Myanmar / Burma

Location

Bordered by India and Bangladesh, China, Laos, Thailand

Uninterrupted southern coastal border with Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea

Continent: Asia

Capital City: (Naypiydaw), used to be Yangon, largest city, changed in 2005

Himalayas in the north, Shan Plateau in the east

Rivers: Irrawaddy, most important river for transport and agriculture

Climate: Tropical monsoon climate, wet+dry seasons

Key Indicators

HDI: 0.556

Population without clean water: 19.4%

Population without electricity: 48%

Infant mortality rate: 42.4 per 1000

Economic growth: 6.3% (only 1.1% in UK, but we are AC)

Health expenditure of GDP: 2.3% (UK spends 11% of GDP on healthcare)

GNI: $25.7 billion – 2023

GNI per capita: $1500 - 2023

GDP: $74.08 billion – 2024

GDP per capita: $1359.30 – 2024

Birth rate: 18.2 per 1000

Development tieline

British colony until 1948, Burma gets independence, but declined to become part of the Commonwealth. They could have gotten good trade links for better development

1978 - General Ne Win takes control by coup d’etat, military goverment.

Burma Socialist Programme Part (BSPP) established one party system

1989 – US suspends trade benefits for poorer countries for human rights abuses. not lifted until 2016.

1990 junta runs multiparty electrions and Aung San Suu Kyi wins 80% of seats, but junta fails to recognise this, she is placed under house arrest for 15 years

2007 – Saffron revolution following increase in petrol + diesel prices. Governments cuts down harshly, many Buddhist monks leading the revolution are killed. International condemnation and economic sanctions folow

Cyclone Nargis 2008, causes damage of over $10 billion.
Junta refused aid at first, but then distrubuted it unequally/hoarded it

2009 Kokang incident: Fight between Myanmar and MNDAA, ethnic armed grou 37,000 people flee to China 37 killed, 47 wounded

2011 EU imposes sanctions because of human rights abuses, banning imports, suspending aid, freezing economic resoruces, embargo on arms

2015 – First non-military government

Rohingya Muslims persecuted in 2016, vollages burned, mosques abandoned. Suu Kyi silent

Factors Affecting Development

Human Factors

Persecution of Rohinga Muslims, thousands flee villages in November 2016. Mosques are left abandoned. Aung San Suu Kyi silent on the issue

Military rule and many human rights abuse, so many were beaten and killed.

Aung Mingalar quarter in Sittwe – Last few Muslim communities. Violence in 2012 meant that they were separated off from the others

Coup d’etat in 1962 and then in 2011 and then again in 2021, so there is a power which people cannot overcome – Suu Kyi imprisoned and then under house arrest

Physical Factors

Average farm size = 2.7 hectares, more subsistence farming and less mechanisation. Less exports so less trade so less income

Soils are clay-rich becoming waterlogged in wet conditions

Lots of fertile soils around the south-flowing rivers

90% of world’s rubies extracted from myanmar

80% of cultivated land produces rice, making up 97% of national food products

Myanmar is resource rich, leads to resource curse as prices of raw materials fluctuate

Disease-spreading insects such as mosquitoes spread dengue, fever, malaria etc, affecting humans + livestock, affect working people

10th largest producer of natural gas

Largest producer of opium

Millenium Development Goals

  1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger   

    • Undernourishment decreased by 40%, but employment up by only 0.2% from 2000-2015

  2. Achieve universal primary education

    • Literacy rate increased by 1.75% (15-24 years) but only 84% complete primary school, not 100%

  3. Promote gender equality and empower women

    • Few seats held by women in parliament, averaging about 6

  4. Reduce child mortality

    • Under 5 mortalities decreased from 110 per 1000 to just 50 per 1000

  5. Maternal mortality

    • o   from 300 per 100,000 live births to 175 per 100,000 live births

  6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

    • 0.8% of people aged 15-49 have HIV in both 2000 and 2015

    • Many fluctuations in TB outbreaks

  7. Ensure environmental sustainability

    1. CO2 emissions decreased by 4-fold, but 10% of forest land lost in 15 years

  8. Global partnership for development

    1. Aid and assistance increased to $1.5 billion in 2014 to 2015.

    2. Huge development in cellular networks with higher internet penetration

Aid and Debt

  •   60% at risk of malaria

    •  88% of largest households own at least one insecticide-treated net

    • 29,500 nets distributed in total

    • Malaria deaths fell from 3.5 per 1000 in 2010 to 2.4 per 1000 in 2013

  • Myanmar owes China $2 billion

  • Paris Club Agreement – 60% of Myanmar’s debt is cancelled

  • Japan clears $3.3 billion debt

  • Norway cancelled $534 million debt

Trade and Debt

  • Exports = $2.4 billion

  • Imports = $21.4 billion

  • China accounts for 44% of Myanmar’s imports and 41% of Myanmar’s exports

  • $31 billion jade mined in 2014 (48% of GDP)

    • Companies abuse workers when mining and army generals control the companies who manage the mines

    • 100,000 people displaced

    • 1000s of illegal migrants work in the mines

    • Chinese believe that jade brings luck, major customer of jade

    • 63% of exports mined or extracted – labour intensive

    • Military junta has ransacked and taken over the mines

    • ½ of the jade sales are unofficial and corrupted