“In my opinion Muse is the safest place in all of Myanmar to do business,” said Chinese businessman Zheng Mu Gang, 31. Mr Zheng owns four cellphone shops in Muse, a border town in northern Shan State on the main trade route with China.
“Muse is one of Myanmar’s main economic hot spots,” said Mr Zheng, who has been living in the bustling border trade town for four years. “If there was conflict here, the whole Myanmar economy would be ruined. That’s why I think Muse is the safest location in Myanmar and is part of the reason why I chose Muse to start my business.”
The Nikkei Asian Review has reported that Myanmar’s official trade through Muse reached US$3.8 billion in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, just over half the value of Myanmar’s total trade with China. Seven years ago, the combined value of imports and exports passing through Muse was less than US$1 billion.
Mr Zheng became aware of the market potential in Myanmar while he was running a wholesale cellphone business at Jiegao, the first big Chinese town across the border from Muse.
“The amount of cellphones my Myanmar customers were buying to sell when they returned to Myanmar started to grow tremendously,” he said.
But Mr Zheng also learned a lesson selling wholesale to Myanmar businesses.
“I would provide loans that they could repay after selling their product. But often I didn’t get my money back. So I thought: why not open my own shop in Myanmar?” (Courtesy of Frontier Myanmar)
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