The political upheavals in the Union of Myanmar in 1988/89 precipitated many changes in the political, social, and economic sectors. The country is now at a critical crossroad in its history and development. This study on Myanmar's options in terms of restructuring its economy is therefore useful and timely. The papers in this volume attempt to identify the major issues concerning the role of the state and economic management, the new directions in resource, agricultural and industrial development and the challenges arising from the opening up of the economy to the stimuli of external trade and capital movements.

The grim state of the Myanmar economy in the second half of the 1980s forced the previous government of the Burma Socialist Programme Party to liberalize its external and internal trade. Since the military coup following political chaos in the later part of 1988, Japan, the European Community and the United States have suspended new economic aid to Myanmar. This has led to the present military government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), to work towards closer cooperation in diplomatic and trade relations with other Southeast Asian countries and to further liberalize its trade sector. This study explores and analyzes Myanmar's external trade and its trade relations with Southeast Asian nations, many of which are members of the Association of Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN), and raises issues and prospects of economic cooperation with neighbouring countries in the region, including the option for active participation in ASEAN.

In late 2004, Myanmar's best known general and long-serving leader of the military regime was suddenly dismissed. This generated widespread uncertainty throughout the country and raised questions about the future. This book addresses some of the issues.

The region's most powerful organisation, ASEAN, is being challenged to ensure security and encourage democracy while simultaneously reinventing itself as a model of Asian regionalism. Ten analysts from six countries address the pressing questions that Southeast Asia faces in the 21st century.

This book provides a sophisticated, yet accessible, overview of the key political, economic and social challenges facing contemporary Myanmar and explains the complex historical and ethnic dynamics that have shaped the country. With clear and incisive contributions from the world’s leading Myanmar scholars, this book assesses the policies and political reforms that have provoked contestation in Myanmar’s recent history and driven both economic and social change. In this context, questions of economic ownership and control and the distribution of natural resources are shown to be deeply informed by long-standing fractures among ethnic and civil-military relations. The chapters analyse the key issues that constrain or expedite societal development in Myanmar and place recent events of national and international significance in the context of its complex history and social relations. In doing so, the book demonstrates that ethnic and cultural diversity is at the core of Myanmar’s society and heavily influences all aspects of life in the country. Filling a gap in the market, this research textbook and primer will be of interest to upper undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars of Southeast Asian politics, economics and society and to journalists and professionals working within governments, companies and other organisations.

With motivated human resources and a rich natural bounty, Myanmar is expected to take off with sustained growth and eventually attain a unique welfare state. On the basis of the authors’ field surveys and innumerable dialogues with public officials, private professionals, scholars, and others, in addition to intensive desk studies since around 2000, the present volume lays out the essential ingredients for drawing a roadmap to realise the above-mentioned objective. That goal is, specifically, financial development, adequate social capital, indigenous modern manufactures and closer international tie-ups, among others, but above all, sound agrarian development. An effort has been made to place the required ingredients in their historical contexts, as historical experiences constitute an important sociopolitical condition in which development takes place. Myanmar nationals and readers concerned with the country’s economic progress are encouraged to give serious, sustained thought to coming up with a socially supportable roadmap for the country's development path. The present volume provides valuable hints for that purpose.

Since its independence in January 1948, Myanmar has tried to find a way to deal with (at one time) ideologically hostile and traditionally chauvinistic China which has pursued a foreign policy aimed at restoring its perceived influence in Myanmar. To counter China's attempts to influence Myanmar's foreign policy options has always been a challenge for the Myanmar government. Since the 1950s, successive Myanmar governments have realized that Myanmar's bilateral relations with the People's Republic of China should best be conducted in the context of promoting the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, the Bandung spirit and the Pauk-Phaw (kinsfolk) friendship. The term Pauk-Phaw is exclusively devoted to denote the special nature of the Sino-Myanmar relationship. This work argues that Myanmar's relationship with China is asymmetric but Myanmar skilfully plays the "China Card" and it enjoys considerable space in its conduct of foreign relations. So long as both sides fulfill the obligations that come under "Pauk-Phaw" friendship, the relationship will remain smooth. Myanmar has constantly repositioned her relations with China to her best advantage. Myanmar's China policy has always been placed somewhere in between balancing and bandwagoning, and the juxtaposition of accommodating China's regional strategic interests and resisting Chinese influence and interference in Myanmar's internal affairs has been a hallmark of Myanmar's China policy. This is likely to remain unchanged.