"Toyota Motor Corp is planning to build an automobile factory in Myanmar, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learnt. An official announcement could come before the end of the month, with construction on the plant to start this year. The plant would be located in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone on the outskirts of Yangon and would assemble pickup trucks through so-called knockdown production, in which parts imported from Japan and other nearby nations are put together at the new plant. Myanmar has a population of about 50 million people, on a par with South Korea and Spain. It is also a young nation, with an average age of 27.9. While it is one of the poorest countries in Asia, it has seen strong economic growth recently and is expected to grow at annual rates of 6 to 7 per cent. Though only about 17,500 new automobiles were sold in the country in 2018, the figure more than doubled compared to the previous year. Toyota currently exports about 2,000 passenger and commercial vehicles to Myanmar per year and sees the market as one with strong growth potential..."