The panels will be joined by business leaders, senior officials and international experts, facilitating discussions between stakeholders from Europe and Myanmar on economic issues. The areas will cover energy, construction, health, logistics, digital innovation, automotive, anti-illicit, legal, agrobusiness and garments. EuroCham will also issue its second White-Book, a bundle of position papers written by industries themselves.

Filip Lauwerysen, EuroCham’s chief executive, told The Myanmar Times that this year covers a few more industry groups compared to last year, including CSR, tax-affairs and beyond.

“This means the conference will touch on a much wider part of European investment and give all participants an extensive outline of the bottlenecks European investors and foreign investors in general, are facing and how we can tackle these challenges through improved cooperation with the Myanmar authorities; assisting the Myanmar authorities in achieving their economic development by applying best practice in other ASEAN countries.”

He added that the whitebook provides the government with direct and unfiltered access to the needs of industries to attract further investment and help the people here in Myanmar to convince their headquarters, their shareholders to increase their business expansion plans for Myanmar.

“EuroCham will discuss all aspects affecting European business, and provide the participants with an overview of the bottlenecks to growth and also recommendations on how to resurrect much-needed investor confidence.”

The chamber seeks to encourage investments not only in major cities, but also in regions plighted by instability, including Rakhine, Shan and Kachin states.

“Not only the centre of Myanmar, but also the regions affected by instability, such as Rakhine, Shan and Kachin are in need of more investment.

“History has proven over and over that the best remedy to conflict-stricken areas comes through investment and trade. We want to show all parties that Europe is here to stay and Europe is here to invest and support,” Mr Lauwerysen explained.

Source: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/europe-led-economic-forum-aims-resurrect-much-needed-investor-confidence.html