18 Dec 

The people have spoken. Voices have been heard. It was a landslide. 

Astounding to all. Elections were held throughout the world. Many divisions were noticed. Polarities were there. Some nations divided. Reasons many.

For us, we have shown the world that we can be united. Our goals are common. 

We all yearn for a destiny that will keep us together, live together, grow together, prosper together, shape our lives, raise our identity and standards, make our lives fulfilled and be proud of the nation that we called our home.

Myanmar stands majestically between two great nations, possesses the biggest land mass in mainland South East Asia. Located strategically. Linkages and network of roads within the region up to the Pacific Ocean makes us unique. 

Besides being a member of various economic blocs and endowed with abundant natural resources added to its luster alongside the human capital can be the region’s future darling.

Paradigms around the globe has changed dramatically. Some due to COVID 19, others because of local politics — mainly nationalism, protectionism among many others. Resulting in disharmony, mistrust, divisions leading to civil disobediences.

Myanmar, on the flip side, have passed through such episodes in the yester years and have learnt a lesson. We are experiencing a new dawn, never been so dramatic in the past. The end of our beginning. Now the burden lies on the winning party. The peoples’ expectations are so high. The new government has to deliver with our participation.

The greatest challenge

The greatest challenge is to contain and control the spread of COVID 19. Like other nations on earth, the pandemic has devastated lives and livelihood of millions of people and may take at least a year to tackle the problem. Like many other nation, one major hurdle is the transportation and delivery of the vaccines to areas that lack proper storage facilities. Road to recovery can be long and arduous.

Our life-changer will be the economic recovery. Many countries are facing recession and some are technically experiencing so. Employment is the major challenge for all countries around the globe.

Almost all sectors have to be revived and governments have formulated short term, medium term and long term measures to overcome them.

Among our advantages are our agricultural, fisheries and livestock products. We should use all our resources and even artificial intelligence means to upgrade at all level and to penetrate new markets while maintaining the old. 

Improve the quality, yield, packaging and create the seller’s markets. The government should also lend a hand in negotiating alongside the private sector by formulating fair, free, level trading mechanism with overseas governments.

Improvement of transportation mechanism locally and minimizing the intermediaries can lower the transaction cost and alleviate poverty. Rails, riverine routes should be more considered than by roads thus making things relatively more cheaper. Like neighbouring countries, each and every town in every state and division has their own produce that can be marketed locally in Myanmar and be exported. New products must be identified and new markets ventured. Import substitution is a must and made in Myanmar brands have to be energetically created at all levels on a sustainable basis. Downstream value added manufacturing with overseas partners should be created for the agricultural, fisheries and livestock products as we usually experience surpluses during the years.

The game-changer for us is peace and national reconciliation. Without them, investment, prosperity will be just a dream and will still be remote. Never in this universe, a country prosper while there is incessant fighting, lack of unity and its people craving for harmony between warring factions.

Its complications can be dreadful. Sandwiched between many super powers and geopolitical situation can harness us into proxy wars that can be detrimental to our well being and endangering our objectives. Peace and prosperity is a must for our country and deeply desired by all.

For the latter, regional connectivity and global supply chain is crucial. Both economically and politically. We should be proactive on the world stage and consolidating friends on the basis of impartiality, non alignment, alongside with maintaining patency of our supply chain. COVID has taught the world a lesson. But we have to be mindful and be prepared not to be overwhelmed by the regional industrialized countries or be intimidated by them.

Growth and development

Growth and development can aggregate impact on the climate due to carbon footprints. We have to be fully aware of its side effects and prevent the devastation that might befall upon us. Myanmar is one of the countries prone to such disasters and has to be surely prevented. Many measures have to be taken like reforestations for the generations to come. A collective approach is necessary in the first place.

Education for the future generation have been stalled by COVID 19 and the loss of time, missed opportunities, interruptions of studies of all sorts, complacent , lack of interest are so detrimental to the tender minds of kids and to some students. They should be allowed to think and be creative. The remedy lies on the parents, teachers and the policy makers. A careful, prudent tread is necessary to rebuilt a system disrupted by the virus saga and the mismanagement of the past.

Either the “ new normal” or the “new abnormal”, whatever you name it, countries have stated to reskill their work force. Though sounds dramatic, the world is on its way of doing so. Some current skills are losing relevance. Depending on the industry, some may become redundant. We have to be prepared for the eventuality. As we cannot control the wind, we might as well adjust our sails. More technical, vocational, skills enhancement trainings should be conducted around the whole country in order to attract investments in all the states and divisions. But we have to bear in mind that opportunities are always accompanied by difficulties.

Labour issues

Labour issues are endangering the attractiveness of investments. They have to be tackled lawfully so also is the maintaining of law and order. Incessant complaints regarding holidays have poured in and it is one of the factors discouraging FDIs in Myanmar. More skilled work force is needed and to disseminate their rights and responsibilities are the acute matters the stake holders have to act upon.

Come! Let us ALL be united. work three times harder, to show the world our wisdom, they will all envy. We can be the role model for each and everyone on this planet earth. Why are they developing missiles when they cannot even eliminate set aside eradicate a microbe named COVID 19? For Myanmar, united we stand, the best is yet to come.

Dr Maung Maung Lay
Vice-President, UMFCCI