Apart from 61 public listed companies, any business entities have no right to sell shares to the public, according to a statement by Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA). According to DICA’s statement dated October 1, AMATA Holding Public Co., Ltd and Telecom Public Co., Ltd are able to sell shares to the public.

The DICA will also later release the list of additional public companies which have earned rights for public offerings. On August 8, 2017, the DICA announced the names of 55 public companies which can take part in share trading and which are formed in accord with the Myanmar Companies Act. Four additional public companies were also announced on September 17 via the State-owned Mirror Daily.

U Htay Chun, a member of the Security Exchange Supervisory Commission has warned that some companies are enticing the public to buy shares via online mediums with the high-return honeypot. Authorities and others in the industry had issued warning about such suspicious and illegal businesses in the past.

U Aung Naing Oo, Secretary of Myanmar Investment Commission said that under the Myanmar Companies Act, non-public companies have no rights to sell shares to the public. Even public companies which get the nod for the public offering from the MIC can sell shares. There are neatly 300 public companies in Myanmar. Of them, more than 60 can sell shares. The remaining companies are not allowed to sell shares.

Source: Daily Eleven

The Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA)’s new electronic registry system will start accepting a number of forms related to company registration from today onwards. All company registration and filing processes has re-commenced since August 1 under the system Myanmar Companies Online (MyCO).

The MyCO registry will be accepting the following forms online from now on: Form C1 (Notice of alteration of constitution), Form C2 (Notice of change of company name), Form C4 (Notice of change of registered office or principal place of business), Form D1 (Particulars of directors and secretary), Form G1 (Statutory Report of public company), Form G2 (Prospectus of public company), Form G3 (Statement in lieu of prospectus of public company) and Form G4 (Statement in lieu of prospectus of public company).

In addition, from October 1, the registry will also be accepting Form C3 (Change to share capital or register of members), Form H1 (Registration of mortgage or charge) and Form H2 (Registration of mortgage or charge over property acquired by company). Under the new Companies Law, all companies registered in Myanmar have until January 31, 2019 to re-register on MyCO. If an existing company does not re-register electronically before that deadline, the registrar may strike its name off the register and announce that the company shall be dissolved, while continuing to enforce the liability of its directors and members.

Source: Myanmar Times

Amid a slowing economy and complaints from the business community, Myanmar’s parliament has approved a National Planning Law for the 2018-2019 FY which expects to see the highest growth rate in the country’s telecommunications, industrial and financial sectors. President U Win Myint signed the bill with the approval of the Union Parliament and it is to be effective from October 1 this year to September 30, 2019.

According to the National Planning Law, the government expects to increase the growth of GDP from 6.8 percent to 7.6 percent, while the telecommunications sector is projected to grow by 15 percent, the industrial sector by 11.2 percent and the financial sector by 9 percent in the coming fiscal year.

The law states that the government will make efforts to improve the trade sector by 7.7 percent, the mineral sector by 7.5 percent and the social management sector by 7.3 percent. Meanwhile, a growth of only 4 percent is expected in the fisheries sector, 2.9 percent in the energy and electricity sector, 2.4 percent in agriculture and 1.1 percent in the forestry sector. The government projects that the highest growth rates will take place in Yangon Region, Naypyitaw Union Territory, and Kachin State with rates of 9.8 percent, 9.6 percent and 9.3 percent respectively.

Source: The Irrawaddy

The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on September 18 issued notification (46/2018) which prohibits the business of multi-level marketing (MLM) in Myanmar. The ban will take effect immediately.

Action will be taken against all MLM businesses found to still be in operation after the date of the issued notification, under the Essential Supplies and Service Law. The law states that those found to be in violation of the regulations could be punished with a minimum of six months up to a maximum of three years in jail. There will also be a fine not exceeding K500,000.

The move comes after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) met with 41MLM companies and conducted audits on the companies’ books in February. Officials are taking action after studying this field and having found that many consumers have fallen victim to MLM strategies. At the regions and states, some regional governments have already prohibited MLM businesses from operating, said U Khin Maung Lwin, assistant secretary of the MOC.

