Myanmar Makro Industry Company will file a lawsuit against Livestock Feedstuff and Milk Products Enterprise, a department of government ministry Myanmar Livestock and Fisheries, Myanmar Makro’s legal counsel told The Myanmar Times on March 5.
U Htun Aye, Myanmar Makro’s lawyer, said: “We will sue the department
for a breach of contract with MIC (Myanmar Investment Commission) that
is valid under the Yangon Division Court until 2017.”
Myanmar
Makro is a Yangon-based can factory in Thaketa Township responsible for
the brand Ready Can. It was granted a 20-year contract in 1997 by MIC
for the factory. On January 4, 2011, the government’s Myanmar
Privatisation Committee (MPC) called a tender for the land and awarded
it to Mega Marine on February 28, 2011.
In April 2011, Myanmar
Livestock and Fisheries began to refuse rental payments from Myanmar
Makro. Mega Marine paid the full amount for the factory in three
installments by February 2012. On February 15, 2012, Myanmar Livestock
and Fisheries announced that Myanmar Makro must turn the factory over to
Mega Marine.
On February 14, 2013, the government again asked
Myanmar Makro to vacate the Thaketa site – prompting legal action over
whether or not the factory’s contract is valid with MIC or MPC.
“We
don’t want to be evicted from our factory. They shouldn’t do it like
this. We are not ready to move to another site, and we need a lot of
time to prepare a new factory. We want the government to honour our
tenant agreement until 2017,” said U Htun Aye.
U Moe Myint Kyaw,
the managing director of Myanmar Makro’s factory, said it is facing
unemployment and irreparable financial losses.
“There are 214
employees and more than one thousand families dependent on my factory.
Nearly K1 billion has been invested in this factory. When the Ministry
evicts us, we will lose everything.
“We can’t take any machines
with us, which is our main investment. Our brand has a record of success
and we export it to neighbouring countries – we will lose that too,” U
Moe Mint Kyaw said.
During a press conference on February 14, Dr
Pyae Sone, general manager of Livestock Feedstuff and Milk Products
Enterprise, said that the department refused taking rental money from
Myanmar Makro after April 2011 because it chose to value the Mega
Marine-MPC contract when it outbid Myanmar Makro.
“MPC made a bid
of K3.3 billion for the Thaketa factory on February 11, 2011 and Mega
Marine acquired it for K3.29billion. But Myanmar Makro gave a counter
offer of only K1.2 billion [during the tender]. So, they will not get
the factory,” he said.
“We know that Myanmar Makro will face many
difficulties and losses. But we have no power over this. The new deed
with [Mega Marine] is indisputable,” he added.
Following the
press conference on February 15, U Moe Myint Kyaw said: “We couldn’t
[match Mega Marine’s offer] because we invested a lot of money in our
factory. We couldn’t use any more money at that time. We’ve appealed to
President U Thein Sein to help us.”
“We plan to eventually
release our factory to Mega Marine, but we want to have enough time to
prepare our new factory with the time we were originally allotted until
2017,” he added.
On November 22, 2012, Myanmar Makro made an
appeal to MIC. On December 20, 2012, MIC responded by saying that
Myanmar Makro, MPC and the Ministry must negotiate the issue between
themselves.
“The government isn’t helping us, even though we are
really seeking to improve our country as much as we can. There is no
other local can factory that matches our size and production, and most
cans are imported from other countries,” U Moe Myint Kyaw said.
Myanmar Makro also produces Ocean Can and Bravo Chili Sauce. It produces over 100,000 cans a month.
source: The Myanmar Times
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