Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings
|
Native name
|
ျမန္မာ့ စီးပွားရေး ဦးပိုင် လီမိတက် |
|---|---|
| Industry | Conglomerate |
| Founded | February 1990 |
| Founder | Ministry of Defence (Burma) |
| Headquarters | Yangon, Myanmar |
| Owner | Burmese military personnel (60%) Directorate of Defence Procurement (40%) |
| Subsidiaries |
Myawaddy Bank Myawaddy Tours & Travel Myawaddy Enterprises Group Pyininbin Industrial Park |
The Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (Burmese: ပြည်ထောင်စု မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ စီးပွားရေး ဦးပိုင် လီမိတက်; also called Myanma Economic Holding and abbreviated UMEHL or UMEH) is one of two major conglomerates run by the Burmese military (through the Ministry of Defence), the other being the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC). In May 2012, when the United States suspended sanctions against Burma (Myanmar), sanctions against UMEHL were kept in place, because of its affiliation to the Burmese Tatmadaw.
UMEHL also operates Myawaddy Bank and the Burmese military's pension fund. The headquarters are located on Maha Bandula Road in Yangon's Botataung Township.
UMEHL was established in February 1990 under the Special Companies Act as the economic arm of the Burmese military, during a period of privatisation and transition from a socialist command economy, with an initial capital of $1.6 billion USD. UMEHL was established to generate profits from light industry and the trade of commercial goods.
In the 2000s, several state-run enterprises including sugar factories were transferred under the control of UMEHL and MEH. By 2007, UMEHC wholly owns seventy-seven firms, nine subsidiaries and seven affiliated companies. Its shares are available to military units, active duty and retired military and veterans' groups, returning a 30% profit since 1995.
The UMEHL conglomerate is jointly owned by two military departments; 40% of shares are owned by the Directorate of Defence Procurement while 60% of shares are owned by active and veteran defence personnel, including high-ranking military officials of the former ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and veterans organisations. UMEHL is exempt from commercial and profit taxes.
In 2010, UMEHL opened Ruby Mart, a 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) 5-storey shopping complex in Yangon's Kyauktada Township, in a building that once housed the Ministry of Commerce's Myanmar Agricultural Produce Trading.
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Wikipedia