"Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing. Tax reform may not be sexy, but Myanmar?s fledgling market economy is in desperate need of fiscal consolidation. A combination of well-intentioned reforms and some unsavory legacies of the old military regime have left public finances in a precarious position. If the current methods of public financing are not restructured quickly, a debt crisis is a real possibility. At present, Myanmar?s public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is officially estimated at 45.7%, hardly an extraordinary figure by global standards. Even a developing country such as Myanmar, with its long history of instability and economic mismanagement, could maintain the good graces of global capital markets if public debt remained at this moderate level..."