Myanmar

In a bid to address an existing infrastructure deficit, Myanmar is ramping up activity in the transport sector, which is expected to encourage further economic development. In March 2019 State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Thailand’s Prime Minister PrayutChan-o-cha officially opened the second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, two decades...

In January 2019 the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) gave the green light for banks to raise the share of home loans in their portfolios to 5% of the total and to extend debt instrument maturities beyond the previous limit of three years. The move saw credit extended to the real estate sector surge by 200% in the first quarter, albeit from a...

The year 2019 marked the second anniversary of ASEAN’s inaugural bond issue under the organisation’s common Green Bond Standards (GBS) – a RM2bn ($480m) issue by the Malaysian government-controlled asset manager, Permodalan Nasional. Since then, the green bond market in Asia Pacific has won many accolades, with 2018 seeing the region record...

Urbanisation is a mega-trend redefining contemporary life in both developed and emerging markets across the world. This mass rural-to-urban movement of people and expansion of cities to absorb formerly isolated villages is a relatively recent phenomenon, at least in the developing world.

The slow and steady improvement of transport infrastructure has been one of Myanmar’s less celebrated successes. Nothing illustrates this achievement better than Yangon, the country’s commercial capital. Yangon International Airport, for instance, has undergone significant upgrades and now has an annual capacity of 20m passengers. Upgrades are...

From 206 BCE to 220 CE, China’s Han dynasty fostered a booming trade industry in silk, a precious commodity in high demand among the elites of the Mediterranean. The Silk Road was the name given to the network of trade routes connecting the East and West at the time. Later, spices and other precious cargo would be traded using the system,...