Martin N. Baily, Chairman of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisors
Richard Dobbs is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute

Interest in Myanmar (Burma) has become intense. Last month, Thein Sein became the first president of Myanmar to visit the White House in nearly 50 years, and leaders from British Prime Minister David Cameron to India’s Manmohan Singh to Japan’s Shinzo Abe have all visited Yangon. (more…)

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Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi stated clearly on the 6th that “I want to run for president.” Chinese online media quickly reported the news. (more…)

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The three-day World Economic Forum for East Asia 2013 closed on the 7th in Naypyidaw. Myanmar, at a key stage in its reform and with great development potential, attracted high attention from global investors and media. How should Myanmar resolve the difficulties of poor infrastructure and poor human resources at the current stage? What is the impact of Myanmar’s development on ASEAN integration and the development of East Asia? These topics became the key focus of this session. The consensus among all participants was that the development of Myanmar and East Asia require balance and tolerance.
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Terrifying anti-Muslim violence surged this week in Myanmar, exposing deep ethnic and religious tensions that are undermining efforts to stabilize the country and move forward with political and economic reforms. Myanmar’s democratic aspirations can never be fully realized if Muslims, who make up about 5 percent of the population, continue to be attacked and marginalized by Buddhists, the majority of the population. At least 44 people have died since March in sectarian mob violence.
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Chinese envoys to Myanmar (Burma) used to have it easy. The military junta that handed over power in April 2011 counted on Beijing for political support and reciprocated with over $20 billion worth of investment opportunities in Myanmar’s rich natural resources. While Western powers shunned the regime for its right abuses and imposed economic sanctions, Chinese envoys enjoyed unparalleled access to the top brass. Now that the winds of change have blown and the junta is no more, replaced by a civilian administration eager to court the West, China faces a far trickier task in managing relations with Myanmar. Its valuable investments in gas pipelines and hydropower dams have become a lightning rod for critics emboldened by parliamentary democracy and an end to press censorship.
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As Myanmar government and Kachin leaders sit down for talks in Myitkyina, hope will be high that progress toward peace will be realized as part of the central government’s continued efforts of reform. Yet, critical voices as to the process are by no means difficult to find. Are we then foolish to hope for a breakthrough this week to one of the country’s most intractable conflicts? (more…)

Less than six years ago, the West watched amazed and awed as hundreds of thousands of Burmese Buddhist monks seized the city streets in defiance of the military junta, walking through the monsoon rain in their robes, chanting the sutra of loving kindness. Undercover video-journalists filmed it all, and when the riot police and the army went in to club and shoot the monks, the same brave cameramen recorded every blow and every drop of sanctified blood that was spilt. (more…)

A walk around battered, ramshackle Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city and former capital, quickly makes it clear how far the country has fallen behind the rest of Asia over the past half-century. In large part the place is but a ghostly reminder of former glories. Under British colonial rule, before independence in 1948, Rangoon (as it was then) was a thriving, cosmopolitan entrepot, the capital of Burma, one of the region’s wealthiest countries. All that came to an abrupt end in 1962 after a junta of army officers, led by the brutal General Ne Win, seized power and launched the country on the quasi-Marxist “Burmese Way to Socialism”. Private foreign-owned businesses were nationalised, prompting the exodus of hundreds of thousands of people, many of Indian origin. The country’s tenuous attachment to democracy was broken. Myanmar, as Burma was later renamed by its ruling generals, retreated into itself. Comprehensive Western sanctions hit home from the mid-1990s onwards, only slightly alleviated by an injection of Asian money. (more…)

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Myanmar President U Thein Sein returned to Myanmar late at night on May 22 after a five day visit to the U.S.  President U Thein Sein is the first Myanmar head of state to conduct a state visit to US in almost 50 years. If President Obama’s visit to Myanmar before the end of 2012 was an ice-breaking trip, President U Thein Sein’s return visit could be called an “ice-melting” trip.  Myanmar’s democratic reform has entered a critical stage; would his trip bring new momentum to the reform process? (more…)

When Thein Sein was picked by his fellow generals to lead Myanmar a little over two years ago, the country was a pariah state, ostracised by the West, shut off from the mainstream of Asian prosperity and ground down after decades of brutal, corrupt and inept military rule. Yet this week Mr Thein Sein was welcomed to the White House, chatting with Barack Obama and soaking up the American president’s praise for Myanmar’s bold and fast-moving reforms. (more…)

As Myanmar’s leaders push a series of political and economic changes, they are also having to deal with recent strife between the majority Buddhists and minority Muslims, or Rohingya. (more…)

Anyone who wants to credit Burma’s President Thein Sein for the country’s political and economic reforms must first thank former dictator Sr-Gen Than Shwe. (more…)

Gen. (ret) Thein Sein, who won international praise for leading reforms in Myanmar, received a warm welcome from US President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday. It was a reciprocal visit following Obama’s trip to Yangon last November. The general deserves the credit. (more…)

President Thein Sein has visited President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington. The visit is being promoted by both Myanmar and the United States for its symbolism. This is a shame.
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Myanmar’s president has received an official welcome by US President Barack Obama. The reception represents more than a reward for the military state’s gradual reform process; it also reflects US interests. (more…)

President Obama’s meeting with Burma’s President Thein Sein at the White House today is a stark reminder of how far the Administration has come on Burma policy. (more…)

President Thein Sein of Myanmar is in Washington this week, the first Burmese head of state to visit since the military dictator Gen. Ne Win in 1966. (more…)

Editor’s note: Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) are members of the U.S. Congress. The views expressed are their own. (more…)

It goes without saying that there are winners and losers in Burma, a country ridden with decades-long civil wars and egregious human rights abuses under the iron-fist rule of the military junta. Under such conditions, United States policy towards Burma was guided by concerns for the majority of civilians who suffered greatly. (more…)

Activists complain that U.S. President Barack Obama, who welcomes Myanmar’s President Thein Sein to the White House this week, is embracing the former general too soon, before he’s proved his reformist bona fides. In fact, Obama is late to the party. (more…)