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...
Myanmar is laying the groundwork for the active capital markets it has never really had. The formal launch of a new Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX), backed by Japan’s Daiwa Securities Group and Japan Exchange Group (JPX), was being targeted by the end of 2015, along with a new Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate capital markets. Although the YSX launch is...
The central bank’s decision to award bank licences to nine foreign groups in October 2014 was widely hailed as a major breakthrough in bringing Myanmar’s underdeveloped financial sector into the modern era. But the really big decisions over how much foreign involvement will be allowed still lie ahead.
The insurance sector is at an early stage of development, with private insurers just beginning to develop since 2013 after a long period in which the sector was fully nationalised. Twelve companies, most of them linked to major banks or conglomerates, were licensed to launch insurance businesses in May 2013, and foreign insurers were expected to be invited in 2015 to...
The traditionally small banking sector is undergoing an extraordinary burst of growth as economic reforms and the lifting of sanctions are leading households and businesses to modernise their financial practices. Bank deposits and credit have been growing at more than 30% a year, even after adjusting for inflation. And in a breakthrough reform in October 2014, the...
Myanmar is in the midst of a historic transformation of both its public sector and fiscal policy towards international norms. The country traditionally had a very small civilian government and many large state enterprises, all overseen by a politically and commercially powerful military. State enterprises have traditionally accounted for most public revenues, while...
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