A REVERSAL OF MYANMAR'S REFORMS

According to the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA), at the end of September, the accumulated amount of approved foreign investment since 1988 was valued at US$57.5 billion, representing an increase of $7.6 billion from the same period a year earlier.

Notably, the investment belonged to 992 companies from 41 countries. At the end of September last year, the investments by 983 companies from 36 countries were approved.

In October – a month before the historic election, the DICA office welcomed a long list of foreign guests. They included Charles Schneider, senior operation officer from the International Finance Cooperation (IFC), Asian Development Bank’s Sean Crowley, and executives of France’s Total, Norway’s Telenor, and Japan’s Koei International. Their concerns were not the election, but further changes that would improve Myanmar’s economic outlook. The issues ranged from business visa issuance, the implementation process of the new foreign investment law and investment and special economic zones to capacity building programmes.

It seems the foreign community is pleased with the performance of the Thein Sein’s government. Since the first parliamentary session in 2011, the Parliament has passed 185 bills, including 52 bills in the 83-day 12th session that ended in mid-August. Many of these concerned economic laws. Proof of the improvement is seen in the World Bank’s ease of business, as Myanmar’s ranking moved up 10 places from 177th among 189 economies last year.

This explained why during the Thein Sein administration, foreign investment had been on the rise. In the 2011-12 fiscal year, Myanmar attracted only $464.46 million in new investment. In the 2012-13 fiscal year, the value rose to $1.42 billion. In 2013-14 fiscal year, it hit Bt1 billion. In the 2014-15 fiscal year, it was over $8 billion.

And it was set to increase further. Foreign chambers of commerce representing investment from key economies like the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, France, and Japan have been established. The government is also moving forward. The public-private partnership scheme is being explored to address enormous infrastructure requirements.

If anything, all this has echoed the foreign community’s confidence that there would be no reversal in Myanmar’s reforms.

In Tak last week, Kalin Sarasin, representing the Thai Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade of Thailand, talked about ongoing discussion with the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of joint development projects. Five committees were set up to look at areas including logistics, tourism, trade facilitation and ICT. In his speech, Kalin did not seem to think the election result would block the cooperation. Clearlly, he was not alone in believing so.