Myanmar Foreign Economic Relations (1988-2009)

The year 1988 was a special year for Myanmar as the military took power after the coup in 18th September. Plus the fact that the military government refused to transfer power to the winning National League for Democracy after the general election in 1990, the western countries, especially the U.S., have imposed sanctions against Myanmar ever since. Therefore, Myanmar has almost become the"orphan"in international political and economic stage. The paper analyses the overall development, economic partners as well as the constraining factors of Myanmar foreign economic relations from the year 1988 to 2009. The paper starts from the achievements Myanmar has made regarding the foreign economic relations and then analyses the impact the foreign economic relations has had on Myanmar society. The paper is set to answer the following questions: 1, how does Myanmar foreign economic relations develop? 2, what role does the Myanmar foreign economic relations play in Myanmar society? 3, what influence does the Myanmar foreign economic relations have on Myanmar?The paper summarizes the academic background and the significance of the topic in the summary part. After recounting the main academic work on the relevant subject of this paper, this author points out that the current academic work on Myanmar foreign economic relations mainly focus on the political or economic viewpoint and it needs a fresh viewpoint for this research work. So the paper analyzes Myanmar's foreign economic relations'effects and characteristics from the angle of the interplay of politics and economies.The first chapter sorts the background of Myanmar foreign economic relations from both the international and domestic perspectives. Internationally, the year 1988 coincided with the end of the Cold War. At the time, the world began to concentrate on economic development as the world economic integration and regional economic integration continues to deepen. And the ASEAN integration has also deepened. Secondly, the wesetern countries, especially the U.S., have imposed the economic sanctions for almost 20 years which have greatly impeded the foreign economic relations of Myanamr. For Myanmar, the Ne Win's implementation of the"Burmese Way of Socialism"had come to an end in 1988 when Myanmar's domestic economy was on the verge to collapse. There were little foreign economic ties and Myanmar was facing extremely difficult economic situation. But the new military regime took office and issued a series of market-oriented economic reform measures, thus laid the foundation for Myanmar foreign economic relations'recovery.Chapter two elaborates the overall development of Myanmar foreign economic relations in the past 21 years from 1988 to 2009. The paper reviews the development of Myanmar foreign economic relations with datas in detail from the perspectives of trade, foreign investment and foreign aid and set the foundation for the analysis in the following chapters.The third chapter adopts the case study method to analyze Myanmar foreign economic relations. The paper chooses the main economic cooperation partners of China and Thailand as well as the U.S., Japan and European countries to demonstrate their economic relations with Myanmar.Chapter four gives a special research on the constraining factors of Myanmar foreign economic relations. Domestically, the military regime lacks the economic management experiences and may prioritize the political interest before the economic interest, thus the military government may adopt the policy that is harmful to Myanmar foreign economic relations. Externally, the western sanctions remain the biggest obstacle for Myanmar foreign economic relations.Chapter five evaluates the effect of Myanmar foreign economic relations. The paper stresses that though the Myanmar foreign economic relations has achieved great success in the past 21 years, it has little impact for Myanmar domestic economic development. But it provides the military government with necessary resources and raises the status of Myanamr in the international community to maintain the domestic political stability.Chapter six discusses the full paper and summarizes the ideas to answer the previous questions in the summary and analyses the prospect of Myanmar foreign economic relations.