Selvam & Partners has opened an office in Yangon, Myanmar, through which it expects to serve domestic and international clients on investment and business matters, including tax, licensing, regulatory, market entry, reporting requirements and compliance issues.

Krishna Ramachandra, managing director of Selvam LLC, the Singapore constituent of Duane Morris & Selvam, will act as the managing partner of Selvam & Partners. He will be joined by Benjamin Kheng, an associate director of Selvam LLC in Singapore.

“Our launch in Yangon, the country’s commercial centre, is driven primarily by client interest, which has intensified significantly in recent years, as well as by the country’s projected long-term economic outlook,” Ramachandra said in a statement. “In addition, our team has built a strong relationship with Myanmar and its government, as a result of working closely with the Attorney General’s Office for many years. This is a natural next step for us. We intend to build a strong local contingent of experienced attorneys and consultants, supported by the infrastructure of an international law firm, to make our clients’ Myanmar plans a reality.”

Representing a virtually untapped market of more than 55 million people, Myanmar’s economy is heavily agriculture based, but it also has thriving extractive and raw materials industries, particularly natural gas, timber, jade and minerals. In the first quarter of 2013, Myanmar received a total of $810 million in foreign investment from 11 countries, and this is expected to steadily increase.

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