MYANMAR: THE NEW GLOBAL HOTSPOT???

Myanmar (Burma) has all the elements required to create another Asian economic miracle. With a population of 54 million, the country has a large pool of low-cost workers custom made to attract the labor-intensive manufacturing that jump-started income growth from South Korea to Malaysia. Natural resources, such as timber and mineral resources could woo billions in foreign investment. And its strategic position nestled between China and India could turn the country into a prime location for tapping into the megagrowth of those two Asian giants.

But Myanmar has a long way to go. Myanmar lacks the infrastructure, sound regulatory environment and trained workforce to attract foreign investment in large sums. Myanmar has very strong potential, but before relaizing that potential, it has to tackle challenges to its development.

Myanmar also faces multiple constraints and risks that may limit its progress: Key constraints include a weak macroeconomic-management framework devoid of market mechanisms, insufficient fiscal resources and inefficient domestic-fund mobilization, limited access to finance, deficient infrastructure, inadequate social services that hamper human-capital development and limited industrial diversification. Even more, Myanmar needs to create the legal framework for a functioning market economy. Toda the country simply lacks the clear rules and regulations foreign companies require to safely and confidently invest. Myanmar has to put in place the basis for the market to function. It is going to take a while for government to be fully adjusted to the market system.

That may be the biggest challenge facing the future of Myanmar. Achieving all the necessary reforms and implementing the necessary policies requires a certain degree of expertise on the part of the government and in Myanmar's case, such an expertise could be lacking. Unquestionably the will to move forward is very strong but the challenge is: How do you build the competence quickly? The inexperience of Myanmar's bureaucracy in running a modern economy could easily derail the implementation of new national policies. Still, there is reason for continued hope. Myanmar's economy  is projected to grow at 6.5% in 2013. If Myanmar manages to overcome these hurdles, its potential is undeniable.