ข่าวเศรษฐกิจและธุรกิจประจำสัปดาห์

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  Yangon government authorities should focus on fixing the existing problems before launching new projects to manage the impact of growth

  As Yangon’s status as business and logistics hub of Myanmar grows, the regional government, expecting an influx of people and foreign direct investments, has unveiled grand plans to modernise and expand the city. Yet, many of the projects announced have been criticised for being poorly executed and lacking in contingency planning. Despite being allocated the lion’s share of the Union budget for development - K278 billion in 2017-18 - issues such as power outages, lack of affordable homes, traffic congestion and a shortage of basic transport infrastructure remain. As such, the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) should focus on fixing the existing problems before launching new projects. Since coming to power in 2016, U Phyo Min Thein, Chief Minister of Yangon, has launched a slew of new projects intended to meet the needs of investors and create jobs for the locals. Since January, these have included a new industrial zone, an elevated ring road and an entire city slated for development across 1,500 sq km of land - twice the size of Singapore - located west of Yangon.
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  Australian energy firm Woodside continues negotiations on financial terms with the government and targets first gas in 2023 from gas reserves in the A-6 block

  YANGON — Australian energy firm Woodside has unveiled plans to develop gas reserves in the A-6 block by connecting the field to the Yadana project and said it is aiming to bring the field online by 2023. The proposed Yadana tieback would include a 230-kilometre pipeline linking a production platform in A-6 with the Yadana platform, which would give the development access to both the Myanmar and Thai markets. But chief executive officer Mr Peter Coleman also said at an investor briefing on May 23 that it was still not certain the project would be commercially viable. The company is understood to be negotiating financial terms with the government, while also conducting exploration and appraisal drilling in A-6 and nearby blocks to better gauge the size of reserves. “We’ll know really pretty much by the end of the year whether we can reach the commerciality threshold,” he said. “We’re close with our Myanmar southern hub concept but we’re not there just yet so we’ll be drilling a combination of appraisal and exploration wells there [this year] ... to get it across the commerciality threshold.”
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  Consultation on draft EIA guidelines for mining sector begins: comments are invited before June 15, 2018

  Comments are invited on the two draft documents intended to guide those undertaking Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), Initial Environment Examinations (IEE) and Environmental Management Plans (EMP) for the mining sector, including gemstones and jade, before June 15. This serves as part of efforts from the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MRCB) to follow up the Mining Sector Wide Impact Assessment (SWIA), which identified environmental and social safeguards and an effective EIA system as fundamental to ensuring better mining practices in Myanmar. The Mining SWIA, developed by MCRB and Danish Institute of Human Rights (DIHR), is intended to encourage a switch to responsible mining in the country. This sector-wide impact assessment (SWIA) on limestone, gold and tin mining in Myanmar analyses the impacts of mining of these commodities on the environment, local communities and workers, looking at both the formal and informal parts of the sector.
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  Food and Hotel Myanmar Trade Fair 2018 will be held in Yangon during 6-8 June and will focus on the food, hospitality, retail, and bakery sectors

  Food & Hotel Myanmar 2018, an international exhibition for food and hospitality products, is returning for its fifth year to Yangon on June 6-8 at MEP at Mindama Yangon. The event will present products and services from more than 200 leading suppliers and manufacturers coming from 20 countries. In addition, there are also four international pavilions from South Korea, Singapore, Turkey, and the US. In an interview with The Myanmar Times, Fraser Hawkes, general manager of UBM Myanmar which organises the exhibition, told The Myanmar Times that he expects more than 7,500 visitors from the food and hospitality sectors to attend the event. “Food and Hotel Myanmar is focused as a B2B trade exhibition, and it’s for the food, hospitality, retail, and bakery sectors. These industries are obviously growing a lot, not only in Yangon but also throughout the rest of Myanmar linked heavily with tourism but also general consumption and the changing needs of consumers,” Mr Hawkes said. “We’ll also see food service equipment – everything from combi-steamers to ovens, to dishes and cutlery, as well as technology for POS systems,” he went on. Eventually in Myanmar, small and medium restaurants, cafes and tea shops will stop using pan and they will start moving to more technology integrated into their business.
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  Myanmar needs a modern banking system that allows business borrowers to use movable assets as collateral to increase access to finance and develop Myanmar’s credit market

  A secured transactions reform will help develop Myanmar’s credit market, and subsequently drive the nation’s economy by creating jobs and giving SMEs increased access to finance. SMALL AND MEDIUM enterprises play a central role in Myanmar’s economy, contributing to job creation and gross domestic product. About 90 percent of businesses are considered SMEs. Yet, this sector is in urgent need of financing to grow and create more employment opportunities. This lack of financing affects Myanmar’s key sub-sectors including manufacturing, retail, and services. When the World Bank Group conducted its Myanmar Enterprise Survey 2014, almost 23 percent of small, medium, and large firms listed access to finance as the top constraint. This can be attributed to the fact that most SMEs in Myanmar do not have immovable collaterals – land and buildings – that are acceptable to lenders.
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  Myanmar Rice Federation and International Finance Corporation (IFC) signed a contract to promote Myanmar’s rice sector through the cultivation of high quality rice and enhance the living standards of the local farmers

