# Myanmar Economic Corporation The Myanmar army's own industrial and procurement arm — and the distinction from [[Myanma Economic Holdings]] is worth getting right, because the two are routinely treated as interchangeable. **MEC is directly army-owned.** The UN Fact-Finding Mission found it "reportedly fully owned and controlled by the Ministry of Defence" and "controlled by the Tatmadaw's Quartermaster General's Office," operating under the Directorate of Defence Procurement. Its shareholders are **exclusively active-duty military personnel** — there is no veteran or retiree tier. The contrast: | | Ownership | Function | |---|---|---| | **[[Myanma Economic Holdings]]** | ~383,000 serving and retired officers plus military institutions | The officer corps' collective investment vehicle — dividends to individuals and units | | **Myanmar Economic Corporation** | The Ministry of Defence, via the Quartermaster General | The army's own industrial and procurement arm | MEC's portfolio runs to heavy industry, cement, steel, sugar, banking and telecoms — including a substantial stake in the Mytel mobile network with Vietnam's Viettel. Together, **MEHL, MEC and 26 identified subsidiaries hold numerous jade and ruby mining licences in Kachin and Shan States.** ## Sanctions Canada listed MEC in **December 2007**, fourteen years ahead of everyone else, and kept it listed when comprehensive sanctions were lifted in 2012. The United States designated it on **25 March 2021** under Executive Order 14014; the United Kingdom on **1 April 2021**, on a finding of "credible evidence that [MEC] has contributed funds to support... the Tatmadaw"; the European Union on **19 April 2021**, alongside MEHL. > [!note] A dating error worth avoiding > Contemporaneous legal alerts published between the March and April 2021 rounds state that the EU had *not* designated MEHL or MEC. That was accurate at the time of writing and is now stale — the EU listed both on 19 April 2021. The EU's fourth round in February 2022 listed other entities including Mining Enterprise 1, not MEHL or MEC, which were already designated. ## See also [[Myanma Economic Holdings]] · [[Myanmar Conflict Minerals]] · [[Hpakant]] · [[Conflict Resources Atlas]]