Myanmar Plans to Enter Asian Productivity Organisation
Myanmar is making strides to become a member country of the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) in a move to enable itself competing productivity of the regional countries against the backdrop of the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community), according to Dr Aung Thein, Associate General Secretary of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI).
All ASEAN member nations apart from Myanmar have already entered the APO, a regional intergovernmental organisation dedicated to productivity of Asian countries, according to the Outcome Sharing Seminar 2017: Capacity Building of Industrial Human Resource Development Organisations for Productivity Improvement in Myanmar held on November 5 in Yangon.
Procedures need Myanmar to establish a National Productivity Organisation first to enter the AOP, said Dr Aung Thein. The UMFCCI is currently in cooperation with the Project and Productivity Movement from Japan with support of the Ministry of Industry to form a national productivity organisation, he said.
Rice Export Reaches 1.86 Million Tonnes in the First Seven Months
Myanmar’s rice export volume hit 1.86 million tonnes in the first seven months of the ongoing 2017-2018 financial year that started from April 1, according to the figures released from the Ministry of Commerce.
The country earned $558.14 million from the rice export during the period until November 3, witnessing a record-high rice export volume for the first seven months of a financial year, said the ministry.
As Myanmar has estimated 2 million tonnes of rice export for the current financial year, the volume resulted in surpassing 80 per cent of the projection. The country exported more than 1.7 million tonnes of rice in the 2016-2017 budget year, slightly higher than the year before during which the exported volume reached more than 1.4 million tonnes. It exported over 1.8 million tonnes of rice in 2014-2015, and more than 1.2 million tonnes in 2013-2014. It has exported rice to a total of 78 countries in the current financial year.
FDI Value Hits $4.5 Billion
The actual foreign direct investment (FDI) influx into Myanmar reached more than $4.5 billion until the first days of November in the current 2017-2018 financial year, according to the press release 12/2017 of the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC), a government-appointed body responsible to appraise the domestic and foreign investment proposals.
The sum came from a total of 153 FDI enterprises including those in Thilawa Special Economic Zone (SEZ), a major SEZ south-east of Yangon which is attracting a steady inflow of FDI.
Myanmar grossed FDI value of $6.6 billion in the previous financial year, which marked a one year period the NLD-led government had come to office. The volume was a year-on-year substantial drop, as the 2015-2016 budget year under the previous administration saw a record-high inflow of FDI for Myanmar, earning $9.48 billion. The country has projected annual foreign investment value of more than $6 billion for the current 2017-2018 financial year, which started on April 1 and is going to end on March 31, 2018.
