YANGON, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar is privatizing more state-owned enterprises for effective operation, putting 17 more such enterprises under two Myanmar ministries for auction.
According to the government's Privatization Commission Saturday, the 17 enterprises of the Ministry of Livestock Breeding and Fisheries and the Ministry of Commerce's Agricultural Produce Trading to be sold out through competitive bidding include one ice factory, 10 rice mills and six bran oil mills respectively located in the country's Yangon, Ayeyawaddy and Bago divisions.
Invitation of applications for the auction is being extended to individuals and organizations with a deadline date set for Jan. 17,2008, the commission said.
As of November this year, the commission has announced privatization of 22 state-owned enterprises under the two same ministries. These enterprises included similar factories and foodstuff factories respectively situated in the country's Western Rakhine state, Bago and Yangon divisions.
According to a compiled statistics, a total of 237 state-owned enterprises out of 288 proposed from 10 ministries have been privatized in Myanmar as of November this year since the country began implementation of a plan of privatization in 1995.
The privatization plan covering those enterprises nationalized in the 1960s was introduced in a bid to systematically turn them into more effective enterprises, according to the commission.
The plan is carried out by auctioning and leasing or establishing joint ventures with local and foreign investors. These enterprises, covered by the plan, also include textile factories, saw mills, cinemas and hotels.
Myanmar has more than 55,000 factories, of which over 53,000 are private-run, official figures show.
Meanwhile, Myanmar has also planned to privatize its largest state-run gold mine in Kawlin, northwestern Sagaing division, for more effective operation, disclosed the state-run Myanmar Mining Enterprise-2.
The 2.66-square-kilometer Kyaukpahtoe Gold Mine currently operating under the enterprise of the Ministry of Mines will be the first of its kind to be transferred to the private sector, the sources said earlier.
As part of its plan to encourage the private sector to engage in industrial development, Myanmar has established 19 local industrial zones across the country with a total of 9,574 private industrial enterprises already in operation.
Of them, the small industrial enterprises are dominating with 57.48 percent, while the medium ones 25.24 percent and heavy ones 17.28 percent, according to the Myanmar Industrial Development Committee.
Meanwhile, under the Ayeyawaddy-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) agreed by Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand in November 2003, three proposed industrial zones respectively in Myanmar's Myawaddy and Hpa-an in southeastern Kayin state and Mawlamyine in southern Mon state is to be implemented.
Moreover, another plan of developing an exceptional industrial zone, which is the Thilawa Special Industrial Zone in Yangon's Thanlyin township, is expected to be the prospective first full foreign investment zone of its kind, governed by a special law to be introduced soon to attract foreign investment.
Official statistics indicate that the industrial sector contributed about 18 percent to the gross domestic product.
Private sector's contribution to the industrial sector stood at 92.36 percent, statistics also show.
