The Myanmar Economic Corporation (; abbreviated MEC) is one of the two major conglomerates and

holding companies A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own stock of other companies ...

operated by the

Burmese military The Tatmadaw, also known as the Sit-Tat, is the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence (Myanmar), Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air For ...

, the other being the

Myanma Economic Holdings Limited Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited (, abbreviated MEHL or ဦးပိုင် in Burmese) is one of two major conglomerates run by the Burmese military (through the Ministry of Defence), the other being the Myanmar Economic Corp ...

. The U.S. Treasury Dept. reports that MEC "is a holding company with businesses in the mining, manufacturing, and telecommunications sectors, as well as companies that supply natural resources to the military, and operate factories producing goods for use by the military."Nunley, Christian
"U.S. sanctions companies that back Myanmar military following coup,"
March 25, 2021, updated March 26, 2021,

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

, retrieved March 29, 2021"Treasury Sanctions Military Holding Companies in Burma,"
March 25, 2021,

U.S. Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and ...

, retrieved March 29, 2021 As of August 2022, Nyo Saw is the chairman of MEC. Founded in 1997 by Lt General Tin Hla to establish profitable

heavy industries Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...

that can provide the Burmese military access to supplies of important materials (e.g. cement and rubber), MEC's operations are shrouded in secrecy. Revenues generated from MEC have strengthened the Burmese military's autonomy from civilian oversight, and has contributed to the military's financial operations in "a wide array of international human rights and humanitarian law violations."

Ownership

MEC is owned by the Burmese military, and is influenced by senior

Tatmadaw The Tatmadaw, also known as the Sit-Tat, is the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include ...

leaders. Along with Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings (UMEHL), MEC is widely observed to generate most of the Burmese military's operating revenue, which are not held accountable to the Burmese parliament, the

Pyidaungsu Hluttaw The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw ( , ) is the ''de jure'' national-level bicameral legislature of Myanmar established by the 2008 National Constitution. The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw is made up of two houses, the 224-seat Amyotha Hluttaw, or "House of Nation ...

Leadership

MEC is led by high-ranking Burmese military officials, including members of the ruling military junta, the

State Administration Council The State Administration Council (; abbreviated SAC or နစက) is the military junta currently governing Myanmar, established by Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Min Aung Hlaing following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, February 2021 c ...

, including

Moe Myint Tun Moe Myint Tun (; ; born 24 May 1968) is a Burmese army general who served as a member of Myanmar's State Administration Council (SAC). He was appointed to the SAC on 2 February 2021, in the aftermath of the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état. Early life ...

, a MEC director. The former Vice-President of Burma,

Tin Aung Myint Oo '' Thihathura'' Tin Aung Myint Oo ( ; born 29 May 1949) is a Burmese former military official and politician who was the First Vice President of Myanmar from 30 March 2011 to 1 July 2012. He is also chairman of Burmese Trade Council, having bee ...

, is a former Myanmar Economic Corporation chairman.

Business interests

In 2009, MEC had 21 factories, including 4 steel plants, a bank, a cement plant and an insurance monopoly. Its headquarters are located on Ahlon Road in

Yangon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

Ahlon Township Ahlone Township ( ; also Ahlon Township) is located in the western part of Yangon. The township comprises eleven wards, and shares borders with Sanchaung township and Kyimyindaing township in the north, the Yangon river in the west, Dagon townshi ...

. MEC has remained on the United States' list of sanctioned companies due to its affiliation to the Burmese military. MEC also operates Innwa Bank, one of Burma's few banking chains. A subsidiary of MEC, Star High Public Company, owns 28% of

Mytel Mytel is a major telecommunications company in Myanmar (Burma), as one of four national carriers. Mytel is operated as a joint venture between the Tatmadaw, Burmese military and Viettel, which is owned by Vietnam's Ministry of Defence (Vietnam), M ...

, one of Myanmar's largest telecommunications company, in a joint venture with

Viettel The Military Industry and Telecoms Group (), Trade name, trading as Viettel or Viettel Group (), is a Vietnamese State-owned enterprise, state-owned multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications, technology and manufacturing C ...

. MEC is operated under the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

's Directorate of Defence Procurement (DPP), with its private shares exclusively owned by active-duty military personnel. The corporation's capital was established through revenues generated from the public auctioning of state-owned enterprises throughout the 1990s. Through joint ventures with foreign companies and mergers with smaller companies, MEC has positioned itself as one of Burma's largest corporations. In 2000, MEC launched Cybermec Information Technology Center, an IT venture.

History

Following the February,

2021 Myanmar coup d'état A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when Elections in Myanmar, democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw, Myanmar's milita ...

, in which the Tatmadaw seized power from the elected civilian government, the United States sanctioned MEC, March 25, 2021, for the company's association with, and support of, the Tatmadaw, -- impounding U.S.-held assets of the company, and forbidding U.S. nationals from doing business with them.

Ownership

Leadership

Business interests

History

References

See also