NAYPYITAW, Myanmar - Myanmar prepared Wednesday to show off what two
years of reform-minded elected government has accomplished as it
welcomed business titans and decision-makers from around the world to
the Asian edition of the prestigious World Economic Forum.
President Thein Sein will inaugurate the
meeting Thursday and is scheduled to share the stage with the prime
ministers of Laos and Vietnam to discuss opportunities for development
in Asia. Organizers boast that it is the first international conference
of its size and importance to be held here, saying more than 900
participants from 50 countries are attending.
While the conference has the inclusive
theme of "Courageous Transformation for Inclusion and Integration," the
focus of most participants will be on host Myanmar, emerging from almost
five decades of military rule into the challenges of transitional
democracy and the potentially lucrative status of a frontier economy.
"It shows that the outside
world recognizes Myanmar as a country that has potential. It's also an
indicator that there will be more investments in the country," said Nay
Zin Latt, an adviser to Thein Sein. "The country earns lots of attention
and interest in investing. Then, we will have more job opportunities
and our economy can be improved."
Outsiders make much the same point.
"For much of the 20th century, Myanmar
largely missed out on the spectacular growth seen across most of the
global economy and most recently in its Asian peers," Richard Dobbs, a
director of the consulting group McKinsey & Company, said last
month. "It now has the potential to be one of the fastest-growing
economies in emerging Asia."
McKinsey predicted in a
report last month that "Myanmar could potentially quadruple the size of
its economy from $45 billion in 2010 to more than $200 billion in 2030,
creating 10 million non-agricultural jobs and potentially lifting 18
million out of poverty in the process."
There's quite a long way to go, pointed
out Sushant Palakurthi Rao, head of Asia for the World Economic Forum,
with much improvement needed in sectors such as education, health care
and job training.
"The main goal is to show that the doors
are open," he said. "But challenges remain. It's a country where still
26 per cent of the population live in poverty, 37 per cent are
unemployed, and it's important to use those investments now to really
have rapid change and impact for a wide range of people in the country."
Another note of caution
was sounded by the British development charity Oxfam, which warned
recently that "without targeted policy efforts and regulation to even
the playing field, the benefits of new investment will filter down to
only a few, leaving small-scale farmers — the backbone of the Myanmar
economy — unable to benefit from this growth."
It urged Myanmar's leaders to "address
power inequalities in the markets, put small-scale farmers at the centre
of new agricultural investments, and close loopholes in law and
practice that leave the poorest open to land-rights abuses."
Human rights concerns are another
potentially destabilizing holdover from the old military regime. The
government has so far failed to reach a comprehensive peace with its
fractious ethnic minorities who have sought more autonomy for decades,
and has been fighting a bloody war against the Kachin minority in the
north for the past two years.
It has also seen the rise of
vicious sectarian violence directed at the country's Muslim Rohingya
minority in western Rakhine state, with hundreds of people killed and
about 140,000 made homeless in civil strife last year. Deadly
anti-Muslim violence spread to other parts of the country this year,
damaging the government's credibility.
Salil Shetty, secretary general of the
human rights group Amnesty International, who is attending the forum,
said the government should make it a priority "to put an end to all
forms of discrimination. People need to feel as equal citizens of this
country whether they are from one ethnic group, one religion or the
other."
source: Winnipeg Free Press
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