The Japanese retailer Aeon will partner with Myanmar conglomerate Shwe Taung Group to set up a joint venture. The new Aeon shopping mall will target Myanmar’s middle class, which is predicted to increase significantly during the next few years says the Nikkei Asian Review.

Shwe Taung Group is one of Myanmar’s biggest conglomerates. It has a diversified portfolio of business interests in building materials, distribution, engineering and construction, infrastructure investments, lifestyle, and real estate. “We will continue our targeted investment in Asia,” said Akio Yoshida, president of Aeon. “I think [Myanmar] will trace the same trajectory Japan once traveled toward a ‘100 million middle class.’”
Aeon opened nine malls in Southeast Asia, in Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia, amid a strategic pivot toward the region.

Aeon is already operating in Myanmar. It launched a financial service business (Aeon Microfinance Co.) as early as 2013 and was even the first foreign retailer to enter the country in 2016, creating a joint venture (Aeon Orange Co), with Creation Myanmar Group of Companies (CMGC), operating 14 stores in the country.