Editing Economy of Myanmar (section)

==Foreign investment==
Though foreign investment has been encouraged, it has so far met with only moderate success. The United States has placed trade sanctions on Burma. The [[European Union]] has placed embargoes on arms, non-humanitarian aid, visa bans on military regime leaders, and limited investment bans. Both the European Union and the US have placed sanctions on grounds of [[human rights]] violations in the country. Many nations in Asia, particularly India, Thailand and China have actively traded with Burma. However, on April 22, 2013, the EU suspended economic and political sanctions against Burma.<ref name="investvine">{{cite web |last=Calderon |first=Justin |date=24 April 2013 |title=End of EU sanctions augurs Myanmar rush |url=http://investvine.com/end-of-eu-sanctions-augurs-myanmar-rush/ |access-date=29 April 2013 |website=Inside Investor |archive-date=17 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617191152/http://investvine.com/end-of-eu-sanctions-augurs-myanmar-rush/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The public sector enterprises remain highly inefficient and also privatisation efforts have stalled.{{citation needed|date=February 2007}} The estimates of Burmese foreign trade are highly ambiguous because of the great volume of [[black market]] trading. A major ongoing problem is the failure to achieve [[monetary]] and [[fiscal policy|fiscal]] stability. One government initiative was to utilise Burma's large [[natural gas]] deposits. Currently, Burma has attracted investment from Thai, Malaysian, Filipino, Russian, Australian, Indian, and Singaporean companies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.financialexpress-bd.com/index3.asp?cnd=12%2F15%2F2006&section_id=24&newsid=46742&spcl=no |title=VOL NO REGD NO DA 1589 |access-date=2 November 2023 |archive-date=27 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927050340/http://www.financialexpress-bd.com/index3.asp?cnd=12%2F15%2F2006&section_id=24&newsid=46742&spcl=no |url-status=live }}</ref> Trade with the US amounted to $243.56 million as of February 2013, accounting for 15 projects and just 0.58 per cent of the total, according to government statistics.<ref>{{cite web |last=Calderon |first=Justin |date=29 April 2013 |title=US to boost Myanmar trade, investment |url=http://investvine.com/us-looks-to-boost-myanmar-trade-investment/ |access-date=29 April 2013 |website=Inside Investor |archive-date=20 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520045331/http://investvine.com/us-looks-to-boost-myanmar-trade-investment/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Asian investment===
''[[The Economist]]''{{'}}s special report on Burma points to increased economic activity resulting from Burma's political transformation and influx of foreign direct investment from Asian neighbours.<ref name="Economist Rite">{{Cite news |date=25 May 2013 |title=Geopolitical consequences: Rite of passage |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21578174-opening-up-myanmar-could-transform-rest-asia-rite-passage |access-date=31 May 2013 |archive-date=31 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531041427/http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21578174-opening-up-myanmar-could-transform-rest-asia-rite-passage |url-status=live }}</ref> Near the [[Mingaladon Township|Mingaladon]] Industrial Park, for example, Japanese-owned factories have risen from the "debris" caused by "decades of sanctions and economic mismanagement."<ref name="Economist Rite" /> Japanese Prime Minister [[Shinzō Abe]] has identified Burma as an economically attractive market that will help stimulate the Japanese economy.<ref name="Economist Rite" /> Among its various enterprises, Japan is helping build the [[Thilawa Port]], which is part of the [[Thilawa Special Economic Zone]], and helping fix the electricity supply in [[Yangon]].<ref name="Economist Rite" />

Japan is not the largest investor in Myanmar. "Thailand, for instance, the second biggest investor in Myanmar after China, is forging ahead with a bigger version of Thilawa at [[Dawei]], on Myanmar's [[Tenasserim Division|Tenasserim Coast]]&nbsp;... Thai rulers have for centuries been toying with the idea of building a canal across the [[Kra Isthmus]], linking the [[Gulf of Thailand]] directly to the [[Andaman Sea]] and the [[Indian Ocean]] to avoid the journey round peninsular Malaysia through the [[Strait of Malacca]]." Dawei would give Thailand that connection. <ref name="Economist Rite" />

