Briefs

Japan is planning to increase cooperation with Myanmar’s business sector by making more investments, according to the head of the Myanmar Directorate of Investment and Companies Adminis-|tration.
“Japanese investment and cooperation between [the two] governments have increased. Especially since the new administration [came to office], Japan has provided more aid to Myanmar,” DICA director-general Aung Naing Oo told a news conference. “Direct investment by Japan now totals more than US$682 million. Some investments from Japan are from Japan Third Party Co. The total number of investments from Japan surpass 2,400now.” |– Myanmar Eleven

Indonesia’s creative economy grows 62% in five years
The gross domestic product of Indonesia’s creative economy grew by 62.07 per cent from 2010 to 2015, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said yesterday.
Wawan Rusiawan, BPS creative-economy research and development director, said the creative economy’s contribution to the overall economy was around 7.38 to 7.66 per cent per year. 
It was dominated by three main industries: culinary, fashion, and craft. “Fashion has the biggest contribution with 56.27 per cent, while craft and culinary contributed 37.52 and 6.09 per cent respectively to the Indonesian creative economy,” he said.
He said the value of exports of the sector had reached US$19.36 billion (about Bt690 billion), an increase of 6.6 per cent, compared with $18.16 billion in 2014, which made up 14.69 per cent of non-oil and gas exports in 2015. “Our main creative-export destination was the US with 31.72 per cent of total exports, ” he said. – Jakarta Post
 
Report on impact of FTAs questioned
A recent report of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) claims that free-trade agreements (FTAs) will have little impact on the country’s enterprises, though many disagree with the findings. The Phap luat Thanh pho Ho Chi Minh (Ho Chi Minh City Law) quoted Huynh Van Minh, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Enterprises Association, as saying that the study results were not realistic.
Small and medium-sized enterprises account for 90 per cent of the country’s companies and these enterprises have several weaknesses, he added. He said the size of these retailers was increasingly shrinking.
–Viet Nam News