A while ago I reported on all those car sales places that have opened up in Yangon almost overnight. I thought most of these places were losing quite a bit of money. Rumour has it that many of them are funded with money borrowed and after the opening of those places, the government changed the rules again and cars are now cheaper than ever (well, still expensive enough but a small car now has a price tag of a small car and not of a rolls royce).
This weekend we went downtown again. We hadn't been for a few weeks. To my surprise, I found three more brand-new car sales centres!
As some Myanmar who lived abroad for many years recently told me: "Myanmar people are like lemmings. They copy whatever someone is doing because he or she is making a profit. They don't check whether they can make a profit too. They don't take into account how many places (internet cafes, car sales centres, whatever) are already around. They just see someone being successful. And they copy until nobody makes a decent income." I think they were right. That is exactly the way they do it here. I wonder how many more car sales centres will pop up before the first one goes bust....
There are many more cars on the road though so people are buying . Maybe they all make just enough money to survive? In the last 6 months traffic has increased 10 fold in Yangon alone.
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