Myanmar saw an inflow of $53.45 million worth of contracted foreign direct investment in September, bringing the total FDI into the country to over $44.21 billion, recently released figures from the Central Statistical Organization show.
The FDIs in September came in from nine countries, with manufacturing sector receiving the highest amount of investment worth $37.6 million. Agricultural sector saw the second-highest FDI inflow of $6.61 million, while $5.2 million came into tourism and $4.04 million to mining.
Hong Kong ranked first during the month by pouring in $12.45 million, followed by the UK, South Korea and France.
As of August last year, China had invested $14.19 billion in Myanmar, while Hong Kong channelled in $6.45 billion, South Korea $3.04 billion, Singapore $2.44 billion, Malaysia $1.63 billion and Japan $274 million.
The current quasi-civilian government enacted a new foreign investment law in November 2012 in a bid to lure more foreign direct investment into the formerly-isolated country.
However, soaring real estate prices and decrepit infrastructure has been a major headache in recent times for investors.
According to Myanmar Economic Indicators released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Myanmar’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.5 percent in 2013, with consumer price inflation at 7.3 percent.
IMF said Myanmar’s GDP is projected to grow 6.2 percent in 2014, with consumer price inflation easing to 6.6 percent.
