Positioning Myanmar as an attractive new investment destination in Southeast Asia

Myanmar or Burma has had its first fully contested general election in 2016, leading the formation of a democratically elected government which has taken steps to reform the governance of the country. The reform of the investment policy received a much-needed boost when the United States of America agreed to uplift economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar. However, the enactment of a new Myanmar Investment Law is only one piece of the larger puzzle of how to make Myanmar a new attractive investment destination in the ASEAN region. Myanmar is located between China and India, but is also a member of ASEAN, a grouping of economically dynamic Southeast Asian countries with its own recent economic challenges. This paper will discuss steps that Myanmar needs to take to make it an attractive investment destination, taking into account the existence of two major economic neighbours and the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015. The paper will also discuss the constraints and challenges that Myanmar has to overcome in order to attract investments into the country.

An expert in international trade and international investment, ASEAN Economic Integration and intellectual property management, Sufian Jusoh is Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Institute of Malaysia and International Studies, National University of Malaysia, External Fellow, World Trade Institute, University of Bern; Distinguished Fellow, Malaysia Ministry of Foreign Affairs Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations and International Investment Law Advisor for the World Bank.
Dr Jusoh has served as a consultant in many international organisations and played important roles in the reform of investment laws in Myanmar, Timor Leste, Laos and the Federated States of Micronesia, and is now Co-Chair of the ASEAN Economic Integration Forum. Sufian is a Barrister-at-Law (England and Wales) of Lincoln’s Inn, London, and holds degrees from Cardiff Law School, UCL and the University of Bern.He is the co-author (with Julien Chaisse) of The ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement The Regionalisation of Laws and Policy on Foreign Investment (Elgar, 2016).