Suvarn cautions against business rush to Myanmar

Published: 6 Oct 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: Business

Businesses should not rush to invest in Myanmar, as it will take two or three decades for the country to develop, warns former deputy commerce minister Suvarn Valaisathien.

Speaking yesterday, he said Laos is a more suitable investment destination for small and medium-sized enterprises due to that country's lower labour costs and adequate infrastructure.

Electricity in Laos is cheap, as the country has many dams and a small number of industries.

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khunbj
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Discussion 3 : 06 Oct 2012 at 13.363
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Well, the only problem we know until now and that is factual is that Thai nurses and medical staff are being headhunted to Singapore and so is staff in the financial sector all for much higher wages than in Thailand, not only for Singaporean companies but for Hong Kong companies as well, this is putting an upward pressure on the wages in general, which is not a bad thing. The burmese and cambodian laborers have been here for many years in their millions so nothing will happen there, the worst thing would be if all these people started to migrate back to their countries , that would drive up salaries even further because there would be lack of hands to do the jobs.
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boons
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Discussion 2 : 06 Oct 2012 at 12.042
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Or is Thailand slowly beginning to realize that Burma represents a real problem for Thai salary and employment levels? The initial hope of all new markets is that they provide a comparative advantage of cheap labor, allowing for expansion -- but the end result is always deflationary for the public as the availability of cheaper labor puts downward pressure on domestic salaries.

Watch Thai unemployment carefully post-ASEAN. The wake up call is coming.
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bern1005
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Discussion 1 : 06 Oct 2012 at 11.261
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Absolutely right, the "advantages" of Dawei for Italian-Thai Development PLC are that taxpayers will subsidise them via paying for infrastructure (and now perhaps by a joint partnership?). Other companies will just get high risks and uncertain returns.
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Suvarn cautions against business rush to Myanmar | Bangkok Post: business