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Economy: general, analytical, statistical Economy: general, analytical, statistical (various sources) Websites/Multiple Documents Title:   "BurmaNet News" Trade/Business archive Language:   English Source/publisher:   Various sources via "BurmaNet News" Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   17 April 2012 Title:   Burma Day 2005 - Selected Documents Description/subject:   Burma Day 2005 - Selected Documents... Supporting Burma/Myanmar’s National Reconciliation Process - Challenges and Opportunities... Brussels, Tuesday 5th April 2005... Most of the papers and reports focus on the "Independent Report" written for the conference by Robert Taylor and Morten Pedersen. They range from macroeconomic critique to historical and procedural comment. Language:   English Source/publisher:   European Commission Format/size:   html, Word Date of entry/update:   06 April 2005 Title:   Burmafund's Economy Page Description/subject:   Many/most of the links to US and other reports on Burma's economy are out of date, but some may still be useful. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Fund Format/size:   pdf (71K), html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Economy of Burma Description/subject:   The Economy of Burma (Myanmar) is one of the least developed in the world, suffering from decades of stagnation, mismanagement, and isolation. Burma’s GDP stands at $42.953 billion and grows at an average rate of 2.9% annually – the lowest rate of economic growth in the Greater Mekong Subregion.[2] Among others, the EU, United States and Canada have imposed economic sanctions on Burma. Historically, Burma was the main trade route between India and China since 100 BC. The Mon Kingdom of lower Burma served as important trading center in the Bay of Bengal. After Burma was conquered by British, it became the wealthiest country in Southeast Asia. It was also once the world's largest exporter of rice. It produced 75% of the world's teak and had a highly literate population. After a parliamentary government was formed in 1948, Prime Minister U Nu embarked upon a policy of nationalization. The government also tried to implement a poorly thought out Eight-Year plan. By the 1950s, rice exports had fallen by two thirds and mineral exports by over 96%. The 1962 coup d'état was followed by an economic scheme called the Burmese Way to Socialism, a plan to nationalize all industries. The catastrophic program turned Burma into one of the world's most impoverished countries. In 2011, when new President Thein Sein's government came to power, Burma embarked on a major policy of reforms including anti-corruption, currency exchange rate, foreign investment laws and taxation. Foreign investments increased from US$300 million in 2009-10 to a US$20 billion in 2010-11 by about 667%.[6] Large inflow of capital results in stronger Burmese currency, kyat by about 25%. In response, the government relaxes import restrictions and abolishes export taxes. Despite current currency problems, Burmese economy is expected to grow by about 8.8% in 2011.[7] After the completion of 58-billion dollar Dawei deep seaport, Burma is expected be at the hub of trade connecting Southeast Asia and the South China Sea, via the Andaman Sea, to the Indian Ocean receiving goods from countries in the Middle East, Europe and Africa, and spurring growth in the ASEAN region..."...Contents: 1 History: 1.1 Pre-colonial era; 1.2 Colonial era (1885 - 1948); 1.3 Independence; 1.4 Military rule (1988 - 2011); 1.5 Economic liberalization (2011-present)... 2 Industries: 2.1 Garment production; 2.2 Illegal drug trade; 2.3 Oil and gas; 2.4 Gemstones; 2.5 Tourism... 3 External trade... 4 Macro-economic trend... 5 Humanitarian aid... 6 Other statistics... 7 Impact on population... 8 See also... 9 Footnotes... 10 External links. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Wikipedia Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   15 August 2012 Title:   IDE/Jetro website Description/subject:   Search for Myanmar - more than 100 items, mainly on the economy Language:   English Source/publisher:   IDE- Institute of Developing Economies / JETRO - Japan External Trade Organization Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   13 September 2012 Title:   Journal Articles & Occasional Papers on Myanmar's economy Description/subject:   22 articles from 2006 (titles, authors, abstracts and links to full texts) - 13 on Vietnam, 7 on Burma/Myanmar: Yangon's Development Challenges - José A. Gómez-Ibáñez and Nguyễn Xuân Thành, March 2012 ...The Exchange Rate in Myanmar: An Update to January 2012 - David Dapice, January 2012 ...Appraising the Post-Sanctions Prospects for Myanmar's Economy: Choosing the Right Path - David O. Dapice, Michael J. Montesano, Anthony J. Saich, Thomas J. Vallely, January 2012...Myanmar Agriculture in 2011: Old Problems and New Challenges - David O. Dapice, Malcolm McPherson, Michael J. Montesano, Thomas J. Vallely, and Ben Wilkinson, November 2011...The Myanmar Exchange Rate: A Barrier to National Strength - David O. Dapice, Malcolm McPherson, Michael J. Montesano, Thomas J. Vallely, and Ben Wilkinson, June 2011...Revitalizing Agriculture in Myanmar: Breaking Down Barriers, Building a Framework for Growth - David O. Dapice, Mike Montesano, Thomas J. Vallely, and Ben Wilkinson, July 2010...Assessment of the Myanmar Agricultural Economy - Vietnam Program, March 2009... Language:   English Source/publisher:   Ash Center, for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard University Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   08 July 2012 Title:   Network Myanmar's Business pages Description/subject:   Useful material: 1. Business and Investment News... 2. Basic Documentation on Trade and Investment in Myanmar... 3. Trade and Investment Data and Statistics Language:   English Source/publisher:   Network Myanmar Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   08 September 2011 Title:   Network Myanmar's Economy pages Description/subject:   More than 100 useful articles and reports from various sources -- academic, Myanmar Union Government, intergovernmental agencies, media etc. Language:   English, (at least 1 Burmese item) Source/publisher:   Network Myanmar Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   08 September 2011 Title:   Stefan Collignon's Home Page Description/subject:   Important economic analyses of Burma Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Individual Documents Title:   Burma’s Ethnic Violence ‘Poses Threat to Foreign Investment’ Date of publication:   11 April 2013 Description/subject:   "Continued religious and ethnic violence in Burma could deter much-needed investment by fostering a “wait and see” attitude among foreign companies and entrepreneurs, according to a study of the recent spate of anti-Muslim rioting and arson in the country. “Failure to prevent the spread of sectarian violence could dampen the influx of critical foreign investment,” the briefing on Burma by British business risk consultants Maplecroft said. The report identifies the booming tourism industry as the most vulnerable, with the negative impact quickly spreading to the retail and infrastructure sectors. “[Burma] has attracted significant interest from investors since the US and EU pared back sanctions in 2012. However, stakeholders remain cautious about making significant investments in the country, preferring to wait and see how the reform process moves forward,” said Maplecroft’s principal Asia analyst Arvind Ramakrishnan..." Author/creator:   William Boot| Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   11 April 2013 Title:   Export - Oriented Growth Strategy for Myanmar: Joining Production Networks in East Asia (English and Burmese) Date of publication:   January 2013 Description/subject:   Concluding Remarks: "For many years, the West has pressured Myanmar in the direction of democracy and respect for human rights by ostracizing its military government through measures such as economic sanctions. Now, the thick fog of military rule that has so far enshrouded the country has become clear. As Western economic sanctions have been eased or lifted, Myanmar’s products will no doubt regain access to global markets, and there will be an influx of foreign investment to this country. The Myanmar economy will become more integrated into the global and regional economies, and have the chance to realize its latent potential. Myanmar’s exports will accordingly increase, and the export goods and destination shall be diversified. To do so, the first step for Myanmar is to show its ability to host export-oriented industry. The apparel industry seems to serve as a litmus test for this. After that, to be a part of production and distribution networks for E&E industry in East Asia will be a key for Myanmar to proceed to the next stage of industrialization. Myanmar should also tap into intra-regional markets, such as China, India and Thailand, in addition to traditional export markets such as US and EU. Utilizing the regional free trade agreements and further enhancement of the connectivity with these countries is also important for the export-oriented growth strategy for Myanmar" Author/creator:   Toshihiro KUDO and Satoru KUMAGA Language:   English, Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   IDE-JETRO Policy Review on Myanmar Economy No. 9 Format/size:   pdf (380K-English; 665K-Burmese) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Download/Brc/PolicyReview/pdf/09_Burmese.pdf Date of entry/update:   28 April 2013 Title:   The fiscal year in review: 2012 - 2013 Date of publication:   31 December 2012 Description/subject:   The government’s efforts to reform the long-dormant economy and tackle endemic poverty through 2011 and 2012 have failed to reach the intended targets, sources said last week. Author/creator:   Aye Thidar Kyaw Language:   English Source/publisher:   "Myanmar Times" Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   02 January 2013 Title:   The Rocky Road to Recovery (interview with Lex Rieffel) Date of publication:   30 December 2012 Description/subject:   "Since joining the Brookings Institution in 2002, Rieffel, a former US Treasury Department staff economist, has made Myanmar’s economic transition a focus of his policy research work. He was in the country in October and November to assess foreign aid to Myanmar.....In terms of economic revival, what are Myanmar’s most pressing needs? An economy, even a rudimentary one like Myanmar’s, is a complex system. This means that to perform at a high level, a large number of elements need to be functioning properly at the same time. Right now, it is hard to identify a single element that is functioning properly. Substantial progress has been made since March 2011 in removing obstacles to proper functioning, like ending some monopolies and abandoning the official exchange rate, but much more needs to be done to have a properly functioning electrical system, telecommunications system, banking system, land tenure system, trade regime, foreign exchange regime, etc. Furthermore, in complex systems, it is necessary for the number of properly functioning elements to grow until a “tipping point” is reached before the benefits of improvements can be easily seen. What is needed to ensure that the whole country benefits from Myanmar’s sizable natural gas reserves?.." Author/creator:   William Boot Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   01 January 2013 Title:   Myanmar’s Two Decades of Partial Transition to a Market Economy: A Negative Legacy for the New Government Date of publication:   December 2012 Description/subject:   Abstract: "Despite more than two decades of transition from a centrally planned to a market-oriented economy, Myanmar’s economic transition is still only partly complete. The government’s initial strategy for dealing with the swelling deficits of the state economic enterprises (SEEs) was to put them under direct control in order to scrutinize their expenditures. This policy change postponed restructuring and exacerbated the soft budget constraint problem of the SEEs. While the installation of a new government in March 2011 has increased prospects for economic development, sustainable growth still requires full-scale structural reform of the SEEs and institutional infrastructure building. Myanmar can learn from the gradual approaches to economic transition in China and Vietnam, where partial reforms weakened further impetus for reforms."... Keywords: Myanmar, transition, state economic enterprises JEL classification: H61, O53, P21 Author/creator:   KUBO Koji Language:   English Source/publisher:   IDE-JETRO Discussion paper No. 376 Format/size:   pdf (464K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Download/Dp/376.html Date of entry/update:   28 April 2013 Title:   Two-Polar Growth Strategy in Myanmar: Seeking “High” and “Balanced” Development Date of publication:   November 2012 Description/subject:   ABSTRACT: "The Thein Sein government of Myanmar seeks higher and balanced economic growth. This is a challenge for the government since some economic literature identifies a trade-off between higher economic growth and better regional equality, especially for countries in the early stages of development. In this paper, we propose a two-polar growth strategy as one that includes both “high” and “balanced” growth. The first growth pole is Yangon, and the second is Mandalay. Nay Pyi Taw, the national capital, will develop as an administrative centre, not as an economic or commercial one. We also propose border development with enhanced connectivity with richer neighboring countries as a complementary strategy to the two growth poles. Effects of the two-polar growth strategy with border development are tested using a Geographical Simulation Model (GSM)... Keywords: Yangon, Mandalay, economic geography, agglomeration, regional inequality, border development, population, poverty alleviation, connectivity JEL classification: F23, L67 Author/creator:   Toshihiro KUDO and Satoru KUMAGAI Language:   English Source/publisher:   IDE-JETRO Discussion paper No. 371 Format/size:   pdf (3.5MB), html Alternate URLs:   http://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Download/Dp/371.html Date of entry/update:   01 December 2012 Title:   Myanmar still a high-risk investment Date of publication:   03 October 2012 Description/subject:   "Internal debate over a pending new foreign investment law has exposed divisions between reformers and conservatives in Myanmar. How the power struggle shakes out will determine in large measure the direction and pace of the country's closely watched economic reform program. Big multinational corporations, including Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Company and General Electric, have expressed initial interest in Myanmar, a market American companies were until recently banned from entering due to US government imposed economic sanctions. Even with that ban lifted, companies have remained wary about committing funds without stronger legal protection of their investments. In line with his broad reform agenda, President Thein Sein announced plans for a more liberal investment regime in late 2011. Since then the law to regulate new foreign investment has undergone several rewrites and heated debate in parliament. The new law is designed to replace the extant and outdated 1988 investment law. A first draft of the law was sent to parliament in March but was rejected by conservative parliamentarians - some with known links to the business associates of former junta leaders - as overly advantageous to foreign interests. Although full details of the legislation have not yet been made public, earlier drafts reportedly included several restrictions on foreign capital, including bans on foreign investment in as many as 13 sectors..." Author/creator:   Brian McCartan Language:   English Source/publisher:   "Asia Times Online" Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   11 November 2012 Title:   THE MYANMAR ECONOMY: TOUGH CHOICES Date of publication:   September 2012 Description/subject:   Abstract: "The new Government of Myanmar has astonished the world since it took office at the end of March 2011 by the pace and scope of policy changes it has introduced in a country that has underperformed most other Asian countries for decades. Not a single analyst inside or outside Myanmar before President Thein Sein’s inaugural address predicted the changes that many now label “breathtaking.” The global policy community and the media have focused heavily on the political changes and challenges, giving less attention to the economic changes and challenges than they probably deserve. This paper focuses on 21 high-priority economic issues facing the Thein Sein administration in mid-2012.".....Overview... The Myanmar Economy at the End of the 2011/12 Fiscal Year... Macroeconomic Issues... The Primary Product Sectors... The Energy Sector... The Financial Sector... Infrastructure... State-Owned Enterprises... Private Sector Development... International Trade and Investment... Multilateral, Bilateral and International NGO Aid... Endnotes Author/creator:   Lex Rieffel Language:   English Source/publisher:   Brookings Institution Format/size:   pdf (952K-OBL version; .4MB-original) Alternate URLs:   http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/9/myanmar%20economy%20rieffel/09%20myan... Date of entry/update:   03 October 2012 Title:   Kyat Appreciation Calls for Liberal Controls on Imports and Foreign Exchange Date of publication:   August 2012 Description/subject:   "Kyat appreciation is damaging traditional export industries National leaders of Myanmar, including President U Thein Sein and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, emphasize that economic development should go with poverty alleviation and equitable income distribution. For these objectives, growth of the export industries of rice, pulses and beans, and garments is indispensable as they provide income opportunities for a large number of poor households. The market exchange rate under the dual exchange rate system in Myanmar has exhibited extraordinary appreciation since late 2006. The value of the US dollar in terms of the Myanmar consumption bundle has diminished to one-third of its previous level in the five-year period of 2007 to 2011. This is the sharpest appreciation among Southeast Asian currencies. There is concern that the appreciating kyat is dampening the growth of the above-mentioned traditional export sectors..." Author/creator:   KUBO Koji Language:   English Source/publisher:   IDE-JETRO Policy Review on Myanmar Economy No. 4 Format/size:   pdf (33K), html Alternate URLs:   http://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Download/Brc/PolicyReview/04.html Date of entry/update:   13 September 2012 Title:   Myanmar Economy Viewed at Night Date of publication:   August 2012 Description/subject:   "Myanmar’s official statistics provide considerably outdated and narrowly covered data on the country’s economic and industrial situation. Data on geographical economic activities are particularly lacking. However, it is critically important for policy makers to know what the economic geography is like in Myanmar when they envisage sustainable and balanced economic development. An alternative way invented to estimate economic activities in developing countries is to use the strength and distribution of nighttime lights. It is now widely known that the strength of nighttime lights and economic activity are firmly correlated. Normally, the relationship between these two data is determined by some coefficients derived from regression analyses using ‘actual’ data and nighttime lights satellite imagery (Ghosh et al. 2010). Here, we use the nighttime lights to estimate the distribution of GDP at a district level (Figure 1), taking the national GDP as given..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   IDE-JETRO Policy Review on Myanmar Economy No. 5 Subscribe:   KUMAGAI Satoru, KEOLA Souknilanh and KUDO Toshihiro Format/size:   pdf (549K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Download/Brc/PolicyReview/05.html Date of entry/update:   13 September 2012 Title:   Vietnam’s Experience with FDI Promotion: Implications for Myanmar (English and Burmese versions) Date of publication:   August 2012 Description/subject:   "...Being both developing countries in Southeast Asia, Vietnam and Myanmar have shared a number of similarities, including development potential. Myanmar has recently decided to implement fundamental political and economic reforms, following years under economic embargo and severe shortages. Shortages of development resources, including capital, technology and management know-how, may drive Myanmar to actively join the competition for FDI to the region. Foreign investors have quickly shown interest, with almost USD 24.4 billion of investment in the country from April 2010 - December 2011. However, the transition from a lower development level may still put Myanmar in dire need to learn from regional countries’ experiences, since they started the FDI-induced industrialization early. Vietnam’s experience with FDI attraction in the past decades could have important implications for Myanmar in developing its FDI policy. First, Myanmar needs to have a suitable ideology towards FDI promotion. FDI may constitute a good source of much-needed capital for economic development in Myanmar’s early stage. However, of greater importance are the technology transfer and other positive spillover impacts embodied in such flows of capital. Therefore, Myanmar should pay good attention to promoting such accompanied benefits, rather than the volume of foreign capital inflows alone..." Author/creator:   Tri Thanh VO and Anh Duong NGUYEN Language:   English, Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   IDE-JETRO Policy Review on Myanmar Economy No. 3..... BUSINESS, Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commers & Industry, Vol.14, No.9, September 2012. (Burmese version) Format/size:   pdf (English-33K; Burmese-173K), html Alternate URLs:   http://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Download/Brc/PolicyReview/pdf/03_Burmese.pdf Date of entry/update:   13 September 2012 Title:   What can the Myanmar garment industry learn from Vietnam’s experience? (English and Burmese) Date of publication:   August 2012 Description/subject:   "...Despite an improved international business climate surrounding Myanmar, its garment industry is still facing serious challenges inside the country, including a rapidly increasing wage rate, particularly when denominated in US dollars as a result of an acute appreciation of the local currency. Another challenge is the high production costs due to shortages of electricity and a poor transportation infrastructure. These bottlenecks have already played out negatively in hampering garment suppliers' overall export performance, particularly when compared with other major Asian garment exporters. In this context, the Vietnamese experience provides an interesting reference point. Myanmar and Vietnam are in a way similar, as both have opened up their economies and started exporting garments in the early 1990s. However, their performance since has been very different. In 2000, Vietnam's garment exports were just about double those of Myanmar. With a booming economy creating alternative job opportunities, labor shortages and wage increases in Vietnam's garment industry have been serious as well..." Author/creator:   Toshihiro KUDO and Kenta GOTO Language:   English, Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   IDE-JETRO Policy Review on Myanmar Economy No. 2..... BUSINESS, Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commers & Industry, Vol.13, No.8, July 2012. (Burmese version) Format/size:   pdf (English-40K; Burmese-2.9MB) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Download/Brc/PolicyReview/pdf/02_Burmese.pdf Date of entry/update:   13 September 2012 Title:   Myanmar Economy in the Context of ASEAN Integration and Regional Change (English and Burmese) Date of publication:   June 2012 Description/subject:   "After decades of economic isolation and deprivation, Myanmar appears on the way to economic and political reforms. Initially, there is a nagging fear that Myanmar democratic process and economic reform could be reversed at some time in the near future. But gradually it becomes increasingly clear that the reform is here to stay with a caution that there would be some detours and setbacks along the way. Reform success would not be easy and how bumpy the road ahead will depend crucially on whether political reform can be entrenched through economic development that only economic reform can bring. Myanmar political and economic changes occur in the midst of ASEAN economic integration and regional change. The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is scheduled to be completed in 2015 which is based on the four pillars of a single market and production base, a competitive region, a region of equitable development and a region connected to the global economy. Since the inception of the AEC blueprint in 2007, a great deal of integration measures have been agreed and implemented. Trade liberalization in services, investment and freer movement of capital have made significant progress while liberalization of trade in goods is practically completed. This liberalization and de-regulation have been accompanied by trade and investment facilitation, standardization of customs procedures towards ASEAN Single Window, standards and conformance and mutually recognized agreement (MRAs). As a member of ASEAN, Myanmar has agreed and initiated the required measures and domestic change as required by the AEC blueprint to achieve the AEC by 2015..." Author/creator:   Hank LIM, Senior Research Fellow Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) Language:   English, Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   IDE-JETRO Policy Review on Myanmar Economy No. 1.....BUSINESS, Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commers & Industry, Vol.12, No.7, July 2012 (Burmese version). Format/size:   pdf (English-40K; Burmese-804K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Download/Brc/PolicyReview/pdf/01_Burmese.pdf Date of entry/update:   13 September 2012 Title:   Trade Policies and Trade Mis-reporting in Myanmar Date of publication:   February 2012 Description/subject:   ABSTRACT: While the trade statistics of Myanmar show surpluses for 2007 through 2010, the corresponding statistics of trade partner countries indicate deficits. Such discrepancies in mirror trade statistics are analyzed in connection with the ‘export-first and import-second’ policy provisioning import permissions on permission applicants possessing a sufficient amount of the export-tax-deducted export earnings. Under this policy, the recorded imports and exports of the private sector have been maintaining equilibrium, whereas discrepancies in the mirror statistics have fluctuated. This suggests that traders adjusted mis-reporting in accordance with the supply and demand of the export earnings"... Keywords: Myanmar, Trade Policies, Mis-invoicing, Smuggling Author/creator:   KUBO Koji Language:   English Source/publisher:   Institute for Developing Economies (IDE DISCUSSION PAPER No. 326 Format/size:   pdf (193K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Download/Dp/326.html http://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Download/Dp/pdf/326.pdf Date of entry/update:   23 February 2012 Title:   Myanmar at the Crossroads: Rapid Industrial Development or De-industrialization Date of publication:   01 January 2012 Description/subject:   Abstract: "The purpose of this study is to identify potential agents of change in Myanmar society that can facilitate rapid industrialization and recommend ways the international community can support private sector development by aiding such groups. The historical enquiry in Part I suggests Myanmar‟s lack of success in industrialization is largely due to an inward looking political elite with a predisposition towards State-led development rooted in nationalism stemming from the colonial period. The hybrid economy, which is neither socialist, mixed economy nor market oriented, created by partial economic reform and reversals since 1988 has two implications for the current situation. First, the new president in his promotion of the economic reform agenda is not constrained by policy formulation capacity: economists have had many years to consider ways to re-establish transition to market oriented economy. Second, the very existence of a hybrid economy reveals the presence of powerful interests vested in the status quo. Implementation capacity is the main issue and two prospective scenarios are outlined: de-industrialization should the president fail in his mission and the initiation of rapid industrial development should he succeed. Part II takes cognizance of current dynamics in the world economy as well as noting the development paths of successful economies in the region. Myanmar‟s factor endowment is reviewed in the light of the „resource curse‟ and the economic reform agenda is outlined, with outward orientation and private sector-led development emphasized. Industrial development hinges on the Biz-15 (the country‟s best-connected businessmen with their large family-owned conglomerates) aligning their interests with SMEs: they stand to vastly increase their fortunes by building and operating the modern infrastructure essential for a competitive and dynamic SME-populated manufacturing exports sector, and also by facilitating “anchor” FDI from MNCs. Such fortunes, commensurate with those in the region, would be justified if the Biz-15 can raise the rate of progressive change acceptable to their political patrons so Myanmar‟s 60mn population can all prosper. In Part III, I recommend the international community support a major study by a supply chain manager working with Biz-15 members to explore strategies for the growth and integration of a nascent export processing sector in Myanmar into the China-centric Asian supply chains to rich country markets." Author/creator:   Stuart Larkin Language:   English Source/publisher:   Network Myanmar Format/size:   pdf (711K) Date of entry/update:   14 October 2012 Title:   Restructuring the State Budget System for Disinflation and Exchange Rate Unification in Myanmar Date of publication:   January 2012 Description/subject:   Abstract: "The installment of a new government has augmented the prospect for implementing disinflation and exchange rate unification in Myanmar. A close look at the state budget shows that the reform of the budget system for state economic enterprises (SEEs) is essential. Reforms need to hold the replacement of controlled prices including the official exchange rate with market prices in SEE operations, and the separation of the SEEs from the state budget. But separating the SEEs from the state budget will necessitate careful planning to cope with SEE bankruptcies which would imposes another fiscal burden on the government. Therefore, economic viability must be a criterion for the continuation oftheir operations."... Keywords: Myanmar, state economic enterprises, disinflation, exchange rate unification Author/creator:   Koji KUBO Language:   English Source/publisher:   Institute for Developing Economies (IDE DISCUSSION PAPER No. 320 Format/size:   pdf (258K) 29 pages Alternate URLs:   http://ir.ide.go.jp/dspace/bitstream/2344/1109/1/ARRIDE_Discussion_No.320_kubo.pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2344/1109 Date of entry/update:   23 February 2012 Title:   BURMA’S ECONOMY: MISMANAGEMENT AS USUAL Date of publication:   04 November 2011 Description/subject:   "• Following the nominal transition to civilian rule, the regime maintains the State Peace and Development Council’s (SPDC’s) oppressive economic policies. • The military continues to control the bulk of the budget, with no improvement in transparency. One quarter of the 2011-2012 budget is designated for the military. Additionally, the “Special Fund” law grants the Commander in Chief of the military access to unlimited discretionary funds without having to be accountable. • The regime maintains a dual exchange rate system in order to siphon off funds into private accounts, starving the national budget of official revenue and inflating the fiscal deficit. • A process of privatization that began in late 2009 has facilitated the transfer of key economic assets in the hands of cronies while lining the pockets of regime officials. The privatization has resembled a “fire sale” to cronies that include those blacklisted by various governments. Meanwhile, economic competition remains severely constricted. • Despite the suspension of the Myitsone dam project, numerous large scale infrastructure projects continue to spur tensions in ethnic areas, cause massive displacement, and threaten the environment. The projects are not subject to public oversight and provide little benefit to local communities or the economy as a whole. • As a result of increased foreign investment through large scale infrastructure projects, the fall of the US dollar, and the dual exchange rate system, the kyat has inflated in value, hurting export-oriented sectors. • The regime continues to confiscate land and ignore the property rights of Burmese citizens in favor of foreign investors and cronies..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Altsean-Burma Format/size:   pdf (92K) Date of entry/update:   18 November 2011 Title:   Business as Usual Date of publication:   September 2010 Description/subject:   Real economic change in post-election Burma is about as likely as a herd of white elephants, say experts... "Burma’s current military rulers will continue to run the economy for their own benefit even after the country comes under a more civilian form of government following this year’s election in November. A child plays while his parents take a nap beside their roadside vegetable stall in Rangoon. That’s the conclusion of a number of economists and financial policy experts who have been monitoring Burma in the lead up to the election. They foresee little real change that would benefit ordinary people. Although the current financial year will show improvements, these will be “driven mainly by investment in projects in the energy and petroleum industries, particularly by Chinese firms,” concludes the latest assessment of Burma by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). “Excluding these sectors, however, the domestic economy will remain sluggish,” according to the EIU report. “The government’s revenue base remains small, and it will continue to spend heavily on large projects that benefit the military regime.” The EIU report, published in August, reaches similar conclusions to other economists and researchers who have been analyzing Burma in the months leading up to the election. A recent study by the United States Institute for Peace (USIP), a Washington-based think tank funded by the US Congress, said that natural gas exports to Thailand continue to be the main source of income for Burma’s economy, yet “the junta has devised ingenious mechanisms to siphon these funds but has spent relatively little on improving the quality of life for most Burmese.” “Using a system of multiple exchange rates, the junta deprives the government coffers of hundreds of millions of dollars each year,” said the USIP report. “Unsurprisingly, the resultant large fiscal deficits have been financed by printing money, which has led to persistently high inflation.” The most somber assessment of all, by Australian economist Sean Turnell, suggests that in spite of growing gas exports, the standard of living in Burma is actually declining..." Author/creator:   William Boot Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 18, No. 9 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   22 July 2012 Title:   The Economy of Burma/Myanmar on the Eve of the 2010 Elections Date of publication:   May 2010 Description/subject:   Summary: * The government of Burma is undergoing a critical transition: Before the end of 2010, the military regime that has ruled the country since a palace coup in 1998 will hold an election based on a constitution drafted in a nondemocratic process and approved by a referendum in 2008. The referendum fell far short of global standards of credibility and the election is likely to yield a government that neither the antimilitary movement nor the international community views as legitimate. However, the constitution and election also may offer opportunities for further international involvement that began in the wake of Cyclone Nargis in 2008. * Burma's lagging economic performance--socioeconomic indicators placed it among the world's most impoverished in 2000--is due to a simmering internal conflict based on ethnic and religious differences. Successive military regimes after the failure of Burma's parliamentary government in 1962 have managed to further alienate the population and monopolize the benefits of Burma's abundant natural resources. Growth-disabling economic policies and brutal suppression of dissent since 1988 have caused an exodus of political and economic refugees estimated to be in excess of 3 million. * However, Burma occupies a strategic space in the Southeast Asian region. It is a major supplier of natural gas to Thailand and could be a major agricultural exporter, as it was before World War II. Also, Burma is arguably the greatest obstacle to the 2015 integration objectives of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and its internal conlict contributes to tension between China and India. * There is a glimmer of hope that the next government will consider economic policies conducive to sustainable economic growth, thereby improving the environment for political reconciliation. If so, the challenge for the international community will be to find ways to support economic policy changes in this direction that do not trigger a backlash from the country's military rulers. Though difficult, it may be possible to accomplish this through a patient economic strategy that involves more nuanced use of sanctions and effective collaboration with other actors in the region, particularly ASEAN... About the Report: This report examines the economy of Burma at a crucial moment in Southeast Asia's most troubled country. A low-intensity conflict based on ethnic and religious differences has simmered since independence in 1948. The country's military rulers have been waging an existential struggle with a democratic movement led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi since they repudiated her party's election victory in 1990. Before the end of 2010, an election will be held that is more about transferring power to a new generation of military officers than making a transition to civilian rule. To focus attention on the economic dimension of peacebuilding in Burma, this report draws on the discussion at a day-long workshop sponsored by USIP's Center for Sustainable Economies. The workshop brought together experts on key aspects of Burma's economy and employees from congress and U.S. government departments and agencies directly concerned with U.S. relations with Burma. The workshop sessions focused on macroeconomic policy, the extractive sectors, agriculture, the private sector, trade and investment, and the narcotics economy. Professor Joseph Stiglitz led the concluding session on a more productive agrarian economy. Author/creator:   Lex Rieffel Source/publisher:   United States Institute of Peace Format/size:   pdf (454K) Date of entry/update:   09 June 2010 Title:   Can Economic Reform Open a Peaceful Path to Ending Burma’s Isolation? (English and Burmese) Date of publication:   10 March 2010 Description/subject:   Summary: "After decades of domestic conflict, military rule and authoritarian governance, Burma’s economy could provide a viable entry point for effective international assistance to promote peace. Doing so would require a detailed understanding of the country’s complex and evolving political economy. The lingering income and distributional effects of the 2008 Cyclone Nargis, anticipated changes associated with the new constitution and the 2010 elections and the Obama administration’s decision to devote more attention to Burma suggest that the time is ripe for the creative application of economic mechanisms to promote and sustain peace. Looming challenges could derail Burma’s prospects for economic and political stability. These challenges include irrational macroeconomic policies, failing to ensure all citizens enjoy benefits accrued from natural resources, endemic corruption, a flourishing illicit economy, a dysfunctional financial system and critical infrastructure bottlenecks. Failure to address these problems would frustrate peacebuilding efforts. A conflict sensitive economic strategy for Burma would focus on effective capacity-building, sustained policy reform, progressive steps to reduce corruption, fiscal empowerment of subnational authorities and prudent natural resource management. Success in these areas requires unwavering political will for sensibly sequenced policy improvements by domestic actors and finely targeted support from Burma’s international partners." .....