===Chinese investment===
{{main|BCIM Economic Corridor}}
China, by far the biggest investor in Burma, has focused on constructing oil and gas pipelines that "crisscross the country, starting from a new terminus at [[Kyaukphyu]], just below [[Sittwe]], up to [[Mandalay]] and on to the Chinese border town of [[Ruili]] and then [[Kunming]], the capital of [[Yunnan province]]". This would prevent China from "having to funnel oil from Africa and the Middle East through the bottleneck around Singapore".<ref name="Economist Rite" /> 

Since the Myanmar's military junta took power as the [[State Peace and Development Council]] junta in 1988, the ties between China's [[People's Liberation Army]] and Myanmar's military forces developed and formalised key ties between the two states. China became Myanmar's key source of aid, loans and other financial assistance. China remained Myanmar's biggest foreign investor in 2013 even after the economy opened up to other providers like Japan and India. Chinese monetary assistance allowed China to gain structural power of Myanmar and a dominant position within the [[natural resource]] sector. During this period, an underdeveloped Burmese industrial sector was driven in part by Chinese investment and consumption of a few key extractive sectors such as mining, driving domestic production away from consumer goods sectors like textiles and electronics.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Chinese Foreign Relations with Weak Peripheral States: Asymmetrical Economic Power and Insecurity |last=Reeves |first=Jeffrey  |publisher= Routledge |year=2015 |isbn= 978-1-138-89150-0 |series=Asian Security Studies |publication-date=November 2, 2015 |pages=153–156}}</ref>

[[File:Myanmar-China Border Yanlonkyine Gate.jpg|thumb|right|Yanlonkyine Gate on the Myanmar-China Border within [[Kokang Self-Administered Zone]] in 2019.]]

Legal two-way trade between Burma and mainland China reached US$1.5 billion annually by 1988 and additional Chinese trade, investment, economic, and military aid was sought to invigorate and jumpstart the re-emerging Burmese economy.{{cn|date=September 2024}} An influx of foreign capital investment from mainland China, Germany, and France has led to the development of new potential construction projects across Burma.<ref>{{Cite book |title=China's Asian Dream: Empire Building Along the New Silk Road |last= Miller  |first=Tom |publisher=Zed Books |year=2017 |isbn= 978-1-78360-923-9}}</ref> Many of these infrastructure projects are in the hands of Chinese construction contractors and civil engineers with various projects such as irrigation dams, highways, bridges, ground satellite stations, and an international airport for Mandalay.<ref>{{Cite book |title=World On Fire |last=Chua | first=Amy |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-385-72186-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/worldonfirehowex00chua_0/page/25 25] |url=https://archive.org/details/worldonfirehowex00chua_0/page/25 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Impact of China's Rise on the Mekong Region |last=Santasombat |first=Yos  |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-349-69307-8}}</ref> Burmese entrepreneurs of Chinese ancestry have also established numerous joint ventures and corporate partnerships with mainland Chinese [[State-owned enterprises]] to facilitate the construction of oil pipelines that potentially could create thousands of jobs throughout the country.{{cn|date=September 2024}} Private Chinese companies rely on the established overseas Chinese [[bamboo network]] as a conduit between mainland China and Burmese Chinese businesses to navigate the local economic landscape and facilitate trade between the two countries. Mainland China is now Burma's most important source of foreign goods and services as well as one of the most important sources of capital for [[foreign direct investment]] (FDI) in the country. In the [[fiscal year]] 2013, Chin accounted for 61 percent of all foreign direct investment.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia: Cultures and Practices |last=Santasombat |first=Yos |publisher= Palgrave Macmillan |year=2017 |isbn=978-981-10-4695-7 |pages=234–236}}</ref> Between 2007 and 2015, Chinese FDI increased from US$775 million to US$21.867 billion accounting for 40 percent of all FDI in the country. Much of this investment went into Burma's energy and mining industries.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia: Cultures and Practices |last=Santasombat |first=Yos |publisher= Palgrave Macmillan |year=2017 |isbn=978-981-10-4695-7 |page=235}}</ref> Chinese private firms account for 87% percent of total legal cross-border trade at [[Ruili]] and have a considerable amount of structural power over the illicit economy of Myanmar. Chinese structural power over Burma's structure of finance also allows China to maintain a dominant position within the country's natural resource sector, primarily Burma's latent oil, gas, and uranium sectors.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Chinese Foreign Relations with Weak Peripheral States: Asymmetrical Economic Power and Insecurity |last=Reeves |first=Jeffrey  |publisher= Routledge |year=2015 |isbn= 978-1-138-89150-0 |series=Asian Security Studies |publication-date=November 2, 2015 |pages=151–156}}</ref> China's position as the country's primary investor also allows it to be its largest consumer of its extractive industries. Many Chinese [[state-owned enterprises]] have set their sights on Burma's high-value natural resource industries such as raw jade stones, teak and timber, rice, and marine fisheries.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia: Cultures and Practices |last=Santasombat |first=Yos |publisher= Palgrave Macmillan |year=2017 |isbn=978-981-10-4695-7 |pages=234–235}}</ref>

