American coffee franchise Starbucks informed Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) that they have decided to suspend their investments in Myanmar, according to Director-General U Aung Naing Oo of Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA).

On May 12, the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) endorsed Coffee Concepts Myanmar Ltd (CCM), a wholly foreign-owned food and beverage services provider. CCM is the operator of Starbucks in Myanmar, according to the MIC. CCM was registered with the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration in December 2017, a DICA document reveals.

Starbucks, which was founded in 1971, has opened 27000 stores around the world, including locations in Asia in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It had planned to open up at least 20 stores across Myanmar.

Source: Daily Eleven

Myanmar National Airlines (MNA) is planning to introduce new flights to Chengdu and Wuhan in China, according to officials. The MNA, formerly known as Union of Burma Airways (UBA) and founded in September 15 1948, reached its 70^th anniversary in this year.

The MNA is currently flying to Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Gaya and Chiang Mai and 28 other domestic towns, and it will extend its flight schedules to Chengdu and Wuhan in China in this year, said its CEO U Than Tun during a ceremony to mark its 70^th anniversary held at Novotel Hotel in Yangon on September 15.

The MNA helped to establish a major maintenance facility at Yangon International Airport with a 100-day scheme under the new government era. The maintenance factory will be awarded a certificate from European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) during this month.

Source: Daily Eleven

Zozam Microfinance Company (ZMF) in Myanmar cooperated with Oradian’s international microfinance organization to penetrate Myanmar market.

Oradian implemented its award winning Cloud basic technology together with ZMF throughout August and met with specialists from the management and user protection field to train its staffs and to assess its business process.

Clients of the ZMF include weavers, market stall keepers, butchers, rickshaw drivers, tailors and hairdressers and 85% of the clients are women. Oridan is organized with over 65 financial organizations and operating in nine countries including Philippines and Nigeria, and giving financial services to over 2 million clients.

Source: Daily Eleven

Myanmar Insurance (MI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Japan, Germany and Malaysia to cooperate on insurance services for the construction of one million housing units to be developed by the Ministry of Construction, at Myanmar Insurance on August 28.
Dr Sandar Oo, Managing Director of Myanmar Insurance said that the country needs to develop housing projects. Insurance companies will help people own apartments. The government will develop one million apartments. State-owned Myanmar Insurance will offer insurance services to those who want to buy apartments. They will have to pay money in installments to buy the apartments. If the main breadwinner unfortunately dies while still paying for the apartment and he or she becomes disable forever, Myanmar Insurance will continue paying money to insured companies. They will have the ownership of apartment, she said.
DI Tokyo from Japan will grant loans to house buyers via the Construction and Housing Development Bank (CHDB). The MoU signing with foreign insurance companies will contribute a lot to the country’s economic development and housing ownership of people.

Source: Daily Eleven

AYA BANK, the second-largest private bank in Myanmar, is tapping software giant Microsoft to bring in cloud technology aimed at boosting staff productivity and improving their services to customers. U Myint Zaw, managing director of AYA Bank, said that the Microsoft Office 365 software package will help the bank achieve its ambitious goals.
AYA expects all the operations to become faster than ever, as every single application can be accessible from anywhere in the country and thanks to Microsoft’s cloud technology, believing all internal operations will be faster than ever, resulting in better customer service.
Established in 2010, AYA Bank has 234 branches serving 1.4 million customers. As of September 2017, the bank had 4.7 trillion kyats in customer deposits and 150 billion kyats in shareholders’ equity. The top 100 depositors represent about 6 per cent of total deposits, underlining the public’s confidence in the bank, U Myint Zaw said.

Source : Myanmar Alinn

Ooredoo Myanmar’s mobile money service, M-Pitesan, launched Bulk Disbursement System on August 28, so users who have to do many payments can now make faster transfers, according to officials.

The new service aims to reduce the transferring fee, to promote the quality and effectiveness of the service, and to improve the security of the payments among the users. M-Pitesan is the new way to secure the cash and it is the quickest way to transfer money.
Ooredoo Myanmar cooperated with HelpAge International Myanmar for that new service, and aimed to help the elder people. HelpAge International Myanmar is the international NGO which help the elder people from Myanmar to have privilege rights and avoid from discrimination.

Source : Myanmar Alinn

The fourth domestic airline has wind up as aviation businesses struggle to turn a profit in an industry overcrowded with competitors, amid high fuel price, lacklustre demand and lack of government support.
Air Mandalay, which had been in service for 24 years, has stopped all flight schedules and charter services in order to restructure the whole business, starting from September 4, the airline’s spokesperson Daw May Thandar Win told The Myanmar Times yesterday. Air Mandalay is the fourth domestic airline to be suspended after Air Bagan, Apex airline and FMI Air, while six domestic businesses remain.
The company stated in a press release that it “has been extremely difficult” to operate in the country and the situation has worsened since 2011, when a number of new airline licenses were approved to operate in the country resulting in too many domestic carriers, oversupply of seats and intense competition, with airlines suffering heavy losses.

Source : Myanmar Times

Myanmar National Airlines (MNA) suffers a loss of over Ks-18 billion during three fiscal years after the transformation into the company, according the report by the Joint Public Account Committee findings on the Union Auditor-General’s finding report and comment for 2016-2017 FY.

The MNA, which started its operations outside of the Union fund since 2013-2014 FY, has to take over the Myanmar Airways’ money as well as moveable and immoveable properties and salaries of retired staffs that moved to other departments. There was a loss of Ks-8.962 billion in 2015-2016 FY, Ks-5.695 billion in 2016-2017 FY and Ks-3.401 billion in 2017-2018 FY.

The MNA still suffer losses but the rate of losses are declining. Currently, the MNA is offering domestic flight services to 27 towns and oversea flight schedules by 15 flights. According to CEO Capt. Than Tun, MNA has to pay over US$ 4.3 mil a month for aircraft rental fees and instalment payment. If the state invests to buy aircrafts, loss will be reduced and MNA would support state budget. MNA currently stands third position in highest occupancy rate airlines among 28 airlines which operate in Myanmar.

Source: Daily Eleven

One Stop Service Centre (OSSC) regarding gold and related jewelry import/export will be opened at Culture Valley in People’s Park, Yangon, on 3 September. The OSSC includes an appraising team and related departments. After the Ministry of Commerce announced import and export permit of gold and related jewelry products on 22 January, preparations were made for an OSSC to be opened. Gold export and import might vary depending on current supply and demand. According to current market condition, gold import will possibly well.

Traders are currently focusing on import. Most of the gold entrepreneurs expressed their interest in import. However, only 1-2kg of gold will be initially imported. If everything turns out well, all members of Yangon Region Gold Entrepreneurs Association are likely to start importing gold, said U Myo Myint, chair of this association.

Source: Global New Light of Myanmar

My Tel rolled out FTTH service for SMEs and households on 15th August. It offers 3 kinds of monthly package:

 Speed 5Mbps+2Mbps (Bonus) with 49,000 MMK,

 Speed 10 Mbps+4Mbps (Bonus) with 89,000 MMK,

 Speed 15 Mbps+6Mbps (Bonus) 122,000 MMK.

Bonus bandwidth plan is valid to till September 22nd. According to My Tel website, 6-month subscribers will not need to pay initial installation fee. For 1-year subscribers, they can enjoy not only free installation fee but also additional one-month bonus. My Tel has 24 hour customer service hotline for its customers, and that service is only available in Yangon area for the moment. The company has a plan to extend such kind of customer service to other State and Regions.

Source: My Tel Website