A Note on Economic Policy

Economic reform is not simply setting an interest rate or an exchange rate.

It is establishing a shared vision of where the policies should lead and creating credibility and confidence that most movements will be in the right direction.

* Dr David Dapice, Prospects for Sustainable Growth in Myanmar/Burma , 12 Sept 1995. 

CREDIBILITY and CONFIDENCE are basic to good business, and are what we must first establish if we want  our policies to lead to a successful open-market economy.

 

Here again, I would like to refer to Dr Dapice who holds that to reverse the trend in Burma towards 'serious and difficult-to-reverse economic, social and political problems' 

there would need to be 'a strong and effective legal system, and a set of policies and 

institutions that engerder confidence enough people to save in banks and invest in the future without fear that they will, effectively, lose even if they succeed'.

Letters from Burma ; Aung San Suu Kyi
Letter No (11) - A Note on Economic Policy

  

Letter from Burma ; Breakfast Blue

Breakfast Blue

To understand the difficulties of housekeeping, let us look at what it involves to produce just the first meal of the day.

Breakfast for many people in Burma is fried rice.

Usually it is a mixture of cooked rice and other leftovers from the evening before, vegetables, meat or shrimps; sometimes an egg or two is stirred into it; sometimes there might be a sprinkling of thinly sliced Chinese pork sausage; sometimes a variety of steamed beans sold by vendors in the early hours of the morning might be added.

It is a fairly substantial and tasty meal.