CHAPTER 1. Business environment
Introduction
After decades of isolationism, military rule and a controlled economy, Myanmar is awakening to the potential of achieving rapid economic growth, development and widespread prosperity. Realizing these goals will depend, to a large degree, on its ability to institute much-needed regulatory and institutional reforms. However, while the private sector must be the engine of growth for the nation, the lack of information on the conditions faced by businesses of all sizes in various sectors and locations throughout the country complicates the creation of effective policy recommendations.
massive contributions made by various cooperating agencies that are duly acknowledged at the beginning of this publication. The implementation and outcomes of the business survey project, including a literature review, methodology, data collection, data analysis and policy recommendations, are detailed in full in this publication. Chapter I provides a useful background for the survey results by describing the current business climate in Myanmar. The status of the business environment, in particular, is discussed based on the results of earlier business surveys conducted by various development agencies.
ESCAP and OECD recognized this issue while conducting a multi-dimensional policy review of Myanmar – a comprehensive policy-diagnostic programme – during 2013 and 2014.1 They sought to conduct a survey to resolve the lack of information on the business climate in order to help develop practical policy recommendations to the Government of Myanmar. This led to the collaboration between ESCAP, OECD and the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) – the national chamber of commerce and industry – in developing and implementing the current survey project in Myanmar.2 The survey is the first-ever to seek opinions from businesses on a nationwide basis in Myanmar.
Questionnaire development, sampling methods, the survey team, the data collection process and respondent profiles are then discussed in detail in chapter II. The survey covered more than 3 000 firms in all sectors, sizes, types of ownership and geographic locations with a satisfactory response rate, which is rare for business surveys conducted in developing countries (World Bank, 2015). Data were principally collected through face-toface interviews that were conducted on-site. Chapter III provides an in-depth analysis of the survey results. An overview of firms participating in the survey is presented and relevant survey data on the key aspects of business environment are then displayed graphically. Those key issues include the business environment, market and supply conditions, innovation and technology, human resource management, access to finance, productivity and corruption. The agribusiness and food industries are then reviewed as a sectoral study since this sector is particularly important to Myanmar’s socio-economic development. The results provide a detailed picture of the situation on the ground.
In order to adequately illustrate the status of the entire business sector in Myanmar, the survey targeted various types of businesses throughout the country. A survey team was established at the premises of UMFCCI in Yangon, comprising of seven area teams and totalling more than 100 people. Survey questionnaires were developed in both Burmese and English, in consultation with a number of country and industrial experts. Data collection took approximately three months from early January to early April 2014. It must be noted that the survey could not have been completed without the
Chapter IV combines the context of the business environment discussed in chapter I with the survey results in Chapter III in order to develop suggestions for policies and actions to be taken by the Government of Myanmar and businesses. Chapter V discusses the limitations of the survey and the possible areas of future research and chapter VI provides the conclusion.
The results of this joint technical assistance programme are available in two OECD publications (2013 and 2015).
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The initial results of this business survey are also available in Abe and Molnar, 2014.
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