TAG: Myanmar
In an era marked by rapid technological innovation and turbulence in the global trade environment, China’s ascendance to superpower status is having a profound impact on emerging markets the world over, and nowhere more so than in South-east Asia.
The broadly positive outlooks highlighted in the latest OBG Business Barometer: ASEAN CEO Survey indicate that ASEAN’s mix of aspirational consumers, digital natives and abundant natural resources continues to hold the promise of high returns. One factor that could nevertheless prevent the region from reaching its full potential is the significant skills gap observed in each country. Wholesale changes to national curricula may thus be in order, so that the emerging ASEAN economies can successfully cultivate the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders with the vision to drive inclusive, sustainable growth.
Myanmar’s ongoing transition from authoritarianism to democracy will reach its next milestone in 2020, when general elections will be held for more than 1000 seats in union, state and regional legislatures. The polls will take place almost 10 years after the country embarked on a process of opening its economy to the world and granting democratic freedoms to a population that had lived under military rule for some five decades.