လယ္ယာက႑အတြက္ ေႂကြးၿမီျပႆနာမ်ား ေျပေလ်ာ့ေစမွသာ ျဖစ္ႏိုင္ေပလိမ့္မည္။7 စီးပြားေရး အခြင့္အလမ္း မရွိျခင္းႏွင့္ ႏိုင္ငံေရးအရ ဖိႏွိပ္ထားျခင္းေၾကာင့္ ရည္ရြယ္ခ်က္ႀကီးမားၿပီး၊ ပညာတတ္ၾက သည့္ ႏိုင္ငံသားမ်ား အေျမာက္အမ်ား တိုင္းျပည္ျပင္ပသို႔ ထြက္လာေနၾကသည္။ ႏွစ္ေပါင္း(၂၀) အတြင္းတြင္ ျပည္ပသို႔ ထြက္လာသူ ခန္႔မွန္း (၃)သန္းမွ် ရွိႏိုင္ပါသည္။ ထိုင္းႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ဓာတ္ေငြ႕တင္ပို႔ေရာင္းခ်မႈမွ ႏိုင္ငံျခားေငြ အေျမာက္အမ်ား ၀င္မလာမီ၊ မူးယစ္ေဆး၀ါး (ဘိန္းျဖဴႏွင့္ မီသာအမ္ဖီတမင္း) ေရာင္း၀ယ္မႈမွ ၁၉၉၀ ခုႏွစ္မ်ား ေႏွာင္းပိုင္းတြင္ ႏိုင္ငံျခား၀င္ေငြ အမ်ားဆံုး ရရွိခဲ့သည္ဟု ခန္႔မွန္းၾကသည္။ ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ႏွစ္မ်ားတြင္ ဘိန္းထုတ္လုပ္မႈ သိသိသာသာ က်ဆင္းသြားခဲ့သည္။ သို႔ေသာ္လည္း ေမွာင္ခိုစီးပြားနယ္ပယ္တြင္းသို႔ ေငြမာမ်ား စီးဆင္း၀င္လာေနမႈက သိသိသာသာရွိေနေသးၿပီး၊ အင္အားေကာင္း အာဏာရွိေနသူမ်ားမွတဆင့္ အစိုးရမူ၀ါဒမ်ားအေပၚ လႊမ္းမိုးသက္ေရာက္ႏိုင္မႈ ရွိေနပါသည္။ အျခားေမွာင္ခိုစီးပြားနယ္ပယ္တစ္ခုမွာ ႀကီးထြားလာေနသည့္ တ႐ုတ္လူမ်ဳိးမ်ား၏ အခန္းက႑ ပင္ ျဖစ္သည္။ တ႐ုတ္နယ္စပ္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ အခ်ဳိ႕အစိတ္အပိုင္းမ်ားတြင္ တ႐ုတ္ ရီမင္ဘီေငြကို လွည့္လည္သံုးစြဲေနၿပီး၊ ၿပီးခဲ့သည့္ ႏွစ္မ်ားအတြင္း ေျမာက္ဖက္ေဒသမ်ား ၊ ျပည္နယ္မ်ားတြင္ တ႐ုတ္လူမ်ဳိး တစ္သန္းေက်ာ္ တရားမ၀င္ ၀င္ေရာက္အေျခခ်ေနထိုင္ခဲ့ၾကပါသည္။ ဤျဖစ္ေပၚ တိုးတက္မႈမ်ားက ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၌ သံုးစြဲေနသည့္ ေငြေၾကးအမ်ဳိးမ်ဳိးေၾကာင့္ ေပၚေပါက္လာရသည့္ ျပႆနာမ်ားကို အားျဖည့္ေပးၿပီး၊ ႏိုင္ငံအဆင့္ မကၠ႐ိုစီးပြားတည္ၿငိမ္မႈတစ္ခုလံုးကိုပါ ထိခိုက္လာဖြယ္ အေၾကာင္း ရွိေနပါသည္။ Author/creator:   Lex Rieffel and Raymond Gilpin Language:   English, Burmese Source/publisher:   United States Institute for Peace Format/size:   pdf (162K - English; 553K - Burmese) Alternate URLs:   http://www.usip.org/files/resources/PB%2014%20Burmese%20version.pdf Date of entry/update:   09 September 2011 Title:   Natural Gas Export Revenue, Fiscal Balance and Inflation in Myanmar Date of publication:   March 2010 Description/subject:   Abstract: "While natural gas exports have brought a large amount of foreign currency revenue to the Government of Myanmar, their contribution to reducing monetization of the fiscal deficit and disinflation has been obscure. The immediate reason is that under the country's dual exchange rate system, the revenue is converted at the grossly overvalued official rate which undervalues it in terms of the local currency by 1/200. However, devaluation would only improve the fiscal balance and not reduce the excess money supply since the central bank cannot sterilize the impact of the foreign reserve increase. As a policy reform to utilize the revenue for disinflation, this study proposes deregulation of the strict controls on foreign exchange."... Keywords: Myanmar, Disinflation, Natural Resource Exports, Dual Exchange Rates Author/creator:   Koji KUBO Language:   English Source/publisher:   Institute of Developing Economies (IDE), JETRO Format/size:   pdf (495K) Date of entry/update:   19 April 2010 Title:   Tollgates upon tollgates: En route with extortion along the Asian Highway (Field Reports) Date of publication:   05 October 2009 Description/subject:   "As the town of Myawaddy on the Thai-Burma border has grown through increased trade, so too have efforts by local military forces to extract revenue from the workers, traders and travellers who pass through it. With increasing exploitative and military pressures in the surrounding rural areas, many local villagers have also joined the ranks of those seeking economic refuge—or just opportunities to work or buy and sell goods—in town and across the border. Villagers in the area live under a motley patchwork of political and military authorities that operate over 20 checkpoints along the Asian Highway between Myawaddy and Rangoon. At each checkpoint transport trucks and passenger vehicles must pay tolls while travellers may be searched and forced to give 'donations' or 'tea money' to inspecting soldiers. Fixed tolls and ad hoc extortion are used to support the checkpoint itself and the military personnel controlling it. This report includes information collected in August and September 2009..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Karen Human Right Group Field Report (KHRG #2009-F17) Format/size:   pdf (354 KB) Alternate URLs:   http://www.khrg.org/khrg2009/khrg09f17.html Date of entry/update:   28 October 2009 Title:   Junta’s Piggy Bank Full as Economy Sinks Date of publication:   March 2008 Description/subject:   Economists predict a gloomy economy for Burma in 2008, but that won’t stop the generals from selling off the country’s natural resources... "The Burmese military government’s incompetence and outside influences will further undermine Burma’s economy in 2008, experts forecast—but the generals should be able to keep their bank accounts topped up. High global oil prices, financial mismanagement and the continuing aftershock of last year’s military crackdown will all conspire to make life harder for Burma’s already hard-pressed population... Author/creator:   William Boot Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 16, No. 3 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   27 April 2008 Title:   Who’ll Clean Up the Mess? Date of publication:   November 2007 Description/subject:   The inheritors of years of junta mismanagement will face a hard task rebuilding an economy wrecked by incompetence, corruption and greed... "The income from Burma’s great natural resource reserves is wasted on costly vanity projects while the population goes hungry and the economy sinks deeper into chaos. That’s the verdict of economists monitoring the impoverished Southeast Asian country, which erupted in mass street protests in the wake of devastating domestic fuel price rises. The military regime running Burma owes the World Bank and International Monetary Fund about US $3.5 billion, but has failed even to respond properly to a proposal by the two institutions to benefit from a debt relief scheme. “Myanmar could not be assessed [for the scheme] due to lack of available data,” says a World Bank-IMF report. “The authorities indicated that at present Myanmar will not be participating in the initiative and regret that they will not be able to provide the required data to undertake the assessment of their indebtedness.” In other words, Burma’s economic management is a shambles, said economist and Burma specialist Sean Turnell of Australia’s Macquarie University. “Burma’s economic miasma is the product of 45 years of inept economic mismanagement under the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) and its predecessors,” said Turnell, in a special report of Burma Economic Watch he has compiled in the wake of the public protests and military crackdown of recent weeks..." Author/creator:   William Boot Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol 15, No. 11 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   29 April 2008 Title:   Burmas Minderheiten leiden unter Raubbau an Edelsteinen und Gold - Kritik am Schweigen deutscher Juweliere Date of publication:   15 October 2007 Description/subject:   Allein der Handel mit Rubinen und anderen Edelsteinen habe der staatlichen Firma "Myanmar Gems Enterprise" nach offiziellen Angaben zwischen April 2006 und März 2007 Einnahmen in Höhe von 297 Millionen US-Dollars verschafft. Dreimal im Jahr lade Myanmar ausländische Händler zu Edelstein-Auktionen ein. Bei der letzten Versteigerung im März 2007 seien Steine im Wert von 185 Millionen US-Dollars umgesetzt worden. Damit sei die Ausfuhr von Edelsteinen neben dem Handel mit Teak-Holz sowie mit Erdöl und Erdgas, der bedeutendste Devisenbringer des Landes. Gemstones Language:   German, Deutsch Source/publisher:   Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker Date of entry/update:   03 May 2008 Title:   DIE AKTUELLEN POLITISCHEN, WIRTSCHAFTLICHEN UND SOZIALEN RAHMENBEDINGUNGEN IN BURMA Date of publication:   October 2007 Description/subject:   �hnlich der Entwicklung der politischen Verhältnisse lassen sich auch in der wirtschaftlichen Ordnung bemerkenswerte Parallelen zwischen der vor- und der postkolonialen �ra in Burma beobachten. Am auffälligsten ist dabei die Tradition einer dirigistischen Wirtschaftspolitik. Soziale Verhältnisse; History of Economy; Social conditions Author/creator:   René Hingst Language:   German, Deutsch Source/publisher:   Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung Format/size:   Html (28k) Alternate URLs:   http://www.boell.de/alt/de/05_world/5317.html http://www.boell.de/downloads/hingst_burma2003.pdf Date of entry/update:   19 October 2007 Title:   Trade, Foreign Investment and Myanmar's Economic Development during the Transition to an Open Economy Date of publication:   August 2007 Description/subject:   ABSTRACT: "Throughout the 1990s and up to 2005, the adoption of an open-door policy substantially increased the volume of Myanmar's external trade. Imports grew more rapidly than exports in the 1990s owing to the release of pent-up consumer demand during the transition to a market economy. Accordingly, trade deficits expanded. Confronted by a shortage of foreign currency, the government after the late 1990s resorted to rigid controls over the private sector's trade activities. Despite this tightening of policy, Myanmar's external sector has improved since 2000 largely because of the emergence of new export commodities, namely garments and natural gas. Foreign direct investments in Myanmar significantly contributed to the exploration and development of new gas fields. As trade volume grew, Myanmar strengthened its trade relations with neighboring countries such as China, Thailand and India. Although the development of external trade and foreign investment inflows exerted a considerable impact on the Myanmar economy, the external sector has not yet begun to function as a vigorous engine for broad-based and sustainable development."... Keywords: Myanmar (Burma), international trade, cross-border trade, foreign direct investment, economic development, development cooperation PDF filepdf(274KB) Author/creator:   Toshihiro Kudo and Fumiharu Mieno Language:   English Source/publisher:   Institute of Developing Economies (IDE Discussion Paper 116) Format/size:   pdf (274K) Date of entry/update:   22 April 2008 Title:   Burma Economic Review 2005-2006 Date of publication:   June 2007 Description/subject:   Executive Summary: The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military junta claimed a 12.2 % growth in the Burmese economy in 2006 but international sources say differently; they forecast a slim growth of 2 to 3 % rise. Production and exploration in the oil and gas sector is active, but the rest of economy remains weak. Agriculture suffers from poor productivity, with output below potential. Manufacturing is constrained by inadequate quantity and quality of inputs, due to problems of imports and power shortages. Weak Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth reflects poor prospects for consumption and investment. In October 2005, the SPDC increased eight folds the state-subsidized petrol prices. This prompted higher prices for basic commodities. Inflation returned to double digit rates. Monetary policy has not addressed the inflationary pressures. Interest rates remain unchanged since 2001, despite high inflation. But the SPDC increased the interest rates by two per cent points to 12 per cent on 16 April 2006. Real rates are likely to be negative. Prices for important commodities soared in the wake of junta’s decision to raise public-sector salaries in April 2006. Rice and fuel prices remain high. Official data do not reveal the full extent of inflation reaching 14.3 % in December 2005 and 11 % in early 2006. Based on the official data series, the Economist Intelligent Unit (EIU) estimates the annual inflation to average over 21 % in 2006.The true rate of inflation could be 50 %. Strong growth in both narrow money supply (M1) and quasi-money (comprising time, savings and foreign exchange deposits) contributed to a 26.8 % year-on-year expansion in broad money supply (M2) at the end of May 2006. The junta demands credit from the Central Bank, which it uses to fund its budget deficit. Total outstanding credit of the junta was 2.5 trillion kyat (nearly US$440 billion at the official exchange rate, or US$1.9 billion at the free-market exchange rate) by May 2006, an increase of 28 %. The state budget remained unbalanced with substantial deficits during much of the 1990s. Fiscal deficits are financed automatically by credit from the Central Bank, a source of domestic inflation and instability in the economy. The Junta's state expenditures are disproportionately allocated on items that deny sustainable development of the people or the nation. Defense, ceremonies and rituals, festivals, inspection tours, meetings and seminars, building physical infrastructure-roads, railways, bridges, dams, monuments, museums, shiny office complexes and fancy airports, represent wasteful consumption or constitute expensive capital outlays, undertaken without proper feasibility studies and environmental impact assessments, and unclear, uncertain and dubious returns on investment. Chronic state budget deficits contribute to rapid monetary growth and everspiraling inflation. In order to recover the budget deficit, the junta-increased taxes and collected money and forced people to labor for developmental projects such as construction of roads, dams, and bridges. The junta continues to control, command, and centralize Burma’s people and the economy. Exchange rate distortions favor a few at the expense of many. Fiscal deficit comes at the expense of social spending which has been reduced far below necessary levels. At the same time, financing the fiscal deficit through central bank credit is one underlying factor of persistent high inflation. The nation’s tax revenue remains buoyant, rising by 28.1 % year on year in nominal terms in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2005/06 (April-March). Total tax revenue reached 292 billion kyat during this period (around US$50 billion at the inflated official exchange rate, or US$225 million at free-market exchange rate). Although revenue is still rising, growth has slowed since 2004/05, when revenue expanded by 77 % year on year for the whole fiscal year. This in part reflects a correction after an increase in average import tariffs, imposed in mid-2004, brought a 424 % year-on-year surge in customs tax fell by 15.1 per cent year on year to 16.2 billion kyat. A clamp-down on corruption among customs officials in recent months may be part of an effort to boost revenue from customs tax. Other sources of tax revenue expanded in the first 11 months of 2005/06. Profit tax jumped by 49 per cent year on year, slightly ahead of commodities and services tax (which rose by 47 per cent) and income tax (11 per cent)1. 2 Total public-sector deficit reached 6 % of GDP for 2004/05. Heavy losses by the state-owned enterprises (SOE) typically accounted for over 60 % of the overall deficit. The SPDC’s fiscal position is also weighted down by high off-budget spending on the country's huge armed forces. The budget position is unlikely to have improved in 2005/06 and 2006/07 (the current fiscal year), owing to the junta's expansionary fiscal policy. The junta's decision to relocate many government offices to a huge new administrative complex at Naypyidaw, 320 km north of Rangoon, imposed heavy costs. In addition, in April 2006 the junta raised salaries for around 1 million civil servants and military officers by between 500 and 1,200 per cent. The black market is estimated to be as big if not bigger than the official economy. Published statistics on foreign trade are greatly understated because of the size of the black market and unofficial border trade. Burma's trade with Thailand, China, and India is rising. Though the Burmese government has good economic relations with its neighbors, better investment and business climates and an improved political situation are needed to promote foreign investment, exports, and tourism. No new foreign direct investment projects have been approved in recent months. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) approvals totaled a meager US$35.7 million for the first 11 months of 2005/06, down from US$158.3 million for the whole of 2004/05. It is possible that the data do not capture some small FDI flows, such as those by Thai and Chinese firms in small projects along the border with Burma. International tourist arrivals totaled 320,275 in 2005, up by 5 % year on year, according to data from the Central Statistical Organization (CSO). Although arrivals rose, the pace of growth slowed compared with 2004 (rose 11.6 per cent). The slowdown reflected a 5.6 % year on year drop in arrivals by air, to 145,959, around 46 % total arrivals. Total international reserves reached US$951 million at the end of June 2006, according to data from the IMF. Reserves increased sharply in the first quarter of the year, surpassing US$900 million for the first time, before rising further in the second quarter. The main reason for the improvement in the overall balance-of-payments position and international reserves has been the rise in exports, which have been driven by strong growth in exports of natural gas. The official kyat exchange rate remains artificially inflated. The exchange rate like the rest of the junta system does not reflect the reality of the monetary system. The free-market exchange rate of kyat to US$ was 1,350:US$1 in July-October 2006, having recovered from kyat 1,450:US$1 at the end of April, which also put pressure on prices. There has been a mild appreciation of the kyat since then. The ratio of the parallel rate to the official rate is nearly 200:1. The kyat came under pressure earlier this year owing to fears that a pay rise for civil servants would sharply push up prices. However, strong gas exports have boosted international reserves, thereby helping the kyat to stabilize. The little-used official exchange rate is fixed against the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) special drawing rights (SDR) unit. The official rate held steady at around kyat 5.9:US$1 by August 2006. Author/creator:   Sein Htay Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Fund (NCGUB) Format/size:   pdf (1.5MB) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ncgub.net/mediagallery/download.php?mid=20070523134011574 Date of entry/update:   06 June 2007 Title:   Rangoon Bets on Business Date of publication:   May 2006 Description/subject:   Burma's former capital is still the country's commercial hub... The sudden relocation of Burma's capital may have sent government officials and Burmese civil servants moving north to Pyinmana, but for those involved in business Rangoon is still the center of Burma's commercial universe. The new capital's largest port and its main airport. While Pyinmana remains cut off from the outside world, the former capital has direct international flights to such cities as Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Taipei..." Author/creator:   Clive Parker Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 14, No. 5 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   28 December 2006 Title:   Energy Security in Asia: China, India, Oil and Peace Date of publication:   April 2006 Description/subject:   Report to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs..."India and China are both characterized by a tremendous increase in energy consumption, of which an increasing share derives from imports. Very rapid economic growth always makes it difficult to arrive at a sound balance between demand and supply, and this tends to generate waste, bottlenecks and insecurity. Although both countries are trying hard to provide appropriate energy, increase their energy efficiency, and diversify their sources of supply, they are becoming increasingly dependent on imported oil, and the Persian Gulf is set to remain their predominant source of oil in the coming decades. Instability in the Middle East thus poses a serious challenge to the security of China and India, just as it does for Japan, the US and many European countries. The question of maintaining a stable supply of fossil fuels poses several security challenges. One is to boost one's own production, another to diversify one's sources of import, and a third to secure the transportation of oil and gas on vulnerable sea routes; or over land through pipelines that depend on long-term strategic relationships with the producing countries. In China and India a heightened awareness of the geopolitical implications of energy supply and demand has given energy issues an increasing prominence both in their domestic and foreign policies. However, it is difficult to say if this leads to more tension in their foreign relations or if instead it pushes them towards increased international cooperation. Plans are certainly being made for future possible ‘resource wars', but emphasis is presently being put on economic competition, and on seeking to maximise each country's position on the international energy market. Then again, such increasing resource competition may contribute to raising the stakes of conflict in areas where national jurisdiction has not been resolved (East China Sea, South China Sea), and also in some of the energy exporting countries. Burma is one such country, in which the energy security dynamics of India and China are played out, and this is detailed in an appendix to the report. The report is based on available literature, online energy data, and communication with Indian and Chinese researchers. We have used country reports and statistics provided by the International Energy Agency (IEA), statistics, forecasts and analyses by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), unpublished academic papers, books and articles by Indian and Chinese researchers, and reports by several European and American analysts. Based on our assessments of the energy security strategies and interests of the major players in the region, the report outlines three scenarios for the future of international relations in Asia. The first, called ' is the most positive and also, in our judgment, the most likely. The second scenario, ', presents a possible embargo against China, and is perhaps the least likely, at least in the near future. The third scenario, ' presents the nightmare scenario of a full scale ' with global impact and serious consequences for India and China. The situation in Iraq, and especially the ongoing developments with relation to Iran's nuclear programme, force us to say that this scenario is not just a fantasy fiction, but a real possibility, even in the short term. The final section of the report offers suggestions as to implications of the outlined scenarios for Norwegian foreign policy formulation. Four areas of cooperation that would improve energy security in China and India, as well as globally, are identified: 1) support for the promotion of energy efficiency, 2) assistance in the development of clean coal and gas technology for electricity production, 3) a campaign for engaging the world's great powers in a major research effort to develop transportation technologies that do not depend on oil, 4) assistance in the nomination and promotion of Indian and Chinese candidature for IEA membership..." Author/creator:   Stein Tønnesson and à shild KolÃ¥s Language:   English Source/publisher:   International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) Format/size:   pdf Date of entry/update:   29 November 2007 Title:   Stunted and Distorted Industrialization in Myanmar Date of publication:   October 2005 Description/subject:   Abstract: "More than 15 years have passed since Myanmar embarked on its transition from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented one. The purpose of this paper is to provide a bird-eye’s view of industrial changes from the 1990s up to 2005. The industrial sector showed a preliminary development in the first half of the 1990s due to an “open door” policy and liberalization measures. However, a brief period of growth failed to effect any changes in the economic fundamentals. The industrial sector still suffers from poor power supplies, limited access to imported raw materials and machinery, exchange rate instability, limited credit, and frequent changes of government regulation. Public ownership is still high in key infrastructure sectors, and has failed to provide sufficient services to private industries. What the government must do first is to get the fundamentals right."... Keywords: Myanmar (Burma), transitional economy, industry Author/creator:   Toshihiro KUDO Language:   English Source/publisher:   Institute of Developing Economies, Discussion Paper No. 38 Format/size:   pdf (547K) Date of entry/update:   16 July 2006 Title:   Rich Periphery, Poor Center: Myanmar's Rural Economy Date of publication:   March 2004 Description/subject:   Abstract: "This paper looks at the case of Myanmar in order to investigate the behavior and welfare of rural households in an economy under transition from a planned to a market system. Myanmar's case is particularly interesting because of the country's unique attempt to preserve a policy of intervention in land transactions and marketing institutions. A sample household survey that we conducted in 2001, covering more than 500 households in eight villages with diverse agro-ecological environments, revealed two paradoxes. First, income levels are higher in villages far from the center than in villages located in regions under the tight control of the central authorities. Second, farmers and villages that emphasize a paddy-based, irrigated cropping system have lower farming incomes than those that do not. The reason for these paradoxes are the distortions created by agricultural policies that restrict land use and the marketing of agricultural produce. Because of these distortions, the transition to a market economy in Myanmar since the late 1980s is only a partial one. The partial transition, which initially led to an increase in output and income from agriculture, revealed its limit in the survey period."...There are 2 versions of this paper. The one placed as the main URL, which also has a later publication date, seems to be longer, though it is about 30K smaller. Author/creator:   Ikuko Okamoto, Kyosuke Kurita, Takashi Kurosaki and Koichi Fujita Language:   English Source/publisher:   IDE ( Institute of Developing Economies) Discussion Paper No. 23 Format/size:   pdf (213K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.econ.yale.edu/conference/neudc03/papers/1d-kurosaki.pdf Date of entry/update:   05 December 2003 Title:   A Comparative Perspective (Book Review) Date of publication:   November 2003 Description/subject:   "An Indonesian scholar compares the development experiences of Thailand, Burma and Indonesia. Priyambudi Sulistiyanto’s Thailand, Indonesia and Burma in Comparative Perspective reflects on the 1990s debate on "Asian values." His study of the three economies looks at whether authoritarian governments—sheltering policy-making from social pressures—promote rapid economic development or whether development is best achieved through democratization and a robust civil society. The author shows that the old debate was over-simplified, especially when defined as a choice between the Western "neo-classical" market model and the social-economic dirigisme of East Asian states..." Author/creator:   Donald M. Seekins Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 11, No. 9 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   11 January 2004 Title:   Behind Burma’s Economy - An Interview with Zaw Oo Date of publication:   November 2003 Description/subject:   "Zaw Oo is one of the directors of the Washington-based think-tank, The Burma Fund. In a written reply to The Irrawaddy, he discussed sanctions and some of the factors behind Burma’s economic uncertainties... Question: For years, experts have warned that Burma’s economy is teetering on collapse and many now expect that tougher sanctions enacted by the US will deliver the final blow. Others say the informal economy and border trade will keep Burma afloat. What is your assessment? Answer: In Burma, we have a sizeable informal economy that parallels the official economy. Sanctions hit the official side of the economy and hit the government hard. Sanctions have a negligible impact on the informal economy, where most Burmese make a living. Therefore, sanctions have damaged some of the government’s main income sources but spared the wider population. Because of the large informal sector, we won’t see the economy collapse in the near term..." Author/creator:   Zaw Oo Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 11, No. 9 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   11 January 2004 Title:   Current Economic Conditions in Myanmar and Options for Sustainable Growth Date of publication:   May 2003 Description/subject:   Abstract: In this paper, an extensive report on the economy of Myanmar prepared in 1998 is supplemented by more recent reports as of fall 2002 (included as appendices). The economy of Myanmar is one of the poorest in South East Asia. Despite relatively rapidly growth during the 1990’s, per capita income by 1998 was little higher than in the middle 1980s. Inflation rates are high, the currency value has fallen sharply, and Myanmar has one of the world’s lowest rates relative to income of government revenue and non-military spending. Agriculture in Myanmar has an unusually high share (59%) of GDP. Despite a high reported growth rate, yields for most food crops have remained stagnant or dropped. Poor price incentives and credit systems constrain agricultural production. As of 1998, farm wages are barely enough to provide food, with nothing left over for clothing, school fees, supplies, or medicine. Environmental problems including deteriorating water supply and diminishing common property resources further impact the poor. Industry suffers from limited credit, fluctuating power supplies, inflation and exchange rate instability. A possible bright spot is offshore gas potential. However, much of the expected revenue from offshore gas development may already have been pledged as collateral for expenditure prior to 1998, and thus will go primarily to service debt. Recent evidence summarized in a paper by Debbie Aung Din Taylor (Appendix 3) indicates that most people in rural areas are much worse off today than a decade ago. Decline in agricultural production is aggravated by severe degradation of the natural resource base. River catchment areas are denuded of forest cover, leading to more frequent and severe flooding. Fish stocks and water supplies are diminishing. These trends are pervasive and reaching a critical level. Assistance is urgently needed to provide the rural poor. Sustained international attention is needed to reverse the current rapid decline of economy and environment. Author/creator:   David Dapice Language:   English Source/publisher:   Global Development and Environment Institute, Tufts University Format/size:   pdf (83,7K) Date of entry/update:   21 September 2004 Title:   Chronic Slum: Burma’s Fiscal Disaster Date of publication:   April 2003 Description/subject:   "Burma’s tottering economy is suffering from a tax system crippled by corruption and desperately in need of reform... Many of Burma’s citizens do not pay tax. In fact, Burma has one of the world’s lowest ratios of tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The ratio has declined since the mid-1990s, as reports from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) indicate. Government revenues or taxation were at 7.8 percent of GDP in 1997-98 but dropped to a low of 2.3 percent in 2000-01. The ADB attributes the decline to a relatively slow increase in tax receipts. But government officials at the Finance and Revenue Ministry have quietly admitted to The Irrawaddy that the drop is mainly the result of overestimating the GDP, part of the regime’s propaganda drive to gloss over the nation’s economic woes. Failing state economic enterprises and growing public sector imports, notably defense imports, have left the junta with a large fiscal deficit. So now the question is: How can it attract new revenue or new taxes to fill the growing holes in the budget?..." Author/creator:   Min Zin Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 11, No. 3 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Price rises bite into impoverished Myanmar Date of publication:   26 January 2003 Description/subject:   YANGON, Jan 26 (AFP) - "Condemned by western governments for its poor human rights record, shunned by foreign investors and international financial institutions, military-ruled Myanmar and its impoverished people are suffering from spiralling inflation..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   AFP Format/size:   html (12K) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Economic Anomalies Date of publication:   08 January 2003 Description/subject:   January 08, 2003—"During Burma’s time as a Socialist state, citizens were prevented by foreign exchange proceed laws to possess any foreign currency. Minor adjustments were made to this situation after 1988 when the military junta allowed a number of businessmen to open foreign currency accounts at two state-owned banks: the Myanma Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) and the Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank (MICB)..." Author/creator:   Danu Maung Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Commentary Archive Format/size:   html (12K) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Befreiung des Handels aus den Fängen des Militärs Date of publication:   January 2003 Description/subject:   Burma: Fairer Handel, ›Deglobalisierung‹ und andere Alternativen? Eine Diskussion von Walden Bellos Konzept der De-Globalisierung und Lokalisierung angewandt auf Burma. Warum sind die Ideen der globalisierungskritischen Bewegung derzeit auf Burma nicht anwendbar? key words: anti-globalisation, fair trade, military / state economy, neo-liberalism, Author/creator:   Alfred Oehlers, Deutsch von Gudrun Witte Language:   Deutsch, German, English Source/publisher:   Südostasien Jg. 19, Nr. 1 - Asienhaus Format/size:   pdf (51K - English) Alternate URLs:   http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs07/Globalisation_Oehlers.pdf Date of entry/update:   08 January 2004 Title:   BURMA COUNTRY COMMERCIAL GUIDE FY2002 Date of publication:   2003 Description/subject:   "This Country Commercial Guide (CCG) presents a comprehensive look at Burma's (Myanmar's) commercial environment, using economic, political and market analysis. The CCGs were established by recommendation of the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC), a multi-agency task force, to consolidate various reporting documents prepared for the U.S. business community. Country commercial guides are prepared annually at U.S. embassies through the combined efforts of several U.S. Government agencies..." 1. Executive Summary... 2 Economic Trends and Outlook -Government Role in the Economy -Major Trends and Outlook -Major Sectors -Balance of Payments -Infrastructure... 3 Political Environment � -Brief Synopsis of Political System -Nature of Bilateral Relationship with the United States -Major Political Issues -Business Policy -Scope of Sanctions... 4 Marketing US Products and Services � -List of Newspapers and Trade Journals -Advertising Agencies and Services -IPR Protection -Need for a Local Attorney... 5 Leading Sectors for US Exports and Investment... 6 Trade Regulations, Customs and Standards -Barriers to Trade and Investment -Trade Regulations... 7 Investment Climate/US Investment Sanctions -US Investment Subject to Sanctions -Status of Investment -Executive Order -Sanctions Regulations... 8 Trade and Project Financing -Description of Banking System -Foreign Exchange Controls Affecting Trade -Availability of Financing -List of Banks... 9 Business Travel -Travel Advisory -Visas, International Connections -Customs, Foreign Exchange Controls... 10 Economic and Trade Statistics: Appendix A: Country Data; Appendix B: Domestic Economy; Appendix C: External Accounts - Trade and Payments; Appendix D: Investment Statistics; 11 US and Country Contacts... Bibliography. Language:   English Source/publisher:   US Commercial Service Format/size:   html, pdf (276K) Date of entry/update:   18 July 2003 Title:   Economic and Social Chaos of the State Date of publication:   26 December 2002 Description/subject:   " Burma has come to resemble the former Soviet regime, and we are presently witnessing the same economic and social chaos. The Burmese junta continues to build up its military, despite agreeing to peace with 17 ethnic armed groups. Needless infrastructure projects have been launched one after another, while people in the streets are saying: "Who needs these roads and dams? You can’t eat them or buy food for us."... It seems from the regime’s perspective that the nation’s economic and social problems can be solved by pampering white elephants in their elaborately decorated stables at Min Dharma Hill..." Author/creator:   Danu Maung Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Commentary Archive Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Sowing disorder: Support for the Burmese junta backfires on China Date of publication:   November 2002 Description/subject:   "In the early 1990s China’s sale of arms to Burma played a crucial role in keeping the Burmese military in power. But this support for the generals in Rangoon is now backfiring, as many of the negative consequences spill over the border into China, writes Andrew Bosson. While China has generally taken a passive stance towards international efforts to pressure Burma to improve its rights record, it would be in Beijing’s best interests to push Rangoon towards economic and political reform, he argues. The relationship between Burma and China has been harmful to both countries, especially following the Chinese arms deals which preserved the junta in power and locked Burmese political and economic life into a stasis from which it has yet to emerge. The generals seem to have very little idea of how a modern economy functions and are essentially running the country as they would an army. Military expenditures continue to take up about 60 percent of the national budget. Thus it comes as no surprise that the economy is in an advanced state of failure. China also has been damaged economically: Burma’s lack of access to economic development assistance and its collapsed economy leave a gaping hole in the regional development projects the impoverished provinces of southwest China so badly need. China also suffers from the massive spread of HIV/AIDS, drug addiction and crime that have accompanied the massive quantities of heroin being trafficked from Burma into Yunnan Province. The growth of the drug economy in Burma may be traced directly to the lack of the necessary economic and political remedies, which is an indirect result of China’s intervention..." Author/creator:   Andrew Bosson Language:   English Source/publisher:   China Rights Forum Journal 2002-03 Format/size:   pdf (140K) Alternate URLs:   http://iso.hrichina.org/public/contents/article?revision%5fid=3346&item%5fid=3345 Date of entry/update:   May 2003 Title:   A Complete State Failure? Date of publication:   September 2002 Description/subject:   "Crisis" has become a popular byword in any description of Burma. The country�s economic calamities have now led to social instability and havoc. Basic commodity prices have doubled since late August. Ongoing closures of border crossings with Thailand has compounded the shortage of goods and forced consumer prices to spiral out of reach for many people in Burma. Even in Rangoon, individuals have to line up for cooking oil until late at night. Some sleep in queues while waiting to buy small rations..." Author/creator:   Editorial Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 10. No. 7, September 2002 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Burma's Economic Blues Date of publication:   August 2002 Description/subject:   Although reports from the military government paint a rosy picture of Burma as a prosperous modernizing nation, numerous signs indicate that the country�s economy is in dire straits. ... When reading Burma�s state-run newspapers, however, it is sometimes hard to remember that Burma is one of the most impoverished nations on the globe. Leafing through the pages of the regime�s principal mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, the reader is swamped with articles detailing the implementation of countless development projects�including new hospitals, dams and schools�that the ruling generals in Rangoon say lend credence to their mission of building a new and prosperous nation..." Author/creator:   Tony Broadmoor Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 10, No. 6, July-August 2002 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   THE ECONOMY & WOMEN'S LABOUR (Chapter from "Gathering Strength") Date of publication:   January 2002 Description/subject:   OVERVIEW; THE ECONOMY; DECISION-MAKING & THE FAMILY INCOME; CULTURAL STEREOTYPES REGARDING WORK; RURAL WOMEN; FORCED LABOUR; EDUCATION & WORK OPPORTUNITIES; WOMEN IN THE PAID LABOUR FORCE; THE CIVIL SERVICE; THE INFORMAL SECTOR; THE PRIVATE SECTOR; LACK OF INFORMAL & PRIVATE SECTOR REGULATION; THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY; FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS; Author/creator:   Brenda Belak Language:   English Source/publisher:   Images Asia Format/size:   PDF (979K) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Myanmar - Daten 2001/2002 - Wirtschaftsdaten Date of publication:   2002 Description/subject:   Auszug aus dem Wirtschaftshandbuch Asien-Pazifik des Ostasiatischen Vereins e.V. (OAV) Wähle "Myanmar" auf der Seite "Länderinfo". Choose country "Myanmar" on the site "Länderinfo". possibly 2002 Language:   Deutsch Source/publisher:   Ostasiatischer Verein e.V. Alternate URLs:   Kontakt zu Foren für informellen Austausch mit Unternehmern für Mitglieder http://www.oav.de/index.php3?t=5&r=2 Adresse OAV Repräsentanzbüro in Rangoon http://www.oav.de/index.php3?t=2&r=6#myanmar Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Burma's economic crisis deepens Date of publication:   19 November 2001 Description/subject:   The price of vegetables has doubled. Burma has not escaped the economic fall-out from the attacks on the United States and Washington's war on terrorism. The fall in consumer confidence in America will also affect Burma's exports to the US, while the general downturn in international travel will have an adverse impact on Burma's tourist industry. The latest symptom of financial crisis has been a run on the country's large kyat notes. "No one wants to hold thousand or five hundred kyat notes for fear that the government is planning to withdraw them from circulation," said a Burmese businessman... Author/creator:   Larry Jagan Language:   English Source/publisher:   BBC Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Burma’s Great Depression Date of publication:   September 2001 Description/subject:   "Burma is in the grips of a national depression, and unless something is done to treat it soon, a full recovery could become nearly impossible. Everybody suffers from depression at some time in life. Intense feelings of loss, sadness, hopelessness, failure and rejection can afflict us all, even though we each handle our own difficult experiences differently. Even entire nations can experience depression. In 1929, the United States plunged into the Great Depression, which lasted a decade. This event was more than just a profound economic slump: It left a lasting mark on America’s national psyche. It also demonstrated that even enormous power offers little protection against the mood of the times. No country is invulnerable to the vicissitudes of life; but if a country is fundamentally strong, it can emerge even stronger from the experience of depression. In the case of Burma, however, the onslaught of depression has been relentless. The country’s people have suffered under the effects of misrule for decades, and still cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. Especially since the mid-1970’s, the lot of the average Burmese has worsened almost day by day, so that now they are at their lowest point ever..." Author/creator:   Maung Maung Oo Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy", Vol 9. No. 7 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Myanmar: The Dilemma of Stalled Reforms Date of publication:   September 2000 Description/subject:   "Myanmar's economic reforms are constrained by the domestic political situation... This paper explores Myanmar's political and economic background in the context of stalled reforms. It finds that Myanmar's economic development is constrained by the domestic political situation, which has in turn been linked to sanctions on trade, investment and aid imposed by Western Europe and the United States. The paper states that further reforms are still required, as the previous round of reforms failed to redress problems such as: * High inflation * Persistent fiscal deficit * Widening trade deficit * Chronic foreign exchange shortage * A drastic fall in foreign investment * Inefficient state economic enterprises (SEEs) * Low value-added production... The paper notes: * The current military government is endeavouring to institute a new political order, while at the same time attempting a smooth transition from a closed to an open market economy. * The fundamental premise is that these broad political and economic reforms should not compromise the three principal main national causes including national sovereignty... The paper concludes: * Conflict between the NLD and the government and the resulting political impasse is the main obstacle for further reforms. * The realization of Myanmars reforms will depend on whether the government and the opposition can be reconciled..." Author/creator:   Tin Maung Maung Than Language:   English Source/publisher:   Institute for South-East Asian Studies (ISEAS) via Eldis Format/size:   pdf (80K) 40 pages Alternate URLs:   http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs3/Dilemmas-TMMT.pdf Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Models Wanted Date of publication:   June 2000 Description/subject:   Burma's ruling generals and educators of the country's future economic elite appear to have different ideas about the most appropriate model for Burma's economic development. Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy", Vol. 8. No. 6 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Burma & Globalization Date of publication:   April 2000 Description/subject:   Aung Thu Nyein explores the possible positive and negative impact that the process of globalization may have on Burma. While globalization has the power to weaken the regime, its may also work against efforts to rebuild Burma in the future. He points out that this aspect of globalization is under scrutinized by the opposition. Author/creator:   Aung Thu Nyein Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy", Vol. 8, No. 4-5 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Who to Believe? Date of publication:   April 2000 Description/subject:   Burma's economy could hardly be in better shape, argue the generals who run the country. But a growing chorus of international economists, foreign and local businessmen, and ordinary Burmese begs to differ. Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy", Vol. 8. No. 4-5 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   What Went Wrong? Date of publication:   January 2000 Description/subject:   Dr. Myo Nyunt, an economist who has worked with the United Nations, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, examines the fate of regimes that fail to recognize and respond to the forces of globalization. Author/creator:   Dr Myo Nyunt Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy", Vol. 8. No. 1 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Why Do Poor Countries Choose Low Human Rights? Some Lessons from Burma Date of publication:   17 November 1999 Description/subject:   Revised Inaugural Lecture at the Faculty of Economics Freie Universität Berlin. JEL-Keywords: Social Norms, Law, Rights, Money, Credit, Economic growth, Development, Poverty, Burma, Thailand. JEL-Classification: K10, K19, O11, O12, O16, Z13. Theoretical explanations about human rights or democracy and economic development have long been dominated by the so-called Lipset-hypothesis, in which levels of democracy and human rights area function of prosperity. However, cross-country evidence seems to indicate that multiple equilibria are more probable than a simple linear relationship. This paper explains the occurrence of low human rights equilibria as the result of a collective choice, where individuals take into account the prevailing consensus in society. This consensus is based on specific cognitive models and the related conceptions of justice. Modern societies are structured by debtor-creditor relationships in a monetary economy, while traditional societies are dominated by a safety-first principle rooted in the subsistence economy. Modern society requires a system of rights, including human rights, to ensure protection of the individual against interference by the collective. By contrast, the subsistence ethics of traditional societies privilege a holistic approach in which the collective guarantees the survival of the individual. In this context, the validity of human rights is less apparent. A collective choice of low human rights can be seen as an adverse selection by risk-averse agents, or as an insurance premium against individual precarity. These conclusions were derived from an analysis ofBurma's society and economy. In general, the transition to a sustainable democratic regime with better respect for human rights would require a profound restructuring of the economy with a properly functioning monetary economy. Author/creator:   Stefan Collignon Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Burma, Country Commercial Guide, FY 1999 Date of publication:   September 1998 Description/subject:   Report prepared by the U.S. Embassy, Rangoon, released September 1998.Chapter I -- Executive Summary Chapter II -- Economic Trends and Outlook; Chapter III -- Political Environment; Chapter IV -- Marketing U.S. Products and Services; Chapter V -- Leading Sectors for U.S. Exports; Chapter VI -- Trade Regulations and Standards; Chapter VII -- Investment Climate; Chapter VIII -- Trade and Project Financing; Chapter IX -- Business Travel; Chapter X -- U.S. and Country Contacts; Chapter XI -- Bibliography. Language:   English Source/publisher:   US State Dept. Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   FOREIGN ECONOMIC TRENDS REPORT: BURMA, 1997 Date of publication:   September 1997 Description/subject:   "This report is a public document, prepared in June 1997 and released in September 1997 by American Embassy Rangoon. All statistics in this report are unofficial Embassy estimates, not official U.S. Government statistics. That is, they are compiled and reviewed only by Embassy officials, not by U.S. Government officials in Washington, even though they largely originate from the Government of Burma, from the governments of Burma's trading partners, or from such international financial institutions as the IMF and World Bank, as indicated by source notations in the appended statistical tables, and by the section on sources and data. Similar reports are prepared and distributed to the public annually, separately or as part of an annual Country Commercial Guide, by most American embassies throughout the world, in compliance with standing instructions from, and following a standard format specified by, the U.S. Departments of State and Commerce. This report is intended chiefly for economists and financiers; except for its first section, "Major trends and outlook," it is highly technical and sometimes redundant, intended to serve largely as a reference work...I. Economic trends and outlook:- -- Major trends and outlook: -- Major trends; -- 1996/97 economic performance; -- Economic outlook... -- Principal growth sectors: --Tourism; -- Defense; -- Agriculture: -- Paddy (unmilled rice) cultivation; -- State procurement of paddy; ; -- Rice exports; -- Beans and pulses... -- Remaining structural issues in the agricultural sector; -- Living conditions in the agricultural sector; -- The government's role in the economy: -- Historical background; -- The extent and limits of economic liberalization since 1988; -- Fiscal developments; --Non-financial expenditures; -- Non-financial receipts; -- Fiscal balances; -- External financing; -- Domestic financing; -- Errors and omissions; -- Monetary developments; -- The exchange rate regime; -- Exchange rate movements; -- Recorded money supply growth; -- Recorded money supply composition; -- Recorded domestic credit and domestic reserves; -- Recorded net foreign assets (foreign reserves); -- Aggregate price inflation; -- Balance of payments; -- Merchandise trade data and balances; -- Recorded merchandise exports; -- Recorded merchandise imports; ; -- Non-factor services trade; -- The overall trade balance; -- Unrequited private transfers (workers' remittances); -- Foreign direct investment; -- Other recorded cash financial inflows: grants, loans and other; -- External debt, debt service, arrears and debt relief; -- Aggregate external accounts: the flow of funds; -- Errors and omissions: unrecorded external flows; -- Narcotics exports and other foreign exchange rents and their real exchange rate effects; -- Infrastructure situation; -- Human infrastructure: education and health; -- Physical infrastructure; -- Use of uncompensated labor in infrastructure projects; -- Major infrastructural projects; II. Political environment; -- Nature of the bilateral relationship with the United States; -- American concerns: human rights violations, narcotics exports; -- U.S. Government activities and policies; -- Private investment, trade and travel; -- U.S. direct investment in Burma; -- U.S. exports to Burma ; -- U.S. imports from Burma; -- Travel and migration; -- Major political issues affecting the business climate ; -- Brief synopsis of the political system, schedule for elections, and orientation of major political parties; Note on sources, data and method; -- Recent improvements in publicly available economic data; -- Remaining flaws in the publicly available economic data; -- The statistical basis and methodology of this report; List of commonly used abbreviations... Appendix: Statistical Tables; --Table A: Socio-economic profile; -- Tables B.l.a - B.3.c: National income accounts (GDP and GNP); -- Table C: Aggregate price indicators; --Tables D l.a-D.6: Balance of payments accounts; -- Tables E.l.a - E.2: Monetary accounts; -- Tables F.I - F.2.b: Flow of funds accounts; -- Tables G.1.a-G.6: Public sector finance accounts. Language:   English Source/publisher:   US Embassy, Rangoon Format/size:   pdf (979K) 152 pages Date of entry/update:   30 May 2005 Title:   La destruction de l'économie birmane par les militaires Date of publication:   September 1997 Description/subject:   "...La plupart des signes d'alerte précoce d'une déstabilisation radicale sont présents en Birmanie. Ils comprennent le déclin de l'économie, des dépenses disproportionnées pour la défense, une armée surdimensionnée et peu disciplinée, des violations généralisées des droits de l'Homme, l'accroissement de la polarisation des revenus, la dégradation de l'environnement et la guerre civile. La décision des dirigeants de l'armée en 1988 de rechercher des solutions militaires aux problèmes politiques, d'abandonner la tentative de gouverner en équilibrant les forces intérieures du pays et de chercher à la place des soutiens militaires et financiers de l'extérieur pour imposer leur ordre au peuple birman, a mal tourné. Les rentrées financières attendues ne se sont pas matérialisées. Après avoir liquidé les actifs disponibles de façon immédiate et après avoir échoué dans ses projets économiques tels que les exportations de riz et l'Année du Tourisme, le Slorc est à nouveau proche de l'insolvabilité. Si le Slorc ne peut pas écarter l'option militaire prise en 1988 et s'engager dans d'authentiques négociations tripartites avec l'opposition politique et avec les organisations des groupes d'ethnie non-birmane et demander ensemble une assistance internationale, une nouvelle détérioration économique et une déstabilisation aggravée semblent probables. Un scénario pourrait être une désintégration générale du pays en une mosaïque de seigneurs de la guerre et de troupes ethniques rebelles, en étendant le système déjà pratiqué dans les territoires frontaliers. Les implications de ce scénario doivent être prises au sérieux par le Tatmadaw, qui prétend maintenir l'unité nationale, mais aussi par les voisins de la Birmanie et par la communauté internationale." Author/creator:   David Arnott Language:   French, Francais Source/publisher:   Relations Internationales & Stratégiques No. 27, Automne 1997. Format/size:   pdf (119K) Date of entry/update:   24 August 2003 Title:   Once the Ricebowl of Asia Date of publication:   September 1997 Description/subject:   "The Burmese military's linked objectives, expanded military control of the country and large-scale international investment to pay for it, are mutually incompatible. Following their suppression of the 1988 Democracy Movement, the generals decided to increase the size of the armed forces from 186,000 to 500,000 in order to have a permanent military presence in most parts of the country. This involved up to US$2 billion of arms imports, mainly from China, a large recruitment drive and a reordering of the military command structure. Lacking the necessary funds to pay for military expansion following the failure of the previous regime's economic autarchy (and/or seeking a credible source of income to launder the revenues from Burma's illegal exports, mainly heroin), the junta opened the country to international investment, but the increased militarisation of the state and the military's continued stranglehold on the main sectors of the economy impeded the economic liberalisation and institutional reform needed by investors. In the civil war, the enhanced capacity of the re-armed and enlarged Burma Army allowed it to move from a strategy of seasonal combat to one of occupation. However, lack of discipline and the low level of soldiers' pay have led to the army living off the land, destroying the local economy, carrying out massive violations of human rights, further alienating the local population and creating refugee flows to neighbouring countries. The combination of a sinking economy, a large, badly-paid army and a tradition of warlordism could lead to a break-up of the country into a number of fiefdoms run by regional commanders and ethnic chiefs. Such a scenario should be taken seriously by the Tatmadaw, the neighbours and the international community..." Published in French as "La destruction de l'economie birmane par les militaires" though it was originally written in English with the title "Once the Ricebowl of Asia". Author/creator:   David Arnott Language:   English Source/publisher:   Relations Internationales & Strategiques No. 27, Automne 1997. Format/size:   html (52K) Alternate URLs:   Download: http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/ricebowl98.rtf Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Burma is Now Facing Its Worst Economic Crisis Date of publication:   August 1997 Description/subject:   In the early 1990s Burma seemed on the verge of an economic boom, but gross economic mismanagement and a vastly overvalued currency have brought the country's economy to its knees. Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy", Vol. 5. No. 4-5 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   The New ASEANS: Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia & Laos. Date of publication:   20 June 1997 Description/subject:   This 1997 report was published by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The 70-page section on Burma is divided into 3 chapters: "Perpetuating the Military State" which among other things contains a few pages on the legal system which provide good background for the economics section; "Arrested Economic Development" and "Politicised business". The latter looks at trade, in particular between Australia and Burma. The analysis is useful but, given the 4-5 years since it was written, somewhat outdated. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Australian Dept. of Foreign Affairs and Trade Format/size:   PDF (2943K) Date of entry/update:   01 September 2010 Title:   Foreign Exchange Certificates: Who Really Benefits? Date of publication:   June 1997 Description/subject:   "Visitors to Burma notice that everyone, even trishaw peddlers, want to be paid in U.S. dollars -or coupons called FECs, or Foreign Exchange Certificates. After all, the local currency known as kyat is hyper-inflated and loses value almost daily. As one Burmese told the author, the successful mohinga [soup with noodles] seller down the street "buys gold every evening because she's afraid of the money." The FECs are an attempt by the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) to overcome that lack of confidence in the currency - and provide a linchpin for a supposedly "open-market economy" as a medium of exchange and a store of value..." Author/creator:   Kyi May Kaung Language:   English Source/publisher:   "Burma Debate" Vol. IV, No. 2, March/June 1997 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Interview With Professor Khin Maung Kyi Date of publication:   June 1997 Description/subject:   In January 1996, a group of Burmese economists began a series of discussions on Burma's economy. Their report, "Economic Development of Burma: A Vision and a Strategy," was recently presented to a select body of peers at the Center for International Private Enterprise in Washington, D.C. Professor Khin Maung Kyi, one of the leading members of this research group, speaks to Burma Debate about his views on the report. Author/creator:   Khin Maung Kyi Language:   English Source/publisher:   "Burma Debate", Vol. IV, No. 2 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   The New ASEANS: Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia & Laos (Executive Summary) Date of publication:   1997 Description/subject:   A useful overview of the longer PDF document of the same name. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Australian Fept of Foreign Arffairs and Trade Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   WTO Ministerial Conference Singapore 1996 Date of publication:   1996 Description/subject:   Statement by H.E. Lieutenant-General Tun Kyi, Myanmar Minister for Commerce Language:   English Source/publisher:   WTO Date of entry/update:   17 August 2010 Title:   Myanmar-- Policies for Sustaining Economic Reform Date of publication:   16 October 1995 Description/subject:   Important report, which criticises the SLORC's economic and social policies, including paddy procurement policies."A significant program of economic reforms has been instituted in Myanmar since the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) assumed power in late-1988. This shift in economic policies followed almost a quarter century of economic decline during which the prevalent development paradigm was termed " the Burmese way of socialism " . Under that model, economic development was to be achieved through rapid industrialization and self sufficiency, and led by the State Enterprise (SE) sector. Economic performance under that policy regime was poor. During 1962-77, real GDP growth barely kept up with population expansion and, as a result, living standards stagnated. Investment levels remained low, agricultural output grew slowly, and the economy grew more inward looking. The initial attempts at economic reform in the mid-1970s succeeded at first but could not be sustained due to macroeconomic and structural factors, which were reflected in widening budget and current account deficits, rising inflation, and stagnant agricultural output and exports. Faced with these serious external and internal imbalances in the early-1980s the Government's stabilization attempts relied on tightening import controls, cutting public investment, and demonetization but were ineffective in reversing the economic decline. Following the anti-government demonstrations of 1988, the SLORC assumed power and announced that many key aspects of the earlier model would be abandoned in its economic reform program. With over seven years having elapsed since those reforms were initiated, it is an opportune time to take stock. Specifically, this report examines the impacts of the policy changes, with a view to identifying the areas in which progress has been made, as well as the gaps that still remain in the program. This analysis would then underpin the report's recommendations concernng areas in which additional reforms are required and how these measures should be phased. Keywords: Economic growth; Economic reform; Economic stabilization; Government role; Policy making Language:   English Source/publisher:   World Bank Format/size:   Text (456K)or PDF (8416K) Page. Alternate URLs:   http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1995/10/16/000009265_3961019103423/Re... http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSServlet?pcont=details&eid=000009265_3961019103423 Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Country Commercial Guide, Burma (Myanmar) June 1995 Date of publication:   June 1995 Description/subject:   This Country Commercial Guide (CCG) presents a comprehensive look at Burma's commercial environment through economic, political and market analyses. The CCGs were established by recommendation of the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC), a multi-agency task force, to consolidate various reporting documents prepared for the U.S. business community. Country Commercial Guides are prepared annualy at U.S. Embassies through the combined efforts of several U.S. governement agencies. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Prepared by U.S. Embassy Rangoon, Burma Yangon, Myanmar Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   17 August 2010 Analyses and programmes by international financial institutions etc. All international financial institutions and their watchers Websites/Multiple Documents Title:   FINDING STATISTICAL DATA ON DEVELOPMENT Description/subject:   Search results on the Eldis site for "statistics" Language:   English Source/publisher:   Eldis Format/size:   html Alternate URLs:   http://search.babylon.com/home?q=statistic+site%3AEldis.org&babsrc=home&s=web http://www.eldis.org Date of entry/update:   18 August 2010 Title:   IFI-Burma - discussion group Description/subject:   Updates on development schemes in Burma, with particular focus on bilateral and multilateral assistance; concerns and strategies. Language:   English Subscribe:   IFI-Burma-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   IFI-Burma Project Description/subject:   "The Burma Project conducts research and analysis on issues of development assistance from international financial institutions (IFIs) to Burma, with a particular focus on multilateral development banks (MDBs). The Burma Project also provides current information on these issues to members of civil society who work to protect human rights and the environment in Burma, so that they may be equipped with necessary knowledge, skills and a working network to assist them in ensuring that operations of MDBs in Burma are conducted in a socially and environmentally accountable manner, and truly benefits citizens..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Bank Information Center Subscribe:   IFI-Burma-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Format/size:   html, Word, pdf Date of entry/update:   18 June 2003 Individual Documents Title:   Opportunities and Pitfalls: Preparing for Burma's Economic Transition Date of publication:   November 2006 Description/subject:   Executive Summary: "Each of Burma’s citizens has a stake in the country’s development and should have a say in how it develops its economic potential, including its human and natural resources. In the future, it is likely that Burma’s people will act to exploit their economic potential in conjunction with international economic institutions. To do so most effectively, they will have to deal carefully with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank, and other international financial institutions (IFIs). They will also have to develop national institutions, strategies, and mechanisms to manage wisely Burma’s trade relations as well as the revenues generated by exploitation of the country’s natural resources... Burma and the IFIs: IFIs are profit-making organizations. IFIs do not wait for the establishment of democracy, the rule of law, and other good governance practices before they begin operating in a country. IFIs engage in a country when the IFIs decide that they will likely profit from such an engagement and when the country’s government and the international community are ready to accept such an engagement. Instead of helping countries implement national-development and poverty-reduction strategies devised with the participation of their citizens, IFIs often dominate the formation of such strategies to such a degree that the people of these countries lose control of the process. The IFIs see economic growth as the key tool for promoting development and reducing poverty, and they apply a narrow, blanket set of reforms to achieve it. This focus on economic growth and the blanket application of reforms, however, have failed to work in many countries and have had disastrous effects in some. In order to avoid losing control of development and poverty-reduction strategies and to make IFI assistance most effective for its people, Burma must have: a clear set of development objectives; a strategic, comprehensive social and economic policy framework; and good-governance principles and practices. Whether they live in Burma or abroad, Burmese people who favor a democratic government, a free-market economy, rule of law, and the development of sound political and economic institutions must begin as soon as possible to organize themselves; to gather information on Burma’s economy, its economic potential, and the needs of its people; and to devise their own comprehensive, strategic social and economic policy framework as well as good governance principles and practices. The Burmese people should be wary of efforts by the IFIs to re-engage in Burma before the establishment of democracy, rule of law, and other elements of an open society in their country. Burma will have to clear arrears of about $170 million before the IFIs re-engage. Burma’s people should be aware that the IFIs’ lending practices put pressure on countries to borrow and that many countries, often by borrowing for large infrastructure projects that do little to promote growth, incur unsustainable levels of debt that pose serious problems.... Burma and Trade: As a consequence of Burma’s lack of a comprehensive, strategic social and economic policy framework, the country’s commodity-centered trade with China and other nearby countries is providing the Burmese only short-term gains that benefit mostly foreign interests and people associated with Burma’s military regime. Volatility in commodity markets makes dependence upon commodities an unstable basis for sound, long-term economic development. To capture long-term gains from trade, broaden the distribution of these gains, and stimulate development, Burma needs a comprehensive, strategic social and economic policy framework. This framework should take into account trade flows, exchange rates, Instead of helping countries implement national-development and poverty-reduction strategies devised with the participation of their citizens, IFIs often dominate the formation of such strategies to such a degree that the people of these countries lose control of the process. The IFIs see economic growth as the key tool for promoting development and reducing poverty, and they apply a narrow, blanket set of reforms to achieve it. This focus on economic growth and the blanket application of reforms, however, have failed to work in many countries and have had disastrous effects in some. In order to avoid losing control of development and poverty-reduction strategies and to make IFI assistance most effective for its people, Burma must have: a clear set of development objectives; a strategic, comprehensive social and economic policy framework; and good-governance principles and practices. Whether they live in Burma or abroad, Burmese people who favor a democratic government, a free-market economy, rule of law, and the development of sound political and economic institutions must begin as soon as possible to organize themselves; to gather information on Burma’s economy, its economic potential, and the needs of its people; and to devise their own comprehensive, strategic social and economic policy framework as well as good governance principles and practices. The Burmese people should be wary of efforts by the IFIs to re-engage in Burma before the establishment of democracy, rule of law, and other elements of an open society in their country. Burma will have to clear arrears of about $170 million before the IFIs re-engage. Burma’s people should be aware that the IFIs’ lending practices put pressure on countries to borrow and that many countries, often by borrowing for large infrastructure projects that do little to promote growth, incur unsustainable levels of debt that pose serious problems... Burma and Trade: As a consequence of Burma’s lack of a comprehensive, strategic social and economic policy framework, the country’s commodity-centered trade with China and other nearby countries is providing the Burmese only short-term gains that benefit mostly foreign interests and people associated with Burma’s military regime. Volatility in commodity markets makes dependence upon commodities an unstable basis for sound, long-term economic development. To capture long-term gains from trade, broaden the distribution of these gains, and stimulate development, Burma needs a comprehensive, strategic social and economic policy framework. This framework should take into account trade flows, exchange rates,foreign investment, and domestic issues like infrastructure and education improvements, human resources development, and industrial development... Burma and the Resource Curse: Natural-resource-rich countries like Burma are more likely than resource-poor countries to experience flat economic growth, endure greater poverty, incur unwieldy debt, develop authoritarian and repressive governments, and suffer armed conflict. Receiving significant revenues in payment for natural resources can free a country’s government from the need to collect taxes from its citizens; this severs a vital bond between the citizentaxpayer and the government and dampens the government’s incentives to implement sound economic, social, and fiscal policies in a transparent and accountable manner. In many countries, revenues from extraction of natural resources actually trigger a decline in living standards and exacerbate social problems. Revenues generated by exploitation of Burma’s natural resources are helping to sustain the country’s military dictatorship, contributing to human rights abuses and conflict, and failing to alleviate the poverty and poor governance most Burmese suffer. Natural resource extraction in Burma has produced long-term damage to the environment; contributed to a decline in agricultural productivity; aggravated corruption of the government and civil society; exacerbated the illegal drug trade, the exploitation of sex workers, and the spread of HIV/AIDS; and funded warring factions. Burma might consider community-based resource management, rather than a state-controlled system, in the exploitation of its natural resources for the benefit of all its citizens. Author/creator:   Yuki Akimoto Language:   English, Burmese Source/publisher:   Open Society Institute (OSI) Format/size:   pdf (1.9MB English; 616K - Burmese) Alternate URLs:   http://www.soros.org/initiatives/bpsai/articles_publications/publications/opportunitiespitfalls_200... http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs4/opportunities_20061115.pdf Date of entry/update:   22 February 2007 Title:   Multilateral Development Bank Investment in Burma (Myanmar) (July – October 2004) -- Burma Country Update #1 Date of publication:   09 November 2004 Description/subject:   The Burma Country Update provides information about recent developments, civil society concerns, and policy updates related to the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB). Language:   English Source/publisher:   Bank Information Center Format/size:   html (26K) Date of entry/update:   11 November 2004 Asian Development Bank (ADB) and its watchers (Burma/Myanmar) Websites/Multiple Documents Title:   ADB Myanmar page Date of publication:   15 September 2003 Description/subject:   Many links from this page Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   12 April 2012 Title:   ADB projects in Myanmar Description/subject:   Project records contain Project Data Sheets (summary information on projects or programs), project and evaluation documents, business opportunities and other information. See the Project FAQs. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   26 November 2012 Title:   International Rivers Network Mekong Page Description/subject:   Watches ADB projects in the Mekong region Language:   English Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   11 August 2010 Title:   Myanmar Tourism Master Plan Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) 46271-001: Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   26 November 2012 Title:   NGO Forum on ADB Description/subject:   Not much specifically on Burma/Myanmar. Language:   English Source/publisher:   NGO Forum on ADB Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Individual Documents Title:   Asian Development Outlook 2013 -Asia’s Energy Challenge (Myanmar section) Date of publication:   09 April 2013 Description/subject:   "Policy reforms stimulated economic growth last year and are expected to drive further development during the forecast period. Inflation is projected to remain moderate. Improved economic prospects have sparked a surge of interest from foreign investors. Achieving the country’s potential depends on maintaining momentum on the government’s reform agenda..."...N.B. there is a lot of material on Myanmar, e.g. in the statistics, not included in the Myanmar pages Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf (541K-Myanmar section; 7.9MB-full report) Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/2013/ado-2013.pdf Date of entry/update:   10 April 2013 Title:   Myanmar’s Trade and its Potential Date of publication:   January 2013 Description/subject:   Abstract: "The paper tabulates Myanmar’s merchandise trade as reported by its partner countries, thereby circumventing the data constraints stemming from Myanmar’s patchy trade records. It then estimates Myanmar’s export potential, based on the bilateral export patterns observed for six other countries in Southeast Asia. Against that benchmark and controlling for outliers, Myanmar is found to be trading at about 15% its potential. The bulk of this gap is explained by very low trade with the industrialized countries. Through reintegration with the world economy accompanied by deep economic re forms domestically, Myanmar would be expected to be closing this gap rather swiftly."... Keywords: Myanmar, gravity model, export potential Author/creator:   Benno Ferrarini Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) ADB Economics Working Paper SeriesNo. 325 Format/size:   pdf (1MB-original; 836K-OBL version) Alternate URLs:   http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs15/Myanmar%27s%20Trade%20and%20its%20Potential%20-%20ewp-325-red.pdf Date of entry/update:   09 April 2013 Title:   ADB, Norway to Help Myanmar Manage Tourist Boom Date of publication:   11 October 2012 Description/subject:   MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Norway will help Myanmar cope with an exploding tourism sector with a $225,000 grant designed to generate a sustainable tourism master plan. “Myanmar is undergoing a period of dramatic change, and the skyrocketing number of tourists visiting the country is already putting existing tourism infrastructure under enormous strain,” said Putu Kamayana, Head of ADB’s Extended Mission in Myanmar. “To ensure benefits of the burgeoning tourism industry are sustainable and extend to more of Myanmar’s people, the country needs a comprehensive plan that respects culture and the environment.” Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   26 November 2012 Title:   Myanmar: Energy Sector Initial Assessment Date of publication:   October 2012 Description/subject:   Description: In order to have a better understanding of Myanmar’s energy sector, an ADB mission visited Myanmar from 20 through 30 September 2011. The information and findings gathered during the mission served in drafting an initial assessment of the sector. Subsequently, the assessment has been updated to reflect the findings of follow-up ADB missions and consultations with the government... The Report: Clearly, strengthening Myanmar’s energy sector is critical to reducing poverty and enhancing the medium and long-term development prospects of the country. Electrification is an urgent requirement, without which whole areas of the country will be severely hampered in their efforts to advance economically. Social progress also depends on electrification, without which health, education, and other essential services inevitably suffer. There are many dimensions to the sector and they must be addressed comprehensively and systematically so as to ensure efficient and effective use of resources. While electrification, especially of rural areas, is of primary concern, issues of sustainability and protection of the environment must be considered simultaneously... Conclusions: Drawing from this initial assessment of the energy sector, but with the caveat that a comprehensive assessment is needed, Myanmar’s development partners—in consultation with the government—could begin considering support for the sector by focusing on several apparent priorities including: Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf (4.16MB) html (Summary) Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/documents/myanmar-energy-sector-initial-assessment Date of entry/update:   27 November 2012 Title:   Asian Development Bank Interim Country Partnership Strategy: Myanmar, 2012-2014 ECONOMIC ANALYSIS (SUMMARY) Date of publication:   September 2012 Description/subject:   I. INTRODUCTION: 1. "This sector assessment (summary) provides the background to the identification of issues, constraints, and threats to, as well as the government’s priority reforms in support of fiscal sustainability, macroeconomic stability and public finance. It focuses on key cross-cutting strategic issues such as macroeconomic institutions and monetary policy, tax policy and administration, and public financial management. This assessment draws on the sector assessment for Macroeconomic Assessment and ongoing ADB diagnostic work"... II. SECTOR ASSESSMENT: CONTEXT AND STRATEGIC ISSUES - A. Context: Economic growth; Macroeconomic instability; Fiscal policy...B. Strategic Issues - Fiscal Policy; Lifting priority spending through further tax revenue effort - (i) Sources of revenues are limited; (ii) The tax structure is complicated; (iii) Tax administration is weak; 9. Medium-term sustainable priority spending requires improving efficiency in public expenditure management; Public Debt Sustainability; A key medium term policy reform to support fiscal sustainability will be public debt management; Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy...III. GOVERNMENT’S SECTOR POLICY AND PLANNING FRAMEWORK... Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf (49K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs14/mya-interim-economy.pdf Date of entry/update:   28 September 2012 Title:   Asian Development Bank Interim Country Partnership Strategy: Myanmar, 2012-2014 ECONOMIC REFORM (SUMMARY) Date of publication:   September 2012 Description/subject:   I. INTRODUCTION: "This economic reform assessment (summary) provides the background to the identification of issues, constraints, and threats to, as well as the government’s priority reforms in support of achieving inclusive growth. It focuses on key cross-cutting strategic issues such as business climate reforms, trade policy liberalization, measures to improve trade facilitation, and financial sector development. It also touches on the need to implement structural policy reforms on a sector-by-sector basis."...II. CONTEXT AND STRATEGIC ISSUES: Context; Economic growth performance has been mixed; Structural transformation of the economy has been relatively slow; Long term economic growth has been relatively low; Macroeconomic effects of the resource sector on the non-resource sector; Limited trade integration with global markets; Low investment rate; Underdeveloped financial sector...B. Strategic issues: While the Government has initiated steps towards a more market economy for private sector to grow and develop, much more needs to be done to improve the environment for private sector development. At the macroeconomic level the challenge will be to manage the potentially adverse effects of the resource boom on the competitiveness of the non-resource sector. At the microeconomic level the challenge will be to advance reforms to reduce transaction costs of doing business and creating a level playing field between firms, or a competitive neutral policy environment. This will need to be done through addressing the complex business licensing system, trade liberalization, measures to improve trade facilitation, promoting competition in domestic markets, and SME access to business development services and technology, credit, and skilled labor, and strengthening the institutional framework for SME policy making; Managing the impact of the resource boom on the growth and development of the non-resource sector; Business climate reforms; Institutionalizing regulatory review processes; Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) development; Restrictive trade policy and inefficient trade facilitation; Competition policy; State economic enterprises (SEE) reform; Financial sector development...III. GOVERNMENT’S SECTOR POLICY AND PLANNING FRAMEWORK...IV. ADB’S SECTOR EXPERIENCE AND ASSISTANCE PROGRAM Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf (60K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs14/mya-interim-economic_reform.pdf Date of entry/update:   28 September 2012 Title:   Myanmar: Interim Country Partnership Strategy 2012-2014 (Draft Documents for Consultation) Date of publication:   September 2012 Description/subject:   Description: "In response to ongoing major reform moves by the Government of Myanmar, ADB is now preparing a re-engagement strategy (interim country partnership strategy), which will guide our approach towards full resumption of operations. The interim strategy provides the framework for rapid reengagement, while affording the space required for further analytical work, capacity building, policy dialogue, and broad-based consultations with all development stakeholders, leading to a fully-fledged country partnership strategy. The interim strategy, as summarized in the consultation draft, is informed by ADB's initial economic and sector assessments on Myanmar, as well as consultations with the country's government, development partners, civil society, and the business community during the period June to August 2012. The proposed interim strategy envisions a highly consultative process to form the basis of the ensuing full country partnership strategy. The documents provided on this page are drafts for consultation purposes. Comments on the draft are most welcome. Email contact...." Linked Document(s): Sector Assessment (Summary): Agriculture and Natural Resources... Sector Assessment (Summary): Energy... Sector Assessment (Summary): Transport... Sector Assessment (Summary): Urban Development and Water Sector... Economic Analysis (Summary)... Poverty Analysis (Summary)... Gender Analysis (Summary)... Environment Assessment (Summary)... Regional Cooperation and Integration (Summary)... Economic Reform (Summary)... Initial Assessment (Summary): Post-Primary Education. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   html. pdf Date of entry/update:   20 September 2012 Title:   ADB's "Myanmar in Transition" Report Offers Fresh, In-Depth Analysis on Myanmar's Growth Potential (video) Date of publication:   20 August 2012 Description/subject:   Asian Development Bank's Vice President for East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Stephen P. Groff, explains how Myanmar could become a 'middle-income' country and why the Bank is optimistic about Myanmar's future. Author/creator:   Stephen P. Groff Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   Adobe Flash (3 minutes) Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/2012/myanmar-in-transition.pdf Date of entry/update:   20 August 2012 Title:   Myanmar in Transition: Opportunities and Challenges Date of publication:   20 August 2012 Description/subject:   "Myanmar, which is emerging from decades of isolation, is poised to accelerate its economic growth on the back of its abundant labor force, rich natural resources, and geographical location. But the country faces many development challenges to achieve strong and inclusive growth. To take advantage of its rich potential and endowments, Myanmar can also use its strategic location between the People’s Republic of China and India, and act as a conduit between South and Southeast Asia. In order to sustain its growth momentum in the long run, Myanmar should aim for a growth trajectory that is inclusive, equitable, and environmentally sustainable. This special report assesses the country’s strengths and weaknesses and highlights the challenges and risks. The key lies in prioritizing the actions to surmount the challenges and introducing the requisite reforms."...Executive summary: "...The course of Myanmar’s future growth can be guided by three complementary development strategies: regional integration, inclusiveness, and environmental sustainability. Furthermore, given the myriad challenges the country faces and the limited resources at its disposal, the interventions can be prioritized and reforms sequenced for the maximum benefits.   Key development agendas include the following:  • Provide macroeconomic stability. A stable macro environment provides a foundation for investment and long-term growth. Key elements of sound macroeconomic policy include low and stable inflation; a sustainable fiscal position; and a flexible, market-based exchange rate.... • Mobilize resources for investment. Increased domestic and foreign savings are critical to meeting the enormous requirements of the private and public sectors. In addition, higher government revenues (e.g., taxation] and more efficient financial intermediation will also help to provide sustainable financing for development.... • Improve infrastructure and human capital. The removal of structural impediments in the key areas of education, health, and infrastructure can provide a basis for human capital development and improve connectivity.... • Diversify into industry and services, while improving agriculture. Broadening the economic base beyond primary industries can raise productivity and value addition. Yet agriculture, fisheries, and resource industries are not to be neglected as they contain considerable potential for expansion.... • Reduce the state’s role in production. A further reduction in the government's ownership and control of productive activities can help spur competition and increase investment by creating a level playing field.... • Strengthen government institutions. Economic transformation can be supported by effective government institutions, although building institutions and their capacity may take time. Attention might focus on nurturing administrative and regulatory systems; managing resources; and, most importantly, enhancing the capabilities of government personnel throughout the system. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf (1.2MB) Alternate URLs:   http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs14/myanmar-in-transition.pdf http://www.adb.org/countries/myanmar/videos/189162 (video) Date of entry/update:   20 August 2012 Title:   Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2012 + Myanmar statistics Date of publication:   August 2012 Description/subject:   The Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2012 (Key Indicators), the 43rd edition of this series, includes the latest available economic, financial, social, and environmental indicators for the 48 regional members of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). This publication aims to present the latest key statistics on development issues concerning the economies of Asia and the Pacific to a wide audience, including policy makers, development practitioners, government officials, researchers, students, and the general public. Part I of this issue of the Key Indicators is a special chapter—Green Urbanization in Asia. Parts II and III comprise of brief, non-technical analyses and statistical tables on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and seven other themes. This year, the second edition of the Framework of Inclusive Growth Indicators, a special supplement to Key Indicators is also included. The statistical tables in this issue of the Key Indicators may also be downloaded in MS Excel format from this website or in user-specified format at SDBS Online. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf, Xcel Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/ki/2012/pdf/MYA.pdf (Myanmar statistics) Date of entry/update:   21 August 2012 Title:   Asian Development Outlook 2012 - Myanmar section Date of publication:   11 April 2012 Description/subject:   "Economic growth picked up in FY2011, based largely on foreign investment in energy and exports of commodities and natural gas. That trend is forecast to continue, assisted by policy reforms and higher gas exports in 2013. Inflation is expected to quicken, after receding in 2011. The government has taken steps to revitalize the economy, but the agenda of required reforms is long..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf (109K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/publications/asian-development-outlook-2012-confronting-rising-inequality-asia Date of entry/update:   12 April 2012 Title:   Myanmar's Economic Outlook Improving but Broad Reforms Still Needed Date of publication:   11 April 2012 Description/subject:   ADB administration and governance; Economics...MANILA, PHILIPPINES – "Myanmar is poised for a period of rising economic growth, but the country needs to embark on a comprehensive program of reforms to realize its potential and reduce widespread poverty, according to a forecast of the country’s growth, contained in a new report from the Asian Development Bank (ADB)..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   12 April 2012 Title:   Asian Development Bank & Myanmar FACT SHEET Date of publication:   31 December 2011 Description/subject:   "Myanmar joined the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1973, but it has not received direct assistance in more than 20 years. ADB’s last loan and technical assistance projects for Myanmar were approved in 1986 and 1987, respectively. ADB continues to monitor economic developments in Myanmar, and will formulate an operational strategy when appropriate. Myanmar is a participating member of the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program (GMS Program), the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Myanmar participates in regional meetings and workshops along with other GMS and ASEAN member countries. ADB has maintained close coordination with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme, with an emphasis on assessing the government’s economic reform program and recommended policy actions. ADB liaises with Myanmar’s major bilateral donors regarding the status of their assistance programs. ADB cooperates with civil society organizations to strengthen the effectiveness, quality, and sustainability of the services it provides. To this end, ADB regularly shares its experiences and expertise with international nongovernment organizations that are undertaking development activities in Myanmar..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf (175K) Date of entry/update:   28 November 2012 Title:   Asian Development Outlook 2011 - Myanmar section Date of publication:   April 2011 Description/subject:   "Economic growth edged up over the past 2 years, accompanied by relatively modest inflation. The economy is expected to grow moderately over the forecast period, supported by foreign investment in construction and higher levels of credit to agriculture. The government that took office in March 2011 faces an extensive agenda of reforms if the country is to reach its potential..." Author/creator:   Alfredo Perdiguero Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf (323K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/publications/asian-development-outlook-2011-south-south-economic-links Date of entry/update:   12 April 2012 Title:   The ADB in Burma: Behind the Scenes Date of publication:   April 2011 Description/subject:   CONCLUSION: Burma still lacks sound economic policy, and the state is unwilling to reconcile with ethnic armed groups. Foreign direct investment in Burma is concentrated in energy and extractive sectors and often results in militarization, displacement and human rights abuses in ethnic areas. The facilitation and mobilization of private investment is having and will continue to have a major impact on the environment and communities, particularly in ethnic areas where the majority of natural resources remain. Current foreign investment is not reducing poverty but reinforcing the current power structures, and the vast majority of citizens in Burma are excluded from the benefits of development. Until the people of Burma can meaningfully participate in development decisions, preconditions for responsible investment are in place, and adverse impacts can be mitigated, then the ADB should refrain from any form of new engagement with Burma. If they do engage (i.e., fund, facilitate, administer) in Burma, the ADB must follow the International Financial Corporation’s ‘Sustainability Framework,’ and adhere to their own environmental and social safeguard policies, including safeguards on Involuntary Resettlement, Environment and Indigenous People, as well as the ADB’s Accountability Mechanism and Public Communications Policy... RECOMMENDATIONS: Until the people of Burma can meaningfully participate in development decisions, preconditions for responsible investment are in place, and adverse impacts can be mitigated, then the ADB should refrain from any form of new engagement with Burma. If they do engage (i.e., fund, facilitate, administer) in Burma, the ADB must follow the International Financial Corporation’s ‘Sustainability Framework,’, and adhere to apply their own environmental and social safeguard policies, when they do engage, including safeguards on Involuntary Resettlement, Environment and Indigenous People, as well as the ADB’s Accountability Mechanism and Public Communications Policy. If the ADB is involved in any future national development planning for Burma, they must make sure it is based on proper needs assessments and a participatory consultation process which ensures that it furthers the interest of the people. Author/creator:   S. Bourne Language:   English Source/publisher:   NGO Forum on ADB Format/size:   pdf (1.3MB-OBL version; 1.52MB-original) Alternate URLs:   http://www.forum-adb.org/docs/ADB-and-Burma.pdf Date of entry/update:   12 June 2012 Title:   Critical Approaches to Risk Under Authoritarian Regimes: The Asian Development Bank and the Greater Mekong Subregion Date of publication:   2011 Description/subject:   ABSTRACT: "Multilateral development banks and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in particular, have not provided direct assistance to Myanmar (Burma) since the mid-­1980s, largely as a concession to global disapprobation of its ruling military regime. Through its Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) project, however, the ADB still provides indirect assistance to Myanmar and direct assistance to the authoritarian single party states of Laos and Vietnam. The aim of the GMS East-­West Economic Corridor (EWEC) is to facilitate trade and investment across the GMS but the Myanmar leg of the road corridor, from Mawlamyine (Moulmein) to the Thai border at Myawaddy, traverses Karen State, which has been fraught with civil conflict since 1948. The ruling military regime along with its allies, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), nominally controls this route but in mid-­2010 there were serious defections from the DKBA to the opposition Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) over the military regime’s Border Guard Force (BGF) leading to increased tension in the area. The regime then closed the border at Myawaddy, ostensibly over a dispute with Thailand but more likely due to domestic political concerns, resulting in a large build-­up of goods on both sides of the border. The risks of greater civil conflict in this region are exacerbated by the revenue raising opportunities that various competing groups can derive from increased border trade while the risks of forced labour are ubiquitous for major development projects in Myanmar. The ADB acknowledges that the early stages of the EWEC will be funded by public sources but it clearly sees its role as guarantor of long-­term stability for the project to minimise the risks faced by private investment. The very nature of the project itself, however, which ignores domestic political issues, is likely to result in heightened risks of insecurity for the oppressed ethnic minorities who inhabit the region." Author/creator:   Dr Adam Simpson Language:   English Source/publisher:   Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Format/size:   pdf (2.74MB) Alternate URLs:   http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs11/NATBMA_WP1103.pdf Date of entry/update:   03 July 2011 Title:   Asian Development Outlook 2009 (Myanmar) Date of publication:   17 April 2009 Description/subject:   "High prices for natural gas exports continued to support modest rates of growth in FY2007. Inflation remained at around 30%, largely the result of money creation to finance fiscal deficits. Recovery and reconstruction after Cyclone Nargis, which inflicted severe human loss and economic damage in May 2008, will take at least 3 years. Economic growth will be diminished this year by weaker performance of Myanmar’s major trading partners..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf (711K - Myanmar section; 26.5MB-full report) Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2009/ado2009.pdf (full report, 26.5MB) http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2009/default.asp (TOC of full report) http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2009/appendix.pdf (statistical appendix for full report) Date of entry/update:   17 April 2009 Title:   Asian Development Outlook 2008 -- Myanmar Date of publication:   March 2008 Description/subject:   "Modest rates of growth in recent years have been based on high prices for natural gas exports, heavy public expenditures, and an improving agricultural performance. However, macroeconomic stability is vulnerable to fiscal deficits that are financed through money creation, in turn prompting double-digit inflation. The Government has taken tentative steps toward a more market-oriented system in agriculture and finance, and should build on these reforms." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf (122K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2008/ Date of entry/update:   02 April 2008 Title:   Asian Development Outlook 2007 -- Myanmar Date of publication:   March 2007 Description/subject:   "High prices for natural gas exports and a good harvest led to a modest pickup in economic activity. But macroeconomic stability remains elusive with monetized fiscal deficits feeding high inflation. The cushion provided by the gas exports makes now an opportune time to embark on structural reforms, including exchange rate unification, fiscal consolidation, and agricultural liberalization, and to redirect public spending to development of social and physical infrastructure..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bangk (ADB) Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   27 November 2007 Title:   Asian Development Outlook 2006 -- Myanmar Date of publication:   2006 Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2006/ (Outlook page) Date of entry/update:   25 April 2006 Title:   Regional technical assistance projects that include Burma (approved July 2004 – April 2005) Date of publication:   April 2005 Description/subject:   "As the table below indicates, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) continues to provide grants for regional technical assistance (TA) projects in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) that include Burma. The grants for the projects below amount to US$5.74 million. For all of the projects in the table below, the amount of the grant extended by the ADB was US$1 million or smaller. This allows the projects to be approved by the ADB President, not by the Board of Directors." Language:   English Source/publisher:   IFI-Burma Format/size:   html, (42K), Word (47K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs3/ADB_grants_for_GMS_projects_including_Burma.doc Date of entry/update:   13 April 2005 Title:   Key indicators of developing Asian and Pacific countries: Myanmar Date of publication:   November 2004 Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf Date of entry/update:   16 November 2004 Title:   POSITION PAPER ON THE INCLUSION OF BURMA IN ADB’S GMS PROJECTS Date of publication:   26 July 2004 Description/subject:   "The NCUB’s position is that the ADB should exclude Burma from all GMS projects until Burma is ruled by a government that is committed to the principles of transparency, accountability, public participation in decision-making processes, and independent monitoring. Briefly, NCUB’s position is based on the following grounds:..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) Format/size:   html (65K) Date of entry/update:   05 October 2004 Title:   The Multilateral Banks and Burma Date of publication:   April 2004 Description/subject:   "The Asian Development Bank has quietly started providing modest assistance to Rangoon. Is more to follow?... On April 8, 2004 Mitch McConnell, a prominent American senator from Kentucky with an interest in the Burma debate, expressed concerns over multilateral assistance to Burma and threatened to cut US funding to institutions that might provide such assistance. At a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, he stated: “Unfortunately, I am hearing that international financial institutions—particularly the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank—are keen on re-engaging Burma. They do so at their own risks, and should begin finding other funding sources for the upcoming fiscal year because none will be forthcoming from this Subcommittee.” Senator McConnell’s statement reflects the unease shared by many in the Burma democracy movement about multilateral assistance going to Rangoon, which has a poor track record regarding transparency and public participation in development projects and has been accused of a range of human rights abuses. So what exactly are the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, or ADB, doing with respect to Burma? As yet the numbers are small, but imply an effort to renew assistance..." Author/creator:   Yuki Akimoto Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 12, No. 4, April 2004 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   22 July 2004 Title:   Marketing the Mekong: the Asian Development Bank and the Greater Mekong Sub-region Economic Cooperation Program Date of publication:   12 December 2003 Description/subject:   Shortcomings of economic cooperation in the Greater Mekong...The Greater Mekong Subregion: A Regional Fantasy... The document critically examines the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation (GMS) Programme, which was initiated by the Asian Development Bank in 1992 to boost economic development in the resource rich region. It outlines the main features of the programme and highlights the shortcomings and problem of the GMS: * the centrality of natural resource exploitation (water, land, forests, energy, minerals, fisheries) results in the large-scale expropriation of resources crucial to daily sustenance * the distribution of benefits is uneven since participating countries have differing levels of development and capacity (i.e. what does the Lao PDR gain from the East-West Corridor?) * internal disparities within participating countries are widened because of pockets of high capital and infrastructure investment in specific parts of countries, which can result in tensions and conflicts between national and local government, and between the government and the people * the vision of development promoted through the GMS serves regional investment, and not national or local development priorities: projects are formulated based on their potential for profits for investors rather than on their potential to respond to social, economic, ecological or institutional needs among local and national communities * GMS projects have already resulted in negative impacts on local communities through road and hydropower projects, impacts include displacement of families, loss of livelihood sources, loss of lands, among others * in the GMS framework, the rights of investors are protected, but the rights of local people and communities are not * local-national communities outside of governments and private sector have not been involved in drawing up GMS plans * the financing of GMS projects have tremendous debt implications for participating countries: new forms of project financing are creating new forms of debt and financial liabilities * governments play conflicting roles as owners, investors and regulators in public-private partnerships in infrastructure projects * GMS projects facilitate the transfer of local-national wealth to private actors external to the Mekong region. Author/creator:   Shalmali Guttal Language:   English Source/publisher:   Focus on the Global South Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   25 January 2005 Title:   Verbrannte Erde und Überflutungen: Staudammprojekte am Salween in Burma Date of publication:   October 2003 Description/subject:   Ein Artikel über die Aktivitäten der ADB in Burma, Staudammprojekte am Salween, Umweltkatastrophen, ölkologische Folgen der Staudammprojekte. activities of the ADB concerning Burma; environmental, ecological and sicial consequences of dam-projects Author/creator:   Daniel Apolinarski Language:   Deutsch, German Source/publisher:   Burma Initiative Asienhaus Format/size:   pdf (99K) Date of entry/update:   05 December 2003 Title:   Status of Burma at the MDBs (Multilateral Development Banks) Date of publication:   15 July 2003 Description/subject:   Burma in the Asian Development Bank; Burma in the World Bank Group; Non-accrual status; Burma in the International Monetary Fund; U.S. and E.U. sanctions on Burma - provisions on MDB assistance; Resources, Links etc... Background: "Most foreign aid to Burma, both bilateral and multilateral, ceased in the wake of the violent crackdown on the popular democracy movement in 1988. The United States and the European Union impose economic sanctions, which prohibit most bilateral aid from the U.S. and Europe, as well as support for multilateral development assistance to Burma (see box "U.S. and E.U. sanctions on Burma"). Burma also has not been involved in any new lending programs from the multilateral development banks since 1988-89... Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Project,, Bank Information Center Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   15 July 2003 Title:   ADB Annual Report 2002: Myanmar Date of publication:   24 June 2003 Description/subject:   "Official data indicate that GDP in Myanmar grew by 11.1% in fiscal year (FY)2001 (ending 31 March 2002) in part because of rapid growth in agriculture, livestock and fisheries, and the processing and manufacturing sectors. Inflation accelerated to 56.8% by the end of 2002. The fiscal deficit narrowed from 8.4% in FY2000 to 6.6% of GDP in FY2001. The deficit was financed largely through central bank credit. The kyat depreciated in FY2001 by about 70% relative to its value at the start of the year. The overall balance-of-payments position was in surplus by kyat 1,733.2 million; the current account was at a deficit by kyat 844.8 million in FY2001. Capital inflows in FY2001 were low, and international reserves covered about 2.3 months of imports. ADB operations..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   24 June 2003 Title:   Asian Development Outlook 2003: Myanmar Date of publication:   2003 Description/subject:   Asian Development Outlook 2003 : II. Economic Trends and Prospects in Developing Asia : Southeast Asia Myanmar... Growth in FY2001 was recorded at 11.1%. However, there are reasons to be concerned about prospects. Macroeconomic imbalances persist, and there are growing signs of problems at a structural level. The country faces a complex development agenda. In the short run, priority should be given to reducing fiscal deficits and realigning expenditure priorities. Agricultural liberalization offers potentially large benefits....Outlook for 2003-2004: The Government has targeted 6% GDP growth over the latest 5-year planning period. However, the immediate prospects for fast economic expansion are uncertain. Widespread flooding in 2002 is likely to have had an adverse impact on agricultural activity, which still accounts for over 40% of GDP. Also, yields of important agricultural crops have fallen recently against a backdrop of shortages of imported fertilizers and other inputs. Political and economic sanctions limit prospects for exports and FDI, and any significant easing of foreign exchange constraints is unlikely in the near future. Over the medium term, the prospects for growth will, of course, depend crucially on policy choices. If macroeconomic imbalances and structural distortions persist, growth will undoubtedly suffer. If, however, a credible and sustained effort at reform were to begin, the prospects for sustainable economic expansion and poverty reduction would be good." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   27 January 2004 Title:   Asian Development Outlook 2002 Update Date of publication:   18 September 2002 Description/subject:   "The 2002-2003 economic outlook for developing Asia and the Pacific has not changed significantly since the Asian Development Outlook 2002 was published in April 2002. However, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia had a stronger than expected performance in the first half of 2002, while South Asia and the Pacific had weaker than expected performance..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank Format/size:   pdf (2.5MB) Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2002/Update/southeast_asia.pdf (SE Asia section, pdf (500K) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Asian Development Outlook 2002 Date of publication:   09 April 2002 Description/subject:   Economic Trends and prospects in developing Asia. Contains a 2 page section on Burma/Myanmar. "This 14th edition of the Asian Development Outlook provides a comprehensive analysis of 41 economies in Asia and the Pacific, based on the Asian Development Bank�s in-depth knowledge of the region. For the first time, the Outlook includes a section on Afghanistan. It also provides a broad diagnosis of macroeconomic conditions and growth prospects as they relate to progress in poverty reduction in the economies of the region..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   PDF (629K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/ADO/2002/mya.asp (Myanmar section, html) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Asian Development Bank Economic Update: Myanmar. November 2001 Date of publication:   November 2001 Description/subject:   "...in a context of slowing growth and stiffening sanctions on trade and investment flows, reform efforts began to stall in the second half of the 1990s and some reversals took place. Despite a spurt in economic growth in 1999/2000 , which was largely a consequence of a bumper agricultural crop, Myanmar�s prospects for growth over the medium term are constrained by growing macroeconomic imbalances and impediments to structural adjustment. However, prospects could be improved if Myanmar were to recommence reforms and undertake needed adjustments. Ultimately, poverty reduction and broader improvements in the quality of life will rest on policy and institutional frameworks that serve to promote durable and equitable growth. Official development assistance could have an important role in serving these objectives and meeting Myanmar�s still considerable development needs. However, should international financial institutions be in a position to resume assistance to Myanmar, its impact would be greatly enhanced by advanced measures to improve the policy environment..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   PDF (32K) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Key Indicators of Developing Asian and Pacific Countries 2001, Volume 32: Myanmar Date of publication:   2001 Description/subject:   "In 38 country tables and 40 regional tables, it presents long time series data on economic, financial, environmental and social development, providing a comprehensive statistical portrait of ADB's 40 developing member countries (DMCs). This 32nd edition differs from previous editions. It includes an analysis of major economic and social trends and attempt to capture the diversity of our DMCs highlight the different development paths followed. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   The Excel version is more legible that the PDF but needs more paper and sticky tape Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Key_Indicators/2001/mya.pdf http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Key_Indicators/2001/default.asp Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Asian Development Bank, Country Assistance Plan 2001-2003: Myanmar Date of publication:   December 2000 Description/subject:   Economic Performance Assessment; Assessment of Social Performance. Country operations: "The Asian Development Bank (ADB) undertook the preparation of an operational strategy study for Myanmar in 1987, but discussions with the Government were not completed. As of December 1998, cumulative lending to Myanmar consists of 28 loan projects for a total of $530.9 million and 38 technical assistance projects for a total of $10.7 million. No loan has been provided to Myanmar since 1986 and no technical assistance since 1987. All 32 loans approved prior to 1986 were closed by end-1998. However, Myanmar is involved in the Program of Economic Cooperation in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS Program). In that capacity, Myanmar participates in regional meetings and workshops supported by ADB's regional technical assistance. To keep ADB's institutional knowledge up-to-date with regard to socio-economic developments, ADB has continued to review developments in economic policies and programs to the extent possible, based on the data available. In this regard, the 1995 Economic Report on Myanmar will be updated in 2000. Donor Activities, Aid Coordination and Cofinancing: Since 1988-89, Myanmar has not received any new lending programs from the multilateral institutions. However, it has received loans from the People�s Republic of China, Thailand, India, Singapore, and Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. In addition, Myanmar has received Debt Relief Grant from Japan, especially since 1988. Japan is also extending grants to the agriculture, forestry, and health sectors, grass root projects, and the Yangon International Airport Project. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) continues to conduct its Article IV consultations annually with the last one having been held in June 1999. Although ADB's operations have not yet resumed, ADB has maintained contact with other donors to exchange information on respective activities in Myanmar. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   PDF (253K) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Asian Development Bank (ADB) and its watchers (general, thematic) The Asian Development Bank is returning to Burma/Myanmar and is preparing projects. This sub-section of OBL contains some links and documents to the Bank's policies and procedures, including enhanced transparancy, which may be useful to those concerned. Websites/Multiple Documents Title:   Bank Information Center Description/subject:   The Bank Information Center BIC is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that provides information and strategic support to NGOs and social movements throughout the world on the projects, policies and practices of the World Bank and other Multilateral Development Banks MDBs. BIC advocates for greater transparency, accountability and citizen participation at the MDBs. Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Civil Society Participation Description/subject:   "ADB cooperates with civil society on three levels: on the policy level, on the country strategy level, and on the level of projects. Over two-thirds of ADB’s sovereign loans, grants, and related project preparatory technical assistance (PPTA) include elements of civil society participation. Generally ADB does not fund NGOs directly, but instead lends money to its client governments. Civil society organizations wishing to work with ADB should familiarize themselves with the country partnership strategy of the country where they are working and identify if there are contributions that the organization can make to ADB’s work. Participation on the policy level Civil society, among other key internal and external stakeholders, is actively consulted in the development and review of institution-wide ADB policies and strategies. ADB’s review and consultation process aims to identify and consider the views of CSOs and advocacy groups and to ensure that they have reasonable opportunity to be involved in formulating policy and strategy papers. Public Communication Policy (PCP) ADB seeks civil society views to improve information disclosure. One of the most significant changes to ADB operations under the PCP is providing information to facilitate greater engagement of affected people in the early stages of project planning and preparation. For example, documents are disclosed in draft form in advance of consultations..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   27 November 2012 Title:   Country Safeguard Systems Description/subject:   Summary and links..."ADB helps developing member countries (DMCs) strengthen their safeguard systems and develop their capacity to address environmental and social issues in development projects. Country safeguard systems refer to the laws, regulations, rules, and procedures on the policy areas of environment, involuntary resettlement, and indigenous peoples safeguards, and their implementing institutions. Since the approval of the Safeguard Policy Statement (SPS) in 2009, ADB has been providing technical assistance to help strengthen the legal and institutional framework for effectively implementing safeguards..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   27 November 2012 Title:   Disclosure (ADB) Description/subject:   "Transparency and accountability are essential to achieve ADB's vision of an Asia and the Pacific region free of poverty. They are the cornerstones of development effectiveness. ADB's new Public Communications Policy (PCP) 2011 strengthens the previous policy by expanding the scope and type of information ADB makes publicly available. It also allows for earlier disclosure of most Board documents, and offers a more effective framework for proactively disclosing information and responding to information requests on a timely basis. The revised policy is specially designed to keep developing member countries, development partners, civil society, people affected by ADB projects, academics, media, the private sector, and other key stakeholders increasingly abreast of ADB activities and to provide added platforms for seeking their views. This will create the kind of two-way information exchange crucial to building mutual understanding and trust that forms the foundation of solid partnerships and development effectiveness..." See video Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   html, Adobe Flash Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/site/disclosure/videos/17505 Date of entry/update:   28 November 2012 Title:   NGO Forum on ADB Description/subject:   Not much specifically on Burma/Myanmar. Language:   English Source/publisher:   NGO Forum on ADB Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Public Consultation Process Description/subject:   "The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is committed to a participatory and transparent consultation process for the review of its accountability mechanism (AM) policy. ADB carried out intensive and extensive consultations from mid-2010 to late 2011.The consultation process involved a wide range of stakeholders, including government officials, nongovernment organizations, project-affected people, project beneficiaries, the private sector, development partners,and the public at large. The goal of the consultations was to give all interested stakeholders the opportunity to help improve the effectiveness of the AM and thereby improve ADB's development outcomes..