U Maung Maung, secretary of the Myanmar Consumers Union, said his organisation has always been opposed to MLM and has been calling for further regulation of this business model as many consumers have been negatively impacted by MLM.

Source: Myanmar Times

Visitors will no longer need to fill in the Arrival and Departure cards started from September 12, according to the statement made by the Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population.

The cancellation aims to promote the country’s tourism sector as well as to attract more foreign visitors to the country. Therefore, the visitors do not need to fill in the Arrival and Departure cards at the Yangon, Mandalay, and Nay Pyi Taw international airports.

Moreover, respective airlines will no longer need to hand out Immigration Form to visitors and instead of collecting filled-out cards, immigration authorities will compare passenger lists from airlines to actual arrivals.

Source: Daily Eleven

Myanmar embassy has announced that tourists from Japan and South Korea would be granted visa-free entry and visa exemption. Japanese and Korean tourists who hold normal passports would have visa exemption during the one year probation period which would be started from October 1^st 2018 to September 30^th 2019.

Moreover, officials have announced that they have cancelled two points that are mentioned in the previous notification, which means tourists will no longer need to show US$1000 and air tickets for returning homeland or leaving to next country.

Now, there are totally eight points in the notification for Japanese and Korean tourists who are visiting to Myanmar with visa exemption after amending the previous notification.

Source: Daily Eleven

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Department has placed a temporary ban on about 40 undisciplined bottled water operations and closed nine unlicensed ones, said the FDA (Yangon)’s Deputy Director Dr Min Wan.
The number of suspended bottled water businesses this year has exceeded 40. The FDA has lifted its ban on some of them after checking on them, he said.
The public can complaint about unlicensed bottled water industries to Myanmar Food and Drug Supervisory Committee, Township Food and Drug Supervisory Committee and Public Health Department, with evidence.

Source: Weekly Eleven

The Ministry of Industry (MOI) is inviting foreign and local enterprises to invest in the Eco-Industrial Park (Thaton) in Inn Shae Village, Thaton township, which is in Mon State. The park is open to businesses involved in any sector.

Investors interested in setting up facilities at the 400-acre park are required to submit Expressions of Interest (EOI) to No. (3) Heavy Industrial Enterprise, which is under the MOI, by the deadline of September 28.

The Eco-Industrial Park actually replaces a caustic soda plant, which will cease operations. Electricity will be supplied to the park from the Thaton power plant. The MOI is also discussing details of a new solar power plant at the park with Norway’s Energeia Asset Management (EAM). The facility will come under the supervision of the Ministry of Electricity and Energy.

Source – Myanmar Times

Twenty-nine automobile companies from Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw are warned by the Supervisory Committee for Motor Vehicle Import for violating rules, and are urged to settle their violation within 30 days. The supervisory committee conducted an inspection tour to check whether or not car sales centers abided by the prescribed rules and regulation. They found 29 companies violating the rules. Those companies are urged to settle their violations within 30 days to the supervisory committee, which regulates vehicle registrations, imports and taxation. If those companies fail to settle this, the import licenses of companies’ directors will be revoked and company registration will be cancelled. The Supervisory Committee for Motor Vehicle Import released an official announcement on 16 October 2017 to the effect that the year 2014 would be set as the limit for the oldest models that can be imported in 2018. Only vehicles with left-hand drive are allowed to be imported, under the new policy.

Source – Global New Light of Myanmar

Foreign businesses have been allowed to invest up to 80 percent in Myanmar’s agriculture sector instead of 49 percent, according to Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC). With this permission, investments in rice mills have increased to a certain degree. More investments have come to seed production businesses as foreigners are allowed to invest fully in them. MIC is expecting more foreign investment in manufacturing value-added products in the country’s agriculture sector. From 1988-1989 to 2017-2018 fiscal years, the value of foreign investment in the agriculture sector amounted to US$390.001 million.

Source – Daily Eleven