Reposted from Business Standard
By Shankar Acharya

Sixty years ago, Myanmar (then Burma) was one of the economically better off countries in Asia, with abundant and valuable resources of forests, gems and minerals, major exports of rice from the fertile Irrawaddy delta and an average income higher than nearly all Asian nations other than Japan. Today, after 50 years of military rule, with the first 25 under General Ne Win’s “Burmese way of socialism”, the relative rankings seem to have changed dramatically, with Myanmar having one of the lowest average incomes among Asian countries. How did this happen? What was the trajectory of growth and development that led to this unfortunate reversal of fortune? The truth is that we know very little. More…