Nu Nu Lwin - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Nu Nu Lwin

Korea Myanmar Research Institute (KOMYRA), 2020

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices are increasingly applied as an effective way to a... more Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices are increasingly applied as an effective way to attracting and retaining both internal and external stakeholders in intensely competing telecommunication industry in Myanmar. This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of CSR practices and organizational justice to enhance the attitudes and positive behaviors of employees of telecommunication operators. To reach this aim, this paper examines the employee’s perception on CSR practices and organizational justice and analyzes their impact on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of those employees. The study proved that employee’s perception on CSR and practices of distributive justice are influencing factors on their behavior towards organization and individual members while their perception on practices of procedural justices affect employee behavior for the benefits of the organization.

Keywords—corporate social responsibility (CSR), organizational justice (OJ), distributive justice, procedural justice, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), telecommunication operator

Institute for International Trade & Investment (ITI), Apr 1, 2017

The main purpose this report is to assess the potential of Mandalay to become an attractive inves... more The main purpose this report is to assess the potential of Mandalay to become an attractive investment site for export oriented foreign manufacturing firms. The study found that Mandalay has many external constraints to become industrial hubs of Myanmar infrastructure particularly in electricity, land and financial aspects that need to be tackled urgently and fundamentally. For internal constraints, finance is found as a major problem for business to expand. Technology, skill development, machines and equipment are found as also important internal barriers for the firms.
Despite these, there have important opportunities for some industries including agricultural food processing, ICT and electronic component parts manufacturing and textile industries. By using locally abundant resources of agricultural produces and labor force coupled with money and technology brought by foreign investors, these industries have huge opportunities for growth. To be qualified local firms in Mandalay as suppliers to international companies and to become Mandalay as an attractive manufacturing site for foreign firms, a number of positive measures need to be
implemented. This inevitably takes some time to achieve. For macro level interventions, foresighted and consistent policies, political will, money and time investment and patience are necessary along the way. Out of them, land issue need to handle first because unclear ownership of land and land use right are serious barriers for investors even more than the issue of high land price. The regular and reliable supply of electricity is also the next important factor to be tackled.
Improvement in road, rail and port infrastructure and clear policy and rules
of regional government to promote foreign investment is the third most important
intervention to be done.

Key words: Mandalay, Investment site, opportunities, constraints

Myanmar Academy of Arts and Science, Jun 1, 2012

Since its adoption to market-oriented economic system, Myanmar initiated “export promotion and im... more Since its adoption to market-oriented economic system, Myanmar initiated “export promotion and import substitution” to be the main planks of Myanmar trade policy. The major instruments of trade control are license, quantitative restrictions and foreign exchange control rather than through high import duties or export levies. Moreover, investment restriction, trade sanction and several restricted measures imposed by the United States and European countries also had large impact on the structure and direction of Myanmar’s trade.
This paper has attempted to identify the factors that affect on the directions and trends of Myanmar’s imports and to provide trade policy implications under the framework of basic gravity model. In order to quantify the determinant factors of Myanmar’s imports, actual bilateral import volume is compared to the predicted volume estimated by the gravity equation.
During a decade, Myanmar has more relied on the neighboring and other Asian countries for its external trade. However, actual import volume of Myanmar from its neighboring countries are much lower than the potential predicted by the gravity equation, thus it can be envisaged that there are existence of trade barriers and unrecorded informal trades in border area. Even though tariff rates of Myanmar is relatively low in line with CEPT scheme of AFTA, effective tariff rate is supposed to
be high and thereby creating low volume of actual trade recorded. These findings suggest that having large extent of informal trades in border areas, Myanmar needs to take possible measures to regularize and institutionalize such trade activities in order to promote formal trade and improve government revenues.

Keywords: AFTA, imports, informal trade, gravity model

Korea Myanmar Research Institute (KOMYRA), Sep 2019

ABSTRACT: This study aims to identify and compare the factors affecting each stage of entrepre... more ABSTRACT: This study aims to identify and compare the factors affecting each
stage of entrepreneurial process in creating manufacturing and service firms in
Myanmar and to identify the barriers of doing business in Myanmar. The survey
is conducted based on 105 firms in Yangon Region. The data are gathered by
face to face interview with structured questionnaire. This study uses chi-squared
method to test the significant statistical difference between the two data sets. It
is found out that economic factors are the main motivators for starting a
business, work experience is most important source for assessing resources and
there is weak interaction between education and real world experience of
entrepreneurs. Moreover, the study finds out that there are barriers like financial
and technology assessment in Myanmar Economy. For encouraging
entrepreneurship in Myanmar for the aim of economic development, government
sectors should provide good infrastructure for the startup and for their survival
and add skills training like presentation skill and selling methods in the school
education. In addition, the entrepreneurs should take more competitiveness and
creativities to their products or services.

