EuroCham Myanmar conducted studies on health and tourism sectors with the support of GIZ. European companies, M y a n m a r i n s t i t u t i o n s , Myanmar government and consultants met to discuss the results and the barriers to investment and investment promotion in Myanmar’s Tourism and Healthcare sectors on March 29.
This Public Private Dialogue started in a symposium style with presentations both related to Health and Tourism sectors, and then split in workshops sessions for each sector to produce concrete recommendations for regulatory reforms and other actions to promote further investments.
As CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) countries face similar challenges in missing strategic approaches to investment promotion and a generally weak regulatory investment environment, closer cooperation between the countries to fnd common solutions and learn from each other can be of great beneft. Given the key role that foreign and domestic private sector stakeholders play in the area of investment promotion, improved information of the private sector and intensifed dialogue between public and private sector are among the core strategies to enhance the overall feasibility of investments in the four countries.
The European Chambers of Commerce in the four countries are keen on supporting such regional exchange and enhancing the information flow and transparency on the investment environment and investment procedures in the four countries. Against this background, the European Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar (Eurocham Myanmar) engaged in relevant research and dialogue activities to contribute to an enhancement in the investment environment for Myanmar. In addition, it is willing to work with other European Chambers of Commerce to develop and intensify regional coordination and knowledge exchange between the chambers and public and private sector stakeholders.
The overall objective of this initiative is to create relevant and digestible knowledge for private and public sectors on strategies for investment promotion in Myanmar, including a more detailed analysis of the public private partnership (PPP) environment in the country and disseminate the knowledge and discuss it in suitable Public Private Dialogue Formats on national level to create awareness and momentum for policy change and cooperation between public and private sectors.
E u r o c h a m p r o d u c e d 3 0 p a g e s comprehensive sector studies on investment and PPP environment in Myanmar (legal and regulatory environment, supporting and restrictive factors), focusing on the tourism and healthcare sectors with the aim of identifying/prioritizing specific measures to improve or develop strategies for facilitating investment and PPP in the sector, selected subsectors, or specifc PPP projects/opportunities. Filip Lauwerysen, EuroCham Executive Director opened the Public Private Dialogue event with an opening remarks speech and introduced Dr. Mar Lar Myo Nyunt, Deputy Director General from DICA (Directorate of Investment and Company Administration), who shared data on recent Policy reform, current trends and outlook of investment in Myanmar.
Filip Lauwerysen then presented the remaining challenges for Investors followed by Hasso Anwer, support to IAI Team Leader Myanmar at GIZ who presented the potential of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) as an instrument to encourage investments in the Tourism and Health Sectors. Finally, Dr. Mar Lar Myo Nyunt, Deputy Director General from DICA, Dr. Zaw Myint, Deputy Director General of MoHS, Hla Myint, Director of MoHT, Felix Haas and Alicja Pawlaczuk, Consultants at Synergia critically discussed the opening presentations in a panel debate.
In the afternoon sessions, the attendees separated into two panel discussions: one for Health and another for Tourism to discuss about the sectoral presentations, initiate a debate and then exchange about potentials for investments and priorities for further reform. The closing session gathered all attendees to present each group work results and ended up with the closing remarks of Filip Lauwerysen, EuroCham Executive Director. The results of the study can be found at EuroCham Myanmar website.
