Economy and commerce
Investment
KFC shows how to change Myanmar's eating habits
Myanmar’s first KFC opened July 7 in the Yangon commercial hub of Bogyoke Aung San Market. Since then, Japanese trading house Sojitz Group announced a partnership with a Myanmar company to provide logistics for refrigerated deliveries of temperature-sensitive foods. Yoma Strategic Holdings, a real estate development conglomerate, ...
Myanmar's imports continue to outpace exports in Q1
Burma’s export volume rose slightly in the first quarter of the 2015-16 fiscal year compared with the same period last year, but failed to keep pace with increasing imports in an indication that the weakening of the country’s currency in recent months has failed to ...
Thai-Lao duty-free mall proposed for Vientiane
A group of Thai and Lao business people have announced a plan to spend 10 billion baht to develop a large shopping and hotel complex in Vientiane in order to cash in on opportunities arising from the coming from the coming Asean Economic Community. The massive ...
Germany considers renewables funding
Germany’s development bank is considering expanding its investments into Cambodia’s renewable energy and agriculture sectors, a visiting German parliamentarian told the president of Cambodia’s Senate last week. Thomas Gambke, chairman of the ASEAN Parliamentary Group in the German Parliament, met with Cambodian Senate President Say Chhum ...
Vietnam leads emerging market greenfield FDI performance index
Vietnam has topped a performance index for greenfield foreign direct investment, leading all other emerging markets by a wide margin. The southeast Asian country ranked number one in a study by fDi Intelligence, an FT data division, which looked at inbound greenfield investment since 2003 relative ...
Beer competition brews as Heineken launches in Myanmar
Dutch giant Heineken opened its US$60 million brewery on 12 July, with its locally developed Regal Seven lager beer set to hit store shelves shortly. The brewer will also face the unusual situation of competing against one of its own beers. It owns Tiger beer, but ...
Putting productivity on the menu
An ILO project that provides free lunch at garment factories is proving to be a hit with workers, but whether or not this 50-cent per worker “experiment” catches on will depend on factory owners and the brands they supply. Last July, eight garment factories in Phnom ...
Thai PM calls for Japanese firms to invest more in Mekong region
Thailand’s Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has invited Japanese small and medium sized enterprises to invest more in the Mekong Subregion- by taking advantage of its logistic transport links, with the expectation that the region will be able to take a step forward together. Prayut spoke ...
Cambodia mine on track for 2016 start-up
India’s Mesco Gold (Cambodia) presented to the Cambodian Ministry of Mines and Energy that its Phum Syarung underground mine, in the northeastern province of Ratanakiri will start with initial capacity of 500 tons per day with a recovery rate of 85%. Angkor Gold discovered the epithermal gold deposit ...
China's alleged ban on Vietnamese contracts irrelevant: transport minister
In response to reports that China has prohibited state-owned companies from bidding on public projects in Vietnam, Transport Minister Dinh La Thang said the ban, if true, will have no effect on Vietnam. Thang, speaking to press on the sidelines of the National Assembly meeting, said that many Vietnamese ...
