Matthews Asia: Myanmar, The Last Frontier

Myanmar, The Last Frontier by Taizo Ishida, Matthews Asia

For me, Myanmar is the last of Asia’s frontier countries, and it represents an enormous investment opportunity. I first visited Yangon, one of Myanmar’s largest cities, with my colleague in June 2013 when global consumer companies were racing to set up there before their competitors arrived. I remember seeing Coca Cola’s CEO at the airport celebrating with his employees after the firm resumed bottling operations in the country for the first time in six decades. Obtaining a hotel reservation in Myanmar those days was difficult. Even as the country was beginning to open up to foreign investment, some essential infrastructure, like banking and modern telecommunications, was totally absent.

Development in...