Key words : Entrepreneurship, Business Creation Process, Barriers, Work
Experience, Myanmar

This paper aims to explore the role of SMEs in Myanmar economy. It analyses the contribution of S... more This paper aims to explore the role of SMEs in Myanmar economy. It analyses the contribution of SMEs in the economy and identifies the opportunities and obstacles of Myanmar SMEs. TO reach research objectives, the study is conducted based on 150 SMEs which are registered for at least two years and not more than 100 employees at the year of establishment and operates in manufacturing, processing, wholesaling, retailing, or services provision sectors in Yangon Municipal Area for the
period of March to May 2014. To identify the current situation of SMEs in Myanmar, this research mainly focuses on seven areas, namely, institutional framework, access to supporting services, access to finance, access to technology, international market expansion, entrepreneurial education; and representation of SMEs’ interests. The study found out that while political willingness, enthusiastic implementation of national development planning, private sector participation, and momentum of regional integration in ASEAN region can create opportunities for Myanmar SMEs, weak
institutional and legal environment, limited sources of finance and technology, weak managerial skills, inadequate infrastructures, weak readiness in business strategies and practices to face regional integration are major hindrance that calls upon concrete and applicable policies and supporting institutions for development of SMEs in Myanmar.

Key words: SMEs development, entrepreneurial activities, ASEAN, institutional
environment

Borneo Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2020

With the growing competition among local and foreign microfinance institutions (MFIs), local micr... more With the growing competition among local and foreign microfinance institutions (MFIs), local microfinance firms have been struggling to retain their position through sustaining organizational performance. Since the organizational performance is the collective results of the employees’ job performance which is largely determined by organizational culture of respective organization. Accordingly, this study is an attempt to observe the role of organization culture in improving job performance of employees in microfinance firms in Myanmar. The study is conducted based on the responses of 160 staff who are working in selected eight microfinance firms in Yangon.
This study applies two-stage random sampling method in which eight microfinance firms are randomly chosen among 84 microfinance firms in Yangon and 20 staff from each microfinance firm are randomly selected as the respondent. The data are collected from altogether 160 selected respondents with structured questionnaire during December 2019. The results of the study reveal that all cultural dimensions except masculinity dimension, have significant effects on both types of employees’ job
performance of the MFIs, in which power distance is the major influencing factor on task performance whereas collectivism has the largest effect on contextual performance of the employees. Uncertainty avoidance is the second largest influencing factors on both task performance and contextual performance. This finding reflects the precautious nature of microfinance business. This study provides the implications for microfinance companies to design and promote strong and healthy organizational culture with appropriate cultural dimensions that can enhance the job performance of their employees and thereby, improve the overall performance of microfinance firms in Myanmar.

Keywords: Job Performance, Microfinance, Organizational Culture, Power Distance,
Uncertainty Avoidance

This paper examines the effects of import duties on smuggling in Myanmar. Following F... more This paper examines the effects of import duties on smuggling in Myanmar.
Following Fisman and Wei (2004), the reporting discrepancies between Myanmar’s imports records and corresponding exports recorded by trading partners are regarded as indicative of smuggling. The paper studies whether reporting discrepancies differ across trading partners as well as across time. Our main findings are first, that the hike in import duties in June 2004 helped to widen the reporting discrepancies, which suggests smuggling for tax evasion purposes and second, that reporting discrepancies differ considerably across trading partners: land borders appear to be particularly attractive venues for smugglers.

Keywords: Myanmar (Burma), smuggling, tax evasion, border trade

IDE Discussion Papers, 2010

This paper examines the effects of import duties on smuggling in Myanmar. Following F... more This paper examines the effects of import duties on smuggling in Myanmar.
Following Fisman and Wei (2004), the reporting discrepancies between Myanmar’s imports records and corresponding exports recorded by trading partners are regarded as indicative of smuggling. The paper studies whether reporting discrepancies differ across trading partners as well as across time. Our main findings are first, that the hike in import duties in June 2004 helped to widen the reporting discrepancies, which suggests smuggling for tax evasion purposes and second, that reporting discrepancies differ considerably across trading partners: land borders appear to be particularly attractive venues for smugglers.

