9 June

THE SMEs Development Agen-cy has issued recommendation letters to 63 potential small and medium-sized  enterprises  in  Yangon,  to  help  them  obtain  loans to expand their business-es  during  the  third-year  of  the  Yangon Region government.

Regarding the loans, U My-int Thaung, Yangon Region Min-ister  of  Planning  and  Finance,  said,  “Under  the  guidelines  of  the  Chief  Minister,  the  Yangon  Region government is working towards the availability of loans for  developing  SMEs.  Accord-ing to a survey, there are some 40,000  SMEs  throughout  the  region.  Firstly,  we  shortlisted  over 100 SMEs, which have the greatest potentials to grow their businesses. Of these, the agency issued recommendation lettersto 63 SMEs, as it was found that some enterprises had previously received loans. Further arrange-ments are being made to support the  availability  of  loans  for  the  recommended SMEs.”

A  total  of  102  SMEs,  out  of  the  selected  115  enterprises,  showed  their  interest  in  ob-taining loans through township general  administration  depart-ments  during  the  field  visit  to  their  firms.  After  interviews  with the SMEs’ operators, only 63  enterprises  were  chosen  to  receive recommendations from the agency.

As  part  of  its  efforts  to  de-velop  the  SMEs,  the  Yangon  Region  government  is  seeking  to  obtain  overseas  loans,  such  as  the  two-step  loans,  U  Myint  Thaung added.

In addition, the regional gov-ernment  formed  29  SME  clus-Over 60 SMEs in Yangon recommended for loansters and opened 16 state-owned training schools, plus 119 private training  centers  and  27  handi-craft training centers in Yangon.

By Nyein Nyein
(Translated by Khaing Than-da Lwin)