Naypyidaw, Myanmar - Hundreds of world leaders
and industry chiefs met in Myanmar Wednesday for Asia's edition of the
World Economic Forum, as the fast-changing nation woos foreign investors
following the end of decades of harsh junta rule.
Some 900 delegates from more than
50 countries gathered in Naypyidaw for the three-day WEF on East Asia -
the region's equivalent of the annual gathering of business and
political luminaries in the Swiss resort of Davos.
Foreign firms are queueing up to
enter the country formerly known as Burma, tantalised by the prospect of
an untouched market with a potential 60 million new consumers in
addition to Myanmar's well of cheap labour.
They include Coca-Cola, which has
returned to Myanmar after an absence of more than six decades and opened
a new bottling plant on Tuesday, and consumer products giant Unilever
which said it will soon manufacture toiletries in the country for the
domestic market.
“Many important people are trying
to see the president,” a government official told AFP as the WEF got
underway. “But of course he can not meet everyone.”
President Thein Sein's
quasi-civilian government has surprised the world since coming to power
two years ago with dramatic political and economic changes that have led
to the lifting of most Western sanctions.
Hundreds
of political prisoners have been freed, democracy champion Aung San Suu
Kyi has been welcomed into a new parliament and tentative ceasefires
have been reached in the country's multiple ethnic civil wars.
On the eve of the conference,
former general Thein Sein said in a radio address to the nation that all
remaining prisoners of conscience would soon be freed.
Activists say some 200 political
prisoners remain in jail and accuse Myanmar of using a series of
headline-grabbing amnesties for political gain.
Both Thein Sein and Suu Kyi are scheduled to address the forum on Thursday.
After years lagging behind its more developed neighbours, Myanmar is now taking steps to revive its impoverished economy.
The currency was floated last
year, there are moves to give the central bank more independence and a
new foreign investment law has been passed catching the eye of eager
foreign firms.
Sushant
Palakurthi Rao, Asia head of the WEF, said the Myanmar forum was “by
far the largest” meeting of the group, saying the numbers show “the
tremendous interest” in the country.
Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever on
Tuesday said it will start making its products at a Yangon factory
within “a few weeks”, aiming to hire up to 150 people by the end of
June, some of whom will be repatriated from its operations in Thailand.
But it is not all good news and
experts say businesses entering Myanmar face major hurdles, including an
opaque legal framework as well as a lack of basic infrastructure and
government and private sector expertise.
Several outbreaks of deadly religious violence have also cast a shadow over the reform process.
A handout notice from the forum
gives delegates some taste of the business challenges facing the
country, noting that there will be no cash machines for international
customers, credit cards are not accepted and the 3G network “is not
available” for users of BlackBerry and other mobile phones.
But Myanmar officials are upbeat despite the challenges.
source: IOL
http://www.iol.co.za/business/international/myanmar-courts-investors-1.1527649#.Ua_n_lJc7EY
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