Coca-Cola to set up factory in Yangon

United States's Coca-Cola company will set up a soft drink factory in Myanmar's Yangon in cooperation with Myanmar private Pinya Company, local media reported Tuesday. The American company will run the joint venture business under the name of Coca-Cola Pinya Beverages Myanmar Ltd with the approval of the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) in December last year. It will produce non-alcoholic beverage and purified drinking water, said the Yangon Times. Coca-Cola will inject more than 90 million U.S. dollars over the production. Coca-Cola re-entered the country's market last year after more than 60 years of absence from the Myanmar market following the lifting of U.S. economic sanctions on Myanmar. Previously, Coca-Cola products were indirectly imported to Myanmar through neighboring countries. Coke will invest 100 million U.S. dollars over the next three years and the move will create jobs for nearly 2,000 Myanmar citizens, according to earlier reports. According to Myanmar official statistics, U.S. investment in Myanmar amounted to 243.56 million U.S. dollars in 15 projects, accounting for merely 0.6 percent of the total as of July 2012 since Myanmar opened to such investment in late 1988. The U.S. stands the 9th in Myanmar's foreign investment line-up. Bilateral trade between Myanmar and the U.S. reached 293.64 million U.S. dollars in the fiscal year 2011-12, of which Myanmar' s export to the U.S. amounted to 29.57 million dollars while its import from the U.S. stood at 264.07 million dollars.