7 - Epilogue

Summary

“Given a reasonable period of peace, law, and order, it seems highly possible that this energetic and intelligent people, possessed of a rich variety of natural resources, will attain a consistently rising standard of living”.

J.R. Andrus, Burmese Economic Life (1947, p. 356)

The physical appearance of Myanmar has changed significantly for the better since the SLORC/SPDC took over the reins of government in 1988. There are now high-rise, modern supermarkets, trendy restaurants, and gleaming new apartment buildings in Yangon, Mandalay, and many other urban centres where there were none before. There are also many new or widened highways and roads criss-crossing the country and just as numerous bridges spanning rivers big and small throughout the country. Life in some of the villages too has changed, in many ways for the better. In some of these villages, there are now cinema houses, television sets, radios, and bicycles where there were none or very few before.

In the central part of Myanmar, the conservation efforts of the Dry Zone Greening Department in co-operation with the local people in nine arid districts are beginning to turn what might have been a desert, into an area green and lush with vegetation. This has also opened up many new opportunities of livelihood where there were few before.

In the border areas, the shape of the physical infrastructure has changed even more astoundingly in the form of new roads, bridges, dams, hydro-power stations, schools, hospitals, post offices, telephone exchanges, and TV relay stations. There can be no doubt that economic and social opportunities for the people in the border areas have increased tremendously.

All these highly visible changes for the better have been brought about by the energetic and untiring efforts of the government and the positive response of the private sector to market forces. More and more people in Myanmar are beginning to enjoy the fruits of its market-oriented policies, though some benefit more than others. While all this looks good, there is a sense of fear, however, that this is merely the effervescence, and it may not last.

Moreover, as resources are limited, the downside of devoting too many resources to one area is that fewer resources are left to be allocated to other uses.