International Business 15th edition Not for commercial

1. Political & Economic Culture of CLMV
Countries
Dr. (Mrs.) Vijaya Katti
Professor & Chairperson (MDPs)
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
New Delhi
For CLMV Programme
(Session on 9.5.2017)

2. Economic Status of Lao PDR

3. • The Laotian economy has shown notable resilience, growing at an
average annual rate of more than 7 percent over the past five
years.
• Laos continues to integrate more fully into the system of global
trade and investment.
• The trade regime has become more transparent, and there has
been progress in improving the management of public finances.
Substantial challenges remain, particularly in implementing
deeper institutional and systemic reforms that are critical to
advancing economic freedom.
• Weak property rights, pervasive corruption, and burdensome
bureaucracy, exacerbated by lingering government interference
and regulatory controls, continue to reduce the dynamism of
investment flows and overall economic efficiency.

4. LAOS

6. LAOS

7. BURMA

8. • Burma’s economy has undergone notable changes.
Economic sanctions have been eased or lifted, and the
government has launched reforms to modernize the
economic system.
• A new banking and finance law that lays the foundations for
more efficient licensing of financial institutions has been
ratified. In 2016, the lower house of parliament also
approved a new investment law.
• Long-standing structural problems include poor public
finance management and underdeveloped legal and
regulatory frameworks.
• Fragile monetary stability largely reflects excessive money
creation to fund fiscal deficits. Arbitrary taxation policies
and marginal enforcement of property rights have driven
many enterprises into the informal sector.

9. Burma

10. Burma

11. Burma

12. Burma Culture
Introduction
• Myanmar’s government has introduced significant political and
economic reforms since 2011 after decades of isolation.
• Notably, the National League for Democracy, Myanmar’s long
time opposition party, returned to the formal political process
with a landslide electoral victory in late 2015 that gave it the
majority in both chambers of parliament, though the military
continues to dominate important ministries.
• In response to the changes, world powers have lifted
international sanctions, and the United States has thawed
diplomatic relations with the country.
• Concerns persist, however, about the role of the military in
domestic affairs; the government’s treatment of ethnic
minorities, particularly that of the Bangali Muslims; and the
pace of constitutional reform.

13. Political History: Burma
• A British colony for more than a century, Burma declared
independence in 1948, a year after the assassination of nationalist
leader General Aung San, father of opposition leader Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi. The Union of Burma began as a parliamentary democracy like
most of its other newly independent neighbors on the Indian
subcontinent. Yet it was beset by ethnic strife from the start.
• Ethnic Burmans formed roughly two thirds of its population; the
remainder comprised more than one hundred groups, with the Shan,
Karen, Rakhine, and Mon among the largest, as well as significant
Indian and Chinese populations.
• Representative democracy lasted until the military coup of 1962, led
by General U Ne Win. His party established a ruling council whose
members were almost entirely drawn from the armed forces and held
power for the next twenty-six years. Ne Win instituted a new
constitution in 1974 based on an isolationist policy with a socialist
economic program that nationalized Burma’s major enterprises.

14. The Challenges Ahead: Burma
• Despite Myanmar’s encouraging steps in
recent years, experts point to looming
governance challenges, including political
powersharing, sectarian violence, and
ongoing reforms.
• The November 2015 elections were the first
nationwide, multiparty elections since the
country’s parliament first convened in 2010,
and were widely considered Myanmar’s
most free and fair polls in twentyfive years.

15. • Approximately 80 percent of the country’s thirty million
eligible voters cast ballots in November 2015, and Aung San
Suu Kyi’s opposition NLD party won a landslide victory,
securing a majority in the upper and lower houses of
parliament.
• In March 2016 the new parliament elected Htin Kyaw, a
longtime confidant of Aung San Suu Kyi, as Myanmar’s first
civilian leader in decades, with the runnersup, military
candidate Myint Swe and ethnic Chin nominee Henry Van
Thio chosen as the first and second vice presidents.
• Still, the new government will have difficulty addressing
Myanmar’s core challenge of managing its “geographically
fractured and ethnically diverse border areas” because
constitutionally, the NLD cannot control the military,
according to geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor.

16. VIETNAM

17. VIETNAM
• Capitalizing on its gradual integration into the global trade and
investment system, Vietnam has been transforming itself into a
more market-oriented economy. Reforms have included partial
privatization of state-owned enterprises, liberalization of the trade
regime, and increasing recognition of private property rights.
• The economy has registered annual rates of growth averaging
about 6 percent over the past five years. Vietnam’s overall
economic freedom is limited by several key institutional factors.
• Despite ongoing reform efforts, the regulatory environment is not
particularly efficient or transparent. Despite progress, investment
remains hindered by opaque bureaucracy and a weak judicial
system. State-owned enterprises still account for about 40 percent
of GDP, hampering the emergence of a more dynamic private
sector.

18. VIETNAM

19. VIETNAM

20. VIETNAM

21. Culture of Cambodia, Laos & Vietnam
http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Laos.html
http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Burma.html
http://www.everyculture.com/To-Z/Vietnam.html

22. Thank you