Myanmar Monitor

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Economy, Investment and Trade

Myanmar PMI continues to indicate manufacturing contraction
(2 October 2017) The Nikkei Myanmar Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI, stood at 49.4 in September, signalling a continued contraction in manufacturing. Sian Jones, Economist at IHS Markit said, “Subdued business confidence persisted, with the degree of optimism about the year-ahead outlook falling to a series low”.
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SilkAir launches multi-city flights in Myanmar
(4 October 2017) The Myanmar government has granted SilkAir permission to issue multi-city tickets for its passengers. The airline will launch its ‘stopover flights’ connecting Singapore-Yangon-Mandalay with a return flight to the island state with a single ticket starting October 31. Currently there are 60 flights a week between Myanmar and Singapore. The number of Myanmar tourists going to Singapore have been increasing after the island-state provided visa exemption for Myanmar citizens in December 2016.
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Foreign & Internal Affairs

Rally in Myanmar to support state counsellors actions in the north
(3 October 2017) Residents in Myanmar’s Yangon city held a rally to show support for State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in her handling of the issue of northern Rakhine state. This follows a speech made by Aung San Suu Kyi in mid-September on the government’s national reconciliation and peace efforts where she stressed that all people in Rakhine state, including Muslim students, should have access to education and healthcare services without discrimination. A day after her speech, Aung San Suu Kyi held a meeting with the Implementation Committee of Recommendations on Rakhine state.
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India opens immigration checkpoint at Myanmar border
(3 October 2017) India has opened two new checkpoints along its border with Myanmar and Bangladesh. Zorinpui was selected for a new land custom station along the Indo-Myanmar border in Mizoram for the Kaladan multi-modal project which will connect the eastern Indian seaport of Kolkata with Sittwe seaport in Rakhine State, Myanmar by sea. This new checkpoint indicates India’s growing closeness with its eastern neighbour, Myanmar. India shares a 1,643-km-long border with Myanmar which touches Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram.
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Myanmar to take back Rohingya refugees
(2 October 2017) Myanmar has proposed to take back hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh in recent weeks according to the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister, Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali. He said, “The two sides have agreed to a proposal to set up a joint working group to coordinate the repatriation process”. Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi added that, “This would be done according to the criteria set between the two countries in 1993, when tens of thousands of Rohingya were repatriated.”
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