What do modern Burma and Hong Kong have in common? Leaving aside a history of British rule, not much. Hong Kong is a fabulously, if unevenly, rich city of migrants that looks outwards for opportunities. Burma, or Myanmar, is a poor, agrarian country that shut itself away for decades under an eccentric socialist dictator who was obsessed with number nine. As a result, Hong Kong’s per capita GDP was $31,500 in 2010, according to the IMF (the U.S.’s was $47,300). Burma’s was $702. Strike one to capitalism. Yet Burma and Hong Kong are both strategic crossroads in Southeast Asia by dint of their history and geography, and their proximity to China and India. The rise of these two Asian powers may spur intense rivalry as well as cooperation in regions like Southeast Asia. (more…)

Being in Burma can feel like someone pressed the pause button on life. (more…)

Naypyidaw — Construction cranes tower over two new football stadiums rising up from the tropical scrubland of Naypyidaw — part of a building boom that is transforming Myanmar’s remote capital. (more…)

Yangon – Police in military-dominated Myanmar on Tuesday arrested a man who staged a rare protest against a controversial Chinese hydroelectric power project, an official said. (more…)

Chiang Mai – A report on a US$ 2.7 billion budget shortfall for the 2011-12 fiscal year submitted by the Lower House Public Accounts Committee on Monday went without discussion by MPs in Tuesday’s Parliament session. (more…)

The Burmese government has kick-started a scheme to swap old cars for a permit to import a new one, in what it claims to be an attempt to promote fuel efficiency and reduce emissions in the country. (more…)

The Burmese government has asked the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to clear its troops from a route along the Sino-Burmese border because they are currently preventing the transport of construction materials from China to the site of the highly controversial Myitsone Dam in Kachin State. (more…)

Burma is developing its natural resources. But new hydropower dams and mining projects are exacerbating tensions between Burmese soldiers and armed ethnic militias, leading to displacement of civilians. (more…)

President Thein Sein has admitted that Burma has economic problems. (more…)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations will weigh the opinion of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as it considers whether to invite Myanmar to chair the regional grouping in 2014, Indonesia’s foreign minister told The Associated Press. (more…)

A new report says press censorship in Burma remains “arbitrary, intensive, and highly restrictive,” despite the new government’s promise of reform. (more…)

It is encouraging that Asia’s democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, is optimistic about the future of Burma. But as she pointed out in her interview with a Western reporter, there is a long way to go before her countrymen gain real freedom. (more…)

In the first of a series, The Nation’s Supalak Ganjanakhundee explores whether recent developments in the country point towards a paradigm shift. (more…)

For all the luxuries they enjoy, dictators live in a state of constant fear. (more…)

Unprecedented and fast-paced changes are taking place in Naypyidaw, or so the emerging caste of Burma Brahmins would like the world—and the Burmese public—to believe. (more…)

Reporters Without Borders has confirmed that access to a number of previously banned foreign news websites including Youtube, BBC, Reuters, The Bangkok Post, Straits Times, Radio Free Asia, Irrawaddy, Democratic Voice of Burma, and the Burmese version of Voice of America has been unblocked. Internet connections nonetheless continue to be very slow. (more…)

Naypyidaw – Imposing bronze lions, the symbol of the ruling party, guard the entrance to Myanmar’s fledgling parliament in a sign of its domination by the military and its political allies. (more…)

The Burmese government hosted a workshop on Saturday in Naypyidaw to discuss the impact of hydropower projects on the Irrawaddy River, with ministers, NGOs and Chinese investment interests represented. However, far from being a carefully orchestrated seminar conducted by the government to sanction the controversial project, the debate turned into heated argument. (more…)

Bangkok – Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has warned against an ”Arab-style” uprising in Burma and praised signs of ”positive developments” by her country’s military-dominated government. (more…)

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi delivering a speech on 15 September Aung San Suu Kyi had been keen to use social networking to connect with younger people. (more…)