Abstract
After decades as pariah state, Myanmar embarked on a transition toward democracy in 2010 which culminated in the first free elections in 25 years in 2015. In parallel to political liberalization, the country also opened up and reformed economically. Foreign capital started flowing in, trade increased enormously, the financial sector expanded, private business began to flourish, and rapid economic growth ensued. Lately, however, the road of transition has become bumpier. Peace negotiations and national reconciliation are moving only slowly and the economic reform momentum has slowed. Myanmar’s economy continues to suffer from limited diversification, low productivity, and poor infrastructure. Regional and global economic integration has progressed but remained fairly shallow. This chapter notes various social indicators that have improved as well as shortcomings that persist.
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Notes
- 1.
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics reported here are obtained from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI) database (http://databank.worldbank.org/data/source/world-development-indicators).
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Bernhardt, T., Hein, A. (2019). Myanmar: On a Bumpy Road of Transition. In: Macdonald, R. (eds) Southeast Asia and the ASEAN Economic Community. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19722-3_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19722-3_11
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