Myanmar Hotels ministry denies banning new hotel construction
The Ministry of Hotels and Tourism denies banning the construction of new hotels in the Yangon, Mandalay and Inle regions, said Hlaing Oo, the ministry’s deputy permanent secretary, at a press conference yesterday at the Chatrium Hotel in Yangon.
“As the hotels and tourism ministry, we allow hotel construction with the permission of the respective of state and region government committees. If we had banned construction, we would have announced it officially. Up to now, we are allowing new hotel construction projects in accordance with the rules and regulations. When we allow hotel construction projects, investors may risk returns on their investment as occupancy remains low. That’s why state and region government committees should review whether hotel construction projects should be permitted or not in congested areas. We will allow hotel construction projects until October 30. We already discussed this with various regional government committees to limit construction in congested places. No, we didn’t permit the hotel construction,” said Hlaing Oo.
“We have two criteria for allowing hotel construction. First, a person has to submit a pre-order for permission for a hotel construction project in accordance with the Hotels and Tourism Law enacted in 1993. If the pre-order is approved, we issue a hotel licence. We have not banned hotel construction projects or the issuing of hotel licences. We are now issuing hotel licences using an online system,” Hlaing Oo added.
Myanmar has 1,373 hotels providing a total of 53,783 rooms.
Source: http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/business/6010
