More companies may get share of currency market

The non-banking companies can open cash-exchange outlets with minimum capital of about US$11,600 for each one. The companies are not required to renew their licence annually because their registration is considered to be equivalent to a bank’s. 

The central bank began allowing non-banking financial companies to trade foreign currencies last December. About 200 companies have shown interest, with 99 submitting applications to do so to the central bank’s foreign currency management department.

Applicants are required to deposit initial capital of about $35,000 in a bank that has approval to trade currencies. They are also required to submit a business plan.

 

Deadline for Yangon-Delta rail link extended

The deadline for completion of a new railway linking Yangon to the Delta region’s port city of Pathein has been extended to next year, but the section connecting Yangon and the Delta city of Hinthada will open this year, according to the Ministry of Rail Transportation. Win Naung, an official at the railways department, said construction of the entire railway was 80 per cent complete. The remaining section passes through areas where fish ponds have been built and to avoid disrupting their functioning construction will be delayed, he explained. “We plan to open the Yangon-Hinthada section this year,” Win Naung said. Construction began in 2009. The 158km-long railroad has 232 bridges and 12 railway stations.

 

Blaze erupts at military-owned steel plant

Another fire erupted inside a military-owned steel plant in Yangon’s Insein township on Wednesday morning, following a similar fire at the plant last year, a fire-fighter said.

No one was injured, but 30 old cars were destroyed at the plant owned by the military’s Myanmar Economic Corporation, according to Win Maw, a fire-fighter from Insein Township Fire Brigade, and Kunt Sein of the Insein township Red Cross. He said that gas, oil and petroleum products found in the factory’s compound “burst into flames due to the extreme hot weather”. More than 50 fire engines were used to extinguish the blaze.

 

Train from Dawei to Yangon derails, flips over

An express train travelling from Dawei to Yangon derailed and flipped over near Moatkhamu village, Kyaikhto township in Mon State before dawn on March 2. The cause is still under investigation, said an official who asked not to be named. He said that the poor quality of the rails might be the cause of the accident. No one was injured, and the route was reopened the same day.