May 2, 2013

Indonesia’s Top Cement Firm Plans $200m Burma Factory ¹

by Brian C. McMahon • Myanmar (Burma) News • Tags: ASEAN, Burma, Jakarta, Myanmar, PT Semen Indonesia, Siam Cement, Southeast Asia, Thang Long Cement

PT Semen Indonesia Chief Executive Dwi Soetjipto poses for a photograph at his office in Jakarta on April 29, 2013.

Reposted from The Irrawaddy
By JANEMAN LATUL & ANDJARSARI PARAMADITHA

JAKARTA — PT Semen Indonesia plans to build a $200 million factory in Burma in 2014 as it expands its business in Southeast Asia to take on Thai rival Siam Cement Pcl, the head of country’s biggest cement maker said.

The Burma plan is the latest expansion strategy by the Gresik-based company, which became the first Indonesian state-owned firm to make an overseas corporate acquisition when it bought a majority stake in Vietnam’s Thang Long Cement in 2011.

“If everyone is in Vietnam and Myanmar and we just play in Indonesia, then, like playing chess, we will be squeezed,” Chief Executive Dwi Soetjipto told Reuters on Tuesday, while listening to rock music in his spacious office in Central Jakarta.

“That’s why we put our bishop in Vietnam and our knight in Myanmar.” More…

April 19, 2013

Laos high-speed rail: China’s ticket to southeast Asia and beyond ^Reply

by choileopard • Laos News • Tags: economic development, high-speed railway, Somsavat Lengsavad, Southeast Asia

Laos’ natural resources and access to Thailand’s growing consumer market attract Chinese investors.

Reposted from Financial Times
By Jake Maxwell Watts

It looks like Laos, China’s tiny landlocked southern neighbour, is about to find out whether sharing a border with China is a good thing. Laos has two things China needs – natural resources such as potash and hydropower, and access to Thailand’s large and growing consumer market. Perhaps that is why China is so keen to provide a $7.2bn loan to the small communist country for a long-awaited controversial high-speed rail project between the two. More…

April 8, 2013

Interview: Chris Tell and Mark Wallace from CapitalistExploits ^Reply

by John Conway Boyd • Miscellaneous • Tags: Capitalist Exploits, Mongolia, Southeast Asia, Thailand, Vietnam

Download your FREE copy of the Capitalist Exploits Frontier Markets Report to learn how to invest in the world’s fastest growing countries.

EmergingFrontiers: Chris Tell and Mark Wallace from CapitalistExploits.com have been slogging it out in frontier markets for over a decade, and writing about them weekly for over 3 years now. I reached out to Chris recently to chat about their upcoming Meet Up in Phnom Penh April 24-26.

(The signup link for the conference can be found at: http://www.capitalistexploits.at/cambodia-boots-on-the-ground-meet-up) More…

February 25, 2013

As Burma opens, India looks eastward ^Reply

by John Conway Boyd • Myanmar (Burma) News • Tags: Asia Highway Number One, Burma, economies, India, Myanmar, Southeast Asia

Resposted from The Washington Post
By Simon Denyer

MOREH, India — The arch that spans Asian Highway Number One as it passes through this border town proudly announces India’s friendship with its neighbor Burma. The official slogan proclaims that India is “Looking East” and promises that the road will deliver closer integration with Southeast Asia’s fast-growing economies. More…

February 17, 2013

Myanmar’s new market landscape beckons investors ^Reply

by RizwanHabib • Myanmar (Burma) News • Tags: ASEAN, Aung San Suu Kyi, BRICS, capitalists, China, Davos Economic Forum, democracy, economic growth, frontier markets, Infrastructure, international banks, international investors, Investment Opportunity, Joint Ventures, local reforms, mobile phone service, modern economy, Myanmar, private sector development, Southeast Asia, transformation, world economic forum, Yangon

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…

February 2, 2013

Carlsberg signs joint venture in Burma ^Reply

by RizwanHabib • Myanmar (Burma) News • Tags: Beer, Burma, business development, business opportunities, Carlsberg, Danish brewer, economic expansion, Europe, foreign investment, Joint Ventures, market opportunity, Myanmar, Myanmar beer market, political developments, Roy Bagattini, sales growth, Southeast Asia, Sustainable Growth

Carlsberg has earmarked Asia as an important market for its future growth

Reposted from BBC News

Carlsberg has signed a joint venture to brew and market its beers in Burma, as the Danish brewer looks to Asia for sales growth in order to offset weak trade in Europe. More…

January 23, 2013

US Seeks Infrastructure Deals in Cambodia ^Reply

by RizwanHabib • Cambodia News • Tags: American Companies, Cambodia, Cambodian Investment Board, China, Chinese investment, funding, hydropower projects, infrastructure investment, International Companies, Investment Opportunity, Phnom Penh, power plants, President Barack Obama, Private Investment Corporation, Southeast Asia, U.S. Embassy

Chinese investment totaled more than $250 million in the 11-month period

Reposted from The Cambodia Daily
By Simon Lewis

Looking to compete with Chinese influence in the region, the U.S. government is making plans to help American companies win large-scale infrastructure projects in Cambodia, U.S. officials said on Thursday in Phnom Penh. More…

January 18, 2013

Investment Figures Show Billions of Dollars from China ^Reply

by RizwanHabib • Cambodia News • Tags: Cambodia, manufacturing, ASEAN, China, Phnom Penh, South Korea, real estate, foreign direct investment, natural resources, Southeast Asia, economic growth, financial services, Chinese and Japanese companies, Investment Opportunity, CDC, tourism sector, Steel Plant, rail line, political influence, finance committee

Chinese investment is coming in natural resources, rubber and tourism

Reposted from VOA
By Suy Heimkhemra

PHNOM PENH – China has become Cambodia’s biggest investor, putting some $8.8 billion into the country over nearly two decades, according to online data from the government’s lead investment agency. More…

January 10, 2013

Burmese public company to run Thilawa industrial zone ^Reply

by RizwanHabib • Myanmar (Burma) News • Tags: frontier markets, Japan, Japanese banks, job creation, Joint Ventures, Kyauktan, largest industrial complex, Marubeni Corporation, Mitsubishi corp, public company, Set Aung, Southeast Asia, Sumitomo Corporation, Thanlyin, Thilawa Special Economic Zone

Japan with a 49% stake in the partnership and Burma with 51%.

Reposted from Mizzima
By Aung Myat Tun

A public company needs to be formed to run the Thilawa Special Economic Zone, said the National Planning and Economic Development Deputy Minister Set Aung. More…

January 8, 2013

Japan’s Government Pushes New Business Role in Myanmar ^Reply

by RizwanHabib • Myanmar (Burma) News • Tags: China, Debt, debt-forgiveness, electricity, Emerging Market, exports, foreign direct investment, industrial hub, Infrastructure, Japan, loan, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, Thailand, Thilawa Special Economic Zone, trading partner, Vietnam, Yangon

Last month, Japan won a contract to develop Thilawa, one of the three pioneer special economic zones in Myanmar

Reposted from The Wall Street Journal
By MITSURU OBE

THILAWA SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE, Myanmar—Taro Aso, a week after becoming Japan’s new finance minister, put aside pressing domestic issues for a trip to Myanmar to cement Tokyo’s role in the largely untapped market, part of an effort to diversify from Japan’s exposure to China. More…

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Tag Archives: Southeast Asia