Taiwan Ups Investment Bridge to Boost Trade

A new commercial traffic bridge is to be built across the Moei River, which forms part of the border between Myanmar and Thailand.

It will cost about US$94 million, mostly paid for by Thailand, and will supplement the old bridge linking Mae Sot on the Thai side with Myanmar’s Myawaddy, said World Highways magazine.

Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2015 and be completed within a year, it said. The new bridge will have a weight capacity of 100 tons.

Tiny Taiwan is bidding to upstage its giant neighbor by investing heavily in Myanmar while Naypyitaw’s relations with China remain cool.

After a series of recent small-scale Taiwanese investments, the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA) has announced plans to spend nearly half a billion dollars developing an industrial park in the Ayeyarwady Delta.

TEEMA said it wants to invest US$468 million to provide a base for possibly dozens of Taiwanese electrical-component makers. If it goes ahead the project would create hundreds of semi-skilled jobs.

“According to industry insiders, TEEMA has already signed a letter of intent with its Myanmar counterpart to solicit 1,400 hectares (3,458 acres) of land from the government there,” said the China Economic News Service.

Taiwan has stepped up its interest and investment in Myanmar over the past year.

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council opened an office in Yangon last November. In June, Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission gave the green light for three Taiwanese banks to pursue the establishment of representative offices with a view to opening branches in Yangon.

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council hosted a four-day auto parts trade fair in Yangon during July.

Taiwan’s level of investment in Myanmar to date remains modest compared with mainland China and other countries such as Thailand, Singapore and even Vietnam. However, input is growing. Bilateral trade in 2013 grew by more than 15 percent over the previous year.

Taiwan’s Pou Chen Group, one of the world’s largest contract manufacturers of footwear, announced in June it would invest $100 million in a production factory in Yangon. —William Boot

The Mae Sot-Myawaddy crossing carries most of the land trade between the two countries. A new bridge was mooted in 2009 by the chamber of commerce in Thailand’s Tak Province, which said the old bridge was inadequate for growing trade.

The Mae Sot area is one of several Thai areas being considered for special border trading status under a plan put forward in August by the military-installed National Council for Peace and Order. —William Boot

Vietnam Interest

Vietnamese business investment in Myanmar could top US$1.5 billion by the end of 2015, a trade association predicts.

At present, Vietnam has seven projects in the country totaling $600 million in value, the biggest of which is Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group’s hotel, apartments and offices complex in Yangon, with a price tag of $440 million, said the Vietnam News Agency (VNA).

“The Association of Vietnamese Investors in Myanmar (AVIM) hopes Myanmar will accelerate the licensing process for Vietnamese projects in the fields of textiles, agriculture, health care, energy, construction material production, finance and banking,” said the VNA.

AVIM chairman Tran Bac Ha announced the $1.5 billion target at a meeting with the Speaker of Myanmar’s Parliament, U Shwe Mann, who was visiting the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, said the VNA.

AVIM members include Vietnam’s stateowned oil and gas monopoly PetroVietnam and Vietnam Airlines. —William Boot