Tag Archives: Aung San Suu Kyi

Booming Burma is a win-win scenario for business in South East Asia Reply

by • Myanmar (Burma) News • Tags: , , , , , , ,
Burma is a land of treasures, such as the Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon

Burma is a land of treasures, such as the Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon

Reposted from GT Global Trader
By Eric Jackson

When a repressive regime comes to an end, there is always optimism inside and outside the country that it will herald a bright new dawn of freedom and economic growth.

Sometimes these hopes are realised, as was the case with countries such as Panama after the fall of Manuel Noriega and his drug-running henchmen in 1989.

However, as Egypt and Libya have demonstrated, the opposite can often apply. So when, a few years ago, the military relaxed its grip on power in Burma and elections were held in which Thein Sein became president and long-term political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, the world held its breath. More…

Home truths about those Sanctions Reply

by • Myanmar (Burma) News • Tags: , , , ,

Derek Tonkin of Network Myanmar

Derek Tonkin of Network Myanmar

Reposted from Mizzima News
By Derek Tonkin

In her article, ‘Advocacy groups urge EU to maintain sanctions’, Rosie Gogan-Keogh suggested that this activist cabal might be seeking a delay in lifting the remaining sanctions. I think rather that they are seeking the continuance of their suspension. The sanctions were indeed all temporarily lifted in April last year, apart from the arms embargo and the restoration of benefits under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), which is being handled separately.

The advocacy groups make the case that none of the EU’s benchmarks for permanently lifting sanctions has yet been met and that it is important to maintain pressure. They base their case however on the latest mythology surrounding sanctions which is, as they say, that: “International pressure has clearly played a motivating role in the reforms currently taking place.” As a matter of ideology it is too much for some to accept that the former military regime might have been working to a plan all along. More…

ACO Investment Plans $700 Million in Myanmar Private-Equity Bets Reply

by • Myanmar (Burma) News • Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Yangon International Airport

Reposted from Bloomberg
By Cathy Chan

Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation that exited 50 years of military rule in 2011, offers investors the best growth opportunity in the region, said Hari Achuthan, whose firm is betting $700 million on the country.

ACO Investment Group, co-founded by Achuthan and former United Airlines president Ronojoy Dutta, this year aims to invest $200 million in Yangon International Airport and plans to make a $500 million bid for two telecommunications licenses as part of a new global infrastructure fund, Achuthan said.

“What we’re looking for is a frontier market that has a tremendous amount of growth ahead of it,” the former Credit Suisse Group AG banker said in a phone interview on March 15. “In the Asian markets, if you’re looking for growth, we would rather look at Myanmar versus the saturated markets of Thailand or Indonesia.” More…

Myanmar’s new market landscape beckons investors Reply

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Many top executives who came to Davos were boarding planes to come to Yangon as opposed to London or New York

Many top executives who came to Davos were boarding planes to come to Yangon as opposed to London or New York

Reposted from freemalaysiatoday
By Paulius Kucinas

“Come my friends, Tis not too late to seek a newer world”. This line from Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses” recited to me by a banker at the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) last week rather aptly captured the changing post crisis mood among the world’s leading capitalists. More…

Transparency International and Myanmar: An Exercise in Futility Reply

by • Myanmar (Burma) News • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

rangoonReposted from Network Myanmar

Corruption is a serious issue in many countries in South East Asia, not least in Myanmar. This has been recognised by President Thein Sein’s reformist government and highlighted in his major speeches. In late November the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a statement on the matter, adding that they were drafting new anti-corruption legislation to replace the current law which dates from 1948.

Although this is all still very much work in hand, I was nonetheless at first surprised to find that Myanmar is again relegated to a very lowly position in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released on 5 December 2012 by Transparency International (TI). Myanmar occupies the 172nd place out of 176 countries reviewed. The reason for this, I soon discovered, is no mystery. Samantha Grant, TI Regional Coordinator for Asia Pacific, acknowledged to the Chiang Mai-based “The Irrawaddy” that Myanmar’s reform process has not yet had any impact on their latest corruption ranking and that some of the information for the survey is two years (and I suspect maybe more) out of date. More…

Myanmar’s opening is no gold rush for US firms slowed by sanctions and corruption concerns Reply

by • Myanmar (Burma) News • Tags: , ,

Reposted from The Washington Post

YANGON, Myanmar — Signs of a boom abound in Myanmar. Flights to Yangon are full, hotel rooms booked solid. Foreign bars are packed with well-fed Westerners in khakis and jeans, 21st century prospectors drawn to this golden frontier.

Myanmar got a further boost this week from President Barack Obama, who became the first serving U.S. president to visit the long-isolated nation, an endorsement that has not gone unnoticed by global investors. But despite America’s leadership in welcoming Myanmar back into the international community, U.S. companies have so far not signed any big deals — a situation few expect to change soon. More…

Obama, in an Emerging Myanmar, Vows Support Reply

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“So today, I have come to keep my promise and extend the hand of friendship” - Obama

“So today, I have come to keep my promise and extend the hand of friendship”-Obama

Reposted from The New York Times
By PETER BAKER

YANGON, Myanmar — President Obama journeyed to this storied tropical outpost of pagodas and jungles on Monday to “extend the hand of friendship” as a land long tormented by repression and poverty begins to throw off military rule and emerge from decades of isolation. More…

Goodbye clenched fist, hello sweaty palm 1

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Mr. Obama says he is going to Myanmar in order to reward the regime for the democratic changes

Mr. Obama says he is going to Myanmar in order to reward the regime for the democratic changes

Reposted from The Economist

HE WILL be on the ground for less than a day. Still, when Barack Obama arrives in Myanmar on November 19th, one leg of a three-country South-East Asian tour, it will be quite a moment: the first ever visit to the country by a sitting American president, which sets the seal on one of the fastest rehabilitations of a former American foe. More…

A Rare Moment for Myanmar — and America Reply

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Myanmar headed in a positive direction

Myanmar headed in a positive direction

Reposted from The New York Times
By BILL RICHARDSON and MICKEY BERGMAN

THE lobby of the Traders Hotel in Yangon is buzzing in the early evening hours. The number of Chinese, Japanese, Europeans and Americans roaming the lobby is surprising. It’s as if they are all here just waiting for the economic boom to happen. More…