A STUDY ON DECENTRALIZATION OF INVESTMENT REGIME AND ITS EFFICIENCY OF SERVICES IN MYANMAR (A Case Study on Yangon Regional Investment Committee)

Myanmar is going through a historic change towards a more democratic and responsive government. FDI demonstrate the positive effects of economic growth of the country, as related to job creation, technology transfer and bridging with international community. Myanmar Investment Law (2016) was enacted on 18th October 2016 and it has unique characteristics of decentralization of investment regime including the provision that reducing the development gap between the States and Regions by power delegation. Myanmar Investment Commission announced the notification no (11/2017) which is prescribing investment capital amount for investment activities for State and Regional Investment Committees to issue endorsement order and notification no (25/2017) which is the standard operating procedures for States and Regional Investment Committee. In accordance with that provision, this thesis explores the efficiency and effectiveness of the decentralization of investment in Myanmar, the quality of the program, awareness and satisfaction of people receiving services, the areas of changes in the decentralization process and how to communicate with the investment policy of the government. This thesis also analyzes on the decentralization process of some ASEAN countries such as Viet Nam, Indonesia and Thailand. Making a survey by setting up questionnaires to about 250 people involve in the process and received 151 respondents from that survey, it show that after the implementation of decentralization reform, decentralized proves experienced a significant increase in investment especially in Yangon Region. The analysis shows that the effect of decentralization reform was important and that increased investment was correlated with improve productivity. The result generally supports the view that decentralization reform increases the performance of government and generate positive externalities