Although the government of Myanmar has been promoting the country's shift toward a market economy since 1988, Myanmar's business community remains inadequately equipped, in terms of management skills, to cope with the challenge of industrial reform. In order to achieve industrial development and sharpen the competitiveness of its business enterprises, Myanmar must broaden the support industries of its manufacturing sector and raise the caliber of business management personnel in all industries. The problem, however, is that little is understood of the actual state of business enterprises in the country, and the government has yet to plot a fundamental course of action upon which to base industrial policy.

Under this project, research was carried out and symposia were held to determine the current status of both private and state-run enterprises in Myanmar in terms of management, finance and human resources; to analyze the country's management standards in comparison with those of neighboring countries; and to identify problems and make recommendations for improvement of these conditions.

In FY 1997, a nine-member international research team was formed, led by Professor Minoru Kiryu and including Professor Kitti Limskul of Chulalongkorn University (Thailand) and Professor Nu Nu Yin of the Institute of Economics, Yangon. The team conducted a survey of enterprises in Myanmar, analyzed the key issues of the country's industrial reform, held symposia in Yangon, Mandalay and Tokyo and compiled an interim report of its findings.

In FY 1998, the team conducted a further enterprise survey and organized research and symposia (Bangkok, Yangon and Osaka) aimed at formulating concrete recommendations for industrial reform. The team's final report was delivered at the Osaka symposium, attended by Mr. Zaw Tun, Myanmar's Deputy Minister of National Planning and Economic Development.

A total of 200 enterprises were surveyed over the two years of the project, with effective responses being received from 132 of them. Among the results of the survey, it was learned that (1) with the exception of a few categories of business, the bulk of Myanmar's enterprises are oriented toward the domestic market; (2) as a result, export-oriented industries remain undeveloped; (3) there is scant inter-enterprise tie-up activity, including in the form of subcontracting arrangements; (4) business operators are generally very dissatisfied with the country's basic industrial infrastructure, such as electric power supply and roads; and (5) a considerable proportion of those business operators are former bureaucrats with strong connections to the government.

In response to these findings, the research team made a number of recommendations\such as for the promotion for agricultural import-substitute industries based on the past experiences of Japan, Thailand and Vietnam; for the cultivation of export-oriented industries; for the acquisition of technical assistance from ASEAN countries; and for the establishment of a system for cooperative tie-ups between domestic and international enterprises\and called on the relevant officials in Myanmar's government to consider these measures with a positive, constructive approach.