28 Business
TRADE MARK CAUTION
NOTICE is hereby given that PPK Holding, LLC( a Delaware Limited Liability Company) a company organized under the laws of U. S. A and having its principal office at Carlson Parkway, P. O. Box 59159, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55459-8249 U. S. A. is the Owner and Sole Proprietor of the following trademarks:-
( Reg: No. IV / 3862 / 2010)
( Reg: No. IV / 3863 / 2010)
in respect of:-“ Hotel, bar and restaurant services; services for the reservation of rooms in Int’ l Class 43”
Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said trademarks or other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with according to law.
U Kyi Win Associates for PPK Holding, LLC
( a Delaware Limited Liability Company) P. O. Box No. 26, Yangon. Phone: 372416 Dated: 8 th July, 2013
TRADE MARK CAUTION
The Procter & Gamble Company, of One Procter & Gamble Plaza, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, U. S. A. is the
Owner and Sole Proprietor of the following trademarks:- WHISPER
( Reg: No: IV / 8272 / 2006)
in respect of:-“ Sanitary napkins, tampons, menstrual pads and shields, feminine hygiene products”
( Reg: No. IV / 8269 / 2006)
SAFEGUARD
( Reg: No. IV / 8268 / 2006)
the above two trademarks are in respect of:-“ Soaps for personal use, including soaps having deodorant, anti-septic and anti-bacterial properties, cleaning and cleansing preparations, toilet soaps, bath soaps”.
PROCTER & GAMBLE( Reg: No. IV / 8265 / 2006)
in respect of:-“ Bleaching preparations and other substances for laundry use; cleaning, polishing, scouring and abrasive preparations; soaps; perfumery, cosmetics, hair care products, dentifrices; Pharmaceutical, sanitary and veterinary preparations, food for babies, dietetic substances adapted for medical use; Paper, cardboard and goods made from these materials, printed matter; Meat, fish, poultry and game; preserved, dried and cooked fruits and vegetables; jellies, jams; milk and milk products; edible oils and fats; salad dressings; preserves; Coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, rice, tapioca, sago, artificial coffee, flour and preparations made from cereals, bread, pastry and confectionery, mustard, vinegar, sauces, spices”.
ZEST
( Reg: No. IV / 8274 / 2006) in respect of:-“ Hand and bath soap”.
Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the said trademarks whatsoever will be dealt with according to law.
U Kyi Win Associates for The Procter & Gamble Company P. O. Box No. 26, Yangon. Phone: 372416 Dated: 8 th July, 2013
28 Business
SPECIAL SERIES
THE MYANMAR TIMES JULY 8- 14, 2013
Focus on poverty reduction
In the fourth article in a six-part series, the chairman of CSR Asia discusses how businesses can be profitable in Myanmar by including low-income people in their expanding value chains
RICHARD WELFORD
rwelford @ csr-asia. com
ONE of the most challenging aspects of designing a strategy around CSR in Myanmar is to identify ways a company can integrate an inclusive business approach into its planning. Inclusive business refers to the commercially viable and scalable incorporation of low-income populations into an organisation’ s value chain. It expands access to goods and services to poor people and provides livelihood opportunities for vulnerable and marginalised groups.
Inclusive strategies allow businesses to achieve profits by engaging in poverty alleviation. The inclusion of low-income segments into a company’ s value chain is, in fact, essential for achieving sustainable development in Myanmar.
CSR Asia’ s responsible and inclusive business framework for Myanmar identifies three areas where a business can be part of the value-creation processes that benefit the business itself as well as poor and marginalised communities: by offerring jobs, establishing a new customer market segment and creating business linkages along the value chain.
Job creation: Poor people may be poor, but they are not stupid and they can become part of a skilled and competitive workforce within any business, if they are provided with appropriate training and skills development.
For a responsible business, employment opportunities can aim to provide people that have little to no income with the capacity to improve their livelihoods.
In order for the poor to become a valuable source for recruitment, responsible businesses will play a part in overcoming skills and capacity gaps through training and human-resource development. Poor people are simply a valuable workforce in need of investment.
In engaging with poor people, often with non-traditional educational backgrounds, businesses will be rewarded with enthusiastic and loyal workers if they effectively manage the process of successfully integrating them into the workforce. Responsible companies will also address broader education issues within corporate training initiatives.
New market segments: Responsible businesses will examine how they can create new market segments targeting lowincome populations by providing them with affordable goods and services.
Although poor people may have low incomes, collectively they provide an important market to be tapped if appropriate goods and services are designed and distributed to them. New products and services will also offer poor people opportunities to be part of distribution networks serving rural areas that traditional distribution networks fail to reach.
