Eleven Myanmar's state-owned foodstuff factories, rice mills and bran oil mills will be privatized, said the government's Privatization Commission Saturday.

Three foodstuff factories of the Myanmar Foodstuff Enterprise under the Ministry of Industry-1 and five rice mills and three bran oil mills of the Myanmar Agricultural Produce Trading under the Ministry of Commerce will be privatized through competitive bidding system, the commission said.

Invitations of application for the auction are being extended to individuals and organizations with the date set for July 25 alone, it added.

A total of 215 state-owned enterprises (SOE) out of 288 proposed from 10 ministries have been privatized in Myanmar as of January this year since the country began implementation of a plan of privatization in 1995, sources with the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development said in April.

Myanmar has since January 1995 been implementing the privatization plan for its SOE including those nationalized in the 1960s in a bid to systematically turn them into more effective enterprises.

The plan, which has been implemented by the government-formed Privatization Commission, is carried out by auctioning and leasing or establishing joint ventures with local and foreign investors. These enterprises include textile factories, saw mills, oil mills, cinemas hotels.

Meanwhile, Myanmar is also planning to privatize its largest state-run gold mine in Kawlin, northwestern Sagaing division, for more effective operation, disclosed the state-run Myanmar Mining Enterprise-2.

The 2.66-square-kilometer Kyaukpahtoe Gold Mine currently operating under the enterprise of the Ministry of Mines will be the first of its kind to be transferred to the local private sector, the sources said.

Source: Xinhua