Deloitte Southeast Asia officially opens its newest practice in Myanmar

SINGAPORE, 19 May 2016 — Deloitte Southeast Asia expands its regional footprint by officially opening its Myanmar practice in Yangon yesterday. This new practice joins 10 other local practices – Brunei, Guam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Lao PDR, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – to deliver high quality services to companies operating in or out of the country, drawing on the regional and global expertise within the Deloitte network.

In Myanmar, audit and other regulated services are provided by Myanmar Vigour & Associates Limited, and advisory and consulting services are provided by Deloitte Touche Myanmar Vigour Advisory Limited and Deloitte Consulting (Myanmar) Ltd respectively.

Myanmar Vigour was founded in 2003 and over the years, they have built up a strong practice providing audit advisory, tax and corporate secretarial services to major local and international companies from a wide range of industries. Their sister company Myanmar Vigour Group has also been providing audit services since 2008.

In 2013, the Myanmar Vigour Group became an Independent Correspondent Firm of Deloitte. Since then, they have been working together with Deloitte to build their services and expertise, and after three years, Myanmar Vigour is now officially integrated with the Deloitte Southeast Asia firm.

This integration allows them to be able to seamlessly share resources and tap on the specialist skills and expertise of Deloitte professionals across Southeast Asia, at the same time provide in-depth local market knowledge which is crucial to help clients navigate the local legal, tax and regulatory environment in Myanmar.

The practice’s new office is located in the central business district of Yangon, with a current staff strength of over 70 professionals able to provide a broad range of audit, tax and advisory services to multinational companies and local clients. The number of employees is projected to grow steadily as the demand for professional services increases in Myanmar.

“Myanmar has been growing rapidly. With the high GDP growth rate and the government’s commitment to improve the overall business environment, promote good governance, and stimulate greater local and foreign investments, Myanmar is certainly presenting many attractive opportunities for businesses,” says Chaly Mah, Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte Southeast Asia. “A number of Deloitte’s global and regional clients have started doing business in Myanmar or have plans to do so, and we are seeing a greater demand for world class professional services on the ground.”

Deloitte Southeast Asia, of which Deloitte Myanmar is a part, sets itself apart by being able to deliver seamless services for clients operating across the region as one firm. Deloitte Southeast Asia’s team of over 270 partners and 7,300 professionals, backed by global resources, are able to offer a multidisciplinary suite of professional services that go hand-in-hand with deep regional industry insights.

Deloitte is one of the largest professional services organisation in the world with aggregate revenue of US$35.2 billion and a headcount of over 225,000 professionals in 150 countries.

Deloitte Myanmar can tap into this full spectrum of global and regional insights, and at the same time, provide in-depth local market knowledge.

“The opening of our Deloitte Myanmar office is an important milestone which demonstrates Deloitte’s continuing commitment and support to the growth in the emerging markets and the development of our capabilities to serve clients from all corners of the business community and industries across the region.” says U Soe Win, Country Managing Partner, Deloitte Myanmar. “We are committed to this journey to build a world class firm in Myanmar and will continue to strengthen our expertise. We are also committed to help raise the quality and standards of the accounting profession in Myanmar.”

Based on IMF Forecast, the Southeast Asia region is expected to become the 4th largest economy in the world by 2020 and Myanmar is one of the countries with high GDP growth among the ASEAN nations. In addition, the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will present many opportunities for Myanmar through benefit from more intra-regional trade.

“The expansion into Myanmar is in line with Deloitte Southeast Asia’s strategy to grow inorganically through scale change and geographic expansions. We are committed to growing our business in Myanmar and will continue to provide strategic support to develop the accounting profession through training and development, and capacity building. We will also share our collective experience and expertise of our Deloitte network with the professionals in Myanmar,” says Mr Mah. “These are exciting times for Deloitte as well as for Myanmar, and we look forward to work together with the various business and government organisations here to thrive in this new business landscape.”

A ribbon cutting ceremony held on 18 May 2016 to officially open the Deloitte Myanmar practice. From L-R: Chaly Mah, Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte Southeast Asia; His Excellency U Maung Maung Soe, Mayor of Yangon and U Soe Win, Country Managing Partner Deloitte Myanmar

Note: Please contact Marie Li for high resolution photo.