Iwatani is set to become the first overseas industrial gas company to engage in air gas production and gas related equipment in the budding Myanmar market.
Establishing a 100% owned local company to be incorporated in August (2015), Iwatani will begin preparations to start its business operations in March 2018.
Myanmar lies on the west side of the Indochinese Peninsula, bordered by Thailand, China and Bangladesh, and is a market benefiting from increasing democracy and infrastructure development. The country recorded a GDP growth rate of 7.5% in 2013 and, with a population of more than 50 million, expansive geography and low-cost resource, is attracting increased investment as ‘the last frontier’ of Asia.
With the recent trend for Japanese industrial gas and equipment companies seeking growth opportunities overseas in the wider Southeast Asian market, Myanmar therefore offers strong investment potential. But the interest is two-fold, The Gas Review (TGR) notes, with the Myanmar government keen to encourage investment. President Thein Sein and Minister of National Planning and Economic Development, Kan Zaw, directly requested Iwatani Chairman Akiji Makino enter the country’s gases business when a delegation of Kansai Economic Federation paid a visit to the Myanmar Government earlier this year (February).
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