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THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013
Myanmar courts investors at ‘Asia’s Davos’
Participants arrive at the Myanmar International Convention Centre where the 22nd World Economic Forum on
East Asia is held in Naypyidaw yesterday. — AFP
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar — Myanmar
touted its dramatic post-junta reforms
yesterday in a bid to entice foreign
investors as hundreds of world
leaders and industry chiefs visited the
long-isolated nation for Asia's edition
of the World Economic Forum.
Some 900 delegates from more
than 50 countries gathered in the capital
Naypyidaw for the three-day WEF
on East Asia — a regional version of
the annual gathering of business and
political luminaries in the Swiss resort
of Davos.
Foreign irms are queuing up to
enter the country formerly known as
Burma, tantalised by the prospect of
a largely untapped market with a potential
60 million new consumers in
addition to Myanmar's pool of cheap
labour. They include Coca-Cola, which
has returned to Myanmar after an absence
of more than 60 years with a
new bottling plant, as well as consumer
products giant Unilever which will
soon start production in the country.
"This event is really going to raise
the visibility of Myanmar to the economic
community outside of the
country," Heang Chhor, senior partner
at global consultancy McKinsey & Co,
said.
"Beyond the usual suspects such
as agriculture, energy and mining and
infrastructure most (foreign) companies
are still looking at the potential of
Myanmar. What are the opportunities
lying out there in the next 20 years?"
he said.
The interest works both ways, with
Myanmar desperately short of jobs,
skills and infrastructure to drive an
economic revival and lift its people
out of poverty.
"Our country very much lags behind...
we lack contact with the other
markets," said Wah Wah Maung of the
National Planning and Economic Development
Ministry, adding the forum
is a chance to "market our nation".
President Thein Sein's quasi-civilian
government has surprised the
world since coming to power two
years ago with dramatic political and
economic changes that have led to the
lifting of most Western sanctions.
Hundreds of political prisoners
have been freed, democracy champion
Aung San Suu Kyi has been welcomed
into a new parliament and tentative
ceaseires have been reached in the
country's multiple ethnic civil wars.
On the eve of the conference,
former general Thein Sein said in a
radio address to the nation that all
remaining prisoners of conscience
would soon be freed.
Activists say some 200 political
prisoners remain in jail and accuse
Myanmar of using a series of headline-grabbing
amnesties for political
gain. Both Thein Sein and Suu Kyi are
scheduled to address the forum today,
but many participants are eager for a
chance to meet face-to-face.
"Many important people are trying
to see the president," a government
oficial said as the WEF got under
way. "But of course he cannot meet
everyone."
After years lagging behind its more
developed neighbours, Myanmar is
now taking steps to revive its impoverished
economy.
The currency was loated last
year, there are moves to give the central
bank more independence and a
new foreign investment law has been
passed, catching the eye of foreign executives.
At the same time some delegates
struck a note of caution for Myanmar
as it opens up to the outside world,
urging authorities to harvest new
knowledge but resist investment that
exploits the country.
"Investors need to abide by the
standards within the country or
world," Han Thar Myint, a spokesman
for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
party, said at the forum.
"We have to welcome countries
that abide by high ethical standards."
The former junta was accused by
rights groups of plundering the country's
natural resources for personal
gain.
Experts say businesses entering
Myanmar also face major hurdles, including
an opaque legal framework as
well as a lack of basic infrastructure
and of government and private-sector
expertise.
Several outbreaks of deadly religious
violence have also cast a shadow
over the reform process.
The country's "major challenge" is
Turkish markets fall, CDS hit 8-month high
ISTANBUL — Turkey's lira lost ground yesterday
while the country's debt insurance costs rose to
their highest since November, as worries continued
over anti-government demonstrations although
there was an oficial apology over police
violence.
Turkish government has faced some of the
iercest anti-government protests in years since
last weekend but the apology on Tuesday from
the deputy prime minister contributed to some
hopes of an easing of tensions.
"We expect demonstrations to continue but in
a peaceful manner from now on," Ugur Bayraktar,
General Manager at Ekspres Invest, said.
"Although this would have positive impact on
inancial markets, ongoing protests would have
reverberations over the business environment."
Turkey's ive-year credit default swaps (CDS)
rose seven basis points to 148 bps, according to
Markit.
The lira fell to 1.8820 against the dollar from
1.8804 on Tuesday. It hit its weakest level since
January 2012 on Monday at 1.9005.
The main Istanbul share index was down 0.54
per cent to 80,206.17 points at 1040 GMT, having
closed 4.87 per cent lower on Tuesday after
plummeting more than 10 per cent on Monday.
Banking shares were down 1.2 per cent. The twoyear
benchmark bond yield rose to 6.17 per cent
from 6.03 per cent late on Tuesday. — AFP
to persuade companies of the strength
of its basic infrastructure and labour
force as well as to build faith in its political
stability, said Heang Chhor of
McKinsey.
A handout notice from the forum
gives delegates some taste of the busi-
ness challenges facing the country,
noting that there will be no cash machines
for international customers,
credit cards are not accepted and the
3G network "is not available" for users
of BlackBerry and other mobile
phones. — AFP
Japan dotcom jailbird
back in business
TOKYO — Maverick Internet tycoon
Takafumi Horie (pictured), who was
jailed for accounting fraud, said yesterday
Japan's online landscape was
prime territory for his aggressive
style of business.
Horie said he had got involved in
around 30 start-ups since being released
from prison three months ago,
having served nearly two years for
hiding losses on the balance sheets of
his Internet service provider Livedoor.
"Social media such as Facebook
and Line has developed tremendously
in the past two years in a way that
means I can monetise my intangible
human assets and launch various
businesses," the 40-year-old said.
Line is a Japanese-developed
instant messaging application for
smartphones and PCs. Since appearing
just two years ago, it has amassed
a reported 100 million users.
"It has become easy for me to do
what I want to do because of the way
the Internet's infrastructure has developed,"
Horie told the Foreign Correspondents'
Club of Japan.
"I am starting up probably about
30 businesses, some of them are already
in place," he said, citing a rocket
development irm and his dream
of sending thousands of paying customers
into space.
The lamboyant and outspoken
Horie was sentenced to 30 months'
jail in 2007 for falsely reporting a
pre-tax proit of ive billion yen ($50
million at today's rates) to hide losses
at Livedoor.
A high court appeal the following
year was rejected, and the supreme
court turned him down again in April
2011.
Horie — a Tokyo University graduate
who shook up Japan Inc's often
staid ways with his media-savvy persona
and hostile takeover bids — has
long insisted he was a victim of a
hidebound business culture.
He emerged from prison in March
weighing 30 kilogrammes less and
vowing to get back in the saddle.
Horie, who has nearly a million
followers on Twitter, told reporters
yesterday that one of his new
projects was to use social media to
support prisoners seeking rehabilitation
after serving their time.
The idea came because social media
helped him through the bitter
irst winter in his unheated cell in the
mountains of Nagano, where temperatures
dropped to minus 15 degrees
centigrade (ive degrees Fahrenheit).
"I mentioned the condition in my
online magazine," he said referring to
a publication he kept going while behind
bars.
"Heating was installed in my second
year and I was given one more
blanket," he said. — AFP