Myanmar

Recent efforts to narrow Myanmar’s digital divide have bolstered regional economies and transformed the technological landscape. The adoption of the latest ICT capabilities has improved efficiency in a range of areas, from agriculture to tax collection. While considerable improvements have been made, the country’s nascent digital economy...

Blockchain – the distributed-ledger technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin – appears set to transform a wide variety of industries and perhaps fundamentally change the way business is conducted across the global economy.

After Myanmar began the transition to democracy, international tourism was not the only segment that thrived. Following decades of restrictions on domestic movement, local people are now largely free to explore the country. This has allowed domestic tourists to travel to previously closed regions to visit family and to make pilgrimages to holy...

With the ultimate goal to increase tourism across Southeast Asia, Myanmar is exploring the “two countries, one destination” concept, which seeks to cross-promote tourism with both Cambodia and Thailand. Officials in Myanmar would like to emulate Thailand’s success in attracting foreign tourists – some 32m in 2016 – while Thailand’s operators...

Rapid urbanisation and robust economic growth have had a notable impact on urban mobility in Yangon. Traffic congestion is rising to become an increasingly pressing concern for businesses and commuters, especial as the city’s population is set to grow from 7.4m in 2017 to more than 10m people by 2030. The government is currently undertaking...

With the new Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX) established as recently as October 2015, Myanmar’s capital markets remain at a very early stage in their development. As such, the bourse is subject to many of the pitfalls often found in a low-volume, frontier industry, but there is also a wealth of potential. With access to finance being one of the...