Opportunities and Pitfalls: Preparing for Burma’s Economic Transition

By Yuki Akimoto for the Open Society Institute • November 1, 2006

The Burma Project/Southeast Initiative has published Opportunities and Pitfalls: Preparing for Burma’s Economic Transition, a report by Yuki Akimoto.

This report emerged from the 2004 conference “Managing Economic Transitions: The Role of Global Institutions and Lessons for Burma/Myanmar,” which was inspired by a prior conference regarding the role of international assistance in the economic reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The 2004 conference featured Nobel economics prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, who provided insights about the role that international financial institutions (IFIs) play in national development, and other speakers who discussed the experiences of economic transition in countries including Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and East Timor.

Opportunities and Pitfalls covers key topics addressed at the conference regarding Burma’s prospective economic transition and the role of IFIs. The report contains case studies of other countries that have dealt with IFIs and their prescriptions for development, highlighting issues and circumstances that Burma shares with those countries.

Forward-looking and accessible, this report promises to stir practical debate about how Burma should manage the challenges of working with IFIs when these institutions become fully engaged there. Stiglitz describes Opportunities and Pitfalls as “a vital addition to the important discussion taking place today about Burma’s future.” The report is designed to be a useful guide for civil society activists, policymakers, academics, and journalists, including members of the Burmese diaspora democracy movement.

Yuki Akimoto is an attorney who works on human rights and environmental issues concerning development aid to Burma, with a particular focus on IFIs. She has written articles for Burma Debate, The Irrawaddy, and other publications. While the 2004 conference was co-hosted by the Open Society Institute, Bank Information Center, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, OSI funded the production of the report.

Download the report in English or Burmese here.

Tags: Asian Development Bank, International Financial Institutions, International Monetary Fund, Open Society Institute, World Bank, Yuki Akimoto

This post is in: Aid, Economy, Environmental and Economic Justice

Opportunities and Pitfalls: Preparing for Burma’s Economic Transition

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