"...Burma has vast oil, gas, hydropower and mineral potential, located mainly in the ethnic minority regions which continue to be areas of conflict. Keen on tapping these resources, the international business community is already a forceful advocate for overturning the sanctions regime and is actively scouting investment prospects. In particular, major oil companies – Chevron, Total and Exxon Mobil – are seeking to further penetrate Burma?s market. While international sanctions have limited investment over the last decade, foreign direct investment has recently increased. Foreign investment from 2010 to 2011 represents nine times the cumulative foreign investment between 2006 and 2010, with a staggering percentage benefiting the energy and extractive industries. Investors should exercise extreme caution. Burma is a volatile area for investors, without the rule of law and without constitutional assurances that the judiciary will protect property or investments. Despite economic reforms over the past year, the military continues to dominate the Burmese economy. It controls the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings which manages the gem trade and the banking and construction industries. It also oversees the Myanmar Economic Corporation which controls economic activities as varied as tourism, trading companies and the sale of petroleum and natural gas. The recent reforms and election results provide reasons for cautious optimism in Burma, but the transition is tenuous and incomplete. Given the integration of the military in all aspects of Burma and its historically poor record of democratization and human rights abuse, the international community must seek to use every avenue of engagement with Burma to ensure the establishment of accountability mechanisms to protect human rights. Such mechanisms may be most important of all in the resource-rich ethnic minority regions..."