New Standard Procedure for Assessment of Regional Investment Proposals

On 19 August 2026, the Myanmar Investment Commission (“MIC”) issued Notification 5/2026 on a new standard procedure for the assessment of investments in regions/states (“New Procedure”), which also repealed the standard procedure issued via Notification 26/2021 on 15 June 2021.

The New Procedure features the formation of regional/state committees, and covers committee meetings, the committee’s office’s functions, procedures for the receipt, assessment, and approval of investment proposals, amendments, and other applications for incentives. It also includes procedures for monitoring the compliance of the investors, such as annual site inspections.

Below are the key takeaways of the New Procedure.

Committee meetings

• Regional/State committee meetings are to be held at least once per month.
• The quorum for these meetings is more than half of the members (including the chairperson).
• Members cannot send proxies to attend meetings.
• Decisions are passed by the affirmative votes of a simple majority of the attendees.
• The chairperson has the casting vote in the event of a tie vote (members not in attendance have no right to object to the decision).

Application approval process

• A site inspection may be conducted during assessment.

Estimated application timeline

Generally, the whole process is estimated to take four months from the time a complete application package has been submitted to the MIC, comprising:

• Review of the application package by the committee office to determine if it will be accepted for consideration (15 working days but it could be more depending on the complexity or for other reasons)
• Additional documents request (20 working days)
• Assessment of proposal by committee (30 working days)
• Committee meeting to approve the application
• Issuance of endorsement if the application is approved during the committee meeting (within 10 working days after the committee meeting)

Monitoring functions

• Committees should conduct at least one site inspection per month, so investors should expect an inspection at least annually.
• Site inspections may be conducted upon receipt of a report of non-compliance or as deemed necessary.
• Actions are to be taken to deal with any non-compliances found.

VDB Loi Myanmar aims to keep you up to date on important regulatory changes that may impact your business and your compliance obligations. If you have questions on these developments or any other matters, please contact the undersigned or your regular VDB Loi adviser.