Making poor people a new target consumer segment requires companies to carefully think about the goods and services that are really needed. In particular, responsible businesses will try to improve their access to goods and services in areas such as health, food and nutrition, water, sanitation,
Poor people are simply a valuable workforce in need of investment.
The Fine Print Legal & tax insight
housing, banking and insurance.
Business linkages: Different parts of the value chain, including the sourcing of raw materials, production, distribution and sales, provide inclusive business opportunities through forging new linkages with people and other businesses. Poor people can be included in value-chain activities as suppliers, producers and distributors.
Inclusive approaches will help them establish or strengthen their own businesses and support entrepreneurial activities. Responsible businesses will seek out opportunities along the value chain to include poor and marginalised people. They will provide help with developing entrepreneurial skills and business start-ups that can support their own value chains. They will place a particular emphasis on women entrepreneurs who have a track record of success in the region.
With so many inclusive business opportunities in Myanmar, companies will need to carefully assess how they can use their capabilities to best create innovative solutions for poor people.
Three industries are particularly promising: agriculture, tourism and financial services.
Agriculture is one of Myanmar’ s most important industries, accounting for 36 percent of GDP according to the Asian Development Bank. Development of this industry also targets the population that is most affected by poverty.
Tourism is growing by 30pc annually, and 1.3 million tourists are expected to visit Myanmar this year. Responsible tourism is still underdeveloped, but it has the potential to create wealth, benefit those in need and protect the environment.
Access to financial products, bank accounts and credit for low-income households and small enterprises accelerates growth. Providing a safe place to save, cheap and easy ways to transfer money, affordable insurance and loans to invest in small enterprises and productive activities will drive development and enlarge markets.
Robert Welford is the chairman of CSR Asia, which recently published“ Responsible and Inclusive Business in Myanmar”. The report is available at www. csr-asia. com.
Obtaining a mining licence for Myanmar’ s world-class reserves
SEBASTIAN PAWLITA sebastian @ pwplegal. com NAN KHIM KHAM nan @ pwplegal. com
APART from gemstones, Myanmar sits on world-class reserves of metals such as tin, tungsten, gold and copper. The Ministry of Mines welcomes foreign investment, but so far big international players have not made inroads. This leaves room for medium-sized companies to capitalise on the substantial opportunities – but they also face the risks associated with investing in an emerging market.
Mining operations are regulated by the Myanmar Mines Law of 1994 and its implementing guidelines, the Myanmar Mines Rules of 1996. These regulations lay out the application process for mining licences; rights and duties of a licence holder; rent and royalties; and employment conditions for miners.
A new mining law is being debated, but so far it has not been approved.
A foreign mining company that wants to explore for minerals has to contact the Ministry of Mines in order to discuss the investment and arrange a field trip. If, after the field trip, the foreign company decides to proceed, it has to submit a proposal letter which, among other things, has to state the
area it wants to work in, the minerals it is interested in, intended activities( prospecting, exploration, feasibility study) and the amount of capital and technical know-how it will contribute.
The investor then starts to negotiate an“ agreement for the exploration and feasibility study” with the ministry’ s department of geological survey and mineral exploration. In this agreement, the investor obliges itself to explore in the designated area, at its own cost, for the minerals specified in the agreement, to pay a so-called dead rent( ie, rent for the land, irrespective of whether the mine is profitable or not) and a signature bonus, and to spend a certain amount per square kilometre of the exploration area(“ minimum expenditure”) as business expenses.
At the same time, the investor has to obtain recommendation letters from a number of state and local authorities stating that there are no objections to using the land. The department will advise the investor which entities to obtain the recommendation letters from. This process, which can take several months, has been criticised by foreign mining companies as too slow.
The ministry appears to no longer require the investor to obtain an investment permit from the Myanmar Investment Commission for the exploration phase. Once the investor incorporaties a company in Myanmar and signs the agreement with the department, the ministry issues the exploration licence.
A separate exploration( and later, production) licence is necessary for each kind of mineral that the investor is interested in.
If an exploration licence is held by a local company that intends to form a joint venture with a foreigner, the ministry now appears to allow the transfer of the licence to the joint venture company.
If exploration is successful, the Myanmar subsidiary of the investor will enter into a production-sharing contract with state-owned Mining Enterprise No 1, No 2 or No 3( depending on the mineral), and obtain an investment permit from the Myanmar Investment Commission and a production licence from the ministry. Between 1 percent and 7.5pc of the sales proceeds are to be paid to the ministry as royalty. Furthermore, part of the production( negotiable, rule of thumb: 35pc) goes to Mining Enterprise No 1, No 2 or No 3, either in cash or in kind.
In the future, the ministry may also allow profit-sharing arrangements( in contrast to production sharing).
Sebastian Pawlita and Nan Khim Kham are consultants at Polastri Wint & Partners Legal & Tax Advisors in Yangon.