BIOGRAPHY
Harry Kasuma (Kiwi) Aliwarga is chief executive officer and co-owner of UMG Myanmar, one of the country’s leading business conglomerates. Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, Mr. Aliwarga graduated from the Institute of Technology of Indonesia (ITI) in 1992 with a degree in industrial engineering and later received a master’s degree in civil engineering at the Asia Institute of Technology in Thailand.
Kiwi Aliwarga began his professional career in the business development division at Astra International, one of Indonesia’s largest traded companies, where he worked from 1992 to 1995. He went on to become business development manager at United Tractors–Indonesia (UT) before founding UMG Myanmar in 1998 with his partner MarLar Win. Mr. Aliwarga has set the ambitious goal of making UMG a billion-dollar company by 2020, by relying on three essential pillars: people, leadership, and the relentless pursuit of excellence.
UMG Myanmar
Founded in 1998, UMG Myanmar has in just fifteen years become one of the country’s largest and most diversified conglomerates, with a growing domestic and international footprint. Its five main lines of business are distribution; property and infrastructure development; resources; education and entertainment; and food.
UMG is the largest distributor of heavy machinery in Myanmar, with a market share of more than 50 percent. In addition, UMG distributes trucks, buses, automobiles, and motorcycles, including such premier brands as Volvo, Kawasaki, and Mitsubishi.
Property and infrastructure activities are handled by UMG’s Dragon Power subsidy, which was formed in 2002 as a heavy-equipment rental company. It has since expanded into constructing roads and hydroelectric power plants.
The company’s mining division, created this year, operates gypsum, barite, jade, granite, marble, and gold mines. In the education and entertainment fields, UMG manages hotels and amusement parks, as well as UMG College, founded in 2011 and scheduled to open its doors in 2014. Finally, the Win Food Co., Ltd., manufactures snacks, wafers, and noodles, with plans to expand into other food production areas.
In July 2013, UMG Myanmar signed a joint venture agreement with Indonesia’s largest listed builder, PT Wijaya Karya, and announced plans to build a precast concrete factory in Myanmar, with an initial production of 27,000 metric tons per year.
UMG Myanmar’s domestic network comprises twenty-four branch offices and employs more than 1,200 people. The company also has operations in seven foreign countries: Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Vietnam.