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   28 November 2012 Title:   Safeguards Overview Description/subject:   "Environmental and social safeguards are a cornerstone of ADB's support to inclusive economic growth and environmental sustainable growth. ADB's safeguard policy aims to help developing member countries (DMCs) address environmental and social risks in development projects and minimize and mitigate, if not avoid, adverse project impacts on people and the environment. Approved by ADB’s Board of Directors in July 2009, the Safeguard Policy Statement (SPS) builds upon the three previous safeguard policies on the environment, involuntary resettlement, and indigenous peoples, and brings them into a consolidated policy framework that enhances effectiveness and relevance. The SPS applies to all ADB-supported projects reviewed by ADB’s management after 20 January 2010. ADB works with borrowers to put policy principles and requirements into practice through project review and supervision, and capacity development support. The SPS also provides a platform for participation by affected people and other stakeholders in project design and implementation." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   27 November 2012 Title:   Translation Framework Description/subject:   "English is the working language of ADB. Nonetheless, ADB recognizes the need to communicate more widely and effectively by expanding the extent of information made available in languages other than English used in ADB's developing member countries. In March 2007, Management approved a translation framework. In accordance with ADB's commitment to increase shared information under the Public Communications Policy (PCP), the framework complements ADB's communications efforts with external stakeholders in line with its operational needs. Since the implementation of the framework, ADB has translated a wide variety of awareness-raising documents into the following developing member country languages: Armenian, Azeri, Bahasa Indonesia, Bangla, Chinese, Dari, Fijian, Filipino, French, Georgian, Hindi, Hindustani, Kazakh, Khmer, Kyrgyz, Lao, Marshallese, Mongolian, Nepali, Portuguese, Russian, Sinhala, Tajik,Tamil,Tetum, Thai, Tok Pisin,Tongan, Urdu, Uzbek , and Vietnamese..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   html (348K) Date of entry/update:   28 November 2012 Individual Documents Title:   Revised Public Communications Policy Expands and Speeds Up Access to Information (video) Date of publication:   02 April 2012 Description/subject:   To increase ADB's transparency and accountability, the Board has approved the revised Public Communications Policy, which will take effect on 2 April 2012. As a result of extensive stakeholder consultations, the PCP's key changes put ADB at the forefront of best practices on transparency. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   Adobe Flash Date of entry/update:   28 November 2012 Title:   Understanding the Asian Development Bank's Safeguard Policy Date of publication:   2010 Description/subject:   What protections does the Bank's new Safeguard Policy provide for communities and the environment?...Policy navigation tool... Executive summary... 1. Introduction... 2. Overview of the new Policy: 2.1 General Policy requirements; 2.2 Environment safeguard requirements; 2.3 Involuntary resettlement safeguard requirements; 2.4 Indigenous Peoples safeguard requirements; 2.5 Special requirements for different finance modalities; 2.6 Country safeguard systems; 2.7 Prohibited investments; 2.8 Operations Manual... 3. Summary assessment of the new Policy: 3.1 Overview; 3.2 Environment; 3.3 Involuntary resettlement; 3.4 Indigenous Peoples; 3.5 Financing modalities; 3.6 Operations Manual... 4. Implications for civil society organisations: 4.1 Resistance to arbitrary interpretation; 4.2 Particular attention to different types of investment/financing modality; 4.3 Particular attention to application of country safeguard systems; 4.4 Monitoring of safeguards implementation in the ADB's response to the financial crisis; 4.5 Documenting poor policy implementation; 4.6 Utilisation of Accountability Mechanism... 5. Conclusion... Endnotes... Appendix 1: Overview of policy review process Author/creator:   Jessica Rosien Language:   English Source/publisher:   Oxfam Australia Format/size:   pdf (1.75MB) Date of entry/update:   27 November 2012 Title:   Safeguard Policy Statement Date of publication:   June 2009 Description/subject:   "The Safeguard Policy Statement (SPS) builds upon the three previous safeguard policies on the environment, involuntary resettlement and indigenous peoples, and brings them into one single policy that enhances consistency and coherence, and more comprehensively addresses environmental and social impacts and risks. The SPS aims to promote sustainability of project outcomes by protecting the environment and people from projects' potential adverse impacts by avoiding adverse impacts of projects on the environment and affected people, where possible; minimizing, mitigating, and/or compensating for adverse project impacts on the environment and affected people when avoidance is not possible; and helping borrowers/clients to strengthen their safeguard systems and develop the capacity to manage environmental and social risks" Language:   English (available also in 10 other lnguages - not Burmese) Source/publisher:   Asian Development Bank (ADB) Format/size:   pdf (319K), html Alternate URLs:   http://www.adb.org/documents/safeguard-policy-statement?ref=site/safeguards/main (Description and contents) http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs14/Safeguard-Policy-Statement-June2009.pdf Date of entry/update:   27 November 2012 Title:   Conflict-sensitive approaches to development practice Date of publication:   25 October 2001 Description/subject:   Abstract: "This report, originally commissioned as a background paper by IDRC for a consultative meeting addressing conflict prevention and development practice, aims to provide a critical overview of the approaches to development being defined by donors, academic institutions, as well as NGOs and agencies charged with the delivery of effective aid and development programmes in conflict-prone and conflict-affected areas. Governmental and non-governmental actors alike increasingly recognise the need for conflict-sensitive approaches to development and humanitarian assistance and are consequently attempting to develop the theoretical underpinnings as well as the structural prerequisites for integrating conflict-sensitive perspectives into development assistance. The paper seeks to highlight the range of different approaches and to identify both their strengths and limitations. It concludes by proposing some of the important policy issues which need to be addressed if conflictsensitive development approaches are to have broader relevance and impact." Author/creator:   Cynthia Gaigals, Manuela Leonhardt Language:   English Source/publisher:   Internqtional Alert, Saferworld, International Development Research Centre Format/size:   pdf (415K) Date of entry/update:   27 November 2012 International Monetary Fund Websites/Multiple Documents Title:   IMF Myanmar Page Language:   English Source/publisher:   International Monetary Fund (IMF) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Individual Documents Title:   IMF: May monitor Myanmar's economic progress under fund program Date of publication:   21 November 2012 Description/subject:   Washington - "The International Monetary Fund is near a deal with the Myanmar government for a program to monitor the country's economic plans as it struggles to reverse its place as one of the poorest countries in Asia. After decades of military rule and one of the worst human rights records in the world, the country of 48 million people is striving to remake itself as a democratic and open-market economy. To award and encourage the government in capital Naypyidaw, the country's largest international creditors are negotiating debt relief while Myanmar lawmakers build new political and economic institutions. The IMF said Wednesday that it had reached an understanding that could form the basis of a possible staff-monitored program during January-December 2013. There would be no financial assistance involved in the program..." Author/creator:   Ian Talley Language:   Engish Source/publisher:   "The Wall Street Journal" Format/size:   pdf (54K) Date of entry/update:   21 November 2012 Title:   Statement at the Conclusion of an IMF Staff Mission to Myanmar Date of publication:   21 November 2012 Description/subject:   "...“The government has made rapid strides over the last two years. The exchange rate regime has been changed from a peg to a managed float. The financial sector is being gradually modernized, starting with partial deposit rate liberalization and the relaxing of some restrictions on private banks. This year’s fiscal budget was debated in Parliament for the first time, yielding increased spending in critical areas such as health, education, and infrastructure. Laws to support the development goals of the government have been passed, including on land reforms, microfinance, and foreign investment. Discussions on clearing Myanmar’s external arrears are also progressing. “These reforms are already bearing fruit. Growth is expected to accelerate to around 6¼ percent in FY2012/13, bolstered by foreign investment in natural resources and exports of commodities. Inflation has declined rapidly and should remain moderate at around 6 percent next year. Meanwhile, the exchange rate has been stable in recent months, with international reserves increasing to US$4 billion. “Nevertheless, the government recognizes there is still a long way to go. Myanmar remains one of the poorest countries in Asia, with economic development stymied by many distortions..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   International Monetary Fund (IMF) Press Release No. 12/453 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   21 November 2012 Title:   Statement by the Hon. WIN SHEIN , Governor of the Fund and the Bank for MYANMAR Date of publication:   12 October 2012 Description/subject:   "...Let me briefly reflect upon the recent macroeconomic situation of Myanmar and outline the Government’s programs and policies for economic reform going forward. Nowadays, Myanmar has embarked on democratic path in building a new nation through peaceful transition, while Myanmar has been endeavoring for the development of the country. The government, after assuming office in March 2011, has been implementing the reform measures in all aspects. As the first step of its reform strategy, the government prioritized political reform and national reconciliation process, which resulted prominent achievements, winning the stronger trust of the international community. In this process, we have maintained political stability, which is essential for macroeconomic and financial stability, and for sustained economic growth..." Author/creator:   Hon. WIN SHEIN Language:   English Source/publisher:   International Monetary Fund (IMF) Governor’s Statement No. 22 Format/size:   pdf (81K-OBL version; 499K-original) Alternate URLs:   http://www.imf.org/external/am/2012/speeches/pr22e.pdf Date of entry/update:   21 November 2012 Title:   MYANMAR: STAFF REPORT FOR THE 2011 ARTICLE IV CONSULTATION Date of publication:   02 March 2012 Description/subject:   KEY ISSUES: Context: Political reconciliation is gaining traction. The main opposition party, National League for Democracy will contest the April by-elections; many political prisoners have been freed; and several ceasefire agreements with ethnic minorities have been signed. The economic reform momentum is strong. Growth and inflation are expected to accelerate modestly... Focus of the consultation: Consistent with past advice, the authorities are moving forward with reforms of the exchange rate system. Discussions centered on improving macroeconomic management to underpin these reforms, and on policies to foster broad-based economic growth... Key policy issues and recommendations: Priorities are establishing the market infrastructure for the planned move to a managed float, and monetary and foreign exchange policy capacity to complement plans to unify the exchange rates. Financial sector modernization remains essential to support the reform process and improve financial intermediation. Fiscal policy priorities include ending deficit monetization, reprioritizing spending, and increasing nonresource revenues for development spending within a medium-term fiscal framework. Structural reforms should aim to increase agricultural productivity, and foster private sector development... Exchange rate arrangement: Myanmar continues to avail itself of transitional arrangements under Article XIV, although it has eliminated all Article XIV restrictions. Myanmar maintains exchange restrictions and multiple currency practices subject to Fund approval under Article VIII. The exchange rate regime is classified as other managed arrangement. Language:   EnglIsh Source/publisher:   International Monetary Fund (IMF) Format/size:   pdf (545K-OBL version; 1MB-original) Alternate URLs:   http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2012/cr12104.pdf Date of entry/update:   21 November 2012 Title:   Statement at the Conclusion of the 2011 Article IV Mission to Myanmar Date of publication:   25 January 2012 Description/subject:   "An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Ms. Meral Karasulu visited Nay Pyi Taw and Yangon during January 9–25, 2012 for the 2011 Article IV Consultation. The team met with the authorities and other key counterparts to discuss recent economic developments and the outlook for Myanmar. At the conclusion of the mission, Ms. Karasulu issued the following statement today in Nay Pyi Taw: ...“The new government is facing a historic opportunity to jump-start the development process and lift living standards. Myanmar has a high growth potential and could become the next economic frontier in Asia, if it can turn its rich natural resources, young labor force, and proximity to some of the most dynamic economies in the world, into its advantage. “Delivering on these expectations with inclusive and sustainable growth should start with establishing macroeconomic stability. This process has already begun with plans underway to unify the exchange rate and lift exchange restrictions on current international payments and transfers. As this essential process continues, channeling the reform momentum to improving monetary and fiscal management and to structural reforms would allow taking full advantage of the positive effects of exchange rate unification..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   IMF via "The New Light of Myanmar" Format/size:   pdf (52K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs13/IMF_statement-NLM2012-01-25.pdf Date of entry/update:   01 February 2012 Title:   Myanmar: IMF Credit Outstanding as of July 31, 2010 Date of publication:   31 July 2010 Language:   English Source/publisher:   International Monetary Fund (IMF) Format/size:   html Alternate URLs:   http://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/tad/exportal.aspx?memberKey1=688&date1key=2010-07-31&cat... Date of entry/update:   16 August 2010 Title:   Efficiency Costs of Myanmar’s Multiple Exchange Rate Regime Date of publication:   August 2008 Description/subject:   Myanmar’s multiple exchange rate system creates various economic distortions. This paper describes the exchange rate practices in Myanmar, develops a model of foreign exchange markets, and presents the efficiency costs imposed by quasi-fiscal operation under the current exchange rate regime. The results of our model-based analyses indicate that the equilibrium exchange rate under the unified market could be at around K 400–500 per U.S. dollar, and using the equilibrium exchange rate (instead of the official exchange rate) as the accounting rate increases trade openness to more than 20 percent from less than 1 percent measured by official statistics. The total efficiency loss caused by the current multiple exchange rate regime is estimated at about 14–17 percent of GDP in 2006/07... JEL Classification Numbers: F31, H29... Keywords: Multiple Exchange Rate, Exchange Rate Unification, Efficiency Analysis Author/creator:   Masahiro Hori and Yu Ching Wong Language:   English Source/publisher:   IMF Working Paper WP/08/199 Format/size:   pdf (295K) Date of entry/update:   05 January 2009 Title:   Myanmar—Staff Report for the 2007 Article IV Consultation— Informational Annex Date of publication:   05 November 2007 Description/subject:   The attached informational annex is being issued as a supplement to the staff report for the 2007 Article IV consultation with Myanmar (SM/07/347, 11/5/07) which is tentatively scheduled for discussion on Wednesday, November 28, 2007. At the time of circulation of this paper to the Board, the Secretary’s Department has not received a communication from the authorities of Myanmar indicating whether or not they consent to the Fund’s publication of this paper; such communication may be received after the authorities have had an opportunity to read the paper. Source/publisher:   International Monetary Fund Format/size:   pdf (47K) Date of entry/update:   27 January 2009 Title:   Myanmar—Staff Report for the 2007 Article IV Consultation—Debt Sustainability Analysis Date of publication:   05 November 2007 Description/subject:   The attached debt sustainability analysis is being issued as a supplement to the staff report for the 2007 Article IV consultation with Myanmar (SM/07/347, 11/5/07), which is tentatively scheduled for discussion on Wednesday, November 28, 2007. At the time of circulation of this paper to the Board, the Secretary’s Department has not received a communication from the authorities of Myanmar indicating whether or not they consent to the Fund’s publication of this paper; such communication may be received after the authorities have had an opportunity to read the paper. Language:   English Source/publisher:   International Monetary Fund Format/size:   pdf (66K) Date of entry/update:   27 January 2009 Title:   International Monetary Fund - World Economic Outlook Database October 2007 -- Myanmar Date of publication:   October 2007 Language:   English Source/publisher:   International Monetary Fund Format/size:   pdf (26K), Excel (21K ) Alternate URLs:   http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs6/weoreptc(1).xls Date of entry/update:   27 January 2009 Title:   Bullet points from IMF Article IV mission briefing, Sept 4 2007 Date of publication:   04 September 2007 Description/subject:   "...In general the cooperation from the technical counterpoints was very good, even better than last year. • Continuing concerns about Govt capacity. Counterparts are suffering from lack of opportunity to interact with outside world, seen both in technical skills & morale. IMF will try to increase engagement at the technical level. • Macroeconomic picture is hard to judge given questions about Govt numbers. The economy is definitely growing, but only about 5%, not the 13% range as claimed..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   International Monetary Fund Format/size:   pdf (31K) Date of entry/update:   27 January 2009 Title:   Myanmar: Statistical Appendix Date of publication:   27 January 2001 Description/subject:   Full text Language:   English Source/publisher:   International Monetary Fund (IMF) Format/size:   PDF (789K) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Myanmar: Recent Economic Developments Date of publication:   10 December 1999 Language:   English Source/publisher:   International Monetary Fund (IMF) Format/size:   PDF (3.20 MB) Alternate URLs:   http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=3335.0 Date of entry/update:   16 August 2010 The World Bank and Its Watchers Websites/Multiple Documents Title:   Bank Information Center Description/subject:   The Bank Information Center BIC is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that provides information and strategic support to NGOs and social movements throughout the world on the projects, policies and practices of the World Bank and other Multilateral Development Banks MDBs. BIC advocates for greater transparency, accountability and citizen participation at the MDBs. Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   World Bank Myanmar page Description/subject:   "The World Bank has begun the process of re-engaging with the Government to support reforms that will benefit all of the people of Myanmar, including the poor and vulnerable. Comparable country data for Myanmar can't be provided at this time..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   World Bank Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   10 January 2010 Title:   World Bank Reports and Documents on Myanmar Description/subject:   Results of browsing Documents > Myanmar (10 documents, Dec 2001. 130 documents, September 2012) Language:   English Source/publisher:   World Bank Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   World Bank Search for Myanmar Description/subject:   Results of a search for Myanmar on the World Bank site Language:   English Source/publisher:   World Bangk Format/size:   html Alternate URLs:   http://www.worldbank.org Date of entry/update:   16 August 2010 Individual Documents Title:   Burma groups detect flaws in World Bank's re-engagement move Date of publication:   07 September 2012 Description/subject:   "After pressure from civil society in Burma, the World Bank released a draft summary of its Interim Strategy Note (ISN) last month, an outline of its re-engagement plans with Burma over the next 18 months. The move comes after local and international NGOs claimed that the Bank had not adequately engaged in consultation with civil society. The draft ISN is meant to inform the consultation process, and the final ISN is due to be released by the Bank in the end of October..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Bank Information Center (IF-Eye Issue #54): Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   08 September 2012 Title:   Burma: World Bank Grant Could ‘Exacerbate’ Problems In Border Regions Date of publication:   10 August 2012 Description/subject:   "Civil society groups have urged the World Bank to exercise caution before pressing ahead with their plans to pump $85 million into community projects in Burma’s conflict-torn border regions or risk “exacerbating” local problems. Campaigners have criticised the Bank for claiming that locals will be able to “decide whether to invest in schools, roads, water or other projects” without disclosing details of their consultation plans, transparency provisions and whether they have conducted a conflict-assessment. “Burma’s ethnic conflicts are complex and the ongoing ceasefire negotiations are fragile, so if the World Bank is looking into providing assistance they need to publish this information,” said Khin Ohmar from Burma Partnership. “That kind of money can easily exacerbate problems or even create more different types of conflicts within the communities..." Author/creator:   Hanna Hindstrom Language:   English Source/publisher:   Democratic Voice of Burma Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   08 September 2012 Title:   World Bank Prepares Interim Strategy Note for Myanmar Date of publication:   10 August 2012 Description/subject:   "...In describing the country context in which the Bank’s re-engagement with Myanmar is taking place, the ISN reviews the significant and far-reaching changes that have taken place in Myanmar over the past 18 months, including the political and civil reforms (the release of political prisoners, the progress in ceasefire negotiations with non-state armed groups, the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the re-entry of her National League for Democracy Party into the country’s political system) as well as the important economic reforms have been undertaken, including floating of the currency, legalization of trade unions, tax reform and forthcoming legislation on foreign investment and banking reform, while acknowledging remaining challenges in each of these areas. The ISN describes Myanmar as embarking on a triple transition: from an authoritarian military system to democratic governance; from a centrally-directed economy to market-oriented reforms; and from 60 years of conflict to peace in the border areas. These transitions offer hope to the people of Myanmar for better, safer and more productive lives, but also pose the risk that setbacks in one of the transitions will affect the others. The proposed program of the World Bank Group (WBG) will thus focus on activities that can support the success of these three transitions and prepare the way for the resumption of a full country program..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   World Bank Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   08 September 2012 Title:   Statement on Myanmar: Pamela Cox, World Bank East Asia and Pacific Regional Vice President Date of publication:   26 April 2012 Description/subject:   " Statement on Myanmar: Pamela Cox, World Bank East Asia and Pacific Regional Vice President Available in: Español, 日本語 WASHINGTON, April 26, 2012 - The World Bank today released the following statement from World Bank Vice President for East Asia, Pamela Cox, on the Bank's steps toward re-engagement with the Government of Myanmar: “I want to update you on where the World Bank Group stands in relation to Myanmar. We are working closely with our Board and shareholders on our plans moving forward. As you’re aware, we have re-engaged with the government in Myanmar, with the aim of supporting reforms that will benefit all the people of Myanmar, especially the poor and vulnerable. In early June, we will be opening an office in Myanmar, which will be led by a new country manager. Also in June, I’ll be travelling to Myanmar to gain a firsthand assessment of the situation. The vice presidents of our private sector arm, IFC and our insurance arm, MIGA, will join me on that visit..." Language:   English (Spanish also available) Source/publisher:   World Bank Format/size:   html, pdf (91K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs13/WB_Myanmar_Statement2012-04-26.pdf Date of entry/update:   27 April 2012 Title:   Multilaterals Warned Not to Go Too Far, Too Fast in Myanmar Date of publication:   18 April 2012 Description/subject:   "WASHINGTON, Apr 18, 2012 (IPS) - As multilateral lending agencies prepare to seriously re- engage with Myanmar for the first time in decades, observers at the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are warning that a poor understanding of ground conditions in the country could jeopardise many of the early opportunities created by government-initiated reforms. While international economic sanctions, particularly those put in place by the United States and European Union, have significantly limited the ability of multilateral agencies to operate in Myanmar, recent weeks have seen several governments move to ease these measures. This week the U.S. announced a second round of loosening, while officials in both Australia and the EU are currently engaged in similar discussions..." Author/creator:   Carey L. Biron Language:   English Source/publisher:   Inter-Press Service (IPS) Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   30 May 2012 Title:   Human Rights Watch Letter to World Bank President Zoellick on Burma Date of publication:   08 February 2012 Description/subject:   World Bank: Emphasize Civic Participation in Burma; Encourage Transparency, Accountability in Exploring Reengagement Language:   English Source/publisher:   Human Rights Watch Format/size:   pdf (203K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/Download%20Human%20Rights%20Watch%20letter%... Date of entry/update:   26 February 2012 Title:   Free trade area membership as a stepping stone to development: the case of ASEAN Date of publication:   28 February 2001 Description/subject:   World Bank Discussion Paper. "This study investigates the economic impacts of accession to the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) by the new member countries of Cambodia, the Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam. The trade policies of these countries are examined, and a series of quantitative analyses were undertaken to evaluate the impacts of accession. The results showed that the static impacts of reducing tariffs against ASEAN members are beneficial, although the magnitude of the net gains is diminished by the trade diversion resulting from the discriminatory nature of the reforms. The binding commitments on protection rates under the AFTA plan provide an important initial step to more broader and more beneficial trade reforms. The study focuses on some of the key country-specific policy challenges associated with trade liberalization--such as declining tariff revenues in Cambodia, and the negative impacts on sensitive domestic industries in Vietnam. The study recommends that accession to AFTA be viewed as an important transitional step in the broader process of trade reform and institutional development needed for successful development and poverty alleviation. Keywords: Free trade areas; Trade policy; Tariff reductions; Trade liberalization; Comparative advantage. Language:   English Source/publisher:   World Bank Format/size:   Text (586K), PDF (11979K), Page. Alternate URLs:   http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2001/03/30//000094946_01032007262136/... http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSServlet?pcont=details&eid=000094946_01032007262136 Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Power trade strategy for the Greater Mekong Sub-region Date of publication:   31 March 1999 Description/subject:   Sector Report. "The main objectives of the study are to: a) assess options and formulate a strategy for power trade among the Greater Mekong countries, paying special attention to the barriers to trade and the policy, institutional and commercial framework required to develop and operate efficiently a regional power network; and b) establish the rationale and options for donors ' support to power trading and transmission network investment needs within the region. Although power trade among the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries is beginning to grow, there are important barriers that could prevent its development: 1) policy barriers, 2) technical barriers, 3) institutional barriers, and 4) commercial and financial barriers. The strategy proposed in the study addresses the following overarching issues: 1) Regional electricity trade should be second to national and local needs. 2) Conditions must be established for a public-private partnership to develop power trade in the region. 3) Conflicts must be resolved between short- and long-term objectives, between national and regional views, and eventually, between specific projects. 4) There must be a common path of fundamental economic practices to allow open access to transmission. 5) Financial and technical assistance must be secured. 6) There must be a regional agreement on policy issues and an institutional framework to address market uncertainties and potential conflicts, and to promote regional trade. Keywords: Electricity trade; Regional trade; Electric networks; Transmission; Mekong river; Trade barriers; Private-public partnerships; Technical assistance; Institutional framework; Trade policy; Greenhouse gas emissions; Sectoral reforms; Government policy; Power sector reform; Wholesale trade; Open access; Tariffs; Risks; Taxes; Royalties; Financial instruments; Thermal power; Watershed management Language:   Text (261K), PDF (6529K), Page Source/publisher:   World Bank Alternate URLs:   http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1999/12/11/000094946_99041505302543/R... http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSServlet?pcont=details&eid=000094946_99041505302543 Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Counting the full cost : parental and community financing of education in East Asia Date of publication:   30 November 1996 Description/subject:   Publication. "This study highlights the need for much more detailed attention to the cost of schooling incurred by parents and communities. In some societies these costs are greater than even the costs to governments. Quite apart from overt forms of privatization, the growth of household resourcing of public education has been a hidden form of privatization of enormous influence. This study presents empirical findings, and primarily focuses on nine East Asian countries -Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao People ' s Democratic Republic, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam -although clear parallels can be drawn with experiences in some other parts of the world. While patterns are far from uniform, one striking feature from this study is that costs to households have increased in long-standing capitalist countries as well as in former socialist countries. The scale of the increase varies widely, but it is significant that in these countries there is an increase at all. The study concludes that governments seeking to achieve universal primary education and expanded enrollments in secondary education must consider the costs and benefits at the household level. Their resulting policies must focus not only on supply but also on demand for education. Included in demand will be complex considerations of the quality and the price of education. When assessing the cost side of the equation, policy analysts must count the full cost -not only to governments, but also to parents and communities- and not only the monetary costs of donated labor, materials, and land." Keywords: Educational financing; Human capital; Cost of education; Resources mobilization; Resources utilization; Parent-child relationships; School-community relationships; Public education; Denationalization; Human rights; Private schools; Private education; Household budgets; Enrolment ratio Language:   English Source/publisher:   World Bank Format/size:   Page, Text (223K), PDF (5289K) Alternate URLs:   http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1996/11/01/000009265_3970311115031/Re... http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1996/11/01/000009265_3970311115031/Re... Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Irrigation O & M and system performance in Southeast Asia: an OED impact study Date of publication:   27 June 1996 Description/subject:   Operations Evaluation Study. "This report discusses six gravity irrigation schemes supported by the World Bank in the paddy lands of Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Its main objective is to assess: (i) the agro-economic impacts of these schemes at least five years after completion of the investment operations, and (ii) the influence of operation and maintenance (O & M) performance on the sustainability of those impacts. The finding that dominates the study has little to do with O & M. Offering poor economics and low incomes, these paddy irrigation schemes face an uncertain future. Improved O & M performance will not rescue them. In fact, the study finds that this causality is being reversed. As the uncompetitiveness of paddy farming drives the younger members off farms and the older members to stay behind and concentrate on basic subsistence crops, social capital will erode and O & M standards are likely to suffer. Based on the study of the six schemes, several recommendations have been made and grouped into the following general categories, then expanded on: (1) to sharpen the response to O & M failures; (2) to simplify the technology of infrastructure and operations; (3) to promote the transfer of management to farmers and their Water User Groups; and (4) to improve household earnings." Keywords: Gravity irrigation; Paddyland; Competitiveness; Agricultural productivity; Household income; Subsistence farming; Traditional farming; Farm management; Rural infrastructure; Agro-economic impacts; Operation & maintenance; Water user groups Language:   English Source/publisher:   World Bank Format/size:   Page, Text (609K), PDF (12415K) Alternate URLs:   http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1996/06/27/000009265_3961214172549/Re... http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1996/06/27/000009265_3961214172549/Re... Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Myanmar-- Policies for Sustaining Economic Reform Date of publication:   16 October 1995 Description/subject:   Important report, which criticises the SLORC's economic and social policies, including paddy procurement policies."A significant program of economic reforms has been instituted in Myanmar since the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) assumed power in late-1988. This shift in economic policies followed almost a quarter century of economic decline during which the prevalent development paradigm was termed " the Burmese way of socialism " . Under that model, economic development was to be achieved through rapid industrialization and self sufficiency, and led by the State Enterprise (SE) sector. Economic performance under that policy regime was poor. During 1962-77, real GDP growth barely kept up with population expansion and, as a result, living standards stagnated. Investment levels remained low, agricultural output grew slowly, and the economy grew more inward looking. The initial attempts at economic reform in the mid-1970s succeeded at first but could not be sustained due to macroeconomic and structural factors, which were reflected in widening budget and current account deficits, rising inflation, and stagnant agricultural output and exports. Faced with these serious external and internal imbalances in the early-1980s the Government's stabilization attempts relied on tightening import controls, cutting public investment, and demonetization but were ineffective in reversing the economic decline. Following the anti-government demonstrations of 1988, the SLORC assumed power and announced that many key aspects of the earlier model would be abandoned in its economic reform program. With over seven years having elapsed since those reforms were initiated, it is an opportune time to take stock. Specifically, this report examines the impacts of the policy changes, with a view to identifying the areas in which progress has been made, as well as the gaps that still remain in the program. This analysis would then underpin the report's recommendations concernng areas in which additional reforms are required and how these measures should be phased. Keywords: Economic growth; Economic reform; Economic stabilization; Government role; Policy making Language:   English Source/publisher:   World Bank Format/size:   Text (456K)or PDF (8416K) Page. Alternate URLs:   http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1995/10/16/000009265_3961019103423/Re... http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSServlet?pcont=details&eid=000009265_3961019103423 Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Burma and the CGIAR centers: a study of their collaboration in agricultural research Date of publication:   30 November 1986 Description/subject:   CGIAR Study Paper "This report on the collaboration between international agricultural research centers (IARCs) and the agricultural research system of Burma was undertaken at the request of the CGIAR impact study and includes several objectives. They entail providing (1) a picture of the collaboration between CGIAR-supported IARCs and Burma; (2) an assessment of how international inputs have contributed to national research capacity; and (3) an evaluation of the relevance and impact of the centers ' training programs. Further to this, the report involves (4) a summary of the impact on food production; and (5) a discussion of the way in which selected technologies originating in the centers have been transmitted through national programs to farmers. By cooperating with various IARCs, Burma ' s agricultural research departments and other agencies under the Agriculture Corporation have greatly increased yields of rice, maize, sorghum, wheat, cotton, jute, sugarcane and food legumes in Burma. In addition, Burma has received genetic materials, training fellowships and opportunities to establish contacts with research workers and scientists in other countries to permit the continuous exchange of ideas." Keywords: International agricultural research coordination; Food production; Agricultural inputs; Food crops; Research centers; Training programs Language:   English Source/publisher:   World Bank Format/size:   Text (164K), PDF (4315K), Page. Alternate URLs:   http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2001/01/24/000178830_98101901560884/R... http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSServlet?pcont=details&eid=000178830_98101901560884 Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Burma - Issues and options in the energy sector Date of publication:   30 June 1985 Description/subject:   Sector Report. Burma' s energy resources are large and varied. While the Government has done a commendable job of developing these resources largely on its own, their development has nevertheless been comparatively slow. While this may have constrained economic growth to date, it also provides a ready basis for an acceleration in future economic growth and increased exports. This report analyzes the technical, financial and institutional requirements for realizing that potential through the turn of the century in the context of two scenarios - a Planned Growth scenario which reflects the official growth targets, and an Economic Growth scenario under which public finance and balance of payments constraints result in somewhat slower economic growth. Under either scenario a major investment program and infusion of current technology will be needed. The report recommends considerable technical assistance and studies to help effect this transfer of technology. To help finance these requirements, it will be necessary to improve the financial footing of the public corporations in the sector; this would entail price increases for many energy products. There is also a need to strengthen energy planning and inter-ministerial coordination on energy matters. Keywords: Hydroelectric power; Petroleum; Natural gas; Coal; Fuelwood; Biomass energy; Petroleum exports; Technical assistance; Technology transfer; Deforestation; Offshore gas fields; Energy planning Language:   English Source/publisher:   World Bank Format/size:   Page, Text (432K), PDF (8531K) Alternate URLs:   http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1999/09/17/000009265_3970723102606/Re... http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1999/09/17/000009265_3970723102606/Re... Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Websites/Multiple Documents Title:   UNCTAD Format/size:   Try your luck with the search engine. Search for Myanmar Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Individual Documents Title:   Country fact sheet: Myanmar 2004 Date of publication:   22 September 2004 Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNCTAD -- World Investment Report 2004 Format/size:   pdf Date of entry/update:   12 August 2005 Title:   FDI PROFILE: MYANMAR -- WID Country Profiles Date of publication:   04 September 2004 Description/subject:   Statistics on FDI and the operations of TNCs Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNCTAD - World Investment Directory Format/size:   pdf Date of entry/update:   12 August 2005 Title:   THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES REPORT 2004 - STATISTICAL ANNEX Date of publication:   24 May 2004 Description/subject:   Search for Myanmar Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT (UNCTAD/LDC/2004) Format/size:   pdf Date of entry/update:   12 August 2005 Title:   FDI in brief: Myanmar Date of publication:   09 March 2004 Description/subject:   The 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis affected FDI flows to Myanmar...FDI flows to Myanmar continued to decline since 1998, primarily because of the impact of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis (figure 1). FDI stock in Myanmar increased from $56 million in 1990 to $4.2 billion in 2002 (figure 2). Most FDI to Myanmar were from the developed countries in 1995-2001 (figure 3). Among the developing economies, ASEAN countries and the Asian newly industrialized economies were the largest investors. FDI from the United Kingdom and the United States were significant among the developed countries (table 1), and were dominated by oil and gas activities (table 2). More than 50 per cent of FDI in Myanmar in 1999-2001 were in the primary sector (figure 4), which were dominated by investment in oil and gas. FDI in tourism and real estate sector were also significant. FDI flows as a percentage of gross fixed capital formation since 1997 has been declining (figure 5), while inward FDI stock as a percentage of gross domestic product has been increasing steadily since 1992, except for a blip in 2002 (figure 6). Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT Format/size:   pdf Date of entry/update:   12 August 2005 Title:   FDI Policies for Development: Myanmar, Country fact sheet Date of publication:   04 September 2003 Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNCTAD: World Investment Report 2003 Format/size:   pdf Date of entry/update:   12 August 2005 Title:   FDI in Least Developed Countries at a Glance: 2002 Date of publication:   03 March 2003 Description/subject:   Search for Myanmar Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNCTAD Format/size:   pdf Date of entry/update:   12 August 2005 UNESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ) Websites/Multiple Documents Title:   Asia-Pacific in Figures Description/subject:   Click on Myanmar and check relevant boxes to generate a set of statistics for Myanmar. Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNESCAP Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   11 August 2004 Title:   UNESCAP Statistics Division Description/subject:   This page leads, by browsing and searching, to a number of documents on Burma/Myanmar statistics Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNESCAP Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   11 August 2004 Individual Documents Title:   ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SURVEY OF ASIA AND THE PACIFIC 2011 Date of publication:   May 2011 Description/subject:   Search for Myanmar statistics etc. Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNESCAP Format/size:   pdf (10.5MB - full text). Date of entry/update:   11 May 2011 Title:   Quarterly Statistical Summary for Myanmar Date of publication:   21 October 2005 Description/subject:   This valuable summary of selected production, trade, travel and financial statistics from Myanmar is updated every three months. The most recent data can be obtained by inserting the month and year desired in the pdf document. The Myanmar data usually appear nine months after the quarter they summarize. Author/creator:   UNESCAP Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNESCAP Format/size:   pdf (22 KB) Date of entry/update:   25 October 2005 Title:   Quarterly Statistical Summary for Myanmar Date of publication:   22 July 2005 Description/subject:   This valuable summary of selected production, trade, travel and financial statistics from Myanmar is updated every three months. The most recent data can be obtained by inserting the month and year desired in the pdf document. The Myanmar data usually appear nine months after the quarter they summarize. Thus, the Myanmar stats for the third quarter of 2004 were posted in the ESCAP report for June, 2005 Author/creator:   UNESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNESCAP Format/size:   pdf (16 kb) Date of entry/update:   25 October 2005 Title:   Quarterly Statistical Summary for Myanmar Date of publication:   22 April 2005 Description/subject:   This valuable summary of selected production, trade, travel and financial statistics from Myanmar is updated every three months. The most recent data can be obtained by inserting the month and year desired in the pdf document. The Myanmar data usually appear nine months after the quarter they summarize. Author/creator:   UNESCAP Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNESCAP Format/size:   pdf (16 kb) Alternate URLs:   http://www.unescap.org/stat/data/statind/myanmar_mar05.pdf Date of entry/update:   25 October 2005 Title:   Statistical Indicators for Asia and the Pacific (Myanmar) July 2004 Date of publication:   27 July 2004 Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNESCAP Format/size:   pdf Alternate URLs:   http://www.unescap.org/stat/data/statind/pdf/index.asp Date of entry/update:   16 August 2010 Title:   Statistical Indicators for Asia and the Pacific (Myanmar) May 2004 Date of publication:   06 May 2004 Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNESCAP Format/size:   pdf Alternate URLs:   http://www.unescap.org/stat/data/statind/pdf/index.asp Date of entry/update:   16 August 2010 Title:   DEVELOPMENT OF ENABLING POLICIES FOR TRADE AND INVESTMENT IN THE IT SECTOR OF THE GREATER MEKONG SUBREGION - CHAPTER 5: MYANMAR Date of publication:   2003 Description/subject:   Chapter 5: Myanmar: 5. 1 Introduction: The Background; 5. 2 Policies Governing the Production and use of IT; The Computer Science Law (1996); The Draft IT Master Plan; 5. 3 Present state IT Use and Production; ICT use: Selected old Technology Indicators; Use of New Technology: Telecommunication; Mobile Telephone; Computers and Internet; Present state of IT Production; Human Resource Development in IT; 5. 4 Investment in IT: Policies, Performance and Challenges Investment Policies; Trend in Foreign Direct Investment; Role of FDI in Myanmar Economy; Working with Constraints: Promoting Investment in the IT Sector; 5. 5 Trade in IT: Policy, Performance and Challenges; Trends in the External Sector; Trade Policy: Present Scene; Structure and Direction of Trade; Promoting Trade: the Role of IT; Implications of e-ASEAN and ITA; 5. 6 Concluding Observations and Reflections on Policy Options; Tables; References . Author/creator:   K J Joseph Language:   English Source/publisher:   UNESCAP Format/size:   pdf (589K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.unescap.org/tid/projects/gms.asp Date of entry/update:   10 April 2004 World Trade Organisation Websites/Multiple Documents Title:   World Trade Organisation Format/size:   Search for Myanmar Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Burmese Economists on the Burmese Economy National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar (NWR), Naypyitaw, 19–21 August, 2011 These are papers we believe were presented at the Workshop, though not all of them refer to the NWR. We have dated them all 21 August 2011, the last day of the NWR, though some of them may have been written earlier. Some items are sourced to the Workshop, and some to a ministry or other institution, where known. Individual Documents Title:   2015 AEC: Opportunities and Challenges, August 19-21, 2011 Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   1. AEC သမိုငး္ ေနာက္ခံႏွင့္ အက်ဥ္း 2. အခြင့္အလမ္းႏွင့္ အားသာခ်က္မ်ား 3. စိန္ေခၚမႈႏွင့္ ကြာဟခ်က္မ်ား 4. လမ္းျပေျမပုံ-၂ ႏွင့္ အၾကံျပဳခ်က္မ်ား... ေအအီးစီ ၂၀၁၅ - နိဒါန္း... - ေအအီးစီ = အီးယူ ၿပီးလ်ွင္ အႀကီးမားဆံုး စီးပြားေရး ေပါင္းစည္းမႈဆိုင္ရာ အားထုတ္ခ်က္ - ၂၀၁၄ အာဆီယံ ဥကၠဌမွသည္ ၂၀၁၅ သို႔ - ၂၀၁၅ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ အသြင္ကးူ ေျပာင္းမႈ ဒုတိယသက္တန္း - ၂၀၁၅ ရာစုႏွစ္ ဖြံ ့ၿဖိဳးမႈ ဦးတည္ခ်က္ မ်ားျပည့္မွီေရး Millennium Development Goals - လမ္းျပေျမပံု - ၂ - ဖြံ႕ၿဖိဳးမႈမွသည္ညီၫြတ္မႈသို႔ Author/creator:   U Zaw Oo ဦးေဇာ္ဦး Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Zaw Oo: Chiang Mai University Format/size:   pdf (247K) Date of entry/update:   24 October 2011 Title:   A Study on Myanmar's Fiscal Performance/ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ၏ ရ-သုံးေငြစာရင္းကုိ ေလ့လာျခင္း Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ႏုိင္ငံေတာ္၏ စီးပြားေရးဖြံ႕ၿဖိဳးတုိးတက္မႈ အတြက္ ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲေရးဆုိင္ရာ အမ်ဳိးသားအဆင့္ အလုပ္႐ုံ ေဆြးေႏြးပဲြ... ျမန္မာအျပည္ျပည္ဆုိင္ရာ ကြန္ဗင္းရွင္း ဗဟုိဌာန (MICC) ေနျပည္ေတာ္၊ ၂ဝ၁၁ခုႏွစ္ ၾသဂုတ္လ (၁၉-၂၁)ရက္... ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ၏ ရ-သုံးေငြစာရင္းကုိ ေလ့လာျခင္း (A Study on Myanmar’s Fiscal Performance) Author/creator:   U San Thein (ျပဳစုတင္ျပသူ – ဦးစံသိန္း) Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development, Central Statistical Organization. Format/size:   pdf (101K) Date of entry/update:   24 October 2011 Title:   Banking Development in Myanmar / ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ ဘဏ္လုပ္ငန္း က႑တိုးတက္ျဖစ္ေပၚမႈ Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ဘ႑ာေရးႏွင့္ အခြန္၀န္ႀကီးဌာန... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ ဗဟိုဘဏ္... ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ ဘဏ္လုပ္ငန္း က႑တိုးတက္ျဖစ္ေပၚမႈ ... ႏိုင္ငံပိုင္စီးပြားေရးလုပ္ငန္းမ်ားစြမ္းေဆာင္မႈအရည္ေအေသြးျမင့္မားရန္၊... ပုဂၢလိကစီးပြားေရးက႑က်ယ္က်ယ္ျပန္႔ျပန္႔တိုးတက္ေစရန္၊... ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္၏ေဒသအသီးသီးဖြံ႔ျဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေစရန္၊ ... ဘဏ္လုပ္ငန္းသည္စီးပြားေရးလုပ္ငန္းမ်ားအတြက္အဓိကေမာင္းႏွင္အား... ဘဏ္သမိုင္း ... ေစ်းကြက္စီးပြားေရးစနစ္အတြက္ဘဏ္မ်ားတည္ေထာင္ျခင္း... ေစ်းကြက္စီးပြားေရးစနစ္အတြက္ဘဏ္ဥပေဒမ်ားျပဌာန္းျခင္း ... ေစ်းကြက္စီးပြားေရးစနစ္အတြက္ဘဏ္မ်ားတည္ေထာင္ျခင္း ... အပ္ေငြလုပ္ငန္း ... ေခ်းေငြလုပ္ငန္း ... ေခ်းေငြအမ်ိဳးအစားမ်ား ... ေငြေခ်းသည့္နည္းလမ္းမ်ား ... အာမခံအမ်ိဳးအစားမ်ား ... ဘဏ္ဝန္ေဆာင္မႈလုပ္ငန္းမ်ား ... ဘဏ္မ်ားကိုႄကီးႄကပ္ျခင္း ... ဘဏ္မ်ားတည္ျငိမ္မရွိေအာင္ေဆာင္ရြက္ျခင္း ... ဘဏ္မ်ားကိုအကဲျဖတ္ျခင္း ... ဘဏ္၏ဆံုးရႈံုးႏိုင္ေျခ စီမံခန္႔ခြဲျခင္း... ႏိုင္ငံပိုင္ဘဏ္ႏွင့္ ပုဂၢလိကဘဏ္ မ်ား၏ အပ္ေငြမ်ားအား ႏွိုင္းယွဥ္မွုအေျခအေန ... ႏိုင္ငံပိုင္ဘဏ္ႏွင့္ ပုဂၢလိကဘဏ္ မ်ား၏ ေခ်းေငြမ်ားအား ႏွိုင္းယွဥ္မွုအေျခအေန ... ၃၁•၃•၂ဝ၁၁ ရက္ေန့႐ိွ ႏိုင္ငံပိုင္ဘဏ္ႏွင့္ ပုဂၢလိကဘဏ္မ်ား၏ လုပ္ငန္း အမ်ိဳးအစား အလိုက္ေခ်းေငြ ထုတ္ေခ်းထားမွဳ အေျချပဂရပ္ ... ၃၁•၃•၂ဝ၁၁ ရက္ေန့႐ိွ ႏိုင္ငံပိုင္ဘဏ္ႏွင့္ ပုဂၢလိကဘဏ္မ်ား၏ အာမခံ အမ်ိဳးအစား အလိုက္ေခ်းေငြ ထုတ္ေခ်းထားမွဳ အေျချပဂရပ္ ... ႏိုင္ငံပိုင္ဘဏ္ႏွင့္ ပုဂၢလိကဘဏ္မ်ား ထည့္ဝင္ၿပီး မတည္ေငြရင္း၊ အပ္ေငြႏွင့္ေခ်းေငြ အေျခအေန ၃၁•၃•၁၉၉၄ မွ ၃၁•၃•၂ဝ၁၁ အထိ... ပုဂၢလိကဘဏ္မ်ား၏ (၃၁•၃•၁၉၉၄) မွ (၃၁•၃•၂ဝ၁၁) ရက္ေန့ထိ ထည့္ဝင္ၿပီး မတည္ေငြရင္း၊ အပ္ေငြႏွင့္ေခ်းေငြ အေျခအေန ... ပုဂၢလိကဘဏ္မ်ား၏ အရင္း/ အတိုးေပး ဆပ္ရန္ ပ်က္ ကြက္ေသာေခ်းေငြမ်ား အခ်ိဳး ၃၁•၃•၂ဝဝ၂ မွ၃၁•၃•၂ဝ၁၁ အထိ ... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ ဘဏ္မ်ားအသင္း ... ဘဏ္္လုပ္ငန္း ကၽြမ္းက်င္ သူမ်ားေမြး ထုတ္ျခင္း... Banking Network ... Payment System Development ... Myanmar Payment Union Card (MPU Debit Card) ... Deposit Insurance ... ဆက္လက္ေဆာင္ရြက္ရမည့္လုပ္ငန္းမ်ား ... Author/creator:   U Thein Zaw ဦးသိန္းေဇာ္ (ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမွဴး) Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Ministry of Finance and Revenue, Central Bank of Myanmar Format/size:   pdf (1.27MB) Date of entry/update:   27 December 2011 Title:   Corruption: Causes, Consequences and Cures Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   Abstract: "The paper stresses the need to keep the issue of corruption in view in the development agenda. It discusses the causes and consequences of corruption, especially in the context of a least developed country, with an economy under considerable regulation and central direction. Lack of transparency, accountability and consistency, as well as institutional weaknesses such as in the legislative and judicial systems, provide a fertile ground for growth of rent seeking activities in such a country. In addition to the rise of the underground economy and the high social costs associated with corruption, its adverse consequences on income distribution, consumption pattern, investment, government budget and on economic reforms are discussed in the paper. The paper also touches upon the supply side of bribery and its international dimensions and presents some thoughts on how to address the corruption issue and to try to bring it under control." Author/creator:   U Myint Language:   English Source/publisher:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar, Naypyitaw, 19 – 21 August, 2011 Format/size:   pdf (90K) Date of entry/update:   17 October 2011 Title:   Economy and Social development: Reform in the Agricultural Sector Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   “စီးပြားေရးႏွင့္လူမႈဖြံ႔ျဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရးအတြက္စိုက္ပ်ိဳးေရးက႑၏ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲမႈမ်ား” ... ေရဆင္းစိုက္ပ်ိဳးေရးတကၠသိုလ္ ... လူမႈစီးပြားေရးဖြံ႔ျဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈအတြက္ စိုက္ပ်ိဳးေရးက႑၏အေရးပါမႈ... ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲခဲ့ေသာမူဝါဒအခ်ိဳ႕ ... စိုက္ပ်ိဳးေရးက႑ဆိုင္ရာမူဝါဒ ... ဖြံ႕ျဖိဳးတိုးတက္မွဳ နည္းဗ်ဴဟာမ်ား ... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ စားနပ္ရိကၡာ (ဆန္) ဖူလံုမႈႏွင့္စားသံုးမႈ ... အာရွနိုင္ငံအခ်ိဳ႔၏တစ္ဦးက်ဆန္စားသံုးမႈႏႈိင္းယွဥ္ျခင္း ... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏စားနပ္ရိကၡာ (ဆန္) ဖူလံုမႈႏွင့္စားသံုးမႈ ... တုိင္း/ျပည္နယ္မ်ား၏ စပါးစိုက္ဧရိယာေျပာင္းလဲမႈ ... ၂ဝဝ၃ခုႏွစ္၊ဆန္တင္ပို႔မႈမူဝါဒသစ္ ... ကြာျခားခ်က္မ်ားေသာ ဆန္တင္ပို႔မႈတိုးတက္ႏႈန္းထား ... စိုက္ပ်ိဳးေရးက႑ဖြံျဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရးနည္းဗ်ဴဟာ ... ဆန္စားသံုးမႈႏွင့္ျပည္ပတင္ပို႔မႈအခ်ိဳးအစား ... စိုက္ပ်ိဳးေရးက႑အတြက္ SWOT Analysis ... ဖြံ႔ျဖိဳးမႈနည္းဗ်ဴဟာႏွင့္ေမခရိုေပၚလစီ ... ျမန္မာ့လယ္ယာဖြံ႔ျဖိဳးေရးဘဏ္ မွႏွစ္အလုိက္ေခ်းေငြမ်ား (က်ပ္သန္းေပါင္း) ... ေက်းလက္ေဒသအေသးစားေငြေခ်းဝန္ေဆာင္မွုလုပ္ငန္း ... Author/creator:   Daw Theingi Myint ေဒၚသိဂႌျမင့္ Language:   Burmese (ျမန္မာဘာသာ) Source/publisher:   ေရဆင္းစိုက္ပ်ိဳးေရးတကၠသိုလ္ Yezin Agricultural University- Myanmar Format/size:   pdf (3MB) Date of entry/update:   20 October 2011 Title:   Establishing a more Favourable Economic Environment for Private Sector Development Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ပုဂၢလိက က႑ ဖြံ႕ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရးအတြက္ ျပည္စံုေကာင္းမြန္ေသာ စီးပြားေရး ဝန္းက်င္ ေဖာ္ေဆာင္ေရး... ပုဂၢလိကလုပ္ငန္းမ်ား၏အခန္းက႑... လက္ရိွစီးပြားေရး ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္တြင္ ပုဂၢလိကက႑ ေတြ႕ၾကံဳေနရေသာ စိန္ေခၚမႈမ်ား... လက္ရိွစီးပြားေရး ဝန္းက်င္ေကာင္းမြန္ေအာင္ စဥ္းစားသင့္သည့္ အခ်က္မ်ား... ပုဂၢလိကက႑ ဖြံ႕ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရး အတြက္ လိုအပ္ေသာ စီးပြားေရး မူဝါဒမ်ားအေပၚအၾကံျပဳခ်က္... ၁၉၈၈ ခုႏွစ္ ေစ်းကြက္ စီးပြားေရး စနစ္ကို စတင္က်င့္သံုးသည့္အခ်ိန္မွစတင္၍ စီးပြားေရး က႑တိုင္း တြင္ ေစ်းကြက္ စီးပြားေရးစနစ္ (Market Economic System) ေဖာ္ေဆာင္ႏုိင္ေရး အတြက္ ဦးစားေပး လုပ္ေဆာင္ခဲ့သည့္ အခ်က္ မ်ား...၁) ဗဟိုစီးပြားေရးခ်ဳပ္ကိုင္မႈေလွ်ာ့ခ်ျခင္း (Decentralization economic control) ၂) ေစ်းႏႈန္းထိမ္းခ်ဳပ္မႈမ်ား ပယ္ဖ်က္ျခင္း (Abolishing Price Control) ၃) ႏိုင္ငံျခားရင္းႏွီးျမႇဳပ္ႏွံမႈမ်ားခြင့္ျပဳျခင္း (Allowing Foreign Direct Investment) ၄) ပုဂၢလိကဘဏ္မ်ား လုပ္ေဆာင္ခြင့္ျပဳျခင္း၊ ၅) ဆန္စပါးလုပ္ငန္းအား လြတ္လပ္စြာ ေဆာင္ရြက္ခြင့္ျပဳျခင္း၊ ၆) အေျခခံအေဆာက္အအံုဆိုင္ရာ ဖံြ႕ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈကို ပ့ံ ပိုး ျခင္း (Improving Infrastructure)... ၁၉၉၅ ခုႏွစ္မွစ၍ႏုိင္ငံပုိင္လုပ္ငန္းမ်ားအား ပုဂၢလိက အသြင္ ကူးေျပာင္းေရး (Privatization) ကုိ စတင္လုပ္ေဆာင္ခဲ့ရာ ပုဂၢလိက အသြင္ကူးေျပာင္းေရး လုပ္ငန္းမ်ားမွာ အရွိန္ရလာၿပီ ျဖစ္ပါ သည္။... ျပည္တြင္းအသားတင္ထုတ္လုပ္မႈတန္ဖုိးတြင္ ပုဂၢ လိကက႑ ထုတ္လုပ္မႈမွာ ၉၁ % ပါ၀င္ပါသည္။ Author/creator:   U Win Aung ဦး၀င္းေအာင္ Language:   Burmese (ျမန္မာဘာသာ), English Source/publisher:   Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Format/size:   pdf (1.9MB) Date of entry/update:   20 October 2011 Title:   Future Economy and Social Development စက္မႈလုပ္ငန္းမ်ား ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရးႏွင့္ စီးပြားေရး မူ၀ါဒ Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   စီးပြားေရးႏွင့္ လူမႈဘ၀ ဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈ ပိုမိုရရွိေရး အတြက္ ေမခရိုစီးပြားေရး မူ၀ါဒျမႇင့္တင္ေရး ဆိုင္ရာ အမ်ဳိးသား အဆင့္ အလုပ္ရံုေဆြးေႏြးပြဲ ... "စက္မႈလုပ္ငန္းမ်ား ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳး တိုးတက္ေရးႏွင့္ စီးပြားေရး မူ၀ါဒ" စာတမ္းျပဳစုသူ- ဦးစိုးသိန္း (ဥကၠဌ -စက္မႈလုပ္ငန္း ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရးေကာ္မတီ)... (၁) နိဒါန္း...(၂) နိုင္ငံေတာ္၏ စီးပြားေရး ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈ နွင့္ စက္မႈက႑...(၃) စက္မႈ လုပ္ငန္း ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရးေကာ္မတီ (၄) နိုင္ငံေတာ္၏ စီးပြားေရး ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳး တိုးတက္ ရန္ စီးပြားေရး မူ၀ါဒ ျပုျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲေရး (၅) အခြန္အေကာက္မ်ား အေျခ အေန (၆) မူ၀ါဒ ဆိုင္ရာ အၾကံျပုခ်က္ (၇) နိဂံုး (၈)ေမး ခြန္း မ်ား ျပန္လည္ေျဖၾကားျခင္း... နိုင္ငံေတာ္၏ စီးပြားေရး ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈ တြင္ စက္မႈလက္မႈက႑သည္ လြန္စြာ အေရးပါေနသည့္ အတြက္ေအာက္ပါ က႑မ်ားအား အထူးအေလး ထားေဆာင္ရြက္ရန္ လိုအပ္ေၾကာင္းေတြ့ရိွ ရပါသည္- (၁) လယ္ယာ၊ သားငါး ထြက္ပစၥည္း မ်ားျပုျပင္ ထုတ္လုပ္မႈ (Processing Industry) (၂)စက္မႈကုန္ပစၥည္း ထုတ္လုပ္မႈ (Manufacturing Industry) (၃)သတၱဳတြင္းထြက္ ပစၥည္းမ်ား ထုတ္လုပ္မႈ (Mining Industry) (၄) လူသံုးကုန္ပစၥည္း မ်ား ထုတ္လုပ္မႈ (Consumer Goods Industry) (၅)ေဆာက္လုပ္ေရး လုပ္ငန္း (Construction Industry) (၆)၀န္ေဆာင္မႈ လုပ္ငန္း (Services Industries –Logistics & Transport) (၇) သတင္းနွင့္ နည္းပညာ လုပ္ငန္း (IT Industry)... စက္မႈက႑ဟုဆို ရာတြင္ ထုတ္လုပ္မႈကို သာေဆာင္ရြက္သည့္ စက္မႈလုပ္ငန္းမ်ား သာမက ထုတ္လုပ္မႈေဆာင္ရြက္သည့္ စက္မႈလုပ္ငန္းမ်ား အား၀န္ေဆာင္ မႈျဖင့္ ပံ့ပိုးသည့္ စက္မႈလုပ္ငန္းမ်ား အားလံုး ပါ၀င္လ်က္ စက္မႈက႑ ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရး ကိုေဆာင္ရြက္ လ်က္ရိွ ပါသည္။  နိုင္ငံပိုင္ ၀န္ၾကီးဌာနမ်ား အေနျဖင့္ အမွတ္(၁) စက္မႈ ၀န္ၾကီးဌာန၊ အမွတ္(၂) စက္မႈ၀န္ၾကီးဌာန တို့သည္ ထုတ္လုပ္မႈအပိုင္း ကိုေဆာင္ရြက္ လ်က္ရိွျပီး၊  ေဆာက္လုပ္ေရး ၀န္ၾကီးဌာန၊ စြမ္းအင္၀န္ၾကီးဌာန၊ ရထားပို့ေဆာင္ေရး ၀န္ၾကီးဌာန၊ သိပၸံနွင့္ နည္းပညာ ၀န္ၾကီးဌာန၊ ဆက္သြယ္ေရး၊ စာတိုက္နွင့္ေၾကးနန္း ၀န္ၾကီးဌာန၊ အမွတ္ (၁) လွ်ပ္စစ္စြမ္းအား ၀န္ၾကီးဌာန၊ အမွတ္ (၂) လွ်ပ္စစ္စြမ္းအား ၀န္ၾကီးဌာန တို့သည္ စက္မႈလုပ္ငန္းမ်ား ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရး အတြက္ အေထာက္အကူျပု သည့္ စြမ္းအင္၊ လွ်ပ္စစ္၊ လမ္းတံတား ဆက္သြယ္ေရးဆိုင္ရာ Infrastructure ပိုင္း တိုးတက္ေရး အတြက္ တာ၀န္ယူလ်က္ စီမံကိန္းမ်ားျဖင့္ အသီးသီး အေကာင္ အထည္ေဖာ္ေဆာင္ရြက္ လ်က္ ရိွပါသည္။ Author/creator:   U Soe Thein ဦးစိုးသိန္း Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Government of the Union of Myanmar: Industrial Development Committee Format/size:   pdf (757.14K) Date of entry/update:   27 December 2011 Title:   GDP Growth Rates: Myammar and Selected Asian Countries Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   "During the fifty years after independence and before onset of the new millennium, there have been 5 instances of double digit GDP growth – twice in the nineteen-fifties (1950 and 1956) and three times in the nineteen-sixties (1962, 1964 and 1967). In all these instances, a double digit growth year, has always been either immediately preceded by, or is followed by, a negative growth year. For instance, real growth of 12.9% in fiscal 1950 was preceded by a -5% real GDP decline in fiscal 1949 and a further -10% fall in fiscal 1948. Similarly, 13% growth in fiscal 1962 was followed by a decline of -6.1% in fiscal 1963. For three decades preceding fiscal 1999/00, there has never been a single event of double digit real GDP growth..." Author/creator:   U Myint Language:   English Source/publisher:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar, Naypyitaw, 19 – 21 August, 2011 Format/size:   pdf (79K) Date of entry/update:   06 October 2011 Title:   IMF, U.S. Dollar, and Global Financial Crisis Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   "Aims off present workshop 1. To distinguish between a disease and its symptoms. 2. The idea that the global crisis represents a warning that something is very wrong with the present world financial system. 3. If so, what is basically wrong with the present system? 4. How can this wrong be corrected? 5. How does all this affect poor countries?..." The presentation looks at the international financial system and and the "Bottom Billion" (BB) Author/creator:   U Myint Language:   English Source/publisher:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar, Naypyitaw, 19 – 21 August, 2011 Format/size:   pdf (329K) Date of entry/update:   17 October 2011 Title:   Improving the communications sector as a support for the development of the state economy Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ျပည္ေထာင္စုသမၼတ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ အစိုးရ၊ ဆက္သြယ္ေရး၊ စာတိုက္ႏွင့္ ေၾကးနန္း၀န္ႀကီးဌာန... ဆက္သြယ္မႈက႑အား ပိုမိုတိုးတက္ေအာင္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ေစျခင္းျဖင့္ ႏုိင္ငံေတာ္၏ စီးပြားေရး ဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈကို အဓိက အေထာက္အကူျပဳေစသည္။ (၂၀၁၁ ခုႏွစ္၊ ၾသဂုတ္လ) (စာတမ္းျပဳစုသူ- ဦးေက်ာ္စိုး- ေက်ာင္းအုပ္ႀကီး ေၾကးနန္းဆက္သြယ္ေရးႏွင့္ စာတိုက္သင္တန္းေက်ာင္း - ျမန္မာ့ဆက္သြယ္ေရးလုပ္ငန္း) ... ဆက္သြယ္ေရး က႑ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲမႈမ်ား ... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ ဆက္သြယ္ေရးက႑... ေလ့လာေတြ႔ရွိခ်က္မ်ား... Author/creator:   U Kyaw Soe ဦးေက်ာ္စိုး Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Ministry of Post and Telecommunication: Telecommunication and Post Training School Format/size:   pdf (831.55 K) Date of entry/update:   27 December 2011 Title:   Investment and Trade Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ စီးပြားေရး ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲရာတြင အေရးပါသည့္ ရင္းႏွီးျမႇဳပ္ႏွံမႈႏွင့္ ကုန္သြယ္မႈ က႑ ... ထုတ္ကုန္ပစၥည္းမ်ားႏွင့္ ထုတ္ကုန္ေစ်းကြက္... တရားမ၀င္ကုန္သြယ္ေရးလမ္ေၾကာင္း... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ ႏိုင္ငံျခားရင္းႏွီးျမွဳပ္ႏွံမႈက႑ ... ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲရန္လိုအပ္ေသာ အခ်က္မ်ား... Author/creator:   U Set Aung ဦးဆက္ေအာင္ [B.Sc,MBA,M.Sc Banking & Finance(Scotland), M.Sc Investment Management(London), International Consultant Vice Principle & Director, Asia Language & Business Academy(Director), AWRI-Research Institut Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar, Naypyitaw, 19 – 21 August, 2011 Format/size:   pdf (290K) Date of entry/update:   24 October 2011 Title:   Investment Opportunities Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   စီးပြားေရး ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈအတြက္ ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲမႈဆုိင္ရာ အမ်ဳိးသားအဆင့္ အလုပ္ရံု ေဆြးေႏြးပြဲ... ရင္းႏွီးျမႇဳပ္ႏွံမႈ အခြင့္အလမ္းမ်ား... Author/creator:   Daw Mya Thuza ေဒၚျမသူဇာ Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development: Format/size:   pdf (215K) Date of entry/update:   24 October 2011 Title:   Investment Opportunities (presentation) Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ရင္းနွီးျမွုပ္နွံမွုအခြင့္အလမ္းမ်ား ... ၂၀၁၁ ခုနွစ္၊ ျသဂုတ္လ ... နိုင္ငံေတာ္ စီးပြားေရး ဖြံ့ျဖိုးတိုးတက္မွု တြင္ ရင္းနွီးျမွုပ္နွံမွု ၏ အေရးပါပုံ... ရင္းနွီးျမွုပ္နွံမွု တိုးတက္ေရး အတြက္ ေဆာင္ရြက္မွုမ်ား... ျမန္မာ အထူး စီးပြားေရးဇုန္ ဥပေဒ... ရင္းနွီးျမွုပ္နွံသူ၏ အထူးအခြင့္အေရးမ်ား ... အခြန္ဆိုင္ရာ ကင္းလြတ္ခြင့္နွင့္ သက္သာခြင့္မ်ား... ေျမအသုံးခ်နိုင္မွု... ခြင့္ျပုမိန့္ေလ်ွာက္ ထားရာ တြင္ ေဆာင္ရြက္ရမည့္ အစီအစဥ္မ်ား... Author/creator:   Daw Mya Thu Zar (ေဒၚျမသူဇာ) Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development Format/size:   pdf (484K) Date of entry/update:   01 January 2012 Title:   Job and Employment Opportunities Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   Overview of the labour aspects of the economy Author/creator:   U Chit Sein Language:   English Source/publisher:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar, Naypyitaw, 19–21 August, 2011 Format/size:   pdf (757K) Date of entry/update:   17 October 2011 Title:   Job Security and Employment Opportunity Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   အလုပ္အကိုင္ရရွိမႈႏွင့္ အခြင့္အလမ္း ရပိုင္ခြင့္မ်ား... အလုပ္သမားေရးရာ စာရင္းအင္းမ်ားကို ေလ့လာျခင္း၊... အလုပ္အကိုင္ႏွင့္ဆက္စပ္ ၍ ဆင္းရဲမႈ ေလ်ာ့ခ်ျခင္း၊... ျပည္တြင္း၊ ျပည္ပအလုပ္အကိုင္ ရရွိေရးႏွင့္ အခြင့္အလမ္းမ်ား တိုးတက္ေကာင္း မြန္ ေရး ေဆာင္ရြက္ေပးျခင္း၊...ႏိုင္ငံအဆင့္ ကၽြမ္းက်င္မႈ “စံ” သတ္မွတ္ျပဌာန္း၍ ကၽြမ္းက်င္ လုပ္သားမ်ား ေမြး ထုတ္ ေပး ရန္ ေဆာင္ ရြက္ျခင္း၊... Author/creator:   U Chit Sein ဦးခ်စ္စိန္ Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar: Ministry of Labour Format/size:   pdf (118K) Date of entry/update:   20 October 2011 Title:   Myanmar and Political Economy of Development Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   pdf version of a powerpoint presentation Author/creator:   Tin Maung Maung Than Language:   English Source/publisher:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar, Naypyitaw, 19 – 21 August, 2011 Format/size:   pdf (149K) Date of entry/update:   03 January 2012 Title:   Myanmar Investment Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   စီးပြားေရး ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈအတြက္ ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲမႈဆိုင္ရာ အမ်ဳိးသားအဆင့္ အလုပ္ရံုေဆြးေႏြးပြဲ (ေနျပည္ေတာ္) - ရင္းႏွီးျမႇပ္ႏွံမႈ အခြင့္အလန္းမ်ား ၂၀၁၁ ခုႏွစ္ ၾသဂုတ္လ (၂၀) Author/creator:   Daw Mya Thu Zar (ေဒၚျမသူဇာ) Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development: Directorate of Investment and Company Administration Format/size:   pdf (79K) Date of entry/update:   25 December 2011 Title:   Myanmar Kyat Exchange Rate Issue (English) Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   "1. There has been a consistent and sharp appreciation of the kyat dollar exchange rate for the past few months.3 This has caused problems. The extent of the kyat exchange rate appreciation and its impact on costs and returns in some key sectors of the Myanmar economy are presented in a paper prepared by U Set Aung4, a member of the President's Economic Advisory Team. These matters are therefore not discussed here. Instead, three issues have been taken up in this paper. They are: 2. First, to explain why a currency’s exchange rate can rapidly appreciate and how this causes problems; 3. Second, to suggest measures that are to be undertaken immediately to deal with the kyat exchange rate appreciation problem presently facing Myanmar, in order to restore business and investor confidence in the exchange rate, and to prevent the situation from getting out of hand; and 4. Third, the current kyat exchange rate problem presents a good opportunity to initiate the process of reform of the exchange rate regime in Myanmar. The objective of the reform is to establish a foreign exchange market in Myanmar that meets international standards and where the exchange rate is relatively stable, is market-determined, and becomes a useful tool of macroeconomic management for the Central Bank of Myanmar. A suggestion on how to start this reform process is briefly presented in this paper..." Author/creator:   U Myint Language:   English Source/publisher:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar, Naypyitaw, 19–21 August, 2011 via Mizzima.com Format/size:   pdf (133K) Date of entry/update:   17 October 2011 Title:   Myanmar Railway System Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ျမန္မာ့မီးရထား လက္ရွိအေျခအေနႏွင့္ ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲမႈဆိုင္ရာ ဆန္းစစ္သံုးသပ္ခ်က္ (presentation) Author/creator:   U Kyi Aye ဦးၾကည္ေအး Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar: Ministry Of Rail Transportation Format/size:   pdf (109K) Date of entry/update:   25 December 2011 Title:   Myanmar Railway System (Annex - list of present and future railways) Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   အေကာင္အထည္ေဖာ္ ေဖာက္လုပ္ဆဲရထားလမ္းသစ္ စီမံကိန္းမ်ား ၏ ေဖာက္ လုပ္ရမည့္ ခရီးမိုင္၊ေဖာက္လုပ္ဖြင့္ လွစ္ျပီးခရီးမိုင္၊ ေဖာက္လုပ္ဆဲ ခရီးမိုင္စာရင္း... ျမန္မာ့မီးရထား လူစီးတြဲ အမ်ိုးအစားမ်ားနွင့္ သက္တမ္း အေျချပ ဇယား... ျမန္မာ့မီးရထား ကုန္တြဲ အမ်ိုးအစား မ်ားနွင့္ သက္တမ္း အေျချပ ဇယား... ကြန္ကရိ ဇလီဖား ထုတ္လုပ္မွု စက္ရုံမ်ား...နွစ္အလိုက္ ရထား‌ေျပးဆြဲမွုအေျခအေန... Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar: Ministry Of Rail Transportation Format/size:   Excel (175K) Date of entry/update:   01 January 2012 Title:   Myanmar Railway Thesis about Present Situation & Reformation Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ျမန္မာ့မီးရထား လက္ရွိအ‌ေျခအေန နွင့္ ျပုျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲမွုဆိုင္ရာ ဆန္းစစ္ သုံးသပ္ခ်က္... ျမန္မာ့မီးရထား၏ အဓိကတာ၀န္... ျမန္မာ့မီးရထား၏ ရည္မွန္းခ်က္ တာ၀န္... ျမန္မာ့မီးရထား၏ လက္ရွိပိုင္ဆိုင္မွုမ်ား ... ဝန္ေဆာင္မွုေပးျခင္းနွင့္ ဝင္ငြေရွာဖြေျခင္း ... ဝင္ငြေနွင့္ အသုံးစရိတ္အေျခအေန ... ရထားလုပ္ငန္းကုန္က်စရိတ္ ... ကုန္က်စရိတ္ေလွ်ာ့ ခ်ေရးနွင့္ စြမ္းေဆာင္ရည္ျမင့္မားေရး... စိန္ေခၚမွုမ်ား ... Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar: Ministry Of Rail Transportation Format/size:   pdf (183.58K) Date of entry/update:   30 December 2011 Title:   Myanmar: Pattern of Household Consumption Expenditure Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar Myanmar International Convention Center (MICC) Naypyitaw, 19 – 21 August, 2011....."...The household income and expenditure survey of 1997 further reveals that average incomes of families in many parts of Myanmar are inadequate to meet household consumption expenditures.9 Table (2) shows that except in Yangon and Ayeyarwady divisions, estimated monthly incomes of average households were insufficient to cover consumption costs in the remaining 12 states and divisions. The situation appears particularly acute in Kayah, Shan, Magway, Rakhine, and Sagaing state/divisions where estimated incomes accounted for between 42% to 57% of the respective expenditures. For the country as a whole the income of the average family can only meet 73% of its consumption expenditure..." Author/creator:   U Myint Language:   English Source/publisher:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar, Naypyitaw, 19 – 21 August, 2011 Format/size:   pdf (48K) Date of entry/update:   06 October 2011 Title:   Performance for Capital Market Development (ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံတြင္ အရင္းအႏွီးေစ်းကြက္ ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရး ေဆာင္ရြက္မႈမ်ား) Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   စီးပြားေရး စနစ္အတြင္း ထုတ္လုပ္ျခင္း၊ စားသံုးျခင္း၊ စုေဆာင္းျခင္း ႏွင့္ ရင္းႏွီးျမႇဳပ္ႏွံျခင္း စသည့္ စီးပြားေရး လုပ္ေဆာင္ခ်က္မ်ားရွိရာ ေငြေရးေၾကးေရး အဖြဲ႔အစည္းမ်ားသည္ ေငြပိုေငြလွ်ံ ရွိသူမ်ားႏွင့္ လုပ္ငန္းအတြက္ အရင္းအႏွီးလိုအပ္သူမ်ားအၾကား္ ေပါင္းစပ္ညႇိႏိႈင္းေပးေသာ ၾကားခံ အဖြဲ႔အစည္းမ်ားျဖစ္ၾကပါသည္။ စုေဆာင္းမႈ က႑မွ ေငြပိုေငြလွ်ံမ်ားကို ရယူစုစည္းၿပီး ... ေငြေရးေၾကးေရးေစ်းကြက္ (Financial Market) ေငြေရးေၾကးေရး ေစ်းကြက္တြင္ ေငြေၾကးေစ်းကြက္ (Money Market) ႏွင့္ အရင္းအႏွီးေစ်းကြက္ (Capital Market) ဟူ၍ (၂)ပိုင္းပါ၀င္ပါသည္။ Author/creator:   U Nay Aye [Deputy Governor-Central bank of Myanmar] ဦးေနေအး Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Central bank of Myanmar(Nay Pyi Taw) Format/size:   pdf (102K) Date of entry/update:   20 October 2011 Title:   Population and Labour Force Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ႏုိင္ငံလူဦးေရႏွင့္ လုပ္သားအင္အား ခန္႔မွန္းမႈ ... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ လူဦးေရ သမိုင္း ... လူဦးေရေျပာင္းလဲမႈ ျဖစ္စဥ္ ... လူဦးေရ တြင္ လုပ္သားအင္အားပါ၀င္မႈ အခ်ိဳးအစား... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ လုပ္သားအင္အားကို စစ္တမ္းမ်ားအေပၚတြင္ အေျခခံ၍ ခန္႔မွန္ျခင္း... အေရွ႔ေတာင္အာရွ ႏိုင္ငံမ်ားႏွင့္ ႏိႈင္းယွဥ္ေလ့လာခ်က္... Author/creator:   U Nyi Nyi ဦးညီညီ Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   Immigration and Manpower Department ? Format/size:   pdf (572K) Date of entry/update:   20 October 2011 Title:   Production and Incomming Statistics Reforms Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   တုိုင္းျပည္၏ ထုတ္လုပ္မႈ စြမ္းအားႏွင့္ တိုင္းျပည္၀င္ေငြဆိုင္ရာ စာရင္းဇယားမ်ားအတြက္ ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲရန္လိုအပ္ခ်က္မ်ား (စာတမ္းရွင္- ေဒၚ၀င္းျမင့္- ဒုတိယညႊန္ၾကားေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္ စီမံကန္းေရးဆြဲေရး ဦးစီးဌာန) ... အမ်ဳိးသားစီမံကိန္းႏွင့္ စီးပြားေရး ဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈ ၀န္ႀကီးဌာန ၏ေဆာင္ရြက္ ခ်က္မ်ား... ရင္းႏွီးျမႇဳပ္ႏွံမႈဆိုင္ရာ ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲမႈမ်ား... တမ်ဳိးသားလံုးဆိုင္ရာ စာရင္းအင္းမ်ား... SNA စနစ္မ်ား အဆင့္ ဆင့္ေျပာင္း လဲလာမႈ ... GDP တြက္ခ်က္မႈနည္းလမ္းမ်ား ... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံတြင္ GDP တြက္ခ်က္မႈ... လက္ရွိတြက္ခ်က္မႈ စနစ္၏ အားနည္းခ်က္မ်ား... ေျပာင္းလဲေဆာင္ရြက္ရန္လိုအပ္ခ်က္မ်ား... ႀကံဳေတြ႔ရမည့္ အခက္အခဲမ်ား ... Author/creator:   Daw Win Myint ေဒၚ၀င္းျမင့္ Language:   Burmese (ျမန္မာဘာသာ) Source/publisher:   Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development: Planning Department Format/size:   pdf (97K) Date of entry/update:   20 October 2011 Title:   Reducing Poverty in Myanmar: the Way Forward Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   "To reduce poverty in Myanmar, it may be useful to give consideration to the following five issues: First, in order to go forward with poverty reduction, or more generally to go anywhere, we must know where we are at present. Hence, to improve the lot of the poor people in Myanmar we should start by having a clearer idea of who these poor people are, to find out what is their situation at present, and to listen to them about their needs and desires and what they feel should be done to help reduce their state of poverty. In addition, to get a better understanding of the situation of the poor people and to improve their well-being we must draw upon the vast experience of many of our compatriots in civil society organizations and NGOs, government officials, business people, scholars, academics and foreign experts and organizations that have done a lot of work related to poverty alleviation in the country, especially in rural and border areas and also with respect to meeting special needs of disadvantaged ethnic nationalities and other distressed communities in our society. Second, after finding out where we are at present and where we want to go, the next step will be to think of how to get there..." ....The following paper was presented to the ‘Forum on Poverty’ sponsored by the Burmese government in Naypyitaw on May 20-21, 2011... Author/creator:   Dr. U Myint Language:   English Source/publisher:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar, Naypyitaw, 19–21 August, 2011 via Mizzima Format/size:   pdf (173K) Alternate URLs:   http://mizzima.com/edop/commentary/5314-poverty-in-burma-economist-u-myint.html Date of entry/update:   02 June 2011 Title:   Reforming Government-Business Relations in Myanmar Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   Market-oriented approach...Governed Market or Statist Approach...Governed Interdependence...Conclusion Author/creator:   Kyaw Yin Hlaing Language:   English Source/publisher:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar, Naypyitaw, 19 – 21 August, 2011 Format/size:   pdf (21.09K) Date of entry/update:   25 December 2011 Title:   Revenue and Tax Policy in Myanmar Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ၏ အခြန္အရပ္ ရပ္ေကာက္ခံရရွိ မႈႏွင့္ အခြန္ဆိုင္ရာ စီမံခန္႔ခဲြမႈ အေျခအေနကို ေလ့လာတင္ျပျခင္း (ျပည္တြင္းအခြန္မ်ားဦးစီးဌာန) ... မ်က္ေမွာက္ေခတ္ အခြန္အေကာက္စနစ္ အေျခခံမူမ်ား... ဘ႑ာေရးမူဝါဒ(Fiscal Policy) ... အခြန္မူဝါဒ( Tax Policy) ... ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ၏အခြန္အေကာက္ဖဲြ႕စည္းပံု ( Tax Structure) ... အခြန္အရပ္ရပ္ေကာက္ခံရရွိမႈ အေျခအေန... ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္၏အခြန္ရေငြႏွင့္ ဂ်ီဒီပီအခ်ဳိး... အခြန္ရေငြႏွင့္ဂ်ီဒီပီအခ်ဳိး နိမ့္က်ရသည့္ အေၾကာင္းအရင္းမ်ား... အျပည္ျပည္ဆိုင္ရာေငြေၾကးရန္ပံုေငြအဖဲြ႕ (IMF) ၏ အၾကံျပဳတင္ျပခ်က္... ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ၏ အခြန္ေကာက္ခံရရွိမႈအေပၚ သံုးသပ္ျခင္း... Author/creator:   Aung Moe Kyi ေအာင္မိုးၾကည္ Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   [Myanmar] Ministry of Finance and Revenue: Internal Revenue Department Format/size:   pdf (277K) Date of entry/update:   24 October 2011 Title:   Setting up a favourable Macro economic policy framework Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   Miicro and Macro Economic Policy: 1. Economic matters dealing with a household, a business firm, or a village fall under microeconomics. 2. Economic matters dealing with the whole economy, such as the total output of a country, the national income, consumption, saving, investment, national budget, balance of payments, labour force, employment, etc.; fall under macro-economics.... 1. Generally speaking, microeconomics look at trees. 2. Macroeconomics look at forest. 3. Sometimes, by paying too much attention to trees, we do not see the forest. 4. It can also happen, by concentrating too much on forest, we do not see the trees. 5. Both trees and forest are important. 6. At this workshop we look at the forest, keeping in mind trees are just as important. Because without trees there won't be any forest. Author/creator:   U Myint Language:   English Source/publisher:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar, Naypyitaw, 19 – 21 August, 2011 Format/size:   pdf (380K) Date of entry/update:   17 October 2011 Title:   Social Welfare: ANNEX Social Welfare System/ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ လူမႈဖူလံုေရး စီမံကိန္း ႏွင့္ အနာဂါတ္ ေမွ်ာ္မွန္းခ်က္ Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံႏွင့္ လူမႈ ဖူလံုေရး စီမံကိန္း... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ လူမႈ ဖူလံုေရး စီမံကိန္း၏မ်က္ေမွာက္ အေျခအေန... အျခားႏိုင္ငံမ်ား၏ လူမႈဖူလံုေရး အက်ဳိးခံစားခြင့္မ်ားႏွင့္ ႏႈိင္းယွဥ္ေလ့လာျခင္း... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ လူမႈ ဖူလံုေရး စီမံကိန္း၏ အနာဂါတ္ ေမွ်ာမွန္းခ်က္... Author/creator:   U Yu Lwin Aung ဦးယုလြင္ေအာင္ Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   MINISTRY OF SOCIAL WELFARE, RELIEF AND RESETTLEMENT: DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE Format/size:   pdf (360K) Date of entry/update:   20 October 2011 Title:   Speech by President U Thein Sein Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္၏ စီးပြားေရး ဖြ႔ံၿဖိဳးမႈအတြက္ ျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲေရးဆိုင္ရာ အမ်ဳိးသားအဆင့္ အလုပ္ရံုေဆြးေႏြးပြဲတြင္ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ သမၼတ ေျပာၾကားသည့္ အဖြင့္မိန္႔ခြန္း (၁၉-၈- ၂၀၁၁)(19.08. 2011) Author/creator:   U Thein Sein ဦးသိန္းစိန္ Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   National Workshop on Reforms for Economic Development of Myanmar, Naypyitaw, 19–21 August, 2011 Format/size:   pdf (1.1MB) Date of entry/update:   24 October 2011 Title:   To Implement the Fiscal Policy of the State/ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္မွ ခ်မွတ္ထားေသာ ဘ႑ာေရး မူ၀ါဒမ်ားအား အေကာင္အထည္ေဖၚျခင္း Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ျပည္ေထာင္စု သမၼတ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံေတာ္ ဘ႑ာေရးႏွင့္ အခြန္၀န္ႀကီးဌာန... ရသံုးမွန္ေျခ ေငြစာရင္း ဦးစီးဌာန... ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္မွ ခ်မွတ္ထားေသာ ဘ႑ာေရး မူ၀ါဒမ်ားအား အေကာင္အထည္ေဖၚ ေဆာင္ရြက္မႈ အေျခအေနအားသံုးသပ္တင္ျပျခင္း.... ၂၀၁၁ ခုႏွစ္၊ ၾသဂုတ္လ ၃ ရက္... Author/creator:   Dr Linn Aung ေဒါက္တာ လင္းေအာင္ Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   [Myanmar] Ministry of Finance and Revenue: Budget Department Format/size:   pdf (734K) Date of entry/update:   20 October 2011 Title:   Trade Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ျမန္မာ့ကုန္သြယ္ေရးႏွင့္ ပို႔ကုန္သြင္းကုန္ ခ်ိန္ဆက္ မႈ... ျမန္မာ့ကုန္သြယ္မႈ သမိုင္း အက်ဥ္း... ပို႔ကုန္ တင္ပို႔မႈပံုံသ႑ာန္ ေျပာင္းလဲမႈ... ပို႔ကုန္ေစ်း ကြက္ေျပာင္းလဲမႈ အေျခအေန... ကုန္ဖလွယ္မႈ အခ်ိးေျပာင္းလဲမႈ အေျခအေန... ပို႔ကုန္သြင္းကုန္ ခ်ိန္ဆက္မႈ (Balance of Trade) ... လက္ရွိျမန္မာ ႏိုင္ငံ၏ ကုန္သြယ္မႈ အေျခ အေန (၂၀၀၅ ခုႏွစ္မွ ၂၀၁၁ ခုႏွစ္ ထိ)... အိမ္နီးခ်င္းႏိုင္ငံမ်ားႏွင့္ ကုန္သြယ္မႈအေျခအေန... ကုန္သြယ္ မႈျမႇင့္ တင္ေရး အစီအစဥ္မ်ား... Author/creator:   ေဒါက္တာထိန္လင္း Dr. Htein Lynn, [B.Com.(Hons), M.Com., Ph.D, Deputy Director, Directorate of Trade,] Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   MINISTRY OF COMMERCE Format/size:   pdf (1MB) Date of entry/update:   20 October 2011 Title:   Trade Policy / ကုန္သြယ္ေရးမူ၀ါဒ Date of publication:   21 August 2011 Description/subject:   ကုန္သြယ္မႈမူဝါဒမ်ားႏွင့္ ဖြံ႔ျဖိးမႈ ... စီးပြားေရးဖြံ႔ျဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈတြင္ ကုန္သြယ္မႈ၏ အေရးပါပံု... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ၏ ကုန္သြယ္မႈမူဝါဒမ်ားႏွင့္ စီးပြားေရး ဖြံ႔ျဖိဳးတိုးတက္မႈ သမိုင္း... အာရွႏိုင္ငံအခ်ိဳ႔၏ ကုန္သြယ္မႈ မူဝါဒမ်ားကို ေလ့လာျခင္း... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံတြင္ လက္ရွိ က်င့္သံုံးေနသည့္ ကုန္သြယ္ေရး မူဝါဒ... Author/creator:   U Maung Aung ဦးေမာင္ေအာင္ Language:   Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ Source/publisher:   MINISTRY OF COMMERCE/ Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development / BIMSTEC-Japan Cooperation in Energy Sector: Myanmar Perspective Format/size:   pdf (553K) Date of entry/update:   20 October 2011 Studies on the Burmese economy by individual Burmese economists Individual Documents Title:   Myanmar’s new political-economic contours Date of publication:   02 July 2012 Description/subject:   "...The realities that will define Myanmar’s political economy in the medium-term future seem to be coming into focus. For foreign firms and governments and international organizations that take Southeast Asia seriously, whose understanding of the region transcends the level that one associates with, say, the leadership of American chambers of commerce in Southeast Asian capitals or the pampered, parochial globalists-in-their-own-minds who staff the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, this is good news. ... The high Cold War in Southeast Asia is long over. But the country is beginning to present what look like familiar, even generic, contours of post-Cold War Southeast Asian political economies. It is worth tracing some eight of these contours..." Author/creator:   Myaungmya Aung Myint Myat (plus comments) Language:   English Source/publisher:   "New Mandala" Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   04 July 2012 Title:   Resumption of Official Development Assistance (ODA): Views from Myanmar Perspective - Statement by U Myint Date of publication:   01 March 2012 Description/subject:   "...the resumption of ODA flows, even if they were to come in substantial amounts, might not by themselves, help to improve the welfare of the ordinary people of Myanmar – particularly welfare of the large majority of poor people at the bottom of the income scale..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   WORKSHOP ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Traders Hotel, Yangon Format/size:   pdf (116K) Date of entry/update:   18 March 2012 Title:   Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) Workshop Papers Date of publication:   17 September 2011 Description/subject:   A number of papers in English and Burmese on the Irrawaddy hydro projects. In a day or so there will be a neater and lighter version, with some details of the Burmese and English contents အမွတ္ (၁) လွ်ပ္စစ္စြမ္းအား၀န္ႀကီးဌာန-Minister for Electric Power No (1)... ပညာရပ္ဆိုင္ရာ အလုပ္ရံုေဆြးေႏြးပြဲ (၃/ ၂၀၁၁) ... ၂၀၁၁ ခုႏွစ္ စက္တင္ဘာလ (၁၇) ရက္ ... ဧရာ၀တီျမစ္၀ွမ္း ေရအားလွ်ပ္စစ္ စီမံကိန္း မ်ားေၾကာင့္ ဧရာ၀တီျမစ္ႏွင့္ သဘာ၀ပတ္၀န္းက်င္ အေပၚ သက္ေရာက္မႈ အလုပ္ရံုေဆြးေႏြးပြဲ... ၃/ ၂၀၁၁ အလုပ္ရံု ေဆြးေႏြးပြဲ ဖြင့္လွစ္ေၾကာင္း ေၾကျငာျခင္း... အမွတ္(၁) လွ်ပ္စစ္စြမ္းအား၀န္ႀကီးဌာန၊ ျပည္ေထာင္စု၀န္ႀကီးမွ အဖြင့္ အမွာစကား ေျပာၾကားျခင္း... BANCA ဥကၠ႒ ေဒါက္တာထင္လွ မွ ေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း... CPIYN President Mr. Li Guanghua မွ ေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း ... ေရအားလွ်ပ္စစ္စီမံေရး ဦးစီးဌာန၊ ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမွဴးခ်ဳပ္၊ ဦးႀကီးစိုးမွ ေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း... ေကာင္းေက်ာ္ေစ ကုမၸဏီမွ Chairman/ CEO ဦးထြန္းႏိုင္ေအာင္မွ ေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း... ပတ္၀န္းက်င္ထိန္းသိမ္းေရးႏွင့္ သစ္ေတာ၀န္ႀကီးဌာန ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမွဴး၊ ဦးလွေမာင္သိန္မွ ေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း ... ပို႔ေဆာင္ေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာန၊ ညႊန္ၾကားေရးမွဴး ဦးကိုကိုမွ ေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း ... ပတ္၀န္းက်င္ထိမ္းသိမ္းေရးႏွင့္ သစ္ေတာေရးရာ ၀န္ႀကီးဌာန၊ ျပည္ေထာင္စု ၀န္ႀကီးမွ အႀကံျပဳေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း... ပိုေဆာင္ေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာန၊ ျပည္ေထာင္စု၀န္ႀကီး မွ အႀကံျပဳ ေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း... သတၱဳတြင္း၀န္ႀကီးဌာန၊ ျပည္ေထာင္စု၀န္ႀကီးမွ အႀကံျပဳေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း... လယ္ယာစိုက္ပ်ဳိးေရးႏွင့္ ဆည္ေျမာင္း၀န္ႀကီးဌာန ျပည္ေထာင္စု ဒုတိယ၀န္ႀကီးမွ အႀကံျပဳေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း... အမွတ္(၂) လွ်ပ္စစ္ စြမ္းအား၀န္ႀကီးဌာန၊ ျပည္ေထာင္စု ဒုတိယ၀န္ႀကီးမွ အႀကံျပဳေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း... ပညာရွင္မ်ားႏွင့္ လႊတ္ေတာ္ကိုယ္စားလွယ္မ်ားမွ အႀကံျပဳေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း... စာနယ္ဇင္းမ်ားမွ ေမးျမန္းျခင္းႏွင့္ေျဖၾကားျခင္း... ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံရင္းႏွီးျမႇပ္ႏွံမွဳေကာ္မရွင္၊ ဥကၠ႒မွ အႀကံျပဳေဆြးေႏြးျခင္း... အမွတ္(၁) လွ်ပ္စစ္စြမ္းအား၀န္ႀကီးဌာန၊ ျပည္ေထာင္စု၀န္ႀကီး မွ နိဂံုးခ်ဳပ္အမွာစကားေျပာၾကားျခင္း ... Language:   Burmese (ျမန္မာဘာသာ), English Source/publisher:   Government of the Union of Myanmar: Ministry for Electric Power No (1); အမွတ္ (၁) လွ်ပ္စစ္စြမ္းအား၀န္ႀကီးဌာန Format/size:   pdf (11MB) Date of entry/update:   16 October 2011 Title:   A Game of Cat and Mouse Date of publication:   February 2010 Description/subject:   Advising Burma’s generals on how to run the country’s economy is a risky business... "During a rare economic forum held [in Rangoon?] in cooperation with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in December, U Myint, a retired economics professor at the Rangoon Institute of Economics, unveiled a few economic reform proposals. Two Rangoon farmers chat in their feld after harvesting rice. About half of Burma’s GDP comes from agriculture. (Photo: AFP) In a follow-up to this gathering, which was attended by former World Bank chief economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, U Myint, who has also served as an economic adviser to ESCAP, held a press briefing at the Myanmar Egress Capacity Development Center in Rangoon on Jan. 9. In a press statement, U Myint recalled that someone at the earlier conference expressed the view that the only people worth talking to in Burma are the generals, but the generals are poor listeners, so it was a waste of time talking to them because nothing useful will result..." Author/creator:   Htet Aung Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 18, No. 2 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   28 February 2010 Title:   Myanmar Economy A Comparative View Date of publication:   December 2009 Description/subject:   Revised and updated version of a paper presented to the Myanmar/ Burma Studies Conference, Singapore, 13–15 July 2006..... Contents: Introduction... GDP Growth Rate... Structure of GDP... Per Capita GDP and the Question of Catching-Up... Pattern of Household Consumption Expenditure... Export Commodities... Inflation... The Exchange Rate... Rethinking Policy and Implications for Regional Integration... Concluding Remarks... Appendix... About the Author.....Introduction1 Building a modern developed nation A stated objective of Myanmar is to become a modern developed nation that will stand shoulder to shoulder – proud, dignified and tall – with the countries of the world. How far has Myanmar come in achieving this goal, viewed from an economic perspective?2 Where does it stand at present in relation to other nations, and especially those in the Asian region? This paper attempts to provide some thoughts along these lines by looking at Myanmar’s official data on: • Rate of growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) • GDP growth in relation to gross domestic investment (GDI) • Structure of GDP • Level of per capita GDP • Pattern of household consumption expenditure • Commodity composition of exports • Inflation rate • Exchange rate Author/creator:   U Myint Language:   English Source/publisher:   Institute for Security and Development Policy (Sweden) Format/size:   pdf (576K) Date of entry/update:   19 February 2010 Title:   Myanmar’s GDP growth and investment: lessons from a historical perspective Date of publication:   January 2008 Description/subject:   "According to official figures, Myanmar has achieved double-digit gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates every year for the six years from 2000 to 2005. These figures have proved controversial. A related and another contentious issue regarding Myanmar’s economic performance in the same period is that high real GDP growth rates have been achieved with comparatively low gross domestic investment (GDI) to GDP ratios. In order to gain a proper perspective on these issues, one approach is to use cross-sectional data for a particular period to obtain a comparative view of Myanmar’s performance vis-a-vis the performance of its neighbours in the same period. The comparative approach has been adopted frequently and has been useful in analysing developments in Myanmar’s economic and social situation through the years. Myanmar has, however, a rich tradition of data collection and analysis. National accounts data, for example, go as far back as 1948, when the country gained independence, and even beyond. In addition to cross-sectional analysis, therefore, the available time-series data could be used to review Myanmar’s recent economic performance, as reflected in official data of the country’s past experience. Such a brief review is attempted in this chapter with specific attention devoted to real GDP growth and GDI..." Author/creator:   U Myint Language:   English Source/publisher:   2007 Myanmar/Burma Update Conference via Australian National University Format/size:   pdf (168K) Alternate URLs:   http://epress.anu.edu.au/myanmar02/pdf_instructions.html http://epress.anu.edu.au/myanmar02/pdf/whole_book.pdf Date of entry/update:   30 December 2008 Title:   Burma Economic Review 2005-2006 Date of publication:   June 2007 Description/subject:   Executive Summary: The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military junta claimed a 12.2 % growth in the Burmese economy in 2006 but international sources say differently; they forecast a slim growth of 2 to 3 % rise. Production and exploration in the oil and gas sector is active, but the rest of economy remains weak. Agriculture suffers from poor productivity, with output below potential. Manufacturing is constrained by inadequate quantity and quality of inputs, due to problems of imports and power shortages. Weak Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth reflects poor prospects for consumption and investment. In October 2005, the SPDC increased eight folds the state-subsidized petrol prices. This prompted higher prices for basic commodities. Inflation returned to double digit rates. Monetary policy has not addressed the inflationary pressures. Interest rates remain unchanged since 2001, despite high inflation. But the SPDC increased the interest rates by two per cent points to 12 per cent on 16 April 2006. Real rates are likely to be negative. Prices for important commodities soared in the wake of junta’s decision to raise public-sector salaries in April 2006. Rice and fuel prices remain high. Official data do not reveal the full extent of inflation reaching 14.3 % in December 2005 and 11 % in early 2006. Based on the official data series, the Economist Intelligent Unit (EIU) estimates the annual inflation to average over 21 % in 2006.The true rate of inflation could be 50 %. Strong growth in both narrow money supply (M1) and quasi-money (comprising time, savings and foreign exchange deposits) contributed to a 26.8 % year-on-year expansion in broad money supply (M2) at the end of May 2006. The junta demands credit from the Central Bank, which it uses to fund its budget deficit. Total outstanding credit of the junta was 2.5 trillion kyat (nearly US$440 billion at the official exchange rate, or US$1.9 billion at the free-market exchange rate) by May 2006, an increase of 28 %. The state budget remained unbalanced with substantial deficits during much of the 1990s. Fiscal deficits are financed automatically by credit from the Central Bank, a source of domestic inflation and instability in the economy. The Junta's state expenditures are disproportionately allocated on items that deny sustainable development of the people or the nation. Defense, ceremonies and rituals, festivals, inspection tours, meetings and seminars, building physical infrastructure-roads, railways, bridges, dams, monuments, museums, shiny office complexes and fancy airports, represent wasteful consumption or constitute expensive capital outlays, undertaken without proper feasibility studies and environmental impact assessments, and unclear, uncertain and dubious returns on investment. Chronic state budget deficits contribute to rapid monetary growth and everspiraling inflation. In order to recover the budget deficit, the junta-increased taxes and collected money and forced people to labor for developmental projects such as construction of roads, dams, and bridges. The junta continues to control, command, and centralize Burma’s people and the economy. Exchange rate distortions favor a few at the expense of many. Fiscal deficit comes at the expense of social spending which has been reduced far below necessary levels. At the same time, financing the fiscal deficit through central bank credit is one underlying factor of persistent high inflation. The nation’s tax revenue remains buoyant, rising by 28.1 % year on year in nominal terms in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2005/06 (April-March). Total tax revenue reached 292 billion kyat during this period (around US$50 billion at the inflated official exchange rate, or US$225 million at free-market exchange rate). Although revenue is still rising, growth has slowed since 2004/05, when revenue expanded by 77 % year on year for the whole fiscal year. This in part reflects a correction after an increase in average import tariffs, imposed in mid-2004, brought a 424 % year-on-year surge in customs tax fell by 15.1 per cent year on year to 16.2 billion kyat. A clamp-down on corruption among customs officials in recent months may be part of an effort to boost revenue from customs tax. Other sources of tax revenue expanded in the first 11 months of 2005/06. Profit tax jumped by 49 per cent year on year, slightly ahead of commodities and services tax (which rose by 47 per cent) and income tax (11 per cent)1. 2 Total public-sector deficit reached 6 % of GDP for 2004/05. Heavy losses by the state-owned enterprises (SOE) typically accounted for over 60 % of the overall deficit. The SPDC’s fiscal position is also weighted down by high off-budget spending on the country's huge armed forces. The budget position is unlikely to have improved in 2005/06 and 2006/07 (the current fiscal year), owing to the junta's expansionary fiscal policy. The junta's decision to relocate many government offices to a huge new administrative complex at Naypyidaw, 320 km north of Rangoon, imposed heavy costs. In addition, in April 2006 the junta raised salaries for around 1 million civil servants and military officers by between 500 and 1,200 per cent. The black market is estimated to be as big if not bigger than the official economy. Published statistics on foreign trade are greatly understated because of the size of the black market and unofficial border trade. Burma's trade with Thailand, China, and India is rising. Though the Burmese government has good economic relations with its neighbors, better investment and business climates and an improved political situation are needed to promote foreign investment, exports, and tourism. No new foreign direct investment projects have been approved in recent months. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) approvals totaled a meager US$35.7 million for the first 11 months of 2005/06, down from US$158.3 million for the whole of 2004/05. It is possible that the data do not capture some small FDI flows, such as those by Thai and Chinese firms in small projects along the border with Burma. International tourist arrivals totaled 320,275 in 2005, up by 5 % year on year, according to data from the Central Statistical Organization (CSO). Although arrivals rose, the pace of growth slowed compared with 2004 (rose 11.6 per cent). The slowdown reflected a 5.6 % year on year drop in arrivals by air, to 145,959, around 46 % total arrivals. Total international reserves reached US$951 million at the end of June 2006, according to data from the IMF. Reserves increased sharply in the first quarter of the year, surpassing US$900 million for the first time, before rising further in the second quarter. The main reason for the improvement in the overall balance-of-payments position and international reserves has been the rise in exports, which have been driven by strong growth in exports of natural gas. The official kyat exchange rate remains artificially inflated. The exchange rate like the rest of the junta system does not reflect the reality of the monetary system. The free-market exchange rate of kyat to US$ was 1,350:US$1 in July-October 2006, having recovered from kyat 1,450:US$1 at the end of April, which also put pressure on prices. There has been a mild appreciation of the kyat since then. The ratio of the parallel rate to the official rate is nearly 200:1. The kyat came under pressure earlier this year owing to fears that a pay rise for civil servants would sharply push up prices. However, strong gas exports have boosted international reserves, thereby helping the kyat to stabilize. The little-used official exchange rate is fixed against the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) special drawing rights (SDR) unit. The official rate held steady at around kyat 5.9:US$1 by August 2006. Author/creator:   Sein Htay Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Fund (NCGUB) Format/size:   pdf (1.5MB) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ncgub.net/mediagallery/download.php?mid=20070523134011574 Date of entry/update:   06 June 2007 Title:   Economic Report on Burma 2004/05 Date of publication:   06 May 2002 Description/subject:   "..The objective of this report is to help the policy makers with an analysis of the international sanctions effect and to try to explain the real current economic and social conditions, impact on and Burma's urgent need to combat poverty. Moreover, also try to present the relationship between macro economic situation such as economic growth, foreign trade, state budget, inflation, employment, wages and the conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity in Burma. In addition, to explain how the Burmese generals and their crony drug lords exploit the Burmese economy, and how the Burmese military has become the sole beneficiary of foreign direct investment by setting up its own industries separately from the state enterprises since 1988. And also would like to explain the impact on the military's confiscation of land, labor, crops and capital assets or militarization on the whole economy..." Author/creator:   Sein Htay Language:   English Source/publisher:   Federation of Trade Unions-Burma (FTUB) Format/size:   pdf (1.3MB) Date of entry/update:   30 December 2011 Title:   Myanmar: The Dilemma of Stalled Reforms Date of publication:   September 2000 Description/subject:   "Myanmar's economic reforms are constrained by the domestic political situation... This paper explores Myanmar's political and economic background in the context of stalled reforms. It finds that Myanmar's economic development is constrained by the domestic political situation, which has in turn been linked to sanctions on trade, investment and aid imposed by Western Europe and the United States. The paper states that further reforms are still required, as the previous round of reforms failed to redress problems such as: * High inflation * Persistent fiscal deficit * Widening trade deficit * Chronic foreign exchange shortage * A drastic fall in foreign investment * Inefficient state economic enterprises (SEEs) * Low value-added production... The paper notes: * The current military government is endeavouring to institute a new political order, while at the same time attempting a smooth transition from a closed to an open market economy. * The fundamental premise is that these broad political and economic reforms should not compromise the three principal main national causes including national sovereignty... The paper concludes: * Conflict between the NLD and the government and the resulting political impasse is the main obstacle for further reforms. * The realization of Myanmars reforms will depend on whether the government and the opposition can be reconciled..." Author/creator:   Tin Maung Maung Than Language:   English Source/publisher:   Institute for South-East Asian Studies (ISEAS) via Eldis Format/size:   pdf (80K) 40 pages Alternate URLs:   http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs3/Dilemmas-TMMT.pdf Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Economic Development of Burma: A Vision and a Strategy - a study by Burmese economists Date of publication:   2000 Description/subject:   "...Together with the excessive crimes against human rights taking place in Burma, the economic underdevelopment is a matter of concern to political leaders and professional economists everywhere. It is, of course, of particular concern to the Burmese people themselves, both those who live in the country, and those who have travelled to other parts of the world. Therefore, it is a matter of great importance to analyse the main factors which have stood in the way of Burma's participation in the world-wide surge of economic growth in the past half a century, and even more importantly, to devise ways in which the country can overcome these obstacles and achieve a higher rate of economic development. It is towards this objective that the present report makes an important contribution. It is in fact a study undertaken by Burmese scholars themselves. Hence they have brought to this study their own rich and personal knowledge of the problems of the country and the possibilities that lie ahead. Additionally, most of the scholars who have undertaken the present study have in fact travelled widely and achieved high professional recognition as development specialists in the leading universities of the world. They are thus able to combine their intimate knowledge of the country with the latest advances in economic science in order to give us some deep insights about the best ways to advance the future development of Burma. What follows is not a plan for economic development as it is commonly understood. In that sense, a plan consists of definite targets to be achieved, schedules for the implementation of various programmes, the mobilisation of adequate resources for the purpose, and schemes for the appraisal and control of the results. But planning in this sense is not something which can be efficiently undertaken by a small group of scholars who are not in active collaboration with those responsible for the implementation of plans. This is particularly the case with those scholars who have been away from the country in recent years. However, what such a group of Burmese scholars can do, and have done in this study, is to think through the problems of developing the country in the long run, taking into account Burma's own historical experience, the changes which are taking place in the outside world, and to investigate the likely scenarios or trends for the future, and thus come up with a vision of what to aim for and an approach and sense of direction for the long term development of Burma. This will give political leaders, both those inside the country who are responsible for designing and carrying out its policies, and those in donor countries abroad who can assist this effort by the scale of their financial and technical assistance. Such strategic studies have been undertaken in countries as far apart as the United States on the one hand, and Chile on the other. Nearer home, such studies have been used by the governments of Singapore and Malaysia as the basis of their more specific policies. It is in this sense that the present study will serve as a useful basis for further thought and discussion by all concerned with the future welfare of the people of Burma. A welfare that can take place nor survive without political changes in the country..."...Overview and Policy Framework; Agriculture; Industry; Natural Resources and Environment; International Trade and Investment; The Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Macroeconomic Stability; Poverty and Income Distribution; Education; Infrastructure; Institutions; Priorities and Problems of Implementation; Conclusion Author/creator:   Khin Maung Kyi, Ronald Findlay, R.M. Sundrum, Mya Maung, Myo Nyunt, Zaw Oo, et al. Language:   English Source/publisher:   The Olof Palme International Center Format/size:   pdf (1.7MB) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs3/Vision-strategy.ocr.pdf Date of entry/update:   17 April 2005 Title:   MYANMAR: WILL FOREVER FLOW THE AYEYARWADY? Date of publication:   1993 Description/subject:   INTRODUCTION: "When Myanmar (then known as Burma) attained its independence in 1948, international agencies identified it as one of the most promising regional candidates for economic take off. Its modern technical and university education system, high rate of literacy, well trained civil service and a cadre of educated middle class, basic infrastructure, and a well run legal system were considered as good ingredients for Myanmar's expected take off. In the 1950s, Myanmar's gross domestic product (GDP) was growing consistently at an annual average rate of over 4 per cent, in contrast with the chequered performance of its neighbours. In the early 1960s, the country was poised for labour intensive industrialization with a number of textile and consumer product firms manufacturing export quality goods. Then came the putsch and the socialist revolution, followed by stagnation and decline. Twenty six years passed before Myanmar finally erupted and the change to market economy was forcibly brought in. Myanmar is now in the throes of the struggle for modernization and change. With the military still holding on to the reins of power on the one hand and the contending democratic opposition and the ethnic groups with diverse claims and interests on the other, Myanmar has not come out of its pains of growing up, to meet the challenges of the outside world. This paper will review significant developments and changes in 1993 and re examine the complex of situations influencing its sluggish economic performance and the equally slow rate of political transformation. Myanmar's problems and prospects for long term development and modernization are also analysed." Author/creator:   Khin Maung Kyi Language:   English Source/publisher:   "Southeast Asian Affairs" 1994, Format/size:   pdf (215K) Date of entry/update:   03 January 2012 Economy: general, analytical, statistical (Burma Economic Watch) Burma Economic Watch (BEW) aims to provide up-to-date and reliable economic data and commentary on Burma's economy. It is founded on the principle that it is only when democracy and freedom return to Burma that the country and its people will be able to achieve their economic potential. Information on Burma's economy is both difficult to obtain and notoriously unreliable. BEW aims to rectify this by disseminating dependable information on Burma compiled by the IMF, the World Bank, embassy and foreign government reports, economic journals, news and business publications and other verifiable sources. Information gleaned from official Burmese Government sources is used with caution. Burma's military regime stopped publishing its own national accounts data in 1998. BEW analyses are produced by economists and other specialists who volunteer their time. The documents are free and, with appropriate acknowledgment, may be quoted without restriction. The BEW analyses are edited by Sean Turnell and Alison Vicary of the Economics Department, Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. We welcome correspondence, contributions and enquiries. Please address all correspondence to: Dr Sean Turnell, Economics Department, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia. sturnell@efs.mq.edu.au Individual Documents Title:   Gas Attack Date of publication:   04 September 2007 Description/subject:   "Recent protests over gas prices in Burma raise a complex question: Why Is Burma -- which sits atop a massive reserve of natural gas -- such an economic basket case? Look no further than the military government's track record of abysmal economic management. Formally classified as a "least developed" country by the United Nations, Burma is mired in deep poverty. Annual per capita GDP is around $1,800 in terms of purchasing-power parity ($300 at the market exchange rate). That's considerably below the income of the next poorest members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Cambodia and Laos, which boast per capita purchasing-power parity GDPs of $2,700 and $2,100, respectively. Burma's unemployment rate is officially just over 10%, but the real figure may be closer to 30%, with many people in the labor force either underemployed or engaged in activities of very low productivity, such as subsistence farming. Add to that a moribund financial system. At a time when even Vietnam is enjoying a booming stock market, Burma boasts all of about 400 bank branches (most of which are decrepit agencies of state-owned institutions), and only 20% of the population have bank accounts. Inflation is rampant -- averaging between 30% and 40% per year over the past five years (it's currently around 50%) -- thanks to a government that for years has financed extraordinary fiscal deficits by running the printing presses..." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   Wall Street Journal Online Format/size:   pdf (16k) Date of entry/update:   09 September 2007 Burma Economic Watch (statistics) Individual Documents Title:   Tables and Data (June 2001) Date of publication:   June 2001 Description/subject:   a) Burma's Economy at a Glance; b) Selected Social Indicators; c) Output and Growth; d) Foreign Trade and Payments; e) Government Spending and Taxation; f) Monetary and Banking Indicators; g) Agricultural Output and Yields. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Format/size:   View html version and/or download and open Word version (one footnote extra) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/Tables%20and%20Data.doc Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Burma Economic Watch and its members (analyses) Websites/Multiple Documents Title:   Burma Economic Watch blog Description/subject:   Go here for the latest from Burma Economic Watch, including: Strange world of post-Nargis numbers revisited: after PONJA...More evidence of the absurdity of 'engagement' with SPDC...Major Aung Linn Htut Open letter to Than Shwe... NOT MUCH BANG FOR THE AID BUCK -- FUND for HIV/AIDS IN MYANMAR (FHAM)...Lagging the pack - the grim realities of Burma's place in the economic firmament...ODA Burma 1988-2005... Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch/Economics Department Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia Format/size:   html, pdf Date of entry/update:   28 November 2008 Individual Documents Title:   Investment law to decide if Burma’s growth will be ‘transformational’ Date of publication:   14 September 2012 Description/subject:   "...Currently awaiting the signature of the president [returned unsigned to Parliament for amendment late October] is the new Foreign Investment Law designed to make the country more attractive to foreign investors. This law will grant them the right to hold long leases on land (until now leases have been greatly restricted and the state was the exclusive owner of most productive land). Overseas investors will also be able to enjoy a five-year profit tax “holiday,” other tax concessions, and are guaranteed against the nationalization of their businesses (a necessary step given Myanmar’s long history of state expropriation). So far, so good, but Myanmar’s new Foreign Investment Law is also reflective of the country’s continuing divisions. The law has been heavily influenced by the interests of Myanmar’s “crony” conglomerates, which in recent years have come to dominate key areas of the economy. With interests that extend to almost every sector, such cronies (as people in Myanmar routinely refer to them) are likely to feel the threat of foreign competition first and foremost. Accordingly, despite the liberal elements of the new Foreign Investment Law, other key clauses limit the role of foreign investors in a host of sectors, including retail trade, agricultural processing, fisheries and many light industries and services. The outcome of this struggle between liberal reformers and the beneficiaries of Myanmar’s past regime will ultimately shape the new Foreign Investment Law. This struggle will also determine if Myanmar is finally on the path to genuine transformational growth. A tiger in waiting perhaps, but not one yet." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   "Mizzima News" Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   18 September 2012 Title:   Can a free-floating currency boost Burma? Date of publication:   30 March 2012 Description/subject:   Viewpoint by Sean Turnell...."The decision of Burma's new government to float the country's currency is a welcome one. Injecting a degree of rationality into a policy-making environment that for 50 years has been conspicuous by the absence of this quality, the policy has the potential to greatly assist Burma's re-emergence into the global economy, as well as to transform its public finances..." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   BBC News - Business Format/size:   pdf (84K) Date of entry/update:   31 March 2012 Title:   Finding Dollars and Sense: Burma’s Economy in 2010 Date of publication:   November 2010 Description/subject:   "In recent times, questions concerning the state of Burma’s economy have been unusually prominent. The December 2009 visit to Burma of Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, the release a few weeks later of the latest official report on post-Cyclone Nargis reconstruction, and a series of “privatization” announcements for an array of hitherto state-owned enterprises have all drawn attention to economic conditions in one of the world’s poorest countries. So what is the state of Burma’s economy in 2010? In a word, it is grim. Among those old enough to remember, there is something of a general consensus among Burmese farmers, workers, civil servants—even former soldiers and favored entrepreneurs—that Burma’s economy is at its lowest point since the end of the Second World War. Frustration, despair, and a feeling that something has to give in a country in which its natural endowment promises prosperity, all the while its political economy serves up destitution, are near enough to universally expressed sentiments. The purpose of this paper is to examine Burma’s economy at the cusp of 2010, and to briefly look at some of the basic reforms that will be necessary to restore economic security to the Burmese people. The paper is divided into two parts—part I taking up the question of Burma’s current economic state of play, and part II addressing some of the reforms necessary for medium and long-term growth..." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C. Format/size:   pdf (200K) Date of entry/update:   20 November 2010 Title:   A Year of Promise, or Tempest-tossed Again? Date of publication:   January 2010 Description/subject:   "Burma’s economy could go in one of two very different directions: onward and upward, or further down the same old spiral...." Author/creator:   SEAN TURNELL Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" VOLUME 18 NO.1 Format/size:   html Alternate URLs:   http://www2.irrawaddy.org/print_article.php?art_id=17485 Date of entry/update:   19 August 2010 Title:   A State-run "Market Economy" Date of publication:   November 2009 Description/subject:   Without the rule of law, there are no guarantees the economy will be free of state interference under the 2008 Constitution... "The economic aspects of Burma’s 2008 Constitution have been notably absent from the recent written analysis of its implications for Burmese society. Though constitutions are not primarily economic documents, Burma’s latest Constitution does contain clauses that have economic import, and it is worth looking at them carefully. There is an important caveat, however, and this is that a regime that consistently honors the rule of law only in the breach and has many incentives (financial and otherwise) for maintaining the status quo is unlikely to change its behavior anytime soon; therefore, the Constitution may amount to little. Regardless of whether the military abides by its Constitution, however, the document can provide insight into the thinking of its drafters..." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 17, No. 8 Format/size:   html Alternate URLs:   http://www2.irrawaddy.org/print_article.php?art_id=17134 Date of entry/update:   28 February 2010 Title:   Comment on the 'Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan’ (PONREPP) Date of publication:   03 March 2009 Description/subject:   "On February 9, 2009, the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) released its latest report on reconstruction efforts in Burma in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. The TCG, which is comprised of representatives of the Government of the Union of Myanmar, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the UN, was established in May 2008 as the body to coordinate relief efforts. In July 2008 it produced the ‘Post-Nargis Joint Assessment’ (PONJA) report into the damage wrought by the cyclone, and subsequent periodic reviews. PONREPP is meant to be the capstone of these efforts, and the TCG’s vision – not just of post-Nargis reconstruction – but of Burma’s medium term economic development. Seen in the light of these ambitions, it is unfortunate that PONREPP is a deeply disappointing document. Written as if the advances made in the last four decades as to ‘what works and what does not’ in terms of economic development had not occurred, it is a throwback to the top-down, state-driven, planning mindset that, in the 1950s and 60s, condemned countless developing countries to stagnation and retreat. In PONREPP the private sector is notable largely by its absence – this primary driver of economic development subsumed by local authorities of dubious standing, the ministrations of local and international NGOs and, above all, by the state and its agencies. In short, the recommendations set out in PONREPP would condemn Burma, in the view of BEW, to a continuation of the policies and programmes that have impoverished this once prosperous and hopeful country. We will review PONREPP in detail in a future document but, briefly stated, our conclusions above are informed by some of the following:..." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell, Wylie Bradford, Alison Vicary Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Format/size:   pdf (91K) Date of entry/update:   08 March 2009 Title:   Economic Aspects of Burma's New Constitution Date of publication:   28 October 2008 Description/subject:   "In recent times much ink (bytes?) has been spilt in analysing Burma's new Constitution. Just about every angle of the various drafts have been explored, with the exception ' aspect. Now, however, with the �official' English language version of the new Constitution finally appearing, the time seems ripe to at least have a preliminary look at the new arrangements from an �economics' point of view..." N.B. the URL of the Burma Constitution in OBL is http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs5/Myanmar_Constitution-2008-en.pdf -- not as given in the BEW blog. Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch blog Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   28 November 2008 Title:   Strange world of post-Nargis numbers revisited: after PONJA Date of publication:   13 August 2008 Description/subject:   "n a previous post we highlighted the extremely odd nature of the loss and damage estimates from cyclone Nargis paraded before the world by the SPDC in Rangoon on 25 May. The UN and ASEAN have now been able to carry out the so-called Post Nargis Joint Assessment exercise and report on the results. The PONJA team derived their estimates from findings in sampled village tract areas. They lay out their sampling methodology explicitly in their report. By contrast the SPDC report at the Pledging Conference contained no such methodological cues; indeed the specious precision of the counts of lost lampposts etc strongly conveyed the impression that the losses etc had been comprehensively *counted* rather than estimated from samples. As we noted, not only did the claimed figures lack credibility but the extremely haphazard approach taken to the exchange rate used to convert kyat to $US alone accounted for an inflation of the sought relief budget of the order of US$15om. The results of the PONJA exercise reveal even more disturbing discrepancies in the SPDC's request for funds, as outlined in this table..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch blog Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   04 February 2009 Title:   Lagging the pack - the grim realities of Burma's place in the economic firmament Date of publication:   02 July 2008 Description/subject:   n May we illustrated the extent of the challenge (purely in terms of the remorseless arithmetic of growth) that Burma would face in achieving something like Thailand's current standard of living. To further underscore the urgency of the need for regime change in Burma, we have compiled an assessment of where Burma is situated currently with regard to a wide range of countries and what will be required in terms of growth performance to close the gaps. It is vital to bear in mind that what is presented here represents unavoidable, non-contextual constraints. Increasing per capita income to a multiple of 4, say, in a short time requires, by definition, very high rates of annual growth by historical standards; maintaining low rates of growth must cause the time taken to blow out significantly. With that said, consider the following depiction of Burma's relative economic position and prospects for catchup and convergence circa 2007. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch blog Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   29 November 2008 Title:   Burma’s Economy 2008: Current Situation and Prospects for Reform Date of publication:   May 2008 Description/subject:   "...This paper will present the current state of Burma’s economy, and explore the reforms that will be necessary should sudden political change take place. Such proposed reforms are limited to those required in a short to medium term horizon to stabilize the macroeconomy and lay the foundations for future growth. Longer term structural changes are also necessary if Burma is to begin to ‘catch up’ to the relative prosperity of its neighbours and erstwhile peers, but these are noted simply in passing. Nevertheless, and even according to this shorter horizon, profound changes to Burma’s political economy will be necessary for any real gains in the socio-economic circumstances of its people. It will also be apparent from what follows that economic reform in Burma will require changes that are not limited to macroeconomic policies (fiscal consolidation, exchange rate unification, interest rate liberalization, and so on), but which also includes fundamental institutional reform that will embrace the application of: - effective property rights; - basic freedoms (including at least an approximation of the rule of law);1 - basic functioning infrastructure; - government policy-making that is rational, consistent and informed by a reasonably honest and efficient civil service; - market opening policies, including the removal of remaining restrictions on private enterprise; - openness to foreign trade and investment. It is scarcely conceivable that such elements will be adopted by Burma’s current leaders, which as a consequence raises the question of the country’s political trajectory. The restrictions on enterprise imposed by Burma’s ruling junta, the self-styled ‘State Peace and Development Council’ (SPDC), are precisely the means of its economic power and, unreconstructed, it is unlikely to ‘do a China’ by relaxing economic control while maintaining its grip on political power. Accordingly, there is a presumption in this paper that the reforms outlined will be those applied by a new government in Burma, ideally democratically elected, but at the very least one that is interested in pursuing genuine economic development in its truest sense..." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch/Economics Department Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia Format/size:   pdf (199K) Date of entry/update:   28 November 2008 Title:   Migrant Worker Remittances and Burma: An Economic Analysis of Survey Results Date of publication:   2008 Description/subject:   Abstract" In recent years great interest has awakened in the question of migrant remittances. A phenomenon hitherto regarded as of little consequence, the potential for remittances to act as a means for poverty alleviation and economic development has increasingly come to enjoy a broad consensus. In the light of this, and the recognition that for many developing countries remittances constitute a larger and more stable source of foreign exchange than either trade, investment or aid, a vast and growing literature on the topic has emerged. However, and notwithstanding this broad interest, there is yet to appear any major study with respect to the question of migrant remittances to Burma. This paper seeks to at least partially redress this void by examining the extent, nature and pattern of remittances made by Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. Drawing upon a survey of such workers conducted by the authors, we find that remittances to Burma are large, disproportionately used to ensure simple survival, and are overwhelmingly realised via informal mechanisms. The latter attributes are a direct consequence of Burma’s dysfunctional economy, which sadly also severely limits the gains to the country that remittances might otherwise bring..... JEL Classification: O16, P34, Q14..... Keywords: Remittances, Burma, Migration, Development Finance. Author/creator:   Sean Turnell, Alison Vicary and Wylie Bradford Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch/Economics Department Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia Format/size:   pdf (449K) Date of entry/update:   28 November 2008 Title:   Myanmar’s economy in 2006 Date of publication:   January 2007 Description/subject:   Conclusion: "In 2006, Myanmar’s possession and exploitation of prized natural resources continued to flatter the appearance of the country’s economic circumstances. Behind this façade, however, is a narrative of chronic failure that is the consequence of a political economy that is yet to create the institutions necessary for long-term economic development. Such institutions, which include effective property rights, freedom to contract and a modicum of macroeconomic stability, are created out of domestic constituencies possessing incentives to bring about change. The economic rents that are accruing from Myanmar’s offshore energy deposits could further weaken these constituencies. Optimism with regard to Myanmar’s economy accordingly must remain, for the moment, suspended." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   2006 Burma Update Conference via Australian National University Format/size:   pdf (153K) Alternate URLs:   http://epress.anu.edu.au/myanmar/pdf_instructions.html http://epress.anu.edu.au/myanmar/pdf/whole_book.pdf Date of entry/update:   30 December 2008 Title:   Burma Economic Watch, 2006, Issue 1 Date of publication:   November 2006 Description/subject:   1. Profiles of Burma’s Banks, Sean Turnell; 2. The Risks and Benefits of Using Brokers: The Journey from Burma into Thailand; Jacqueline Lees; 3. Employment and Poverty in Mae Hong Son Province Thailand: ‘Burmese’ Refugees in the Labour Market Alison Vicary 4. Afterword: Shrimp Selling and Tuna Canning in Mahachai (Thailand), Kyi May Kaung. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Format/size:   pdf (1.9MB) Date of entry/update:   26 December 2006 Title:   Burma’s Economic Prospects Date of publication:   29 March 2006 Description/subject:   Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, 29 March 2006...According to official statistics released by Burma’s ruling military regime, the self-styled ‘State Peace and Development Council’ (SPDC), Burma’s economy grew by an astonishing 12.2 per cent in 2005. Beating even the previous year’s stellar performance of 12.0 per cent, and coupled with double-digit growth all the way back to 1999, by these measures Burma is the fastest-growing economy in the world. What’s more, Burma achieved this astonishing growth using less energy, less material resources and, in the middle of it all, while negotiating a banking and financial crisis that was as serious as any in history. Truly, a miracle economy indeed. It is, alas, also a fantasy economy. Under the SPDC, the real Burma is a wasteland of missed opportunity, exploitation and direst poverty. More realistic numbers of Burma’s economic performance calculated by Burma Economic Watch show that far from stellar growth, Burma’s economy actually shrank in 2003 and 2004. In 2005 Burma will likely have returned to growth, but at a rather more modest 2 to 3 per cent. Similar growth can be expected for the coming year. None of this growth, however, has anything to do with improved economic fundamentals, but with the windfall gains accruing to the state from the rising demand for Burma’s exports of natural gas. The real Burma is one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia. Only 50 years ago, it was one of the wealthiest. The dramatic turnaround of Burma’s fortunes is the product of a state apparatus that for decades has claimed the largest portion of the country’s output, while simultaneously and deliberately dismantling, blocking and undermining basic market institutions. The excessive hand of the state, which for many years was wedded to 2 a peculiar form of socialism, has manifested itself in a number of maladies that are the direct cause of Burma’s current disarray..." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Format/size:   pdf (101.91 K) Date of entry/update:   17 August 2010 Title:   "Burma Economic Watch" 1/2005 Date of publication:   September 2005 Description/subject:   1. Preliminary Survey Results about Burmese Migrant Workers in Thailand: State/division of origin, year of entry, minimum wages and work permits, Wylie Bradford & Alison Vicary... 2. A Survey of Microfinance in Burma, Sean Turnell... 3. Burma/Myanmar: The Role of The Military in the Economy, David I. Steinberg. Language:   English Source/publisher:   "Burma Economic Watch" 1/2005 Format/size:   pdf Date of entry/update:   17 August 2010 Title:   Burma’s April Fools Date of publication:   May 2005 Description/subject:   Are the official economic figures just a bad joke?... "It’s Official. Burma has the fastest growing economy in the world. Statistics released by the country’s Central Statistical Office, and reported in the New Light of Myanmar on April 3, reveal that Burma enjoyed an average rate of economic growth over the last four years (the first four years of the current five year plan) of 12.4 percent. Burma’s performance leaves famous growth laggards such as China (annual growth of ‘only’ about 8 percent) in its wake. As for the former Asian ‘tigers’ and rich industrial countries—well, ‘mediocre’ is about the best that can be said of their relative performances. Such growth is also a significant historical achievement. Previous five year plans yielded official economic growth in Burma of 7.5 percent (1992-1996) and 8.5 percent (1997-2001). Not bad, but the upward trend must surely be proof that the SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] is growing in the job of running the country. Certainly Burma’s (current) Prime Minister, Lt-Gen Soe Win, is confident enough to discard his previous growth estimate for 2005-2006 of 11.3 percent, for the more bullish mark of 12.6 percent. Let the good times roll. Of course, observers of Burma and its economy will know that the country begins its financial year on April 1. In many cultures this date is reserved for the playing of pranks and practical jokes. Suddenly a possibility emerges—are these latest reports of Burma’s phenomenal economic growth simply an elaborate April fool’s joke? A device, perhaps, to bring a smile to the weary faces of the Burmese people from a regime that is, at heart, just a bunch of loveable tricksters?..." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 13, No. 5 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   27 April 2006 Title:   Some Talking Points Regarding Economics, and the ‘Independent Report’ for the EC Date of publication:   03 April 2005 Description/subject:   "In the following, we review certain economic aspects of Supporting Burma/Myanmar’s National Reconciliation Process: Challenges and Opportunities, a self-labelled ‘Independent Report’ prepared for the European Commission by Professor Robert Taylor and Mr Morten Pedersen. We largely confine our comments to economic considerations, but within this sphere we find that the Report has numerous and severe limitations. Due largely to a scarcity of time, our comments are to a certain extent preliminary, and will be developed further in a subsequent issue of BEW that will address this and other recent reports on Burma’s economy. Feel free to use the following in ways you find useful, though for academic purposes we regard this ‘review’ as very much a ‘working draft’ at present. Of course, we welcome comments. We can be contacted, as always, at BEW@efs.mq.edu.au Website http://www.econ.mq.edu.au/BurmaEconomicWatch Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Format/size:   html, (65K), Word (75K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs3/Burma_Day-BEW.doc Date of entry/update:   06 April 2005 Title:   BEW update November 2004 Date of publication:   16 November 2004 Description/subject:   "In recent days some new data has been released by the Asian Development Bank that allows us to update our analysis of Burma's growth performance to 2001. You might recall that our previous analysis, conducted by Wylie Bradford and contained in BEW No.1/2004, recast Burma's growth performance according to purchasing power parity in international dollars. This provided a far superior statistical base from which to examine Burma's economic performance (relative to a common standard) than hitherto possible using 'market' or 'official' exchange rates (and unadjusted for inflation). The most important finding of Wylie's update is that, in 2001, economic growth in Burma, measured in inflation-adjusted international dollars, became negative. Of course this is well before the recent banking and financial crisis, the imposition of stiffer sanctions - and greatly at odds with the regime's claims." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Format/size:   pdf (97K) Date of entry/update:   16 November 2004 Title:   Burma Economic Watch, 2004 No. 2 Date of publication:   21 October 2004 Description/subject:   Fiant fruges? Burma’s sui generis growth experience, Wylie Bradford; The State’s Incentive Structure In Burma’s Sugar Sector and Inflated Official Data: A Case Study of the Industry in Pegu Division, Alison Vicary; Some Further Developments in Burma’s Financial Sector, Sean Turnell; Sanctions and Burma: Revisiting the Case Against, Alfred Oehlers...In this issue of BEW we have four papers for your consideration: First is an article by Wylie Bradford which conducts an ‘external critique’ of the economic data Burma supplies to the rest of the world. Often used uncritically by commentators on Burma, such data has been interrogated according to its internal contradictions before (by BEW, other writers, and even by some international agencies), but the purpose here is to examine how it fits cross-country experiences historically - the empirical realities that establish the ‘stylised facts’ we can use to test the credibility of theory and data alike. Wylie finds that the only way Burma’s supplied data can be believed is that we simultaneously also believe ‘that Burma has discovered a hitherto unknown recipe for generating rapid growth that a country with the characteristics of a growth disaster is in fact a growth titan’. Our second article, by Alison Vicary, likewise investigates problems in Burma’s official economic data, albeit with a tight focus upon the sugarcane growing and processing industry in Pegu Division. Alison’s comprehensive fieldwork paints a Kafkaesque picture – of an industry in which distorted incentives creates layers of deception as each stage in the production hierarchy inflates cultivation and output numbers to meet arbitrary targets imposed by the state. She highlights the extraordinary case of Burma’s recent investments in new sugar mills, mills that unaccountably seem to have both increased the country’s sugar output and, yet, also its need for sugar imports. Finally, she observes that the spectre of indebtedness and landlessness once more stalks the land. The third piece, by Sean Turnell, continues the examination of the ramifications of Burma’s banking crisis of 2003, and other issues concerning Burma’s financial sector. Amongst the latter include Burma’s efforts to extricate itself from allegations that the country’s financial system is prey to money-laundering. These efforts have been conducted at a high diplomatic level and seem to have reached something of a crescendo as BEW went to press. Sean examines the shifting fortunes amongst Burma’s surviving private banks and, perhaps not surprisingly, finds a winner in the bank regarded as closest to officers in Burma’s military regime, serving and retired. That Burma’s financial system is still ill-functioning is highlighted by a quote from a real estate developer in Rangoon who, bemoaning low sales for up-market apartments, observed that ‘buyers have to pay in cash, so they have to carry the money in bags, which is not very convenient ’. Finally, but by no means least, we have Alfred Oehler’s article on economic sanctions and Burma. As noted at the start of this introduction, the question of sanctions has dominated the discourse on Burma and its economy in 2004. Much recent commentary has taken up what might be called an anti-sanctions position, but here Alfred presents the argument that Burma’s particular structural and institutional characteristics make sanctions a potent device in pressuring its military regime to undertake internal political reform. Alfred notes that many anti-sanctions campaigners unwittingly base their arguments on a particularly narrow interpretation of ‘neo-classical’ economics which assumes, amongst many other things, that a country’s trade is (in the absence of sanctions) in a welfare-maximising, optimal equilibrium. He also highlights that much of the anti-sanctions literature is informed by a largely anecdotal understanding of Burma’s economy. A truer understanding, he argues, would identify the highly dualistic nature of Burma’s economy into formal and informal components. The former, dominated by Burma’s military regime and its allies, is most vulnerable to sanctions while the effects of sanctions on the informal economy (within which most people in Burma live) have been much exaggerated. Whatever your feelings on the sanctions question, Alfred’s article is a considered, thoughtful piece that deserves attention. Author/creator:   Wylie Bradford, Alison Vicary, Sean Turnell, Alfred Oehlers Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Format/size:   pdf (1.13 MB) Date of entry/update:   17 August 2010 Title:   Burma Economic Watch: 2004 No. 1 Date of publication:   June 2004 Description/subject:   Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) Estimates for Burma; Burma Bank Update; Economic survey of 'Burmese' working in Thailand: An overview of a BEW project... "First up is an important piece by Wylie Bradford on coming to grips with the perennial difficulties of making comparisons between the economic performance of Burma and other countries. A principal obstacle that researchers face is the question of what common standard to employ – a difficult decision with respect to any country, but much worse in Burma’s surreal universe of multiple exchange rates. The decision is not a trivial one but, as Wylie demonstrates, is critical in determining outcomes. Sadly, many researchers on Burma pay too little heed to the issue, and their findings suffer as a result. Wylie’s contribution here in BEW provides something of a primer for getting it right. Our second article is written by Sean Turnell, and is concerned with updating his analysis of Burma’s banking crisis of 2003. A devastating if little understood event (not least by Burma’s monetary authorities!), its effects in undermining whatever trust the people of Burma had in formal monetary institutions will have profound implications for the country’s economic development. The need to update the story of the crisis is prompted by a number of developments, including the release of relevant data by the International Monetary Fund, and the growing scandal of recent revelations as to the extent to which leading financial institutions in Burma have been involved in money laundering. Our third article, by Alison Vicary, outlines a major project currently being undertaken by BEW into the contribution of Burmese refugees and migrant workers to the economy of Thailand. The project is an enormous logistical operation that will create a vast database from surveys that are currently in the field across the length and breadth of Thailand. The project is a unique one, and its findings will be reported on in many subsequent issues of BEW..." Author/creator:   Wylie Bradford, Sean Turnell, Alison Vicary Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Format/size:   pdf (613K) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2004 Title:   ECONOMIC NON-VIABILITY, HUNGER AND MIGRATION: THE CASE OF MAWCHI TOWNSHIP Date of publication:   14 May 2003 Description/subject:   "Mawchi is a township in Northwest Karenni that was once a successful mining town. It was often referred to as 'little England' because of the life style on display there and its accompanying standards of living. Private British business interests developed the mines in Mawchi between the world wars, but the local economy began to decline, with the rest of Burma, with Ne Win’s Burmese Way to Socialism. The economy of Mawchi, and the standard of living for people in the Township, has continued to decline across successive military governments. The latest and the most severe economic crisis in Mawchi is the result of the regime's 1996 forced relocation campaign. This program led to the total collapse of agricultural production in the area and the subsequent collapse of the rest of the economy. All the villagers from the surrounding areas were forced to move into the town of Mawchi. The cessation of agricultural production brought about a massive increase in the price of food and a large increase in unemployment. Now most people are more or less constantly hungry and spend their days scrounging around looking for food. All the children in the city are engaged in helping their parents obtain food - collecting birds, worms, frogs and insects to eat. Hardly any rice produced gets to market as it is kept for the family to eat and to pay back debts. The small amount of rice that does reach the market, which most cannot afford, is of the lowest quality and fit only for being boiled. This has caused most people to leave the township for Thailand and a number of the cease-fire areas..." Author/creator:   Alison Vicary Language:   English Source/publisher:   BURMA ECONOMIC WATCH Format/size:   html (86K) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Burma's Banking Crisis: A Commentary Date of publication:   06 March 2003 Description/subject:   "... Burma is currently undergoing one of its periodic monetary and financial crises. Unusually, however, this time the crisis is not a characteristic de-monetisation episode, but a failure of confidence in the country's nascent private banking sector. In this sense the current crisis is probably less immediately destructive of the 'wealth' of ordinary Burmese than previous dramas (as shall be examined below), but its longer-term damage to Burma's economy and to key institutions is likely to be severe indeed. Trust is the foundation of banking and the key ingredient of a country's social capital. There must be little of this (already scarce) commodity in Burma today. The following is an attempt to make sense of some of the developments that have been taking place in Burma's banking sector in recent weeks. It suffers from the usual information difficulties that come with attempting real-time commentary on the opaque world of Burma's political economy. It is hoped, nevertheless, that it might prove useful in at least shining a dim light into some very dark corners. It is not a comprehensive account of individual events either, but it arguably provides a sufficient outline upon which to begin a process of analysis. Extensive use is made throughout of a more detailed examination of the structure of Burma's banking system contained in Turnell (2002). We have made wide-spread use of many other sources, where possible indicated below. Finally, comments and suggestions would be greatly welcomed. Author/creator:   Sean Turnell and Alison Vicary Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Format/size:   html (81K) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   MIGRANT WORKERS FROM BURMA AND THAILAND: POLICY REVIEW AND PROTECTION MECHANISMS Date of publication:   21 February 2003 Description/subject:   COMMEMORATING 10 YEARS OF POLICY GOVERNING MIGRANT WORKERS FROM BURMA...CONTENTS A. INTRODUCTION: Summary of Migrant Worker Policy in Thailand and Recommendations for Reform; Policy Governing Migrant Workers in Thailand: An Examination of Policy and its Critics (Alison Vicary, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia)... B. MIGRANT WORKERS IN THAILAND: Opening Remarks and Keynote Speech - Nakorn Silap-acha, Director of the Ministry of Labour; Resolutions of the Alien Labour Policy Committee - Dr. Premsak Piayura, Chairman of the Labour Committee House of Representatives, Thai Rak Thai M.P for Khon Kaen; Policy Motivations behind the Cabinet Resolutions of 2001 and 2002 - Sumsak Kanchnaborn, Representative from the Ministry of Labour; Migrant Worker Policy: Where to Now? Dr. Supang Chantavanich, Director of the Institute of Asian Studies Chulalongkorn University; Case Study of Migrant Labour Policy: The Textile and Garment Industry in Mae Sot - Dr. Sirinan Kittisubsatit, Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University; The Problems of Migrant Workers from Burma - Nay Min, Migrant Workers from Burma, Representative; The Failure of the Thai Legal System: The Case of Ma Suu Preeda Tongchumnun and Surapong Kongchantuk - Law Project Coordinator Law Society of Thailand Forum Asia Human Rights of Stateless Persons and Ethnic Minorities Subcommittee; Migrant Workers from Burma: The Thai Government’s Policy Confusion - Bandit Thanchaisettawut, NGO Researcher, Arom Pongpa-Ngun Foundation;l The Protection of Migrant Workers in Thailand - Adisorn Kerdmongkol, Thai NGO Network on Migrants and their Families in Thailand, Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB)... C. MIGRANT WORKERS FROM THAILAND: Overview: Thai Migrant Workers - Dr. Supang Chantavanich, Director of the Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University; Inequality in Thailand: The Cause of Migration - Dr. Yongyuth Chalamwong, Research Director Human Resources and Social Development Program, Thai Development Research Institute (TDRI); The Problems and Solutions for Thai Workers in Japan - H.E. Mr. Kasit Piromya, Ambassador of Thailand to Japan; Human Security Issues for Thai Migrant Workers - Salika Sorapipatana and Taksa Aura-ek, Asian Research Centre for Migration (ARCM), Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University; Closing Speech - Somchai Homlaor, Secretary General, Forum Asia Foundation... APPENDIX 1: Workers’ Demands in a Textile and Garment Factory, Mae Sot - Yaung Chi Oo Workers’ Association, Information Release 24 June 2003... APPENDIX 2: Case Summaries: Migrant Workers from Burma - Interpretation and Translation Service (ITS) Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch (BEW) Format/size:   PDF (304.85 K) Date of entry/update:   10 December 2010 Title:   Reforming the Banking System in Burma: A Survey of the Problems and Possibilities Date of publication:   25 September 2002 Description/subject:   Sean Turnell, Economics Department, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Abstract: "A country's financial system plays a critical role in its economic development. It is the vehicle through which the means of exchange are created, resources are mobilised and allocated, risks are managed, government spending is financed, foreign capital is accessed, and it is via financial institutions that individuals can protect themselves against economic fluctuations. Notwithstanding this essential role, Burma has not had a properly functioning financial system for four decades. The present system, an unstable mix of monolithic state-owned institutions and a cohort of new private banks of dubious legitimacy, is a serious brake on Burma's economy. This paper examines the role financial institutions can play in a country's development, explores how Burma's current system falls far short of this ideal and broadly outlines how it might be reformed. It argues the case for the standard remedies professed by economists of liberalisation, stabilisation and privatisation but, critically, suggests that these must be preceded by more fundamental reforms that create the legal, regulatory and other infrastructure that are the prerequisites of a modern, and efficient, financial system. ..". Keywords: Burma; Banks; Regulation; Supervision; Financial Liberalisation; Economic Development. Paper presented to the 1st Collaborative International Conference of the Burma Studies Group, Gothenburg, Sweden, 21-25 September 2002 Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Format/size:   pdf (239K), html (380K), Word (187K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/Turnell_bankreform.doc http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/Turnell_bankreform.htm Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Burma's Economy - A Reply to Zaw Tun Date of publication:   15 January 2002 Description/subject:   "In August 2000 a speech by Brigadier General Zaw Tun, Deputy Minister for National Planning and Economic Development in Burma's military regime, was circulated on various mailing lists on the internet. The speech -- online on this website at http://www.ibiblio.rg/obl/docs/zaw_tun%2007-07-2000.htm -- which had been delivered a month earlier at a seminar on Burma's economy at the Institute of Economics in Rangoon, demonstrated, in the words BurmaNet, 'a frankness and grasp of economics not generally displayed by a ranking member of the regime'. The purpose of this note is to re-examine Zaw Tun's speech in the light of recent economic developments, and against what might be considered a consensual view of sound economics for a country such as Burma. Finding that Zaw Tun's grasp of economics is rather less than first appears, the note concludes that Burma's economy is also in a far worse state than he suggests. Turning this around, moreover, will not come from mere tinkering with economic policy in the ways he indicates, but will require the profound reconstruction of the country's political economy. The note is organised according to the same categories that were employed in Zaw Tun's original speech. They were: 1.Growth and GDP; 2.Investment; 3.Trade Policy; 4.Taxation; 5.Currency; 6.Interest Rates; 7.Open Discussion." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell (Macquarie University) Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Banking in Burma: New Frontiers, or a Barren Wasteland? Date of publication:   July 2001 Description/subject:   "A country�s financial system provides its means of exchange and is the mechanism through which its resources are mobilised and allocated. The financial system is the arena in which economic risk can be managed, government debt can be financed, foreign capital can be accessed and managed, and it is the vehicle through which monetary policy can be implemented. According to Larry Summers, the former Secretary of the US Treasury, a country�s financial system provides the �wheels� for its development...The foundations of a proper functioning financial system are transparency, accountability, governance and the effective transmission of market signals. Burma�s financial system possesses few of these virtues. Burma�s banks do not fulfil the role allotted to such institutions in allocating resources in ways beyond the whims of the military. Worse, they may be little more than facades for the activity of criminals and a narco-state. Unfortunately the history of financial sector reform in Burma does not lend optimism to the hope that this might change without more fundamental changes in the country. Like so much else in Burma, the emergence of a viable banking system must await the political reform that is so long overdue." Extra keywords: money laundering, joint venture regulation, exchange controls. Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Format/size:   html (105k) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   BEW News (June 2001) Date of publication:   June 2001 Description/subject:   Sanctions, Burma's economy in brief, Japan, China, Thailand, IT Revolution and Nuclear Power in Burma. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Foreign Direct Investment and the Garments Industry in Burma Date of publication:   June 2001 Description/subject:   "The coup d'etat by General Ne Win in 1962, and the introduction of the �Burmese Way to Socialism�, ensured that for almost 30 years foreign direct investment (FDI) in Burma was near enough to non-existent. In 1989, after the uprisings of the previous year and the re-shuffling of the upper military echelons into the reconstituted State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the door to foreign investment was opened once more. The following attempts to clarify the state of play regarding FDI in Burma. A particular emphasis is placed on the apparel industry, the one area of FDI growth in Burma in recent years. The first section presents an overview of the procedures for foreign investment, highlighting the role of the military regime in garnering resources. The second section briefly examines the data relating to FDI in Burma, highlighting its limitations. The third section provides an overview of FDI, including the recent collapse, the main sectors in receipt of foreign investment, and source countries. Overall, FDI is small in comparison with comparable countries and the prognosis for future investment is poor due to the winding down of certain prominent gas pipeline projects. The fourth section examines Burma's growing exports of apparel, notably to the USA. Due to the unreliable nature of the data surrounding Burma's apparel industry, a brief comparison is made with this industry�s development in Cambodia..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Format/size:   html (491K) Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   The FEC Crisis (BEW Comment, June 2001) Date of publication:   June 2001 Description/subject:   "...the crisis that is rapidly descending upon Burma�s Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs) system..." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   A Proposal for a Currency Board in a Democratic Burma Date of publication:   August 1999 Description/subject:   Abstract: "This paper argues that a currency board will provide a newly-democratic Burma with the stable monetary system it will need after decades of currency debasement under military rule. An old idea that has successfully re-emerged in recent years in a number of countries, currency boards are relatively simple and transparent institutions that can provide stability, predictability and credibility to an emerging economy's monetary institutions. Currency boards impose certain constraints on the ability of governments to conduct discretionary economic policies. The advantages they bring in establishing confidence in the currency, however, outweighs such considerations in countries whose greater need is the establishment of the sound foundations of a market economy." Author/creator:   Sean Turnell Language:   English Source/publisher:   Burma Economic Watch Format/size:   pdf (102K); html (169K) Alternate URLs:   http://www.efs.mq.edu.au/intranet/docs/dept_docs/Econ_docs/research_papers2/1999_research_papers/6-... Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Economy: general, analytical, statistical (SLORC/SPDC perspectives) Websites/Multiple Documents Title:   Central Statistical Corganisation: Selected Monthly Economic Indicators Description/subject:   Selected Monthly Economic Indicators: * Foreign Trade * Production * Prices * Finance * Foreign Investment * Transportation and Travel * Labour and Employment Language:   English Source/publisher:   [Myanmar] Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   29 November 2010 Individual Documents Title:   New Rivalry Taking Shape? Date of publication:   August 2002 Description/subject:   "Rumors of a split within Burma�s ruling military council have long focused on the alleged enmity between Gen Maung Aye and Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt. But now it appears that a new standoff has emerged, with even greater potential to jeopardize the junta�s unity. According to sources in Tokyo and Rangoon, Sr-Gen Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has begun to assert greater authority over the regime�s economic policies, pitting him against its economics czar, Gen David Abel. Abel, who is a minister for the prime minister�s office, is highly regarded by Asian economic planners as a rare realist within Burma�s ruling clique. They see him as a key player in efforts to implement reforms needed to lift the country out of its economic morass. As such, he is a familiar face at regional gatherings aimed at enhancing Burma�s economic engagement with the rest of Asia..." Language:   English Source/publisher:   "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 10, No. 6, July-August 2002 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   17 August 2010 Title:   Brigadier General Zaw Tun on Burma's Economy Date of publication:   07 July 2000 Description/subject:   [BurmaNet adds-This translation of an unpublished report was circulated on mailing lists on August 10, 2000. The original speech was on July 7. The comments attributed to Gen. Zaw Tun indicate a frankness and grasp of economics not generally displayed by a ranking member of the regime.] "Brigadier General Zaw Tun, Deputy Minister for National Planning and Economic Development, delivered a speech at the "Seminar on Myanmar Economy" held in the Padamya conference room of the Department of Management Studies, Institute of Economics, on 7 July 2000. The seminar lasted over 3 hours from 9:00am to 12:15pm..." He was subsequntly dismissed. See "A Reply to Zaw Tun" by Burma Economic Watch in this section at http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/Reply_to_Zaw_Tun.htm Language:   English Source/publisher:   SPDC>ABSDF>BurmanetNews Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 Title:   Review of the Financial, Economic & Social Conditions of the Union of Myanmar Date of publication:   June 1997 Description/subject:   Excerpts from a report by the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development. Language:   English Source/publisher:   Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development > "Burma Debate", Vol. IV, No. 2 Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   03 June 2003 SPDC statistics Websites/Multiple Documents Title:   Myanmar Archives Description/subject:   Data presumably taken from the CSO's Statistical Yearbooks. # Myanmar Statistical Data 2008... # Myanmar Statistical Data 2007... # Myanmar Statistical Data 2006...Excel files for these years contain data on: Climate; Population; Labour and Employment; Vital and Health; Agriculture,Livestock and Fishery; Forestry; Industry,Mines and Power; Construction; Coastal Trade; Foreign Trade and Balance of Payments; Prices and Internal Trade; Companies and Foreign Investment; Transport and Communications; National Accounts; Monetary; Public Finance; Education; Crime; Mass Media; Tourism; Other Social; Household expenditure.... While there is data in all these categories for 2006 and 2007, the 2008 data is limited to: National Accounts; Monetary; Public Finance; Education; Crime; Mass Media; Tourism; Other Social; Household expenditure..... There are also archives of "The New Light of Myanmar" from January 2008 and "Myanmar Alin" from January 2009. In addition there is a commercial and social Directory Language:   English Source/publisher:   SPDC --- Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) Format/size:   html Date of entry/update:   15 October 2010