  To promote Myanmar’s rice sector through the cultivation of high quality rice and enhance the living standards of the local farmers, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) signed a contract at the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) office on 29 May 2018. “We welcome the friendship with IFC. MRF is planning to export some 4 million metric tonnes of rice and broken rice in the 2020-2021 fiscal year. Rice is the chief export product in Myanmar’s national export strategy, Therefore, the cooperation between MRF and IFC will be effective, said U Chit Khine, chairman of MRF.
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  All industrial zone committees in Yangon will be restructured to create a zone supervising committee to provide one stop service for investors (Daw Nilar Kyaw, Regional Minister of Electricity, Industry and Transport)

  All industrial zone committees in the Yangon Region will be restructured, according to Daw Nilar Kyaw the Regional Minister for Electricity, Industry and Transportation. She was responding to the question of U Kyaw Kyaw Mg, Member of Regional Parliament from No. 2 Constituency of Dagon Myothit (East), at Yangon Regional Parliament’s regular meeting held at May 16. U Kyaw Kyaw Mg questioned the regional government on whether it has plans to reorganized the industrial zone committees in Dagon Myothit (East). “In reorganizing the zone committees, we have plans to create a zone supervising committee to provide one stop service for investors. The zone supervising committee will have oversight over the 29 industrial zones. Some of the individual zone committees were in the process of restructuring themselves, therefore, we are suspending that restructuring,’’ she said. Surprisingly, there are 29 industrial zones in the Yangon Region, and yet, no industrial zone laws have been put into place, according to the minister. Furthermore, the zones are lacking in infrastructure, for instance: uncoordinated water treatment, drainage systems, waste disposal, and electrification, she added.
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  President U Win Myint will select a replacement for the Myanmar Central Bank Governor with the consent of the Pyidaungsu Hlattaw, with two months left until the end of Central Bank Governor, U Kyaw Kyaw Maung’s term

  With barely two months left until the end of Central Bank Governor U Kyaw Kyaw Maung’s term, Frontier examines the field of potential replacements — if the incumbent isn’t given a second term. THE FIVE-YEAR term of Myanmar’s Central Bank governor will end on July 31 and in the coming months President U Win Myint will select a replacement, with the consent of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw. The decision will be watched closely because the governor wields great power over the financial sector and, by extension, the entire socio-economy. The Central Bank of today is unrecognisable from when U Kyaw Kyaw Maung was appointed in 2013. Then, it was a department in the finance ministry whose primary function was to print money to fund the budget deficit. When President U Thein Sein signed its independence into law that July, skeptics said it was just a gesture. They were wrong: it has become a strong and (mostly) independent institution.
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  Myanmar Petroleum Trade Association (MPTA) urges the government to strictly enforce the recently enacted petroleum and petroleum products laws and regulation

  Myanmar Petroleum Trade Association (MPTA) secretary U Win Myint has expressed the need for the government to strictly enforce the recently enacted petroleum and petroleum products law in light of the widespread practice of retailers selling a mixture of imported and local fuel. Dr Myint stated the practice was tarnishing stations which adhere to the law and sell the correct quality fuel. The Petroleum and Petroleum Products Law was signed and enacted by then-President U Htin Kyaw on August 1, 2017. It contains provisions on the importation, exportation, transportation, storage and the entire supply chain. “Some stations sell the fuel after being mixed with local products. Due to some greedy businessmen, the others cannot compete with them in prices and all as the group are being criticised for poor quality. So, we are calling for enforcement of the enacted law,” Dr. Win Myint said. Dr Myint said retailers had been instructed to add a pigment or colour to local petroleum products, so consumers could distinguish between petroleum products and imported ones, but this is not enforced in reality.
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  Diebold Nixdorf recommends a strategic, multi-layer approach in protecting Myanmar’s financial institutions

  In its “Global ATM Market and Forecasts to 2022” report released in September 2017, the London-based consulting firm RBR pointed out Myanmar as the country owning the fastest growth of ATMs in the world over the next five years. The expansion, according to the firm’s finding, was primarily led by economic reform. Although Myanmar currently has one of the lowest ratios of ATMs per one million in population among all ASEAN countries, the report expects that, along with expansion in banking services, ATM deployments are predicted to double to 6,000 in Myanmar by 2022. Despite that being great news, with added numbers of ATMs comes additional risks. There have been reports of security breaches affecting ATMs – abroad and domestically in Myanmar – namely fraud attempts such as skimming, malware, and data security attacks. An April 2017 report by Symantec showed how ransomware attacks around the world have increased by more than 36 percent during the period from 2015 to 2016, with 463,841 cases detected in a single year.