Yangon Regional Government planned to revise the existing industrial zones and create 12 new industrial zones in Yangon outskirts

Yangon Regional Government is planning to revise the existing industrial zones and create 12 new industrial zones in the re­gion, Yangon’s Chief Min­ister, U Phyo Min Thein, said at a meeting of Union of Myanmar Federation and Chamber of Com­merce and Industry (UM­FCCI) last week.

There are 45 townships in Yangon Region; 33 in Yangon’s municipal area and the rest on the out­skirts of the city. At pre­sent there are 29 indus­trial zones in the region, all within Yangon’s mu­nicipal area.

The aim of the new small industrial zones is to cre­ate local job opportunities for people living on the outskirts of Yangon and save them time and effort commuting to and from the current 29 industrial zones in Yangon’s munici­pal area.

The meeting addressed the challenges and op­portunities of industrial zones and pointed out the lack of effective collabora­tion among governmental organizations, including Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC), Min­istry of Industry and Min­istry of Construction. The participants also urged Yangon’s Chief Minis­ter to organize a Central Committee comprising private sector and govern­ment organizations, and industrial zones commit­tees, in order to identify local preferences and pri­oritize local products. The meeting discussed the cancellation of the terms of “foreign made prod­ucts” in the government’s tender process and urged the government to give lo­cally made products pri­ority, provided the quality was comparable to that of goods produced overseas.

U Tin Hlaing, Joint Sec­retary of Myanmar Indus­try Association, said that the government should focus on using local prod­ucts in their tender pro­cesses instead of foreign products.

As part of the process of upgrading existing indus­trial zones, development committees have carried out some development work, such as construc­tion of yards, roads and gates.

Nevertheless, the indus­trial development com­mittees in Yangon region face obstacles to their ef­forts to upgrade the zones, such as squatter settle­ments, access to fresh wa­ter, electricity, waste and sewage management, and road infrastructure.

(Myanmar Business Today: https://www.mmbiztoday.com/articles/new-industrial-zones-yangon-outskirts )

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