Keywords: Myanmar (Burma), smuggling, tax evasion, border trade

Yangon Institute of Economics, Dec 2010

Since its participation in AFTA, Myanmar’s trade volumes have being grown rapidly while its tra... more Since its participation in AFTA, Myanmar’s trade volumes have being grown rapidly while its trade patterns and directions have significantly changed. Recognizing the importance of international trade in Myanmar economies, this study attempts to analyze the trade patterns of Myanmar based the gravity model. The empirical analysis is conducted to identify the determining factors of each country’s bilateral trade flows and policy implications for promoting their trade.
The results indicate that Myanmar trades are mainly affected by partner country’s GDP, the difference between per capita GDPs of two countries, distance, common border, and presence in particular FTA. Their trade relations with East Asian countries mainly China, Japan and Korea have yet to be exploited to their full potential. These findings suggest that Myanmar needs to promote its bilateral trade with countries in close proximity and having large economic size and high consumers’ purchasing power through accelerating its trade liberalization efforts in FTAs in progress.

Keywords: CLM countries, ASEAN, East Asia, FTA, Bilateral trade

Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Nov 2011

Since the 1990s, Asian economies have been moving towards deeper regional integration to enjoy gr... more Since the 1990s, Asian economies have been moving towards deeper regional integration to enjoy growth together and to share prosperity. Although size of the economy and level of development in the region are quite diverse, it does not matter to such integration. This integration will not only expand the production possibility frontiers but also promote the flow of ideas and cultural exchanges within the region. Southeast Asia and India have become two of the fastest growing and most dynamic regions in the world. As Asia becomes the engine of growth for the global economy, the ASEAN and India must capitalize on their partnership through enhanced connectivity to reap the benefits most. In this scenario, Myanmar is the only land bridge between ASEAN and India so that the country has a great potential to be an important player in shaping future economic, political and security environment in this region. The connectivity projects will enhance the strategic importance of Myanmar as a reg...

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are major contributors to country's economy and serve as a ba... more Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are major contributors to country's economy and serve as a backbone of economic growth especially for developing countries like Myanmar. The government endeavors to promote the SMEs through a series of economic and political reforms in its transition to market-oriented economy. However, SMEs in Myanmar are still facing several challenges to achieve economies of scale and competitiveness to penetrate regional and international market. This paper
aims to assess the current situation of entrepreneurship and SMEs in Myanmar and to explore the ways to promote entrepreneurship and SMEs development with the references to experience of Korea.
To realize this end, the influencing factors on entrepreneurial activities and the challenges and issues facing by Myanmar SMEs have been analyzed. At the same time, institutional setup and policy environment that lead to significant increases of entrepreneurship and development of SMEs in Korea were also explored in order to find out the ways to improve policy measures and to create conducive environment for entrepreneurship and SMEs development in Myanmar. According to the survey, the
challenges faced by Myanmar SMEs can be summarized as limited sources of finance and technology, insufficient facilitation for accessing international market, weak institutional and legal environment, and inadequate supporting services for new set-ups, in order of importance. This paper proposed policy recommendations based on survey results of Myanmar SMEs and policy and institutional environment of Koreas SMEs sector. These policy measures are expected to create conducive and business-friendly environment and thereby, lead to development of entrepreneurship
and SMEs and eventually, the growth of Myanmar economy.

Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), 2011

This book published by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) attempts to... more This book published by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) attempts to address the twin issues of the growing opportunities for agricultural development and trade arising from a robustly growing East Asia on the one hand and the political and social imperative of food security in the region on the other hand. Broadly, the key way forward is to have a relatively more open agricultural economy in tandem with investments in productivity-enhancing interventions like irrigation and agricultural research and development while engendering regional cooperative efforts that redress or temper the negative welfare effects of crises and natural disasters.

Since their accession to AFTA, trade volumes of CLM countries have being grown rapidly while thei... more Since their accession to AFTA, trade volumes of CLM countries have being grown rapidly while their trade patterns and directions have significantly changed. Recognizing the importance of international trade in CLM economies, this study attempts to analyze the trade patterns of CLM countries based the gravity model. The empirical analysis is conducted to identify the determining factors of each country’s bilateral trade flows and policy implications for promoting their trade. The results indicate that CLM’s trade patterns are mainly affected by partner country’s GDP, the difference between per capita GDPs of two countries, distance, common border, and presence in particular FTA. Their trade relations with East Asian countries mainly China, Japan and Korea have yet to be exploited to their full potential. These findings suggest that CLM countries needs to promote their bilateral trade with countries in close proximity and having large economic size and high consumers’ purchasing power...

