Myanmar was one of East Asia’s fast growing advanced economies in the early 20th century. But decades of isolation took its toll and Myanmar was left out of the region’s remarkable transformation as Japan, Korea, China and fellow ASEAN countries became a global engine of growth, lifting millions of people out of poverty.
In 1960 Myanmar’s real per capita income was much closer to its neighbors: Indonesia’s income was 40 percent higher and Thailand’s was 80 percent higher. Today...
If the 10-nation ASEAN bloc is to double its economy by 2020, then a large thrust of the growth rate will be coming from Myanmar.
According to consultancy McKinsey Global Institute, Myanmar’s economic output could quadruple by 2030 to $200 billion if the country maintains a steadfast pace of economic and political reforms. The report, released on May 30, said that Myanmar would have to diversify its economy away from the agricultural sector and towards more high-tech industries.
Under...
Government reforms have bettered Myanmar’s economic prospects, and the country’s banks are demonstrating impressive growth
Despite the country’s macroeconomic performance having long trailed its neighbouring Southeast Asian nations’, Myanmar now offers a range of auspicious opportunities for investors and businesses alike. Myanmar is now “set to become one of the next rising stars in Asia,” says Moo Sun, COO of Ayeyarwady Bank.
Since the inauguration of President Thein Sein in...
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday remained bullish on Myanmar's economic prospects as it believes the country will achieve 6.8 per cent growth in fiscal 2014 compared to 5.5 per cent last year.
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday remained bullish on Myanmar's economic prospects as it believes the country will achieve 6.8 per cent growth in fiscal 2014 compared to 5.5 per cent last year.
The boost will be fuelled by strong export earnings from...
Myanmar is running behind schedule for starting a stock exchange by 2015 after delays in getting the legal framework in place, said an executive at Japan Exchange Group Inc. (8697), which is assisting on the project.
“We’re pressed for time,” Koichiro Miyahara, senior executive officer at Japan Exchange, said in an interview in Tokyo on Aug. 27. He said the late approval of a capital markets bill has delayed the project, and it’s up to the Myanmar government as to how fast it can set...
Myanmar is growing fast, but at least one sector isn't growing as fast as the government wants. The nation’s leaders are striving to export 3 million tons of rice during the 12 months ending March 2014, which would mark a 43 percent increase over the previous period, a target that industry experts and government officials say is impossible to achieve.
In the first half of the 20th century, under British rule, Myanmar was the world’s top rice exporter. But after the military junta took...
Ho Chi Minh City-based C.T Group has submitted the plans to develop Vietnam – Myanmar Industrial Zone (IZ) in a recent meeting with H.E. Nyan Tun - Vice President of Myanmar, according to a local newspaper.
The IZ will accommodate many Vietnamese manufacturers, since it will offer them “the opportunities to expand the commodity market into Myanmar by directly relocating production facilities to this industrial zone,” the Naypyidaw-based New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.
The...
The second Myanmar Real Estate Summit (MRES), to be held in Yangon from September 30 to October 1, will hone in on pivotal issues, critical for investing in that country's real-estate development and property sector.
The sector is booming as investors respond positively to the country's economic and political reforms. Burgeoning demand and new opportunities are attracting investments from around the world.
The extent of this can be judged by the fact that Yangon enjoys the highest property...
Myanmar’s rapid re-engagement with the international community is attracting an increasing number of expatriates and contributing to an incredible demand for residential property. Yet as new arrivals to the country quickly discover, the same factors that make Myanmar an exciting country full of potential and opportunity also lend to challenging living conditions. - See more at: http://www.property-report.com/dealing-with-the-difficulties-of-living-in-myanmar-31571#sthash.oLvVFXUe.dpuf
The...
It turns out that Myanmar may need China after all.
Reformers had hoped that the transition from a military regime to democracy would bring in new foreign investment to help Myanmar wean itself from support from its massive neighbor to the north , which was its main patron during decades of international isolation. But it hasn’t quite turned out that way.
In fact, plummeting Chinese investment in the wake of Myanmar’s pivot to the West—along with protests over profit sharing and...
Myanmar and Japan will cooperate on a wide range of health issues mainly including combating tuberculosis (TB), HIV/AIDS and malaria, official media reported Friday.
The agreemets were reached during a meeting between Myanmar President U Thein Sein and visiting parliament member of Japanese House of Representatives and Chairman of Japan-Myanmar Parliamentarian Friendship League Ichiro Aisawa at the Presidential Palace in Nay Pyi Taw on Thursday.
