Types of Business Allowed in the SEZ

As the Thilawa SEZ is a Special Economic Zone which is different from industrial zone or estate, any kind of businesses can be located except those that are prohibited. These business may include those that hold the goods on account of the foreign supplier for dispatches as per the owner's instruction and for trading with or without labeling, packing or re-packing without any processing, and also the businesses that undertake the refrigeration for the purpose of storage and assembly of Complete Knocked Down or Semi Knocked Down kits.

For the sake of clarity, the businesses that are located in the Thilawa SEZ may include the following.

The businesses that may be located in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone – 

(a) Trading;
(b) Real estate development including housing, hotels, shopping malls;
(c) Engineering and design;
(d) Warehousing and logistics services;
(e) Research and development services;
(f) Computer software services;
(g) Information enabled services such as back-office operations, call centers, content development or data processing, human resource services, insurance claim processing, legal data bases, medical transcription, payroll, remote maintenance, revenue accounting support centers and website services, animation or graphic information system services;
(h) Distribution services including wholesale and retail services;
(i) Financial services;
(j) Professional services excluding legal and account services;
(k) Long term/short term rental/leasing services;
(l) Other business services including consultation;
(m) Construction and related services;
(n) Educational services;
(o) Environmental protection services;
(p) Hospital and other human health services;
(q) Tourism and travel related services;
(r) Recreational and entertainment;
(s) Cultural and sporting services;
(t) Transport services and services auxiliary to all mode of transport.

Types of Business Not Allowed or Approved in SEZ 

In the Special Economic Zone, the following types of Business shall not be allowed –

(a) Production, processing of munitions including arms, weapons, explosives for military use, etc. and services rendering for military-related purposes; (b) Production, processing or services hazardous to the environment and ecology; (c) Recycling industries that will render the waste management services to the industries outside Myanmar; (d) Production, processing of psychoactive substances and narcotic substances; (e) Importation or production, processing of poisonous chemicals, agriculture pesticide, insecticide and other goods by using chemical substances, prohibited by international regulations or by the World Health Organization, that affect the public health and environment; (f) Business utilizing the industrial waste imported from abroad; (g) Production, processing of prohibited substances which may destroy ozone layer; (h) Production, processing and sale of the good made of asbestos; (i) Production, processing of polluted substances hazardous to the human health and environment

The proposal for the following business activities shall not be approved:

(a) Recycling of plastic scrap or solid waste if the proposed project does not comply with the international standard of recycling and waste management systems;
(b) Reprocessing of garments or used clothing or secondary textiles materials and other recyclable textile materials into clipping or rags or industrial wipers or shoddy wool or yam or blankets of shawls;
(c) Reconditioning, repairing and re-engineering of import of other used goods for recycling;
(d) Export of special chemicals, organisms, materials, equipment and technologies unless it fulfills the conditions indicated in the existing laws and regulations of the Union.