Women Foundation

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mmbiztoday.com

28IT & TELECOM

Myanmar Summary

Chinese censors, Indian policies lead to offshore data centres; Taiwan, Singapore beat out Hong Kong due to space constraints

Clare Jim

Google Inc opened its

Asia last week to cater to the world’s fastest growing consumer technology markets, but the company has no plans to open one in China or India.

Choosing Taiwan and Sin-gapore instead illustrates the problem that tech companies face in trying to feed data demand in the world’s two most populous countries: With

cyberspace censorship in China, Google had to look next door.

-

likely rise 68 percent in 2014, well ahead of the global growth rate of 48 percent and the fast-est growing region in the world, according to Analysys Mason, a research consultancy. Tech companies normally try to keep data centres as close to the cus-tomer base as possible because distance hurts speed.

“While we’ve been busy building, the growth in Asia’s internet has been amazing. The number of internet users in India doubled, from 100 million to 200 million. It took six years to achieve that milestone in the US,” Google’s vice president of data centres, Joe Kava, said in a statement.

“And this growth probably won’t slow for some time, since

yet to come online also happen to live in Asia,” he said.

Kava said the cost of building the centres was one considera-tion for locating in Taiwan, but things like data privacy policies, a highly trained workforce and network infrastructure were equally important.

“It’s no secret that the Taiwan-ese ecosystem for technology companies is outstanding,” he told reporters. “Being close to the technology companies will give us opportunity to further some of our partnerships” in Taiwan.

The importance of a country’s data policies was highlighted by the way Google opened its centres in Taiwan and Singa-pore and its decision to double spending in Taiwan to $600 million compared to $120 mil-lion in Singapore.

While Google brought out executives and media to cel-ebrate its Taiwan opening, the Singapore launch received no such fanfare.

The company has expressed concern over a Singapore regu-lation announced in May that requires certain websites that regularly report on Singapore to be licensed, put up a S$50,000 ($40,000) performance bond and take down within 24 hours any content that authorities

Singaporean opinion news site

shut down this week as a result, saying the “demand to register has created a wrinkle in our barely formed plans to become

a sustainable and professional

Google also announced it abandoned plans to build a third data centre in Hong Kong, citing primarily a lack of land.

Serving 2.5 billionTaiwan, Hong Kong and

Singapore are all popular with global tech companies because they boast well-established privacy laws, reliable power

-ture, and skilled workforces, all essential to operating data centres.

Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp are also building data centres in Asia in Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo. But the real appeal is the giant number of internet users in China and India.

Google left mainland China in 2010 after a cyber attack and Ex-ecutive Chairman Eric Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal last month that the company is in no hurry to return.

“China’s censorship regime

since we left so something would have to change before we come back,” he said.

That left an opening for China’s Baidu Inc to further dominate the search engine market with a 66 percent share this year, according to web analytical tool StatCounter, and another local rival, 360 Search,

to emerge, grabbing 21 percent. Google’s share dropped to 9 percent from 41 percent in 2009 before its exit China.

“The regulatory environment in China is designed in a way to nurture local service providers such as Alibaba, so it makes it harder for foreign companies to enter the market,” tech re-searcher IDC analyst Leon Kao, who is based in Taipei, said.

“But adding service support in Asia such as Hong Kong still in-

For example, Amazon is able to deliver goods in a much shorter time now if there’s a sudden surge in orders.”

In India, Google dominates 97 percent share of the search engine market, data from Stat-Counter showed.

“In India, the challenge is mostly the cost of infrastructure and the ability of building infra-structure”, said RadhaKrishna Hiremane, Intel Corp’s Asia-

-keting manager of data centre business, based in Singapore.

He said putting an India-fo-cused data centre in Singapore may not cost more, but it could

“What matters is latency. At the end of the day, if a service provider is able to provide acceptable latency for the end customers by serving from out-side the region and there’s no

A google data centre.

Connie Z

hou

“The number of internet users in India

doubled, from 100 million to 200 million.

It took six years to achieve that

milestone in the US.”

data sovereignty, then there’s not anything in the APEC coun-tries we know would be an issue right now.” Reuters

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AUTOMOBILE 29December 19-25, 2013

Myanmar Summary


LHD Autos to Run on the Roads From 2014Htet Aung

Myanmar will see im-ported left hand drive (LHD) automobiles on

its roads starting from January 2014, auto traders say.

saloon cars below 1,000cc – which are currently used by government employees – will be sold for K6.5 million ($6,600) with options of settling the pay-

ment in installments. As a former British colony,

cars in Myanmar had right hand steering and drove on the left side of the road until 1970,

right overnight. Under either LHD or right

hand drive (RHD), the driver’s side of oncoming vehicles passes each other, thereby miti-gating the chances of a head-on collision. In Myanmar, it is still

a hybrid of the two sets. The vehicles are right-hand drive,

right side of the road.There are two commonly held

theories, both of which point to the eccentricities of former dictator General Ne Win. One is that Ne Win’s wife’s astrologer said that the country would be

side of the road. The second is that the General had a dream that the country should switch directions. Either way, the military administration of Ne

drive on the right hand side of the road beginning 7 December 1970.

