Myanmar

Myanmar and nine other South-east Asian countries are preparing to ring in the formal birth of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) on December 31, 2015, but they are not preparing to celebrate. Instead, they are engaging in a collective soul-searching exercise. At the November 2014 ASEAN summit in Naypyidaw, the crowning event of Myanmar’s chairmanship of the bloc in 2014...

Myanmar has made a significant amount of progress over the course of the past few years, and when I was last here in 1999, I visited with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was then under house arrest. Today, she sits in parliament and the people are openly debating the future direction of this country. The Myanmar people have made a very clear statement about their desire to...

After spending decades as one of the most isolated and least-developed countries in Asia, Myanmar is emerging as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Since a historic reform process began in 2010, foreign investment has been pouring in, driving annual growth to more than 8%, according to IMF estimates. Investment inflows and growing exports have also helped...

As Myanmar has changed course since 2010 and pursued political and economic reforms, Japan is the country that has responded most enthusiastically, both to offer assistance and to take advantage of emerging investment opportunities. Although Japan is not seeking to be the monolithic major partner that China was to Myanmar while it was under international sanctions, the...