More Filters
There were 1074 results found for:

All Regions and All Sectors

Viewpoint

Brad Jones, CEO, Wave Money, on how mobile financial services can benefit the country: Viewpoint
OBG
plus

The government of Myanmar has an ambitious target for financial inclusion, with a goal of bringing financial services to 40% of people by 2020, and having 15% of the population using more than one financial product within the same timeframe. There is a very low base of financial inclusion today, with only 6% of the population having access to more than one product, and these products often do not match…
Viewpoint

U Win Thin, Chairman, Win Consulting, on the ongoing revisions to Myanmar’s tax environment: Viewpoint
OBG
plus

The excise tax regulating consumption is being removed from the Commercial Tax Law and is being presented to Parliament as a new tax law, known as the Special Commodity Tax Law. The old Commercial Tax Law will subsequently remain in force and will be administered only as a value-added tax/goods and services tax, which will be applied to the national tax base at a uniform tax rate. Myanmar has also…
Analysis

Myanmar and ASEAN build their relationship

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

After decades of dictatorship, Myanmar emerged as an unlikely beacon of democracy in South-east Asia in 2015, as the National League for Democracy (NLD), under former political prisoner and Nobel-Prize-laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, strode to a victory in November’s landmark election. With the government in Naypyidaw poised to hand over power in February 2016, elsewhere in the 10-member ASEAN bloc,…
Analysis

Myanmar trade benefits from regional cooperation

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

In late November 2015 ASEAN signed the Kuala Lumpur Declaration, formally establishing a single market among the 10 ASEAN member states. Known as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the endeavour aims to integrate the region’s economies into a unified market of 620m people and with combined annual output of $2.4trn. Taken as a whole, the AEC’s population is larger than the EU’s (by more than…
Analysis

Myanmar's central bank moves to preserve monetary stability

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

In the run-up to Myanmar’s historic November 2015 national elections, public opinion appeared split as to what impact the results of the contest would have on the nation’s economy. “Everyone seems to think that the election is the beginning of Myanmar’s problems, or that electing new leadership will inevitably lead to more growth and economic expansion,” U Soe Win, the managing partner of…
Analysis

Rising incomes in Myanmar contribute to expanding middle class

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

In July 2015 the US-based fried-chicken restaurant chain KFC opened its doors for business in downtown Yangon, becoming the first Western fast-food restaurant chain in Myanmar. At the grand opening event and for a week afterward, locals lined up out the door and around the block. The fast-food restaurant’s evident popularity is just one of many recent signs that Myanmar’s middle class has grown…
Analysis

Cooperation with international players will benefit Myanmar banks and customers

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

In 2015 foreign banks started operating in Myanmar for the first time since 1963. A total of nine branch licences were issued. The licences will be highly restrictive at first, and the banks will only be able to do business in foreign currencies, they will be limited to one branch and they will not be able serve retail clients. The step is a key move towards liberalisation for the country, as it will…
Analysis

Major oil and gas companies await bidding round in Myanmar

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

For decades, the Myanmar oil and gas story was fairly simple. The country had well-established onshore fields, with some regional participation, and a few offshore fields, with regional participation and some legacy participation by international majors. Production was significant given the isolation of the country, and oil and gas was vital to Myanmar as a source of hard currency. Due to economic…
Analysis

China re-evaluates its role in the Myanmar energy sector

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

China has long been a significant player in Myanmar’s energy sector. Before recent political reforms, Western sanctions made the country of particular interest to China, which was willing to finance and build projects that companies of the West and Japan could not. Chinese companies also saw Myanmar as an attractive investment, owing to its rich and diverse natural resources, geopolitical importance…
Analysis

Myanmar considers coal to boost generating capacity

Posted OBG AdminPosted in Uncategorized

In 2010, a total of 11 coal-fired plant deals were signed by the Ministry of Electric Power. However, due to opposition for a variety of reasons, very little capacity has been built. From an economic standpoint, there is the position that the country is so in need of electricity that it must make compromises and accept a certain level of pollution and population displacement to close the gap. Nonetheless,…