Korea Myanmar Research Institute (KOMYRA), Feb 2019

Entrepreneurship has long been recognized as a major contributor to country's economy and s... more Entrepreneurship has long been recognized as a major contributor to country's economy and serve as a backbone of economic growth of developing economies. In Myanmar, the government endeavors to promote entrepreneurship and SMEs sector in its transition to market-oriented economy. However, SMEs in Myanmar are still facing several challenges to survive and compete with flooding numerous imported products under the context of regional economic integration. Among several important factors for SME development, entrepreneurial education is fundamental one to nurture start-up business and promote entrepreneurial activities. This paper aims to identify the needs for entrepreneurial education in Myanmar with the references to Korean experiences in promoting entrepreneurial activities. The study found that government’s role in building up and upgrading human capital is a main contribution factor of SME development in Korea. The government laid down the policies that nourish the capabilities of young generation and encourage them to engage in entrepreneurial activities. In Myanmar, even though entrepreneurial education programs have been offered by public organizations
including universities and partly supported by private organizations including not-for-profit organizations, young generation are still weak in capabilities for new business start-ups. This paper proposed some policy recommendations for promoting entrepreneurial education in Myanmar.

Key words : Entrepreneurship, SMEs, entrepreneurial education, human capital,
new business start-up.

Myanmar Academy of Arts and Science, Jun 2008

The economic rationale for Myanmar joining AFTA is to enjoy greater trade and investment links wi... more The economic rationale for Myanmar joining AFTA is to enjoy greater trade and investment links within the region, hence increased attractiveness to foreign firms from outside the region and more secure access to the larger ASEAN market. The purpose of the study is to analyse the impact of AFTA on Myanmar economy in terms of trade and investment. Myanmar’s export structure is shifting toward resource-based sector from its traditional agro-based sector. The importance of agro-based has declined mainly due to low competitiveness of the sector in comparison with neighboring countries although it has comparative advantage. While Myanmar’s
exports are mainly based on natural resource-intensive sectors, Cambodia has an upward movement by shifting from agriculture and primary producing activities to manufacturing industry. FDI inflows, both from intra-ASEAN and extra-ASEAN, dramatically fell since the onset of the Asian economic crisis in 1997 and then, severely affected by economic sanctions imposed by the US and other Western countries. Several weaknesses in the economy including existence of dual exchange
rates, lack of infrastructure, poor telecommunication services, frequent changes of rules and regulations and lack of consistency and transparency have also hampered the FDI inflows to Myanmar. The study highlights the important measure that Myanmar needs to accelerate its foreign trade liberalization, financial sector reforms, and private sector development especially the promotion of small and medium enterprises, privatization of state-owned economic enterprises, and improvement
of infrastructure and intensification of domestic savings mobilization. Thus, Myanmar participation in AFTA and possible AEC is expected to lead economic growth of Myanmar based on its comparative advantage of abundant natural resources, its cheap but literate labour and other strategic advantages like its location between China and India.

Key Words: Economic Integration, ASEAN, AFTA, AEC

Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, 2014

OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme, 2015

Capital investment (Kyat' Million) (a) Manufacturing Industry Up to 500 500-1000

Since their accession to AFTA, trade volumes of CLM countries have being grownrapidly while their... more Since their accession to AFTA, trade volumes of CLM countries have being grownrapidly while their trade patterns and directions have significantly changed.Recognizing the importance of international trade in CLM economies, this studyattempts to analyze the trade patterns of CLM countries based the gravity model.The empirical analysis is conducted to identify the determining factors of eachcountry’s bilateral trade flows and policy implications for promoting their trade.

Department of Higher Education, Dec 2020

This paper aims to study how local private banks handles their organizationa... more This paper aims to study how local private banks handles their
organizational change in a contestable banking sector in Myanmar and how these changes affect the performance of employee. Change management practices are analyzed in terms of organizational structure, organizational culture, leadership and technology changes whereas employees’ performance is measured with task
performance and contextual performance. The results of the study demonstrate that change in leadership and change in culture are more prevalent in local private banks and have the most significant effect on both measures of employee performance while technological change only affect task performance. The study suggests the local private banks to adjust organizational stance through change management practices including changes in leadership, organizational culture and technology in order to improve and enhance the employee performance and thereby, to survive and
remain competitive in a constantly changing environment.

Keywords: change management, employee performance, leadership organizational structure, cultural change, technological change

Korea Myanmar Research Institute (KOMYRA), 2020

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices are increasingly applied as an effective way to a... more Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices are increasingly applied as an effective way to attracting and retaining both internal and external stakeholders in intensely competing telecommunication industry in Myanmar. This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of CSR practices and organizational justice to enhance the attitudes and positive behaviors of employees of telecommunication operators. To reach this aim, this paper examines the employee’s perception on CSR practices and organizational justice and analyzes their impact on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of those employees. The study proved that employee’s perception on CSR and practices of distributive justice are influencing factors on their behavior towards organization and individual members while their perception on practices of procedural justices affect employee behavior for the benefits of the organization.

