S Korea to recruit more labour from Myanmar

Choi expects South Korean manufacturers may require 4,900 Myanmar workers. Workers would have to work under the Employment Permit System (EPS), he said.

He explained the country usually hires around 60,000 foreign workers from fifteen countries including Myanmar every year.

Those who will work under EPS in Korea must pass an EPS-TOPIK exam, which includes Korean language qualification tests and health check-ups, Win Myint, managing director of state-run overseas employment agency, said.

“There are some changes in the language tests. But they are not very difficult,” he said.

Currently, there are 6,000 Myanmar workers there. Prior to 2010, Korea rarely recruited Myanmar workers. Recruitment started only after the two countries signed a bilateral labour agreement in 2010.

 

MIC green light for car maintenance centre 

On February 6, the Myanmar Investment Commission gave the green light to a vehicle maintenance service centre jointly organised by a Singapore firm and a Myanmar company in Yangon, according to the Foreign Investment Law. The service centre will be a joint move by Jardine Cycle & Carriage Singapore and Automobile Century Myanmar. The company is a conglomerate involved in auto distribution and retail accounts for 13 per cent of auto sales in Singapore. 

Other international companies have discussed opening vehicle operating services in Myanmar, the Directorate of Investment and Companies Department said.

The Myanmar Investment Commission held a meeting in Nay Pyi Taw on February 6. It backed six projects according to the Foreign Investment Law and Myanmar Citizens Investment Law.

Two projects under the Foreign Investment law are vehicle operating centres and the remainder were beer producers in Bago, where a beer factory will be a joint venture in the Foreign Mechanical Project area.

 

Yangon plans a housing project near downtown

A medium-scale public housing project has been planned at 51st street downtown Yangon, the Department of Human Settlement and Housing Development (DHSHD) recently announced.

Old and dangerous buildings at the site will be reconstructed, and the project, whose deadline is the end of 2015, will create more apartments than now at the site. It will also include two 100-room hotels and parking for 300 cars, according to the announcement.

Some of the residents at the existing housing opposed the plan, while some desire and support it.

“We have been living here for more than 50 years since the construction was completed. As our buildings are that old, we agree with the project. But we are afraid of losing our place. We want our place back when the project finishes,” resident Khin Maung Aye said.

51st street housing in Botahtaung was built in 1956 on two and half acres. It consists of seven 4-storey buildings with 224 rooms of 416 sq ft on average. The new project will provide 378 rooms of 600 sq ft.

DHSHD is also working on two large-scale housing projects in Dagon Seikkan. ‘Ayeyawun’ and ‘Yadana’ projects will totally provide 17,000 rooms. Officials called them ‘low-cost homes’ although people say the 10 million kyat price per unit is not ‘low’ or affordable.