Name : Nant Su Shwe Sin
Company : Depawaddy Piling Company
Job Title : Managing Director
Professional Career: Engineer
Nant Su Shwe Sin, man- aging director of the De- pawaddy started her life as a business personality from a family-run textile shop at Bogyoke Market. She graduated from the University of Yangon in 1991. She also ran a construction materials shop be- fore initiating Depawaddy Piling company. The company is now a household name in the construction industry and involves in both government and private sector projects in Yangon and other cities.
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MI: Please tell our readers about yourself.
My business sense derives from my family. I have three sisters and my mother always encouraged us to do business. Since we were young, she encouraged and supported us to run businesses by ourselves. When I was around 15, she opened a textile shop at Bogyoke market and let us run the shop by ourselves. It was in 1988, when the conflicts broke out in Yangon University, universities were closed for a while and we shifted our focus into running business. After I get mar- ried, we ran a home construction material shop but my health was affected by some of the materials. So we decided to close the shop and started a piling company.
MI: Can you please explain very brief- ly what a bored pile is?
Bored pile is another type of reinforced con- crete pile, which is used to support high-rise buildings producing heavy vertical loads. Bored pile is a cast-in-place concrete pile- where the bored piles have to be cast on the construction site, while other concrete piles like Spun Pile and Reinforced Concrete Square Pile are precast concrete piles. Bored piling is cast by using bored piling machine which has specially designed drilling tools, buckets and grabs, it’s used to remove the soil and rock. Normally, it can be drilled into 50-metre depth of soil. The advantage of bored piling is, because the drilling method,it produces little vibration and lower noise level.
MI: How do you decide whether it needs bored piling when constructing a building?
We don’t decide. The ground engineers from the construction company does the necessary calculations and decides whether to put a bored pile or not, depending on the soil condition. Piling was not popular in the previous years. Starting from last two years, construction companies started to perform high-rise building projects. Most of the cities in Myanmar are located on the earthquake prone zones. Therefore, piling is essential in constructing high-rise projects, in order to make the buildings much more stable.
MI: Could you share with us Depawad- dy’s present activities in Myanmar?
We are now operating projects in both rural and urban areas. We have various machin- ery for piling like Bored Machine Zoomlion ZR220A, Diesel Hammer Machine, Press Pile Machine, A Frame, and machines used for constructing bridges. We have cooperated in construction of 250 houses at Punn Hlaing housing estable, Punn Hlaing In- ternational Hospital, recreation centre of FMI city, Yoma Bank and neighbourhood center, road construction at FMI city, road construction at Punn Hlaing Golf club. Our past government projects include construc- tion of Ye Ni Paper factory, under ministry of industry No (1), construction at Myaung Ta Ga fertilizer factory No (4), two tank of (6) lakh gallon and precast, admin building, cooling tower, clarified water basin, reaction and sedimentation talk, Jetty and wharf construction and marine piling at thilawa extension Navy Shipyard project.
We are also currently implementing proj- ects for government ministries in Mandaly Division, Shan State and Mon states.
MI: What is your principle of doing business?
My key concept is to make the world a bet- ter place by helping and doing well for the people around us. In my company, I have already given my staff authority to decide anything by themselves. The benefit is we can provide customers with fast services in solving problems, decision making and can provide abroad array of services to respond to every customer’s needs.
We are also devoted to develop the derived businesses around our core business area.
MI: What do you see Myanmar com- paring with other ASEAN countries? Do you think that SMEs in Myanmar are now ready for competition with others in 2015?
It is true that we are quite late behind com- paring with other countries in South East Asia. I do hope that we can easily be at the stage where we are doing as well as other AEC members because we can see the prog- ress in the previous years and the govern- ment is way ahead of the curve on many of these reform programmes. There were many visible changes turned out in recent years. The government has been implementing the National Development Plan with the aim to accelerate growth, achieve equitable and balanced development and to reduce socio – economic development gap between rural and urban areas of the country. A country’s economic development depends on macro- economic stability. So, with the government actions, I do believe that SMEs will be able to compete with full potential in 2015.
MI: What do you see is still lacking for the preparation of ASEAN free trade area in 2015?
Government is making great strides in carrying out necessary reforms for partic- ipating democracy correctly in all sectors and in every corner of the country. After the lifting of most economic sanctions against Myanmar, foreign investors are packing their suitcase to visit our country in pursuit of business prospects. Recent changes in Myanmar can draw the attentions of foreign investors. Based on the foreign investments, domestic companies’ productivity would increase, thereby spurring the country’s economic growth. All countries in the world have agreed that Foreign Direct Investment can push the economic development.
I think this is the right time for Myanmar to have this very important discussion on how to be involved in the AEC and the global community. I am confident that Myanmar will be a leading contributor to ASEAN in- tegration, including economic integration. We are pleased to see the Government and private sector are focused on the road ahead and that other ASEAN Member States are showing strong support. There is still much to be done if ASEAN is to achieve the 2015 AEC target.
MI: How do you feel that foreign com- panies now entering into business here will affect the local workforce, and do you feel that they will bring new opportunities to new businesses?
I expect a great change from now on –in order to be able to compete in the interna- tional arena, every country must make the necessary adjustments, and Myanmar is not different in that context from any oth- er country. The proper way is to meet this challenge, see its positive side by under- standing the benefits that the people and the country will gain, from investing in capacity building and vocational training.
MI: From a business standpoint, what do you feel are the biggest challeng- es facing you and your company in Myanmar in the next 1-3 years?
For local companies, we now have more opportunities of financing, joint ventures and technical transfer from foreign com- panies. We need to play it well; play smart depending on the situation. Challenges are the experience, funding, and international cooperation. We are still weak in those tech- nologies and entrepreneurship trainings.
It still remains an enigma. We are rich in natural resources and have large popula- tion, combined with recent overtures to- ward inclusiveness with the international community offers incomparable promise, but the amount of progress it must sustain to truly develop remains large. Myanmar has signalled to international investors that the country wants to become more business friendly and now welcomes investments that may advance its economy.
MI: What advice can you share with entrepreneurs wanting to start or ex- pand their business into Myanmar?
My advice would be to know yourself i.e., your own strengths and weaknesses to de- termine if you are suitable to live the life of an enterpreneur. Once you have it in your- self, just do it. Act and it will happen.
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