Xinhua
October 15, 2006

Myanmar absorbed a contracted foreign investment of 6.065 billion U.S. dollars in the fiscal year of 2005-06, registering the highest annual foreign investment the country has drawn since 1988, according to the latest figures released by the Central Statistical Organization (CSO). The contracted investment in 2005-06, which ended in March, mainly came from Thailand with 6.03 billion dollars, showed the Monthly Economic Indicators. The Thai investment was injected into the power sector which was reported as the 110-megawatt Ta Sang hydropower project on the Thanlwin River in southern part of Shan state and is expected to complete in six years. The Thai investment had sharply raised Myanmar’s contracted foreign investment by about two times from 7.78 billion dollars to 13.84 billion dollars, according to the compiled figures. Other investments during 2005-06 were from India with 30.575 million dollars in oil and gas, from Thailand with 4.4 million dollars also in oil and gas and from China with 700,000 dollars in mining, totaling over 35 million dollars, the CSO figures indicated. In Myanmar’s foreign direct investment (FDI) mainly coming from member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN), oil and gas accounted for 34 percent, manufacturing 20 percent, real estate 13.7 percent and hotels and tourism 13.3 percent. Other sectors include mining, livestock and fisheries, transport communication, industrial estate, construction and agriculture. Myanmar enacted the FDI Law in late 1988 when it started to adopt a market-oriented economic policy, and the energy sector, which comprises oil and gas and hydropower, is seen as standing the main contributor to the increase in FDI in Myanmar in the future.