===Foreign aid===
The level of international aid to Burma ranks amongst the lowest in the world (and the lowest in the Southeast Asian region)<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wade |first=Francis |date=2 March 2011 |title=UK to become top donor to Burma |work=Democratic Voice of Burma |url=http://www.dvb.no/news/uk-to-become-top-donor-to-burma/14523 |url-status=dead |access-date=8 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927225912/http://www.dvb.no/news/uk-to-become-top-donor-to-burma/14523 |archive-date=27 September 2011}}</ref>—Burma receives $4 per capita in development assistance, as compared to the average of $42.30 per capita.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Burma |url=http://www.refintl.org/where-we-work/asia/burma |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111117053045/http://www.refintl.org/where-we-work/asia/burma |archive-date=17 November 2011 |access-date=8 August 2011 |website=Refugees International}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=30 June 2011 |title=Australia's aid to Burma—Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) |url=http://www.ausaid.gov.au/country/burma/faq-burma.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111117054501/http://www.ausaid.gov.au/country/burma/faq-burma.cfm |archive-date=17 November 2011 |access-date=8 August 2011 |website=AusAid |publisher=Government of Australia}}</ref>

In April 2007, the US [[Government Accountability Office]] (GAO) identified the financial and other restrictions that the military government places on international humanitarian assistance in the Southeast Asian country. The GAO report, entitled "Assistance Programs Constrained in Burma," outlines the specific efforts of the Burmese government to hinder the humanitarian work of international organisations, including by restricting the free movement of international staff within the country.  The report notes that the regime has tightened its control over assistance work since former Prime Minister [[Khin Nyunt]] was purged in October 2004.

Furthermore, the reports states that the military government passed guidelines in February 2006, which formalised Burma's restrictive policies.  According to the report, the guidelines require that programs run by humanitarian groups "enhance and safeguard the national interest" and that international organisations co-ordinate with state agents and select their Burmese staff from government-prepared lists of individuals.  [[United Nations]] officials have declared these restrictions unacceptable.

{{blockquote|The shameful behavior of Burma's military regime in tying the hand of humanitarian organizations is laid out in these pages for all to see, and it must come to an end," said U.S. Representative [[Tom Lantos]] (D-CA).  "In eastern Burma, where the military regime has burned or otherwise destroyed over 3,000 villages, humanitarian relief has been decimated.  At least one million people have fled their homes and many are simply being left to die in the jungle."}}

US Representative [[Ileana Ros-Lehtinen]] (R-FL) said that the report "underscores the need for democratic change in Burma, whose military regime arbitrarily arrests, tortures, rapes and executes its own people, ruthlessly persecutes ethnic minorities, and bizarrely builds itself a new capital city while failing to address the increasingly urgent challenges of refugee flows, illicit narcotics and human trafficking, and the spread of HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases."<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 April 2007 |title=Myanmar's rulers implement increasingly restrictive regulations for aid-giving agencies |work=International Herald Tribune}}</ref>