Burma Places Hopes for Development in Foreign Investment

August 23, 2012

Burmese worshipers gather at a Buddhist religious center in Yangon.

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Burma is in a good position to make big gains in Asia’s fast-growing markets. But development must include all of society and be sustainable for Burma to reach its goals.

That is what the Asian Development Bank said in a recent report.

Cyn-Young Park is an economist with the bank. She says Burma’s economic position is strengthened by its natural resources, such as oil, gas and minerals. It also has two large, growing neighbors: India and China. And the nation is young: one in four of its citizens are under the age of thirty.

But Burma has a long way to go. After fifty years of military rule, it is one of Asia’s poorest countries. Basic infrastructure, like roads, bridges and railways, are not developed. And only thirty percent of rural people have electricity.

Burma is trying to increase foreign investment. Its civilian government is struggling to agree on a new foreign investment law. Recent versions of the law restrict foreign ownership in some industries and ban it completely in others.

Sean Turnell is an economist with Australia’s Macquarie University. He said the foreign investment law is now facing local disapproval, or push back.