Case Study On Thilawa Special Economic Zone In Myanmar

The purpose of this research is the Thilawa Special Economic Zone in Myanmar and its further development.In fact,Myanmar is a resource rich country in South East Asia and its human resource index is medium category.However,Myanmar has listed members of the Least Developed Country since 1987.Longstanding economic and social hardship happened1988 general uprising in Myanmar and the Army took the State power and changed market oriented economic system.The Army Generals tried to figure out economic sanction imposed to Myanmar and the successful implementation of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in China is a good example in order to uplift economic and social status of Myanmar and initiated setting up Special Economic Zones in Myanmar namely Thilawa,Kyauk phyu and Dawei Special Economic Zones.Among these,the Thilawa Special Economic Zone is most successful one with the PPP /JV model and its reached second phase of construction.According to the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration of Myanmar,on the basis of approved projects,Foreign Direct Investment in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone exceed its cumulative investment target of USD 6 billion in early 2018.In Myanmar,foreign direct investment inflows retreated by 18 percent to USD 3.6billion,major foreign investors slowed their investment,with the humanitarian crisis on Rakhine State,the successful implementing of the Thilawa SEZ and recently signed agreements regarding to establish Korea-Myanmar Industrial Complex and China-Myanmar Economic Corridor revealed that the government has interested to reintegrate the existing SEZs and further setting up Industrial park and Border SEZs with Republic of Korea and People Republic of China.There are altogether five chapters composed of this thesis.The first chapter is the introduction of the research,the introduction,the research background and the research problem,the research objectives,the research question,the research methodology.The second chapter is about the literature review on the development of the SEZ projects on China,GMS countries and in observing themes of development and ideas of establishing SEZs.Finally,it explains the literature gap of the research.The third chapter is a discussion about development history of Thilawa SEZ.Firstly,it explains background knowledge about Myanmar's political phenomenon after 1988 uprising that reflects on its way on the current democratic transition.Secondly,it presents why Myanmar chooses the way to development projects especially the SEZs.Then,it is presentingsuccessful factors of the Thilawa SEZ,a profile of the Thilawa SEZ project how it was initiated during the military government regime time including the background of the project,and the process that implement for further development.In so doing,the author researched based on analysis of attractiveness evaluation indicators namely institutional structure and its administrative processes,on-site infrastructure,off-site infrastructure,social infrastructure,facilities offered,trade facilitation,and incentive offer by using interview method and input from government,think-tank and internet sources.The fourth chapter is the factors analysis on the two SEZs namely Dawei and Kyauk phyu Special Economic Zones in Myanmar.In compare with successful factors of the Thilawa SEZ,it realizes the causative factors for further implementing of the Kyauk phyu and Dawei SEZs.The fifth chapter is the conclusion of the thesis and recommendation for Thilawa SEZ.It summarizes the previous chapters and presents the critical findings of the research.