Keywords—corporate social responsibility (CSR), organizational justice (OJ), distributive justice, procedural justice, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), telecommunication operator

Institute for International Trade & Investment (ITI), Apr 1, 2017

The main purpose this report is to assess the potential of Mandalay to become an attractive inves... more The main purpose this report is to assess the potential of Mandalay to become an attractive investment site for export oriented foreign manufacturing firms. The study found that Mandalay has many external constraints to become industrial hubs of Myanmar infrastructure particularly in electricity, land and financial aspects that need to be tackled urgently and fundamentally. For internal constraints, finance is found as a major problem for business to expand. Technology, skill development, machines and equipment are found as also important internal barriers for the firms.
Despite these, there have important opportunities for some industries including agricultural food processing, ICT and electronic component parts manufacturing and textile industries. By using locally abundant resources of agricultural produces and labor force coupled with money and technology brought by foreign investors, these industries have huge opportunities for growth. To be qualified local firms in Mandalay as suppliers to international companies and to become Mandalay as an attractive manufacturing site for foreign firms, a number of positive measures need to be
implemented. This inevitably takes some time to achieve. For macro level interventions, foresighted and consistent policies, political will, money and time investment and patience are necessary along the way. Out of them, land issue need to handle first because unclear ownership of land and land use right are serious barriers for investors even more than the issue of high land price. The regular and reliable supply of electricity is also the next important factor to be tackled.
Improvement in road, rail and port infrastructure and clear policy and rules
of regional government to promote foreign investment is the third most important
intervention to be done.

Key words: Mandalay, Investment site, opportunities, constraints

Myanmar Academy of Arts and Science, Jun 1, 2012

Since its adoption to market-oriented economic system, Myanmar initiated “export promotion and im... more Since its adoption to market-oriented economic system, Myanmar initiated “export promotion and import substitution” to be the main planks of Myanmar trade policy. The major instruments of trade control are license, quantitative restrictions and foreign exchange control rather than through high import duties or export levies. Moreover, investment restriction, trade sanction and several restricted measures imposed by the United States and European countries also had large impact on the structure and direction of Myanmar’s trade.
This paper has attempted to identify the factors that affect on the directions and trends of Myanmar’s imports and to provide trade policy implications under the framework of basic gravity model. In order to quantify the determinant factors of Myanmar’s imports, actual bilateral import volume is compared to the predicted volume estimated by the gravity equation.
During a decade, Myanmar has more relied on the neighboring and other Asian countries for its external trade. However, actual import volume of Myanmar from its neighboring countries are much lower than the potential predicted by the gravity equation, thus it can be envisaged that there are existence of trade barriers and unrecorded informal trades in border area. Even though tariff rates of Myanmar is relatively low in line with CEPT scheme of AFTA, effective tariff rate is supposed to
be high and thereby creating low volume of actual trade recorded. These findings suggest that having large extent of informal trades in border areas, Myanmar needs to take possible measures to regularize and institutionalize such trade activities in order to promote formal trade and improve government revenues.

Keywords: AFTA, imports, informal trade, gravity model

Korea Myanmar Research Institute (KOMYRA), Sep 2019

ABSTRACT: This study aims to identify and compare the factors affecting each stage of entrepre... more ABSTRACT: This study aims to identify and compare the factors affecting each
stage of entrepreneurial process in creating manufacturing and service firms in
Myanmar and to identify the barriers of doing business in Myanmar. The survey
is conducted based on 105 firms in Yangon Region. The data are gathered by
face to face interview with structured questionnaire. This study uses chi-squared
method to test the significant statistical difference between the two data sets. It
is found out that economic factors are the main motivators for starting a
business, work experience is most important source for assessing resources and
there is weak interaction between education and real world experience of
entrepreneurs. Moreover, the study finds out that there are barriers like financial
and technology assessment in Myanmar Economy. For encouraging
entrepreneurship in Myanmar for the aim of economic development, government
sectors should provide good infrastructure for the startup and for their survival
and add skills training like presentation skill and selling methods in the school
education. In addition, the entrepreneurs should take more competitiveness and
creativities to their products or services.

Key words : Entrepreneurship, Business Creation Process, Barriers, Work
Experience, Myanmar

This paper aims to explore the role of SMEs in Myanmar economy. It analyses the contribution of S... more This paper aims to explore the role of SMEs in Myanmar economy. It analyses the contribution of SMEs in the economy and identifies the opportunities and obstacles of Myanmar SMEs. TO reach research objectives, the study is conducted based on 150 SMEs which are registered for at least two years and not more than 100 employees at the year of establishment and operates in manufacturing, processing, wholesaling, retailing, or services provision sectors in Yangon Municipal Area for the
period of March to May 2014. To identify the current situation of SMEs in Myanmar, this research mainly focuses on seven areas, namely, institutional framework, access to supporting services, access to finance, access to technology, international market expansion, entrepreneurial education; and representation of SMEs’ interests. The study found out that while political willingness, enthusiastic implementation of national development planning, private sector participation, and momentum of regional integration in ASEAN region can create opportunities for Myanmar SMEs, weak
institutional and legal environment, limited sources of finance and technology, weak managerial skills, inadequate infrastructures, weak readiness in business strategies and practices to face regional integration are major hindrance that calls upon concrete and applicable policies and supporting institutions for development of SMEs in Myanmar.

Key words: SMEs development, entrepreneurial activities, ASEAN, institutional
environment

Borneo Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2020

With the growing competition among local and foreign microfinance institutions (MFIs), local micr... more With the growing competition among local and foreign microfinance institutions (MFIs), local microfinance firms have been struggling to retain their position through sustaining organizational performance. Since the organizational performance is the collective results of the employees’ job performance which is largely determined by organizational culture of respective organization. Accordingly, this study is an attempt to observe the role of organization culture in improving job performance of employees in microfinance firms in Myanmar. The study is conducted based on the responses of 160 staff who are working in selected eight microfinance firms in Yangon.
This study applies two-stage random sampling method in which eight microfinance firms are randomly chosen among 84 microfinance firms in Yangon and 20 staff from each microfinance firm are randomly selected as the respondent. The data are collected from altogether 160 selected respondents with structured questionnaire during December 2019. The results of the study reveal that all cultural dimensions except masculinity dimension, have significant effects on both types of employees’ job
performance of the MFIs, in which power distance is the major influencing factor on task performance whereas collectivism has the largest effect on contextual performance of the employees. Uncertainty avoidance is the second largest influencing factors on both task performance and contextual performance. This finding reflects the precautious nature of microfinance business. This study provides the implications for microfinance companies to design and promote strong and healthy organizational culture with appropriate cultural dimensions that can enhance the job performance of their employees and thereby, improve the overall performance of microfinance firms in Myanmar.

Keywords: Job Performance, Microfinance, Organizational Culture, Power Distance,
Uncertainty Avoidance

This paper examines the effects of import duties on smuggling in Myanmar. Following F... more This paper examines the effects of import duties on smuggling in Myanmar.
Following Fisman and Wei (2004), the reporting discrepancies between Myanmar’s imports records and corresponding exports recorded by trading partners are regarded as indicative of smuggling. The paper studies whether reporting discrepancies differ across trading partners as well as across time. Our main findings are first, that the hike in import duties in June 2004 helped to widen the reporting discrepancies, which suggests smuggling for tax evasion purposes and second, that reporting discrepancies differ considerably across trading partners: land borders appear to be particularly attractive venues for smugglers.

Keywords: Myanmar (Burma), smuggling, tax evasion, border trade

IDE Discussion Papers, 2010

This paper examines the effects of import duties on smuggling in Myanmar. Following F... more This paper examines the effects of import duties on smuggling in Myanmar.
Following Fisman and Wei (2004), the reporting discrepancies between Myanmar’s imports records and corresponding exports recorded by trading partners are regarded as indicative of smuggling. The paper studies whether reporting discrepancies differ across trading partners as well as across time. Our main findings are first, that the hike in import duties in June 2004 helped to widen the reporting discrepancies, which suggests smuggling for tax evasion purposes and second, that reporting discrepancies differ considerably across trading partners: land borders appear to be particularly attractive venues for smugglers.

Keywords: Myanmar (Burma), smuggling, tax evasion, border trade

Yangon Institute of Economics, Dec 2010

Since its participation in AFTA, Myanmar’s trade volumes have being grown rapidly while its tra... more Since its participation in AFTA, Myanmar’s trade volumes have being grown rapidly while its trade patterns and directions have significantly changed. Recognizing the importance of international trade in Myanmar economies, this study attempts to analyze the trade patterns of Myanmar based the gravity model. The empirical analysis is conducted to identify the determining factors of each country’s bilateral trade flows and policy implications for promoting their trade.
The results indicate that Myanmar trades are mainly affected by partner country’s GDP, the difference between per capita GDPs of two countries, distance, common border, and presence in particular FTA. Their trade relations with East Asian countries mainly China, Japan and Korea have yet to be exploited to their full potential. These findings suggest that Myanmar needs to promote its bilateral trade with countries in close proximity and having large economic size and high consumers’ purchasing power through accelerating its trade liberalization efforts in FTAs in progress.

