Myanmar may start aging earlier than
its neighbors, increasing the urgency for its leaders to
implement policies that optimize economic growth, according to
the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The Southeast Asian nation with an estimated 59 million
people has a population structure like China’s in the 2000s,
signaling it’s approaching the point where the share of working-age citizens starts declining, an OECD report showed. By
contrast, Cambodia and Laos will probably see their proportion
of workers continue to rise, it said.
“Myanmar’s now comparatively young population will start
aging in the next two decades,” the OECD said in a report
released today. “If the momentum for development created by the
country’s opening and internal peace process is not seized,
Myanmar could get old before it gets rich.”
Myanmar President Thein Sein is seeking to create more jobs
in one of Asia’s poorest countries after allowing greater
political and economic freedom following decades of military
rule. An untapped market and labor costs that the Japan External
Trade Organization says are the cheapest in the region have
attracted companies such as Coca-Cola Co. (KO:US) and Visa Inc.
The OECD predicts that without structural change the
economy can grow at an average of 6.3 percent from 2013 to 2017,
below the government’s target of 7.7 percent growth from now
till 2015. The nation must invest in its manufacturing and
services sectors to create jobs and raise incomes, it said.
Myanmar also has to focus on attracting foreign investment,
developing special economic zones, optimizing the contribution
of public enterprises to growth, and helping small enterprises
to develop, the report said. The country’s gross national income
per capita is 13 percent lower than Cambodia and 24 percent
below Laos, it said.
source: Business Week
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