Economy and commerce
China eyes high speed railway as part of One Belt, One Road strategy
A super fast railway will connect Myanmar’s cities, cutting the journey time from Muse, Shan State, to Yangon to one hour. That was the claim made by China’s consul general in a recent meeting in Mandalay. Wang Zongying was discussing China’s One Belt One Road project, ...
Japanese MFI starts social loans expansion
Japanese microfinance lender MJI Enterprise has started offering three new types of loan and is expanding into two new areas, its chief executive told The Myanmar Times. Yuko Kato said the firm is now offering education, health-care and solar power loans, in addition to its ...
Myanma railways to ramp up carriage production next year
A new Myanma Railways passenger carriage factory built with Chinese help is expected to be up and running by the end of the next financial year, according to the factory’s general manager. The new Myit Nge factory is being built on a 27-acre plot some ...
KBank targets middle-income earners for its insurance
Kasikornbank is adjusting its back-office processes and training branch employees to better explain and sell insurance products to middle-income earners. Kattiya Indaravijaya, president of KBank, said that the Office of Insurance Commission wants banks to educate customers about insurance products that are not deposit products. ...
Visa bullish on nationwide growth in Myanmar
As only 0.5 per cent of the population has access to electronic payments so far, Visa Inc, the global payments firm, sees a lot of room for improvement in Myanmar. Arturo Planell, Visa country manager for Myanmar, said at a press conference last week that ...
Equal, transparent climate necessary for SMEs: PM
Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has underscored the need to create an equal and transparent climate in order to facilitate the operation of small-and medium-sized enterprises. Speaking at the third national congress of the Vietnam Association of SMEs (VINASME) in Hà Nội on December 3, ...
China is stepping up its global power play
With US president-elect Donald Trump threatening to build a wall on the Mexican border and force Asian allies to increase defence spending, Beijing is busy luring countries across the eastern hemisphere into its orbit. President Xi Jinping, who is consolidating his power at home, is ...
Rice exports tipped to beat state target
Rice shipments out of Thailand are expected to fare better than the government’s target of 10 million tonnes because of price competitiveness and recovering exports of hom mali fragrant rice, shippers say. Even so, that amount would be insufficient to retake the title of world’s ...
GMS nations back investment boost
The region’s transportation network stands to get an investment boost after the The 21st Greater Mekong Subregion Ministerial Conference decided on a new investment plan on December 1. Six ministers from GMS countries — China, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar — endorsed an additional ...
Hạ Long cement factory causing pollution
Many households in northern Quảng Ninh Province’s Hoành Bồ District have been forced to live with smoke and cement dust discharged from Hạ Long Cement Factory for years. This has seriously affected the lives of local residents and their cultivation activities. In the meantime, local ...
