12 March, 2020
Introduction and Background
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (“EITI”) is a global standard for transparency and accountability in the oil and gas mining industries. Myanmar has been an EITI Candidate Country since 2014. Effective from January 2020, one of the requirement for a candidate country is to disclose relevant beneficial ownership information of companies in extractive industries.
In light of this, on 15 November 2019, the Myanmar companies registry and regulatory authority, the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (“DICA”), issued Directive No. 17/2019 regarding the Disclosure on Beneficial Ownership Information (“the Directive”) for legal persons and legal arrangements in Myanmar pursuant to section 69 (c) of the Anti-Money Laundering Law 2014 and President’s Office Notification 104/2019 dated 2 October 2019 (“PO Notification”).
The Directive came into force on 1 January 2020.
In order to comply with the EITI Standards, a Beneficial Ownership Taskforce had been formed for extractive industry with DICA being tasked as the implementing agency for disclosure of beneficial ownership information in Myanmar’s EITI reports. DICA thereafter issued the Directive which is to address the PO Notification for applicability to extractive industries. The Directive applies broadly to all legal persons (including companies, partnerships, and associations) and legal arrangements (referring to express trusts or similar arrangements) in Myanmar. It is aimed to enhance the transparency and accountability of beneficial ownership in Myanmar. This is a step forward in Myanmar’s efforts to address tax evasion, money laundering and terrorist financing matters which have often been thought to be lacking.
For more information, please contact:
Geraldine Oh, Resident Partner, ZICO Law Myanmar
geraldine.oh@zicolaw.com
