It was just a few short years ago that Myanmar’s prospects for economic growth were extremely dim. Crippling international sanctions against the military government had pushed the country into an unhealthy over-reliance on China as a trading partner. A critical lack of infrastructure and investment was holding Myanmar back from assuming its historic role as an important trade route between South, East, and Southeast Asia. Now, after a mere blink of an eye, all that has changed completely.
Adding to the daily stream of good news about Myanmar is the opening of the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway. The four-lane road is a part of the larger AH-1 Asian highway that will travel from Japan (via ferry) all the way across the continent to Turkey where it will link into the European highway system. To understand the importance of this, and the strategic location of Myanmar, we’ll need a quick geography primer – bear with us here, we promise to keep it brief.
Myanmar is in a part of Asia that most people, even those who aren’t geographically challenged, have a hard time picturing. The country shares long land borders with Thailand to the east, China to the northeast, and India to the west. There are also shorter borders with Laos and Bangladesh, and a long Indian Ocean coastline. There are a lot of factors behind Myanmar having among the strongest projected rates of economic growth in the world, and its prime location is surely among them.
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of this: Myanmar sits between the Asian economic powerhouses of China and India. They are the gateway between India and Thailand – no slouches themselves in economic power – and from there to the rest of Southeast Asia. Myanmar offers the most direct route from China to the Indian Ocean, and can also capitalize on its border with Bangladesh – a world leader in garment manufacturing (an industry Myanmar is currently seeking to boost domestically). As the infrastructure catches up, the country should find itself as a crucial part of South Asian and Southeast Asian shipping logistics.
The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway, which is being billed as “promoting trade, investment, tourism, and culture & historical linkage”, will cross into Myanmar from Moreh in India, and From Mae Sot in Thailand. The three countries are working together to promote the new highway in some pretty creative ways. As Myanmar event planning and marketing people ourselves, we’re pretty excited about what they’ve cooked up. Governments, especially in this part of the world are not exactly known for creative and out of the box thinking, but we think they’re on to something with their promotional efforts.
From November 2nd through 20th, there will be an India-Myanmar-Thailand Car Rally – basically a 19 day, 7000 kilometer there-and-back road trip. Part adventure tourism, part networking event for businesspeople and government officials, if done well it should be a mutually beneficial success. It doesn’t hurt that the route crosses some absolutely gorgeous scenery along nearly the whole route, and that much of that in Northeastern India and Myanmar has been mostly hidden from the world for a long while.
All of this dramatic change is taking place over an incredibly short period of time, but if viewed from a historical perspective, it is more of a reestablishment of ancient trade routes than a blazing of new trails. Still, with rail links and oil and gas pipelines sure to follow, as well as expanding port infrastructure in Myanmar, it surely is another sign of the rapid progress and modernization taking place in the country as it lays the groundwork for surging growth and development.
10 October 2015
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