Interaction for Progress: ASEAN and Myanmar


PROGRAM DATA
Implementing Organization: Information and Resource Center (Singapore)
Target Country: Myanmar
Type of Project: Research with Tangible Applications
Period: 3 years (FY1999-2001)



This project seeks to deepen the ties of trust between Myanmar and other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries by promoting dialogue between a group of opinion leaders from ASEAN and the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar. So far, however, there has been no hint of any resolution of Myanmar's internal political problems, leading to the conclusion that informal dialogue between ASEAN opinion leaders and the two Myanmar groups is difficult. Accordingly, instead of the workshop that had been planned, a two-day international conference, "Myanmar in the Twenty-first Century," was held March 28-29, 2000. This conference brought together representatives of the SPDC and a number of opinion leaders from other ASEAN countries, about 150 people in all. They discussed a range of topics, including Myanmar and globalization, the information revolution, traditional culture, the development of human resources, and national security strategy.