Zone 'A' of Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) opens

The Grand Opening Ceremony of the phase one of Thilawa Special Economic Zone was held Wednesday at the zone which is 20 kilometers from the commercial city Yangon. The opening ceremony was attended by Vice President U NyanTun and the deputy prime minister of Japan Taro Aso and other officials from both countries. 

Thilawa SEZ was originated from the meeting between the President U TheinSein and Japanese Prime Minister at the 4th Mekong-Japan Meeting in 2012. It covers an area of 2,400 hectors and includes 3 zones. The construction of Zone A started in late 2013 and finished in August 2015, and it includes 35 hectors of residential and commercial area. A total of 48 companies from 13 countries have reserved more than 60 percent of the SEZ. 

Chairman ,Thilawa Special Economic Zone Management Committee , SattAung : “So out of these investors, we’ve got free zone investors and promotion zone investors. Free zone investors are really export-oriented companies, so they are major international companies coming here. And then they are 100 percent exporting their products. So that’s gonna be beneficial for the country in terms of export, and at the same time, promotion zone investors are relying on domestic markets. So we are going to have a lot of significant import substitution effects in the country, but at the same time, all these investors are coming from abroad. That’s why we are going to have tremendously increase investment in the country.” 

The chairman of Thilawa Special Economic Zone Management Committee also said that Myanmar has kept a high expectation on its very first special economic zone, hoping it will be a good model for other SEZs that are to be developed later. 

Chairman ,Thilawa Special Economic Zone Management Committee , SattAung: “It’s gonna be a very good foundation, a kind of like a pilot project, for other SEZs in the country. And not only that, because one of the policies of the SEZ is to have the international standard policies and practices to be adopted so that once they are successful these kind of international standards policies and practices are to be practiced, to be adopted outside the SEZ in the country. So we’ve got huge expectation and we are very ambitious of it.” 

​