First foreign bank in decades opens in Myanmar

Yangon

THE first foreign bank to operate in Myanmar for decades officially opened the doors of its Yangon branch on Wednesday, the latest government bid to attract foreign investment in the emergent nation.

Myanmar's quasi-civilian administration, which replaced a military regime in 2011, is trying to modernise the country's creaking banking system to increase capital flows to local businesses and spur foreign investment, particularly in the nascent special economic zones.