Myanmar has an agricultural economy, with over 60% of the population working in agriculture. Rice is a major crop, though agricultural productivity has fallen in recent decades. The country remains poor overall despite opening its economy in the 1990s, with GDP and living standards around 10% higher in the mid-1990s than 1985–1986. Myanmar is also a major producer of opium, though production has declined from its peak in the 1990s.

1. Economic Setting::
Myanmar
Reported by:
John Christian Hayco
(Crim. 2-B, Group 6)

2. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
• Myanmar is primarily an
agricultural country. Some 63
percent of the working
population is engaged in growing
or processing crops, while
another 12 percent works in
industry. Before World War II

3. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
began in 1939, Myanmar was
the world’s major rice exporter.
After the war ended in 1945, the
area of land devoted to
agriculture slowly recovered, but
as the population grew the
surplus available for export
never reached the earlier level.

4. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
From 1962 to 1988 the
government attempted to
develop the economy following a
“Burmese Way to Socialism,”
with nationalization of most
industries. The policy was a
failure, however, and in the

5. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
1990s the government opened
the economy to market forces,
particularly inviting foreign
investment. Still, many state
economic enterprises continue
to lose money, the black market
flourishes, and the heavy

6. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
government spending for the
growing military budget feeds
inflation. By the mid-1990s, after
several years of significant
growth, the levels of gross
domestic product (GDP),
agricultural output,

7. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
consumption, and investment in
Myanmar were about one-tenth
higher than they had been in
1985-1986, the best year before
the military coup d’état and
political unrest of 1988. Since
the population had grown in the

8. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
interim, this means that the
average person remained worse
off than a decade before. In 1997
the United States imposed
strong economic sanctions on
Myanmar to express disapproval
of the military government’s

9. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
human rights record. That same
year Asia suffered a regional
economic downturn. These
developments affected
Myanmar’s economy, slowing
foreign investment and raising
inflation.

10. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
An estimated 27.3 million people
were employed in the civilian
economy in 2006. The largest
portion, 63 percent, worked in
agriculture, forestry, and fishing;
25 percent were in services; and
the remaining 12 percent

11. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
was employed in manufacturing,
construction, and mining. A
significant portion of the
working-age population (those
15 to 59) was engaged in other
informal economic activities,
such as the black market.

12. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
Some 15 percent of the total
land surface of Myanmar is
suitable for farming, and only 2.8
percent is irrigated. Farmers own
their own land but must sell part
of their production to the
government at a very low fixed

13. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
price. Myanmar remains an
important rice producer, based
on the annually flooded paddy
lands of the Irrawaddy delta and
the irrigated areas in Upper
Myanmar. An estimated 25
million metric tons of rice were

14. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
harvested in 2006. While the
greatest land area is devoted to
rice, significant amounts of land
are also planted with sesame,
peanuts, and a variety of beans,
as well as sunflower, sugar cane,
corn, cotton, and wheat.

15. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
Although the amount of land
cultivated for most crops was
increased in the late 1980s and
early 1990s, productivity fell, in
part because less fertilizer was
used. By the beginning of the
21st century, use of fertilizers

16. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
had rebounded somewhat, and
the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United
Nations (UN) reported food
production was growing quickly.
Generally, the terms of trade for
Myanmar’s agricultural exports

17. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
(their world price compared to
the prices of manufactured
goods that Myanmar imports)
have been declining.

18. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
Myanmar is one of the world’s
major producers of opium, a
substance used in the production
of heroin for illegal drug
trafficking, mainly to Western
countries. The drug trade within
Myanmar is carried on largely by

19. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
Sino-Burmese and Shan warlords
in the Golden Triangle area
bordering Thailand, Laos, and
China. In the mid-1990s more
than 60 percent of the world’s
heroin supply reportedly came
from Myanmar. In 1997 the

20. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
government of Myanmar agreed
to participate in a UN drug-
control project to reduce the
illegal production and trafficking
of opium. Both production and
area harvested for opium
reportedly declined in the

21. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
late 1990s. In 2001 Myanmar
again became the world’s top
supplier of opium as the supply
from Afghanistan, which had
become the leading source,
decreased dramatically.

22. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
The unit of currency is the kyat
(5.80 kyats equal U.S.$1; 2006
average), which is divided into
100 pya. The black market rate in
1995 was 100 to 120 kyats to the
U.S. dollar. A dual currency
system allows foreign exchange

23. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
certificates to be used for some
transactions. An increase in the
printing of currency to pay for
urban reconstruction and
beautification has contributed to
a high inflation rate. In addition
to the Central Bank of Myanmar

24. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
(founded in 1990), the
government operates a number
of specialized banks. Foreign
banks also operate in Myanmar
in a limited capacity.

25. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
Source:
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. ©
1993-2008 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved.

26. Economic Setting:
Myanmar
Jeesuutin Baadae!!!

27. Economic Setting
as we
Understanding

28. Economic Community
for
establish an

31. Republic of the Philippines
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Theme: “Understanding Better the Political, Economic &
Socio-Cultural Setting of Southeast Asian Nations for
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