Executive Jets to Get Red Carpet Treatment

An executive business jet service has begun operating in and out of Yangon International Airport. The service was established by Bangkok-based entrepreneur William Heinecke, working with several Myanmar firms.

The basis of the Myanmar MJets Business Aviation Center is Mr. Heinecke’s MJets operation in Thailand, which has teamed up with Myanmar’s Wah Wah Group, founded by U Ohn Myint, and Myanma Airways.

Next to Yangon’s domestic passenger terminal, the center includes an executive lounge, business meeting facilities and separate customs and immigration clearance.

“There is a growing market for flying in investors and company CEOs on private jet charters mainly from Singapore and Bangkok,” U Ohn Myint was quoted by travel industry paper TTR Weekly as saying.

International hotel group Kempinski is confident about its prospects as it prepares to open a new luxury five-star hotel in Naypyitaw in November.

Local conglomerate Kanbawza Group and Jewellery Luck Company have invested a total of US$45 million, taking 50 percent shares each, in what will be the city’s most expensive luxury hotel, Kempinski Hotel Nay Pyi Taw, managed by Europe-based Kempinski.

The hotel will be the second hotel in Naypyitaw to be managed by an international chain. It will be built in Hotel Zone 1, where the most expensive local and international hotels are located, near the summit venue for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Kempinski acquired a 50-acre compound for the 141-room hotel in late 2012, according to the hotel group’s general manager, Franck Droin.

He said renovations began in March this year on three main buildings, and that construction would be finished before the Asean Summit in November.

He added that 180 staff would work at the hotel and had already started training.

“We have renovated over the past eight months. The hotel is designed with the flair of Myanmar, with traditional handicrafts,” said Lewis Ho, the principal of Aye Lwin & Associates, which is responsible for the interior design.

Room prices will be the most expensive in the city, ranging from $220 to $4,000. Mr. Droin said he expected major clients to include state delegations visiting Myanmar, as well as NGO and business delegations. —Kyaw Hsu Mon

About 300 private jet flights will visit Myanmar this year, the paper said. —William Boot

Myanmar ‘Can Renegotiate Dam Deals’

A Chinese firm that signed deals with Myanmar’s former military rulers to build hydro dams said it could renegotiate the terms, which would see some projects supplying 90 percent of power to China, in order to allow more power for domestic consumption.

Myanmar’s unreliable power supply is undermining economic development in Asia’s second-poorest country, which is emerging from 49 years of autocratic mismanagement under military rule.

“If the new government thinks there is more power demand now in Myanmar, then of course there is no problem to meet the local demand first,” said Sun Hongshui, vice president of the Power Construction Corp of China. —Reuters