Myanmar Monitor Weekly
Economy
Myanmar targets US$8 billion foreign investment
Myanmar has targeted US$8 billion foreign investment in the present fiscal year of 2016-17, the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA) announced on 9 May. The country drew US$9.5 billion foreign investment in the last fiscal year of 2015-16, which ended in March. In the 2014-15 fiscal year total FDI totalled at US$5 billion in and US$4.107 billion dollars in the 2013-14 fiscal year, the directorate said.
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Myanmar’s KBZ Bank moves into Thailand
Myanmar’s banking sector is set to expand beyond national borders for the first time as Thailand has granted a licence to Kanbawza (KBZ) Bank to open a representative office in the country. KBZ said that the licence marked a major milestone for Myanmar’s largest private bank as it became the first lender to establish a presence anywhere outside the country. The representative office, which will need further Thai approval before it can provide banking services, will focus on market research and information sharing.
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Foreign Affairs
Suu Kyi says government plans to take care of Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand
The Myanmar government has plans to take care of Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand, Aung San Suu Kyi said at a joint press conference on 9 May after a meeting with Thai Foreign Minister Pramudwinai, who visited Naypyidaw as a special envoy of Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-cha. Myanmar president Htin Kyaw urged the Thai Foreign Minister in an earlier meeting to give Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand equal rights.
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Myanmar’s New President Makes Laos First Overseas Trip
Myanmar’s newly appointed President Htin Kyaw paid a one-day state visit to Laos on 6 May, his first foreign trip after taking office in April. The goodwill visit was made at the invitation of his Lao counterpart Bounnhang Vorachitch, and the president was accompanied by Myanmar’s first lady Su Su Lwin as well as State Counselor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi. The two sides reportedly discussed the state of bilateral ties, with focus on trade, investment and tourism, including the agreement to resume direct flights between the two countries.
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New US ambassador to Myanmar says he will keep using term ‘Rohingya’
Scot Marciel, the new ambassador of the United States to Myanmar said on 10 May that he will keep using the term Rohingya for the persecuted Muslim minority, even after the government controlled by Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi asked him to refrain from it. “Our position globally and our international practice is to recognize that communities anywhere have the ability to choose what they should be called… and we respect that,” said Marciel.
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China-led development bank to visit Myanmar
The president of the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) plans to visit Myanmar this year to start identifying potential projects, Jin Liqun, president of the AIIB said on the side-lines of the annual Asian Development Bank meeting in Frankfurt. “We will process the projects that are ready and bankable, so countries that have those projects would be the best candidates,” he said, adding that the bank also has a duty to help finance infrastructure in Myanmar as Myanmar is an AIIB member country.
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