In addition to discussions on further...
RANGOON — Five years ago, Nay Phone Latt’s daily routine consisted of killing time by reading, doing yoga, and writing letters, short stories, and poems in his cell. But on a recent overcast morning in Rangoon, the blogger hardly had time to answer a phone call as he rushed about, before taking a bus to Burma’s capital Naypyidaw in order to help change the law that sent him to prison.
“I only have 20 minutes,” he said with an apologetic smile to a visitor at his office, located in...
Beans are a profitable export commodity for Myanmar. The production of the cash crop supports one-sixth of the country's population. The nation currently exports 1.9 million tons per year to 52 countries, but just like its rice production, Myanmar has the capacity to produce and export more beans, if the junta hadn’t left the country decades behind in economic development, that is.
Despite being lower profile than rice, beans and pulses are vital cash crops for as many as 10 million...
Myanmar is a country undergoing rapid transformation. After 50 years of political and economic isolation, the country has opened up and re-entered the global community. Following elections in March 2011 that resulted in the election of President Thein Sein, Myanmar has experienced two years of growth and development. International sanctions have been lifted and there has been a sharp increase in foreign investments, much to the delight of Myanmar’s people. Today there is a buzz and an...
According to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) data, the poverty rate was 32 percent before 2010. In 2011, it declined to 26 percent. In order to improve economic development of Myanmar, Myanmar is drawing up strategies in political, economic, administrative, and private sectors to reduce its poverty to 16 percent in coming 2014-2015.
Myanmar is a country which gets less income and the capital investment is poor. We have shortages in electric, drinking...
Shrinking global demand, poor infrastructure and hesitant investors could leave Myanmar far short of its rice export target this year, dealing a blow to its ambitions of competing with the world's top shippers of the grain.
Industry experts and government officials say the 3 million-tonne target for the current fiscal year ending March 2014 is unrealistic and Myanmar, the world's top rice exporter under British rule in 1934, faces multiple hurdles in revamping an industry that withered...
Socio- economic and cultural conditions: The past 40 to 50 years the movement of people for trade and commerce and cultural was strictly prohibited despite of similar civilization and proximity at the borderland of Indo- Myanmar, there was no language problems in borderland. The northern borderland of Myanmar and Eastern borderland of North Eastern region are not properly researched and trap the benefits of cultural and economic relations.
The main attraction in borderland for foreign...
Myanmar’s tax measures instituted to check soaring real estate prices have been ineffective, property agents and economists say, due to the inefficiencies of the government. In addition, the market has seen significant money laundering, due to flaws in regulations, flaws that need to be fixed soon for the property market to properly cool down.
With prices in real estate markets around the country, especially in Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial center, skyrocketing in recent years, the...
Kachin can become one of the key states to help Myanmar accelerate its economic growth. Kachin's chief minister said the state has fallen behind because of the civil war, but all that could change soon.
From its close proximity to economic giants like China to its abundant natural resources, Kachin, located in Myanmar's upper north, is well-placed to help lead the country in its development.
But plagued with civil unrest, the state with a population of 1.6 million has instead fallen...
Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) will spend US$170 million in providing electricity and sanitation to rural areas across Myanmar.
The Japanese government has provided US$900 million in development aid to Myanmar this year. The JICA is will use US$450 million to create basic infrastructure in rural areas.
"JICA wants to reduce deprivation in remote areas. We are doing to implement sanitation and electricity system in rural areas with the guidance of our government. Getting...
Just like Myanmar’s economy that is projected to multiply from the current $45 billion up to more than $300 billion by 2030, the number of super-rich in the poor Southeast Asian nation is set to increase at least six-fold in the coming decade, as the country embraces political and economic reforms.
There are only 40 individuals in Myanmar with more than $30 million in assets currently, according to the World Ultra Wealth Report, published by Wealth-X, a wealth intelligence firm, but that...
The worst monsoon flooding in more than 20 years has had only a slight impact on the price of rice because the floodwaters did not hit the country’s main rice-growing areas, according to the Myanmar Rice Federation.
U Aung Zaw Oo, a joint secretary at the federation, said the wholesale price of 25 percent broken rice had risen K500 per 49 kilogram sack to K15,500 but would likely fall the same amount next month.
He said the price rose this month after rice mills in flood-hit areas,...