Heineken announced on Monday that it will tap Myanmar’s beer market through a joint venture with privately-owned Alliance Brewery Company (ABC), as its license has been approved by the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) to operate domestically.

Heineken’s entry into Myanmar’s market follows an announcement from the MIC at the beginning of the year that it would grant four licenses to international brewers.

Myanmar President Thein Sein announced on Sunday that the number of local and foreign investments has increased fivefold between 2011-212 and 2012-2013.

Speaking at the Mandalay Region rural development and socioeconomic improvement discussion, he said there was US$1.4 billion of foreign investment across 94 industries, and more than 1.1 trillion kyat ($1.2 billion) of local investment in 65 industries, according to a report in state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar.

THRESHOLD DROPPED: Under the new proposal, the TAIEX reaching the 8,500 point mark would no longer trigger imposition of the tax on individual investors The government plans to revise the capital gains tax on securities investments during this legislative session, to drop the 8,500-point imposition threshold for most individual investors, a special task force said after a meeting yesterday.

The task force said the revision would boost the local bourse and it had reached consensus with the Ministry of Finance and the Financial Supervisory Commission on the move.

The government’s plan to develop “free economic pilot zones” might begin in July, Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Minister Kuan Chung-ming said yesterday.

Officials are currently gathering opinions from various government agencies, a process that may come to an end later this month, Kuan told business leaders at a luncheon. The council plans to submit the reform plan to the Cabinet next month so it may go into practice in July, at the earliest, he said.

“The schedule shows the government is serious about revitalizing the economy,” which may not recover to the state it was in prior to the global financial crisis of 2008 due to structural changes in the economic landscape at home and abroad, Kuan said.