About 40 foreign manufacturers are interested in setting up in the Thilawa economic zone being developed with Japanese help outside Myanmar's main city, Yangon, and commercial operations could start in mid-2015. The 1st phase of the zone involves an industrial park covering 400 hectares (988 acres) out of the total
About 40 foreign manufacturers are interested in setting up in the Thilawa economic zone being developed with Japanese help outside Myanmar's main city, Yangon, and commercial operations could start in mid-2015.
The 1st phase of the zone involves an industrial park covering 400 hectares (988 acres) out of the total 2,400 hectares earmarked for the project.
"The first phase is estimated to cost about $180 million and about $50 million has already been invested for inside infrastructure projects," said Set Aung, vice-governor of Myanmar's central bank and chairman of the committee.
Myanmar and Japan are jointly developing the special economic zone on the southwest outskirts of Yangon. It will eventually have a deep-sea port, roads, bridges, a power plant, and waste water treatment plants.
Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings Public Ltd. Co., a consortium set up by 9 Myanmar companies, owns 41% of the shares in the zone and the Thilawa SEZ Management Committee, a state entity chaired by Set Aung, has the remaining 10% held on the Myanmar side.
On the Japanese side, the MMS Thilawa Development Co. Ltd., a consortium grouping Mitsubishi Corp, Marubeni Corp and Sumitomo Corp, has 39% and the Japan International Cooperation Agency 10%.
Shares in Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings, the local consortium, would be offered to the public in the first week of March.
They will be sold through 5 private banks as well as at outlets near the project area so that residents there will be able to participate easily.