Myanmar Monitor Weekly

Foreign Affairs

AIIB opens Myanmar book amid falling FDI
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has issued its first loan in Myanmar. The AIIB will lend US$20mn to the Myingyan gas-fired power plant, which will also receive US$58mn from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and potentially US$42.2mn from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The 230MW plant will be constructed by Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries, who won what is considered to be the first wholly international tendering process in the country’s sector.
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Politics

Myanmar scraps stringent emergency law
Myanmar has scrapped the stringent Emergency Provisions Act which had been used by the former military leaders to silence opponents. The law allowed the authorities to detain people without charge and prescribed jail or execution for a wide range of offences considered treason.
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Economy

Extensive reforms will enable Myanmar’s banking sector to grow eightfold: report
Myanmar’s banking sector is expected to undergo intense transformations and create 120,000 more jobs by 2025. The sector’s asset base is bound to expand eightfold from its current size in almost a decade, to US$ 247 billion at 23% CAGR from 2015, according to German consultancy firm Roland Berger. By 2025, loans will have increased more than tenfold to US$ 164 billion at 29% CAGR.
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Myanmar telecom giant plans more shops to fight rivals
Myanma Posts and Telecommunications plans to have 230 stores by spring 2018, an 80% increase, as Myanmar’s largest telecom operator faces tougher competition from the entry of new foreign companies. MPT’s 130 current shops handle repairs and sell SIM cards and smartphones. The company plans about 100 new stores to help push smartphone sales and use of its internet services.
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Myanmar advances economically
As global manufacturers are no longer looking at China as their manufacturing base, they are shifting their facilities to Asean countries, one of which is Myanmar, mainly due to the abundance of low-cost labour and a strategically placed logistics hub, according to Solidiance, an Asia-focused management consulting firm. The industrial sector’s share of Myanmar’s gross domestic product (GDP) has surged from 11% in 2008 to 34% in 2015, and will continue to drive economic growth.
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