RANGOON — British investment in Burma is on the rise, but problems on
the ground in the Southeast Asian frontier market have some investors
reluctant to commit, UK Ambassador to Burma Andrew Patrick said at a
press conference on Thursday.
Patrick, who took up his post in September, said that even though
Burma’s transition to democracy remained incomplete, UK business
interest in Burma was growing.
“Many British businessmen are coming here … we’d like to see more,” he said at the Rangoon-based British Embassy.
“We’re encouraging investment here,” Patrick continued. “We think
that investment is important to create jobs—Western countries bring the
technology, skills. They will help improve businesses to an
international standard.”
However, he acknowledged that challenges to internal stability were
giving reason for pause among some Britons. The ongoing conflict between
ethnic Kachin rebels and the government army in the north, religious
tensions in Arakan State and a series of bomb blasts that have rocked
the nation over the last week were cited as deterrents to foreign
investment and trade between the two countries.
“British companies are coming here, but of course, yes, when you see
the incidents in Kachin, Rakhine [Arakan] recently, and bomb blasts too,
it has an effect for the business sector,” he said.
More than 10 British businesses’ delegations are on average meeting
with their Burmese counterparts per month, Patrick said, adding that the
UK-based luxury car company Jaguar-Land Rover plans to open a showroom
in Rangoon early next year.
Last month 14 companies sent scouts to Burma, including firms in the
construction sector. But UK businesses, and most other prospective
Western investors, consider the country’s economic potential to be
intimately tied to its political situation.
“My sense is that international companies are seeing the same
opportunities and have similar concerns about the country. I don’t think
UK companies are more reluctant than Japanese and US companies, I think
British companies will be coming here,” he said.
One factor deterring foreign investors was the high and rising
property prices in Rangoon, which have sent commercial rates
skyrocketing over the last two years.
In June, British Trade Minister Stephen Green visited Rangoon and
said the UK recognized the Burma market’s attractiveness, but saw key
hindrances to foreign investment: corruption; a lack of transparency;
physical and technological infrastructure shortcomings; the country’s
underdeveloped banking system; and low-skill labor pool, among others.
Eleven Media reported in June that the UK had witnessed a significant
increase in its exports to Burma compared with previous years. Total UK
exports to Burma rose 113 percent to US$12.8 million in 2012, and 178
percent in the first quarter of 2013 compared with the same period last
year, according to the UK government.
According to the figure of the Ministry of National Planning and
Economic Development and the United Nation Economic and Social
Commission for the Asia and Pacific, cumulative UK investment in Burma
reached nearly $2.8 billion from 1989 to 2012. That compares with $14
billion into the country over the same period from Burma’s main
investor, China.
Addressing a string of recent bomb blasts in Rangoon and other towns
across Burma, Patrick said his embassy was still encouraging Britons to
visit the country.
“We haven’t said to travelers, ‘Don’t come here.’ We’re still welcoming tourists here,” he said.
He added that the UK government is encouraging the Burmese government
to complete the democratization process by amending the Constitution.
“It can’t say it has completed the democratization process without
amending the Constitution, as the [2015] elections will not be free and
fair,” he said.
source: The Irrawaddy
http://www.irrawaddy.org/business/british-investors-interested-cautious-ambassador-tells-burma.html
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