Foreign investment in Myanmar sharply drops

Xinhua (Yangon), 18 October 1999

Foriegn investment in Myanmar amounted to only 11.823 million U.S. dollars in the first half of this year, plummeting by 94.73 percent from the same period of last year when 224.482 million dollars came in. During the half-year period, Myanmar absorbed investment from India, Thailand, Japan and Indonesia with 4.5 million dollars, 4.5 million dollars, 1.446 million dollars and 1.377 million dollars respectively, according to the latest figures published by the country's Central Statistical Organization.

Of the total, 7.323 million dollars were injected into manufacturing sector in three projects, 3.5 million dollars into hotels and tourism sector in one project and 1 million dollars into mining sector in one project. The sharp drop of foreign investment was mainly attributed to the impact of the Asian financial crisis. The Myanmar government openly admitted recently that due to the effect of the crisis, direct investment from member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations reduced by 70 percent. According to the statistics, since Myanmar opened to foreign investment in late 1988, the country has drawn a total of 7.1 billion dollars from 24 countries and regions. The 10 major foreign investors lined up as Britain, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, France, the United States, Indonesia, the Netherlands, the Philippines and Japan.

China ranked the 14th with 30.826 million dollars.