Despite the change, most pas-senger vehicles in the country continue to be RHD, being pre-conversion vehicles and second-hand vehicles imported from Japan, Thailand, and Singapore. Buses imported from Japan that were never converted from RHD to LHD have doors on the right side

counterparts in the Philippines.

town Yangon also point to the wrong direction.

Most vehicles are driven with a passenger called a “spare” in place to watch the oncoming

to whether it is safe to overtake or not, as the driver cannot see this from the RHD position.

However, government limou-sines, imported from China, are LHD.

“LHD cars will be available from the beginning of next year.

for people we are arranging to sell the cars for K6 million ($6,100) each, or K6.5 million if customers buy with install-ments,” U Khin Kyaing, an automobile dealer said.

He said importing smaller cars will also help dealers curb import costs.

able international standard automobiles. The longer the government’s ‘replace old with new’ system will go on, the more new foreign cars we will be able to import,” he said.

Myanmar Summary

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Chevrolet cars at an auto show.

Denis B

alibouse/Reuters

Launches corporate social responsibility campaign

Shein Thu Aung

Chevrolet, a division of American automaker General Motors (GM),

has opened a brand experience centre in Yangon and launched a three-tier corporate social responsibility campaign last week as part of what the com-pany billed as “its unique entry strategy in its newest market”.

Chevrolet earlier announced that it would enter Myanmar

Myanmar Ltd as their exclusive distributor.

plan to establish a distribution network that will begin selling a range of Chevrolet vehicles in January 2014.

The centre is located at the corner of Hledan and Insein road, Kamaryut township, Yangon.

Gustavo Colossi, vice presi-dent of sales, marketing and af-tersales for GM Southeast Asia Operations, said: “Chevrolet is rapidly expanding its presence across the region, including Laos, Cambodia and now My-anmar. With growing demand for personal transportation,

tunity for our popular lineup of Chevrolet cars and trucks.”

Matthew Toh, chairman of Pa-

“We have a comprehensive plan that will enable Chevrolet to be properly represented in the lo-cal market.”

Chevrolet said its sales, service and spare parts (3S)

cities across Myanmar soon. A Chevrolet 3S centre hous-

ing the Chevrolet Technical Training Academy, which will educate 3S centre employees, is under construction in Yangon, it said.

Colossi said, “The people of Myanmar will appreciate the same high-quality products and services as other Chevrolet cus-tomers around the world, such as a mileage-based warranty of up to 100,000 kilometers.”

Chevrolet said through its One-World Futbol (OWF)

three-tier CSR campaign, it is delivering 5,000 virtually inde-structible footballs to disadvan-taged youth across Myanmar over a six-month period.

In addition, the Chevy Cares program will deliver two Chev-rolet vehicles to a selected non-governmental organisation for a period of six months to help it expand its delivery of services to more people over a larger geographic area, the company said.

In the third tier of the cam-paign, which is focused on edu-cation and training, Chevrolet and its partners will donate engines and technical parts to mechanical training colleges in Myanmar to provide practical hands-on training using up-to-date technologies.

“CSR activities allow us to help empower individuals and communities in ways beyond what our vehicles can do,” said Akshay Jaising, Chevrolet sales

director for export and South-east Asia distributor operations.

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing busi-ness in more than 140 countries and selling more than 4.5 mil-lion cars and trucks a year.

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mmbiztoday.comCLASSIFIEDS 30

SOCIAL SCENES 31December 19-25, 2013


SCG Sharing the Dream Myanmar 2013 in Mon State

Chana Poomee, country director, SCG Myanmar, gives a speech at the SCG Sharing the Dream ceremony held at The Strand Mawlamyine Hotel. SCG Myanmar

U Ohm Myint, chief minister, Mon state, presents a certificate to a student during the SCG Sharing the Dream ceremony held in Mawlamyine. As part of this year’s SCG Sharing the Dream program, 100 students from various townships in Mon state were selected to receive funding of up to K200,000 (approximately $206) each which will help cover school fees for an academic year as well as school supplies. SCG Myanmar

U Ohm Myint, chief minister, Mon state (centre, in white) and Chana Poomee, country director, SCG Myanmar (centre, in black), with ministers of the Mon State Regional Government and students from Mon state who received SCG Sharing the Dream 2013 scholarships at a ceremony. SCG Myanmar

