MYANMAR BUSINESS SURVEY: DATA ANALYSIS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS score in the figure indicates that Myanmar is 56.4 percentage points away from the best performance across all countries (World Bank, 2014a).
Figure 1.6. Index of Economic Freedom: Myanmar (20112015) 55 Index score
In 2014 the World Bank also conducted its first Enterprise Survey in Myanmar. This firm-level survey13 obtained information from owners and top managers on a broad range of business environment topics. In Myanmar, the sample comprised 632 registered small, medium and large sized enterprises, mostly in manufacturing and services (World Bank, 2014b). The main constraints found were access to finance, land and electricity (figure 1.5). While corruption was not frequently reported as a major obstacle, the incidence of corruption was quite high with more than 50 per cent of firms reporting that bribes were necessary for being granted an import licence (World Bank, 2014b). This discrepancy may reflect acceptance by the business community of corruption as a “fact of life”.
50 45 40 35 30 2011
2012 2013
2014 2015
Source: Heritage Foundation, 2015.
economy and opening up markets (figure 1.6). Much improvement has also been observed in the areas of corruption, labour market, business regulation and the banking sector. The Government is encouraged to continue its reform process with particular emphasis on corruption, property rights, independent judiciary and further trade and investment liberalization (Heritage Foundation, 2015).
Myanmar also remains low in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, which has been published annually in cooperation with the Wall Street Journal (Heritage Foundation, 2015). The Index is based on 10 factors under four economic categories: rule of law; fiscal policy; regulatory efficiency; and market openness. For 2015, Myanmar is ranked at 161 out of 186 countries, while it is also at 38 out of 42 countries in Asia and the Pacific. During the past five years, however, the country has showed substantial improvement among the participating countries, particularly by liberalizing
JETRO (2014) has been conducting surveys of Japanese companies operating in the Asia-Pacific region in order to better understand their business activities and the challenges they face. In the 2013 survey only 6.9 per cent of 2 500 sampled Japanese firms were engaged in trade with Myanmar compared with 61 per cent for China and more than 30 per cent for Indonesia, Malaysia and Viet Nam. A substantial
Figure 1.5. Main constraints to doing business in Myanmar 22.7
Access to finance
21.3
Access to land 16.8
Access to electricity 9.4
Access to skilled workers Labour regulations
4.9
Political instability
4.4
Tax rates
2.9
Tax administration
2.3
Transport
2.1
Business licensing and permits
1.7
Customs and trade regulations
1.6
Courts
1.4 1.0
Competition from informal sector Corruption
0.6
Crime, theft and disorder
0.4 0
5
10
15 Percentage
Source: World Bank, 2014b.
10
20
25