As a rule, this is a cash economy. Many Myanmar hotels, stores, shops and vendors only take cash, be it local currency or US dollars.
A credit card is a rare sight in Myanmar. Do not expect to withdraw money from banks with familiar names.
The country has not opened its banking sector, and foreign banks are allowed to provide advisory services to clients as a representative office.
While the US dollar is as acceptable and convenient as the kyat, the local currency, it has some constraints: The note must be seemingly new, unfolded and without blemish. Otherwise it is rejected.
My colleague could not spend one of her $100 notes simply because of an ink circle on it.
With $1,000 in pocket, you will feel like an instant millionaire at the airport currency exchange. But bear in mind official pricing is equally high in Myanmar: A meal can average more than 1,000 kyats ($1) and a taxi might charge 12,000 kyats.
Thriving tourism
Houses woven from bamboo strips line the road in the peripherals of Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city, in stark contrast with the glittering pagodas and nearby temples.
In the early morning, monks file out onto the street with empty bowls. Devoted villagers fill them with rice.
To show their devotion to Buddhism, many villagers and residents on meager incomes donate to temples for benevolence or construction of a pagoda, said Nyein Kyaw Soe, a Yangon-based interpreter.
Magnificent Buddhist architecture is nonetheless a major pull for tourists from abroad. A couple of middle-aged French women greeted each other with kisses in the cafeteria of the Kumudara Hotel, Bagan.
In front of the Yuzana Hotel, Yangon, a beaming Japanese guest stepped out of a taxi clad in the traditional longyi, a sarong-like local garment, waved goodbye and entered the reception with his wife.
Hotels charge different room rates for locals compared to foreigners, sometimes almost half, given their diminished purchasing power. Hotels in Mandalay, Bagan or Yangon normally require tourists to pay for one night up front to reserve a room given the oversupply of willing guests.
Tourism could be further developed, U Hla Min, general manager of Taikwan Travel & Tours Co based in Yangon, told the Global Times. "It is constrained to more expensive lodging due to the limited number of hotels available.
"Expensive lodging pushes up the travel budget, making it more expensive for foreigners in Myanmar compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors, with $150 average daily accommodation charges."
Chinatown
There are neon flashing characters in Chinese, Myanmar and English in Yangon Chinatown. Red lanterns light up residential buildings along the street and lure passersby, mostly local ethnic Chinese residents and curious foreign tourists.
Salt, monosodium glutamate and oil invades the air, mostly indistinguishable between Chinese or Myanmar snack food.
All of a sudden, the street exploded into life as crowds gathered to watch an annual Chinese lion competition: a special acrobatic performance only during Chinese Lunar New Year.
The lion stepped up daintily onto two-to-three meter pillars spaced apart in two parallel lines for the performers' feet. One misstep or a stumble could lead to a fall or injury.
When the performers revealed themselves to the audience at curtain call, their faces showed they were not actually ethnic Chinese but local Myanmar lads.
Alongside the street are old residential buildings constructed half a century ago, some even bearing signs of burning.
The local lads left down the busy and crowded street, chatting and giggling.
Accounting for about 10 percent of the country's 60 million population, ethnic Chinese contribute about 60 percent of Myanmar's economy, U Myint Shwe, chairman of the Myanmar Chinese Chamber of Commerce and founder of a private construction company, told the Global Times.
With the Myanmar government making its political transition from military rule to a civilian democracy in 2011, the country's economic sector has witnessed changes too.
Economic activities are growing more open and transparent.
"You have to go through public tendering to bid for a property development project," he said, noting there was no such process under the former military government.
A large construction project, for example, has to earn local government approval and is subject to further approval by parliament, he noted.
Myanmar's property development has been stagnant for almost half a century.
With an influx of foreign investment, he said, new property will provide new opportunities.
Villas dot Yangon, the former capital and Myanmar's largest city, but it is more common to find older residential buildings downtown.
Buildings taller than 10 stories are rare.
A new 300-square-meter apartment is said to sell for $300,000. Myanmar's GDP per capita was $884 in 2013.
Chinese garment makers have been investing in Myanmar, as labor costs are relatively low compared to China, Aung Win, vice chairman of the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association, told the Global Times.
Aiming to create more jobs for rural laborers, the Myanmar government exempts taxes on garment makers for up to eight years with preferential policies aimed at boosting manufacturing.
His own apparel factory employs 1,200 and has just received the green light for a 100-acre expansion in southwest Yangon.
Workers in his factory earn a monthly salary of $100 to $120, he said, higher than the $60 monthly minimum salary a worker makes in the industrial zone.
The government is mulling raising the national minimum wage this year, he said.
source: Global Times
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