Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Friday becomes the first Japanese leader to visit Myanmar in 36 years as his nation’s companies seek to invest in the former dictatorship, which has some of the cheapest labor in Asia.

About 4,000 Japanese executives per month visited Myanmar last year, the second most popular destination behind Thailand, according to Masaki Takahara, executive managing director of the Japan External Trade Organization’s Yangon office. Cheap labor and an untapped market of more than 60 million people are attracting Japanese companies, he said.

“Many businessmen are rushing into Myanmar,” Takahara, who plans to attend some events with Abe, said Thursday by phone. “There is not a market like this in the whole world right now.”

Abe’s visit comes as President Thein Sein returns from the U.S., where he met President Barack Obama on the first such visit for a Myanmar leader in half a century. Thein Sein’s moves to allow more political freedom and open the economy following five decades of military rule have helped end the country’s international isolation, attracting companies such as Ford Motor Co., Coca-Cola Co. and Visa Inc.

Myanmar has the cheapest wages in Asia, according to a Jetro survey published in December, which showed the annual total pay burden for a worker in manufacturing totaling $1,100 per year. That compares with $1,478 in Bangladesh, $2,602 in Vietnam and $6,704 in neighboring Thailand. 


(Bloomberg)