Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi.

A Note on Economic Policy

Interviews with members of the media have become part of my normal work schedule over the last seven months. Some interviews are brief, 15 minutes or so, limited to a particular topic which is the specialty of the newspaper or magazine concerned. Other interviews are longer and ramble over a wider range of subjects. There are a number of standard questions related to the period of my house arrest and the work of the National League for Democracy (NLD) which are asked in almost every interview. Then there are questions which relate to current developments.

In recent weeks many journalists have asked about the economic policies of the NLD. One or two have even asked if we believed in an open-market economy. It brought home to me the fact that few foreigners knew of the existence of the Manifesto brought out by our party for the 1990 elections. And as there has been no official English translation of the Manifesto, even those who knew of it might not have known much about its contents. (The authorities have not permitted the NLD to bring out any publications since about two months after the elections.)

In view of current media interest, I would like to put down here the economic objectives of the NLD as stated under 11 clauses in the sections of the Manifesto on the economy:

1. Stability in prices, currency and employment; a national currency in which the people can have confidence 2.
2. Appropriate monetary and fiscal policies and an effectively controlled budget
3. A review of the exchange rate followed by necessary revision
4. Priority given to the import of fuel, vehicles and other goods that will contribute toward a fall in prices
5. Diversification of export goods
6. Amendments in foreign investment laws with a view to increasing the volume of investments
7. Reductions of foreign debts and resumption of aid and assistance from abroad
8. Review and, where necessary, revision or repeal of laws, decrees, regulations and other restrictions which circumscribe economic activities
9. Review and revision of the tax system to make private enterprise more profitable
10. An economy in which all the component parts are based fully on the market economy; encouragement of the speedy development of private enterprise
11. Promotion of a more efficient tourist industry.

Of course, it is easy enough to set down economic objectives, the question is how one sets about achieving them. I have found the opinions expressed by Dr. David Dapice, associate faculty fellow of the Harvard Institute for International Development, in his reports on the Burmese economy to the United Nations Development Program very similar to the views of the NLD. In "Prospects for Sustainable Growth in Myanmar/Burma" Dr. Dapice comments that "economic reform is not simply setting an interest rate or 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 directions."[1]

Credibility and confidence are basic to good business and this is what we have to establish first if we want our policies to lead to a successful open-market economy. It is for this reason that the NLD believes that essential to sound economic development is a political system firmly rooted in the rule of law. Here again I would like to refer to Dr. Dapice, who holds that to reverse the trend in Burma toward "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 engender confidence enough for people to save in banks and invest in the future without fear that they will, effectively, lose even if they succeed."[2]

When I am questioned as to my views on foreign investment I reply that now is not yet the time to invest. And to those who would query what the alternative would be to "investment now," I would say: "Invest in the future." That is to say, invest in democracy for Burma if only for the sake of your own profits. Businesses that frame their investment policies with a view to promoting an open, secure political system based on confidence and credibility will find they are also promoting an open, secure economy based on confidence and credibility where optimum returns can be expected by investors. A democratic Burma will be an economically dynamic and stable Burma.

1. David Dapice, "Prospects for Sustainable Growth in Myanmar/Burma" (A Report to the United Nations Development Program, September 12, 1995), p. 15
2. Ibid.