Multi-dimensional Review of Myanmar
Volume 1. Initial Assessment
This volume is the first of the OECD Development Pathways, a new series that looks at multiple development objectives beyond an exclusive focus on growth. The series starts with Myanmar, a country to be covered for the first time by the OECD. This initial assessment shows that Myanmar’s success in achieving stable and sustainable growth will depend vitally on its ability to develop the institutional and social capital necessary to maintain macroeconomic and financial stability, to ensure the rule of law, to achieve environmentally sustainable development and to create an enabling environment for the private sector. To be sustainable, growth also needs to be more equitable and inclusive. Seizing the momentum created by the country’s opening and internal peace process will be imperative. Moreover, Myanmar’s increasing population provides a demographic dividend which needs to be reaped in the next couple of decades to boost the potential of the economy. After that, the population will begin ageing and Myanmar risks getting old before the incomes and living standards of its people can significantly improve.
For more inclusive growth and equitable opportunities
Centre de Développement de l’OCDE
The following chapter examines the policy challenges facing Myanmar in achieving growth that is more inclusive and which provides more equitable opportunities than it has in the past. The first section examines Myanmar’s recent growth performance in order to highlight which groups in society have benefited and which have been excluded, looking at levels of poverty and inequality and sources of growth. The discussion then turns to people’s access to public services and goods, looking at differences in access between poor and non-poor households, between rural and urban areas, across different states and regions, and along gender lines. Equality between ethnic groups is also discussed in the context of building a multi-ethnic state. The chapter ends by assessing the state of trust in Myanmar’s institutions, looking primarily at trust in public institutions, and suggesting ways to build this component of social capital.