Bowon Vongsinudom, president and CEO of PTTGC, with Chrisna Dama-yanto, refinery director of PT Pertamina (Persero), the Indonesia national oil company along with executives from both companies, entering into a manufacturing JV to pursue the final investment decision of a petrochemical complex in Indonesia. PTTGC

"Breaking Barriers to Business Growth: A Forum for Local SMEs" hosted by Building Markets

U Nay Aung, founder of Oway Travel, speaks on stage. BM Project Manager of Building Markets Emmanuel Maillard speaks during the event. BM Daw Aye Aye Win, director of Yangon SME Development Centre, gives her speech. BM

Rita Nguyen, founder of Squar, speaks during the event. BMIrina Sheffman, project manager of German development com-pany GIZ, speaks with an attendee. BM

(L to R) Vicky Bowman, director of Myanmar Centre for Re-sponsible Business, Swe Zin Thet, HR Manager at DKSH, Win Ei Khine, director of Maple Trading Co, and Daw Win Win Tint, managing director, CityMart. BM

(L to R) Daw Win Win Tint, Win Ei Khine, Professor Tun Aung from Yangon Insitute of Economics, U Zaw Myo Hlaing, country director of Unilever Myanmar, Swe Zin Thet and Vicky Bowman discuss on stage at the event. BM

Phillip Couvaras (R), general manager of Traders Hotel, speaks at the event. Model Htar Htet Htet is also seen. Kyaw Min

Witchaya Sil-udom (R) from Thai Airways at the event. Kyaw Min The Christmas tree at the ceremony. Kyaw Min

A choir performance. Kyaw Min Children receive gifts. Kyaw MinModel Htar Htet Htet gives gifts to kids. Kyaw Min

Christmas Lighting Ceremony 2013 @ Traders Hotel PTTGC JV Signing Ceremony


mmbiztoday.com

32ENTERTAINMENT

Event Calendar

Friday 20th DecemberStrand Happy Hour Drinks

Friday Night Bike Ride- Contact Jeff at [email protected] or 09 5134190. Bike

hire available.

Saturday 21st DecemberRehab Party – House party at Yangon’s

newest club, Flamingo Bar, located at Yan-gon International Hotel.

Hash House Harriers – ‘a drinking club with a running problem’. 2.45pm University Avenue Road (opposite Yangon University)

Sunday 22nd December Australian Club Barbecue – Cook your

own meat. Starts at 5.30pmSunday Morning Bike Ride - Contact Jeff at [email protected] or 09 5134190. Bike

hire available.

Monday 23rd DecemberMonday Night Meditation – 7.15 to 9 at

53A Golden Valley Road

Tuesday 24th December Pansodan Gallery – mingle and drinks

The event aimed at show-casing Myanmar to the world, or at least South-

east Asia, got underway on De-cember 13, with a three-hour, no-expenses-spared ceremony.

Hosted at the purpose-built 30,000-seat Wunna Theikdi Stadium in Nay Pyi Taw, the Chinese-backed extravaganza

displays, traditional dances and performances from Myanmar pop stars.

The 22-day SEA Games, for

SEA Games Open with 3-Hour Extravaganza

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A performer prepares to shoot an arrow to light the torch symbolizing the start of the 27th SEA Games during its opening ceremony in Nay Pyi Taw.

Myanmar traditional dancers perform during the opening ceremony of the 27th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Nay Pyi Taw.

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which events got underway at the beginning of December, features Olympic sports like athletics alongside more tra-ditional Myanmar endeavours such as Chinlone – for which

medals, in the male and female competitions – and has, so far, received generally positive responses.

At the time of print, Myanmar leads the way in the medals table – although this is helped by the fact that some sports in the games are barely played by other countries competing in

the event – and the organisa-tion of individual events has largely gone according to plan.

However, some criticism has been levied at the city hosting the event. Nay Pyi Taw, what some described as a “Dicta-

purpose-built by the previous military regime and opened in

in the city for the games have complained about having to travel long distances to events and little to do in terms of nighttime activities.

Few of the region’s sport-ing stars have travelled to the event, too. The world’s best badminton players are cur-rently taking part in the Super-series Finals in Malaysia, while several countries decided not to send top sportspeople due to traditional sports such as tennis and gymnastics being scraped in favour of obscure sports such as chinlone and wushu.

“For 44 years, we have not had the SEA Games,” said Onh Myint Oo, director general of Sports told AFP. “Now we are open for business. It’s the right time to have the Games.”

Myanmar Business Today - Vol 1, Issue 46

News & Politics

Transcript of Myanmar Business Today - Vol 1, Issue 46