Aung Naing Oo, director general at Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA) and secretary of Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) said Myanmar’s foreign direct investment (FDI) reaches its expected level before one week and it exceeded the targeted value for the 2017-18 financial year that ends 31 March, 2018.
The end of the 2017-18 financial year marks the second anniversary of National League for Democracy (NLD) led government’s term in power.
As of its first year review, Myanmar’s total FDI value in the 2016-17 financial year was at over US dollar 6.64 billion, which was lower than the value of US$9.48 billion in the last financial year of the government of former president Thein Sein.
“MIC has granted FDIs with a total value of over US dollar 6.11 billion for this financial year, so this amount has exceeded our targeted value of US dollar 6 billion,’’ Aung Naing Oo said.
He explained Myanmar reporters at a regular meeting which was held in March 22 in DICA office that total investment amounted to US$6.11 billion, which includes the value of the expansions of investment and the separate investment in Thilawa Special Economic Zone (Thilawa SEZ).
“We have carried out 222 foreign investments with the value of over US$4.7 billion to operate in Myanmar, and we also made smoother the expansion of investment at the value of US$940.106 million,’’ he added.
The total investment value of around US$400 million has been injected into Thilawa SEZ in the 2017-18 financial year.
Manufacturing, real estate and services sectors are being ranked as the top three major investment areas. Meanwhile mining, livestock & fisheries and industry sectors saw limited input, and the oil & gas sector and construction have zero entry for this fiscal year.
“We hope that manufacturing, real estate and services sector will be keeping on high track of our investment flow for the next 6 months fiscal year (From April to September) and we expect many foreign investments on infrastructure sector could flow for next 2018-19 fiscal year, which will begin on 1 October 2018,’’ the MIC secretary Aung Naing Oo said.
A year ago, Myanmar enacted new Myanmar Investment Law in order to attract more investment, stimulate the job market, and improve the Myanmar economy.
DICA said Myanmar welcomes both domestic and foreign investment and the updated regulations, special economic zones, a reform tax system and other investment-promoting reforms have opened the door for increased trade and investment in Myanmar.
According to data and statistics from the DICA website, over 1,400 foreign enterprises from 1988-89 fiscal year to now with the value of over US$75 billion have been permitted.