Myanmar's economic, social and political
liberalisation has created enormous growth opportunities for the
country. But it will take some time yet before the country can be
considered competitive relative to its neighbours in the rapidly-growing
Asean region.
Thierry Geiger, associate director and an economist with the Global
Competitiveness Network for the World Economic Forum, discusses the
development and competitiveness issues facing the country.
Q: In what area is Myanmar competitive in, particularly?
This we will find out later this year, when we include Myanmar for
the first time in the Global Competitiveness Report series to be
released next September. Everybody agrees that Myanmar holds huge
potential, but that the challenges are gigantic. We hope that the
inclusion of the country in our research will shed new light on those
constraints and serve as an additional tool to guide the actors of
Myanmar's development.
Q: How long will it take for Myanmar to become on par with its neighbors in terms of business environment?
It depends on what we mean by business environment. If we limit the
definition to the quality of the institutional and regulatory
frameworks, then improving on it is not necessarily time-consuming or
expensive, although it's by no means easy and require a lot of political
will. It implies putting in place sound, stable, predictable,
transparent regulations for competition, anti-corruption, property
rights, banking, taxation, business activity, etc..And these regulations
must be enforced. Since 2011, Myanmar has been reforming at a fast pace
in an effort to create a more conducive environment. So Myanmar could
catch up relatively quickly with other countries in the region, many of
which offer less-than-perfect environments.
If we expand the definition to also include other critical factors
that shape the business environment, like infrastructure, macroeconomic
environment, financing, or access to technology and talent, all of which
are covered by the Competitiveness Report, then the task becomes much
more daunting. Going after the lower-hanging fruits, such as designing
and enforcing sound regulation, will help a great deal in tackling those
other issues, by stimulating business activity and attracting
investment, and setting a virtuous cycle in motion.
Q: How would you measure competitiveness, and why is it mainly focused on productivity? What about sustainability?
We define competitiveness as the set of factors, policies, and
institutions that determine the level of productivity of a country,
taking into account its level of development. It's a supply-side
conception of competitiveness. The more productive a country is, the
more efficient it is, the bigger the return on investment, and the more
wealth created. Our definition captures the necessity of countries to
become better at what they are producing - goods and services - in order
to move up the value chain, and ultimately to become more innovative to
continue to create wealth. It is not incompatible with another common
definition of competitiveness which defines it as the ability of
companies to compete in international markets. If a company, or a
country for that matter, is more productive - that is, more efficient -
it is better equipped to compete internationally.
Since 2010, the Forum has embarked on a multi-year project to develop
a "sustainable competitiveness index". How can a nation remain
productive over the longer term while ensuring social and environmental
sustainability? Given the complexity of the relationships between the
concepts of productivity, economic growth, social progress and
environmental protection, and because evidence and data remain very
scant, the development of such framework is a massive undertaking. A
preliminary framework was introduced last year and we're in the process
refining it, while looking for more and better data.
source: Bangkok Post
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