YANGON–With the aim of attracting tourists and promoting Myanmar’s tourism industry, Inle Night Market situated in Northern Shan State, will be upgraded in early January 2015, according to the Myanmar Restaurant Entrepreneurs Association.
“We have a plan to upgrade the night market in early January. However, we will first discuss it with locals and authorities. Inle Night Market should be upgraded because many of foreigners visit it,” said Myo Min Zaw, Chairman of Inle Zone for the Myanmar Restaurant Entrepreneurs Association.
At present, Inle Night Market has only ten shops that open at 10:30pm. Plans are underway to expand the restaurants, as well as souvenir shops and regional product shops.
The Inle area attracts foreigners as well as local visitors. If the shops expand, it will create more job opportunities for locals and attract foreign currencies, according to the Myanmar Restaurant Entrepreneurs Association.
Plans to build a night market in Yangon to attract tourists is also under way, but there has been difficulty in choosing a location. Meetings with authorities are ongoing.
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The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) estimates that the total number of tourists to visit Myanmar between 2013 and 2030 will reach at least 20.4 million.
The number of local travelers is estimated to reach 29.3 million in the same period. The Myanmar government is working on developing a tourism ‘master plan’ to lure foreign visitors. The plan’s budget is US$ 486.60 million. Implementation of the plan began last year and will end in 2030.
The estimates of Myanmar’s Hotel and Tourism Ministry, however, differ from those of JICA, placing the projected number of visitors by 2030 at only 7 million. The master plan was set up with the assistance of the Norwegian government and the Asian Development Bank.
Myanmar’s hotel and tourism sector has growth steadily since the country opened its doors to foreign investment in 2011. The hotel and tourism sector has generated $940 million since then, and 85 percent of that revenue was earned by private individuals, according to Hotels and Tourism Minister Htay Aung.
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Hopefully more celebrities take a visit to Myanmar.. That's a way of promoting and advertising our tourism industry.. Whoever and whenever..
MYANMAR: Toyota, Suzuki to invest in new economic zone
By Graeme Roberts | 2014
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Toyota, Suzuki and French auto parts manufacturer La Farge separately have bid to set up operations in Myanmar’s Thilawa special economic zone, according to the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC).
The Thilawa industrial zone, located just outside the country’s commercial capital Yangon, is scheduled to be completed and available to manufacturing companies in 2015, according to an MIC spokesman.
Suzuki already has a wholly-owned assembly operation in Yangon, on a property leased from the government, but is known to want to move to the dedicated manufacturing hub.
The big news here is if Toyota also plans to set up an assembly facility in the country, having just announced the establishment of a dealer in Yangon.
Nissan announced last year that it plans to have an assembly plant in Myanmar by 2015 through its Malaysian partner Tan Chong Motor.
Automakers invest in Myanmar’s economic zone
June 10, 2014 7:00 pm JST
Japan, US companies 1st to secure space in Myanmar's Thilawa industrial park
MOTOKAZU MATSUI, Nikkei staff writer
U.S. beverage packaging maker Ball said it plans to hire 150 people at its Myanmar factory to be established next year.
YANGON -- Two companies -- one from Japan and the other from the U.S. -- are the first to secure lots in an industrial park under development in Myanmar in cooperation with the Japanese government and businesses.
The U.S. company, Ball, is confident its investment will bring Myanmar medium- and long-term benefits by creating jobs and facilitating the transfer of technology, Scott Morrison, the beverage packaging company's chief financial officer, told the press Friday in Yangon, Myanmar's commercial capital and biggest city.
The Colorado-based, New York Stock Exchange-listed company reported roughly $8.5 billion in sales in fiscal 2013. It manufactures metal packaging for beverages and other products in the U.S., China, Brazil and elsewhere. Ball has been bolstering investment in Southeast Asia in recent years. Its Vietnamese plant began operating in 2012.
With the decision to set up shop in the Thilawa industrial park -- which lies southeast of Yangon -- the company is looking to start manufacturing soft-drink cans in Myanmar as early as next summer for Coca-Cola and other companies already operating in the country. Morrison declined to reveal how much the company plans to invest, but he said it plans to hire 150 people at the Thilawa plant.
More than 50 companies are showing interest in moving into the Thilawa industrial park.
Friday also saw Koyo Radiator sign a memorandum of understanding with Myanmar Japan Thilawa Development, the developer of the industrial park, on a deal to lease a roughly 3-hectare plot.
The company plans to invest about 500 million yen ($4.82 million) to build a factory capable of manufacturing 120,000 after-market automotive radiators a year. All output will be exported.
Saving money
Koyo already has factories in China and Vietnam, but labor costs have been rising sharply in these countries. Such expenses in Myanmar are said to be about one-sixth those in China.
"We decided to expand into Myanmar because it is easy to hire good workers at low cost," said Koyo Chairman Kazumoto Ejiri.
More than 50 companies from a total of 10 countries and regions have shown interest in setting up shop in the industrial park, according to Takashi Yanai, president of MJTD, a joint venture among major local companies and Japanese trading houses Sumitomo Corp., Mitsubishi Corp. and Marubeni.
"We aim to sign agreements with 30 or so companies by the end of the year," Yanai said.
Securing such deals would fill up roughly half of a 400-hectare zone in the industrial park, completing the first stage of development there. MJTD is considering launching second-stage development to fill up the zone's remaining 200 hectares.
The industrial park is receiving a lot of attention from foreign manufacturers because it is served by well-developed power and water infrastructure, but offers leases about 20% lower than the going rates at other industrial parks in the country.
Excellent to hear !
we will always remember Japan's help during these years.. Hopefully long live Japan-Myanmar Friendship... 
