Coca-Cola returns to Myanmar after over 60 years absence

For the first time in over 60 years, Coca-Cola enters Myanmar and the first cartons of the beverage is served.

The company says it made the deliveries to local customers in Yangon, Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The US imposed sanctions on Myanmar due to the political situation in that country, where the military is in charge.

The country’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was kept in detention, most of it under house arrest for about 15 years, and the country for a long time was a pariah state.

Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company who was in Yangon over the weekend as a member of the US-ASEAN Eminent Persons Group, which provides independent recommendations to leaders on how to significantly enhance US–ASEAN ties, also oversaw the first deliveries, the company said.

In June it announced a $3 million grant from The Coca-Cola Foundation, the Company’s charitable giving arm, to Pact, a non-governmental organization, to support women’s economic empowerment and job creation initiatives throughout the country.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi