Toshiba Looks to Myanmar Growth as Part of SE Asia Drive

Japanese electronics giant Toshiba is making moves to move into Myanmar’s growing market, as demand for its products in the country’s growing economy continues to expand.
Hiroyuki Sawada, president of Toshiba’s Thailand arm, said that it currently has about 10 infrastructure and power-generation projects underway or negotiation with government and private sector companies in other countries in the region including Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.
Toshiba has made much progress in the Southeast Asia region in recent months, for example setting up a sales operation in Bangkok which would take charge of its infrastructure and power-generations systems, as well as announcing the opening of its Myanmar office.
Before the Bangkok move, all business transactions involving power and infrastructure systems were conducted from the company’s headquarters in Japan.
Additionally, operations for power-system subsidiary have begun in Malaysia and sales offices have been opened in Indonesia as well as Vietnam’s two largest cities Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Toshiba has been operating in the region for the last 44 years, since it opened its Thailand office and is the global market leader in a range of industries, in particular power plants.
Japanese companies have been hugely successful in moving into Myanmar since the country began opening itself up to foreign investment in 2011. A number of companies from Japan, including Hyundai, Nissan and Mitsubishi have began operations in the country while many Japanese companies have been successful in being awarded tenders granted by the government, particularly in the field of infrastructure.