Updated & sources checked:
JETRO: October 2026 / JBIC: FY2025 survey
Investment trends.
Practical conditions.
A perspective on entering Myanmar, informed by recent investment statistics and surveys of Japanese businesses.
Consider market potential alongside procurement, payments and business continuity. Assess each opportunity against a concrete business plan.
Lower total investment. A majority share for manufacturing.
FY2025/26
472.6M
USD million / −31.5% year on year
Excluding the Thilawa Special Economic Zone.Manufacturing
51.9%
Approved investment: USD245.2 million
Manufacturing approvals rose 34.2% year on year.FY2025/26
85
April 2025 – March 2026
Amounts include additional investment; the count covers new approvals.JETRO’s Myanmar trade and investment report, published 2 October 2026; DICA approval statistics. Approved investment is not the same as realised capital inflows.
Approved foreign direct investment
USD million / excluding the Thilawa Special Economic Zone
A perspective from JBIC’s latest survey.
20th, tied
Myanmar received 2 votesPromising medium-term business destinations
Myanmar ranked joint 20th among non-manufacturing respondents for promising destinations over approximately the next three years. This question had 115 respondents, each able to name up to five countries or regions.
Published December 2025, report p.71. This is a non-manufacturing ranking. The small number of responses cannot be treated as a measure of the country’s overall appeal or investment returns.
Turn potential into practical questions.
JETRO reports that import controls, foreign exchange allocation and overseas remittance restrictions affect raw-material procurement and payments.[1]
The following are our planning perspectives, informed by the published sources.
Who is your customer?
Define customers, price points and sales channels, then test demand assumptions locally.
Can operations work?
Map the necessary procedures and alternatives for imports, payments, electricity and logistics.
Can the business endure?
Model cash recovery and working capital, and establish criteria for expansion or reassessment.
SOURCES & DATESSources and reference periods.
Sources and reference periods.
- [1]JETRO · 02 OCT 2026
Myanmar trade and investment report (Japanese) ↗
Foreign direct investment, import controls and foreign exchange management. Investment statistics cover FY2025/26: April 2025 to March 2026.
- [2]JBIC · DEC 2025
FY2025 survey of overseas business operations (Japanese PDF) ↗
Promising destinations for non-manufacturing businesses: p.71, figures 4–1 and 4–2. The survey publication year differs from the investment statistics’ reference period.
Sources checked on 12 October 2026. This page uses the latest publications identified at that time.