Keywords: CLM countries, ASEAN, East Asia, FTA, Bilateral trade

Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Nov 2011

Since the 1990s, Asian economies have been moving towards deeper regional integration to enjoy gr... more Since the 1990s, Asian economies have been moving towards deeper regional integration to enjoy growth together and to share prosperity. Although size of the economy and level of development in the region are quite diverse, it does not matter to such integration. This integration will not only expand the production possibility frontiers but also promote the flow of ideas and cultural exchanges within the region. Southeast Asia and India have become two of the fastest growing and most dynamic regions in the world. As Asia becomes the engine of growth for the global economy, the ASEAN and India must capitalize on their partnership through enhanced connectivity to reap the benefits most. In this scenario, Myanmar is the only land bridge between ASEAN and India so that the country has a great potential to be an important player in shaping future economic, political and security environment in this region. The connectivity projects will enhance the strategic importance of Myanmar as a reg...

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are major contributors to country's economy and serve as a ba... more Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are major contributors to country's economy and serve as a backbone of economic growth especially for developing countries like Myanmar. The government endeavors to promote the SMEs through a series of economic and political reforms in its transition to market-oriented economy. However, SMEs in Myanmar are still facing several challenges to achieve economies of scale and competitiveness to penetrate regional and international market. This paper
aims to assess the current situation of entrepreneurship and SMEs in Myanmar and to explore the ways to promote entrepreneurship and SMEs development with the references to experience of Korea.
To realize this end, the influencing factors on entrepreneurial activities and the challenges and issues facing by Myanmar SMEs have been analyzed. At the same time, institutional setup and policy environment that lead to significant increases of entrepreneurship and development of SMEs in Korea were also explored in order to find out the ways to improve policy measures and to create conducive environment for entrepreneurship and SMEs development in Myanmar. According to the survey, the
challenges faced by Myanmar SMEs can be summarized as limited sources of finance and technology, insufficient facilitation for accessing international market, weak institutional and legal environment, and inadequate supporting services for new set-ups, in order of importance. This paper proposed policy recommendations based on survey results of Myanmar SMEs and policy and institutional environment of Koreas SMEs sector. These policy measures are expected to create conducive and business-friendly environment and thereby, lead to development of entrepreneurship
and SMEs and eventually, the growth of Myanmar economy.

Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), 2011

This book published by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) attempts to... more This book published by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) attempts to address the twin issues of the growing opportunities for agricultural development and trade arising from a robustly growing East Asia on the one hand and the political and social imperative of food security in the region on the other hand. Broadly, the key way forward is to have a relatively more open agricultural economy in tandem with investments in productivity-enhancing interventions like irrigation and agricultural research and development while engendering regional cooperative efforts that redress or temper the negative welfare effects of crises and natural disasters.

Since their accession to AFTA, trade volumes of CLM countries have being grown rapidly while thei... more Since their accession to AFTA, trade volumes of CLM countries have being grown rapidly while their trade patterns and directions have significantly changed. Recognizing the importance of international trade in CLM economies, this study attempts to analyze the trade patterns of CLM countries based the gravity model. The empirical analysis is conducted to identify the determining factors of each country’s bilateral trade flows and policy implications for promoting their trade. The results indicate that CLM’s trade patterns are mainly affected by partner country’s GDP, the difference between per capita GDPs of two countries, distance, common border, and presence in particular FTA. Their trade relations with East Asian countries mainly China, Japan and Korea have yet to be exploited to their full potential. These findings suggest that CLM countries needs to promote their bilateral trade with countries in close proximity and having large economic size and high consumers’ purchasing power...

Korea Myanmar Research Institute (KOMYRA), Feb 2019

Entrepreneurship has long been recognized as a major contributor to country's economy and s... more Entrepreneurship has long been recognized as a major contributor to country's economy and serve as a backbone of economic growth of developing economies. In Myanmar, the government endeavors to promote entrepreneurship and SMEs sector in its transition to market-oriented economy. However, SMEs in Myanmar are still facing several challenges to survive and compete with flooding numerous imported products under the context of regional economic integration. Among several important factors for SME development, entrepreneurial education is fundamental one to nurture start-up business and promote entrepreneurial activities. This paper aims to identify the needs for entrepreneurial education in Myanmar with the references to Korean experiences in promoting entrepreneurial activities. The study found that government’s role in building up and upgrading human capital is a main contribution factor of SME development in Korea. The government laid down the policies that nourish the capabilities of young generation and encourage them to engage in entrepreneurial activities. In Myanmar, even though entrepreneurial education programs have been offered by public organizations
including universities and partly supported by private organizations including not-for-profit organizations, young generation are still weak in capabilities for new business start-ups. This paper proposed some policy recommendations for promoting entrepreneurial education in Myanmar.

Key words : Entrepreneurship, SMEs, entrepreneurial education, human capital,
new business start-up.

Myanmar Academy of Arts and Science, Jun 2008

The economic rationale for Myanmar joining AFTA is to enjoy greater trade and investment links wi... more The economic rationale for Myanmar joining AFTA is to enjoy greater trade and investment links within the region, hence increased attractiveness to foreign firms from outside the region and more secure access to the larger ASEAN market. The purpose of the study is to analyse the impact of AFTA on Myanmar economy in terms of trade and investment. Myanmar’s export structure is shifting toward resource-based sector from its traditional agro-based sector. The importance of agro-based has declined mainly due to low competitiveness of the sector in comparison with neighboring countries although it has comparative advantage. While Myanmar’s
exports are mainly based on natural resource-intensive sectors, Cambodia has an upward movement by shifting from agriculture and primary producing activities to manufacturing industry. FDI inflows, both from intra-ASEAN and extra-ASEAN, dramatically fell since the onset of the Asian economic crisis in 1997 and then, severely affected by economic sanctions imposed by the US and other Western countries. Several weaknesses in the economy including existence of dual exchange
rates, lack of infrastructure, poor telecommunication services, frequent changes of rules and regulations and lack of consistency and transparency have also hampered the FDI inflows to Myanmar. The study highlights the important measure that Myanmar needs to accelerate its foreign trade liberalization, financial sector reforms, and private sector development especially the promotion of small and medium enterprises, privatization of state-owned economic enterprises, and improvement
of infrastructure and intensification of domestic savings mobilization. Thus, Myanmar participation in AFTA and possible AEC is expected to lead economic growth of Myanmar based on its comparative advantage of abundant natural resources, its cheap but literate labour and other strategic advantages like its location between China and India.

Key Words: Economic Integration, ASEAN, AFTA, AEC

Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, 2014

OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme, 2015

Capital investment (Kyat' Million) (a) Manufacturing Industry Up to 500 500-1000

Since their accession to AFTA, trade volumes of CLM countries have being grownrapidly while their... more Since their accession to AFTA, trade volumes of CLM countries have being grownrapidly while their trade patterns and directions have significantly changed.Recognizing the importance of international trade in CLM economies, this studyattempts to analyze the trade patterns of CLM countries based the gravity model.The empirical analysis is conducted to identify the determining factors of eachcountry’s bilateral trade flows and policy implications for promoting their trade.

Department of Higher Education, Dec 2020

This paper aims to study how local private banks handles their organizationa... more This paper aims to study how local private banks handles their
organizational change in a contestable banking sector in Myanmar and how these changes affect the performance of employee. Change management practices are analyzed in terms of organizational structure, organizational culture, leadership and technology changes whereas employees’ performance is measured with task
performance and contextual performance. The results of the study demonstrate that change in leadership and change in culture are more prevalent in local private banks and have the most significant effect on both measures of employee performance while technological change only affect task performance. The study suggests the local private banks to adjust organizational stance through change management practices including changes in leadership, organizational culture and technology in order to improve and enhance the employee performance and thereby, to survive and
remain competitive in a constantly changing environment.

Keywords: change management, employee performance, leadership organizational structure, cultural change, technological change

The Second Myanmar Universities’ Research Conference (2020) , 2020

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices are increasingly applied as an effective way to a... more Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices are increasingly applied as an effective way to attracting and retaining both internal and external stakeholders in intensely competing telecommunication industry in Myanmar. This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of CSR practices and organizational justice to enhance the attitudes and positive behaviors of employees of telecommunication operators. To reach this aim, this paper examines the employee’s perception on CSR practices and organizational justice and analyzes their impact on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of those employees. The study proved that employee’s perception on CSR and practices of distributive justice are influencing factors on their behavior towards organization and individual members while their perception on practices of procedural justices affect employee behavior for the benefits of the organization.

Institute of South Asian Studies, 2018

This paper aims to assess the situation of Myanmar position in Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi... more 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.

Key words: BIMSTEC, geostrategic position, connectivity, collaboration and coordination, regional value chain.