MYANMAR & BIMSTEC

This paper aims to assess the situation of Myanmar position in Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and to explore the challenges and potential for Myanmar as a member of BIMSTEC. The main advantage of Myanmar is its geostrategic position as a link between South and Southeast Asia and share border with three member countries: Bangladesh, India, and Thailand. Despite such locational advantage it possesses, the benefits from participating in BIMSTEC has yet to be fully realized for many reasons. The main reasons are weak and less momentum in cooperation between member countries in respective sectors especially in agriculture, energy, trade and investment, and transportation. This paper recommends to accelerate the collaboration and coordination between member countries in such areas as building regional value chains for agriculture products, establishing regional networks for agriculture and food security, and improving transport connectivity including multi-modal transportation, and operationalizing grid interconnection and Energy Centre in order to promote trade, investment, and people connectivity. By implementing these measures, Myanmar can be expected to boost its trade, investment and tourism and thereby, to grasp its economic potential and prosperity of Myanmar people