MYANMAR BUSINESS TRENDS: 2018

As we welcome a new year with new optimism and opportunities for the Myanmar business community, here are our TOP TEN predictions for 2018 Myanmar Business Trends. We limit our predictions to Top Ten since the readers can’t possibly have all the time in the world to read our Top 100.

Please be assured that we will revisit these predictions in December 2018 and compare the actual outcomes verses these predictions. Therefore, please remember to book mark our Myanmar Strategy Insights pages on your mobile or PC devices.

#1: Political Stability

Thanks to the leadership of young democratic government and the strong, but necessary, presence of the military in the border regions of the country, we expect the political stability to continue in 2018. In the watchful eyes of international communities, well-funded and supported by certain wealthy oil economies with certain religious or ethnic bias, human rights issue in the Yakhine state stood out like a sore eye in 2017. However, it did not and should not affect the continued political stability in the remaining 99% of the country and for the 99% of the citizens.

#2: Political Balancing Strategy

As the founding member of ASEAN, Myanmar is expected to further integrate into the ASEAN community and grow unilateral trade with various ASEAN neighbours. Since the departure of former President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, USA under the current administration has shifted towards far-right leaning, inward looking, “America First” policy. Therefore Myanmar government would be well placed to balance or juggle the external political influence it enjoys from ASEAN neighbours, Asian giants such as China, India and Japan, while not forgetting long-term friends from EU and Australia.

#3: Banking Regulations and Infrastructure Improvement

Banking sector in Myanmar has improved by a long mile since five years ago, for example. We anticipate to witness further opening and improvement in banking regulations in the country to further benefit the business competitiveness in terms of both funding availability and affordability, and also in both Kyat and major foreign currencies. This will definitely benefit the end consumers and businesses as part of the positive trigger down effect.

#4: Real Estate Consolidations

If 2016 and 2017 were known as years of “develop anything or everything someone else is doing,” then 2018 will see the clear winners emerge in the Real Estate sector of the market. In order to be able to sustain, one has to be either supported with an unlimited financial resources to out-last among the ‘also runs’ or one needs to have a clear development strategy that meets the market demands may it be the specific segment, quality or price level. Failing which, the sector will see various consolidations for mere survival or to further strengthen the position in the market.

#5: E-commerce Growth

While the physical malls and shops will continue to pop up all over the country, technology survey entrepreneurs will continue to develop online commerce opportunities to cater for the market needs in the country that still lags behind physical infrastructure development. May it be mobile banking, online market places, tradings, property and other listings, career opportunities, news and content development, travel and tourism, education and training and so on, opportunities are there to further explore and match with the demand of nearly 60 million of population. Therefore, we expect to see some clear cut winners emerge this year in the E-commerce sector in Myanmar.

#6: Healthcare Trends

While major local and international groups continue to develop high quality hospitals to cater for the growing needs of expatriates, and local population upper and upper-middle income groups, the creative and versatile entrepreneurs may be able to explore the underserved sector of the healthcare using spoke-and-hub model of reaching out to the clients’ needs. Infancy stage of health insurance market will continue to grow phenomenally as more corporates sign up for employee health benefit as part of employee retention opportunities.

#7: Niche Tourism Models

While the well-known international hotel brands and tourism-related business models continue to move into Myanmar market, creative entrepreneurs will develop some unique, niche and exciting travel and tourism business models to compete and add value to both international and local travel markets.

#8: Corporate Governance Quality

As the potential external funding opportunities and M&A activities continue to arise, large and mid-size local businesses will have to naturally continue to improve corporate governance and transparency standards. More examples of management and financial accountability in Myanmar will become visible during 2018.

#9: Ethical Business Practices

While Myanmar market continues to develop, ethical business practice trends will emerge in the local business scenes. This is partly fueled by the easy access of local consumers to the social media which in turn provides with easy feedback opportunities for both positive praises to the ethical businesses while highlighting the negative information on unethical business practices.

#10: Data Winners

B2B or B2C business sectors will see some serious data collections in Myanmar market regarding demographic, consumer behavior, and various other market data to be used to better focus on the precise target market. The winners will emerge based on the best possible data utilization.

Myanmar Strategy team wish all of you the best of health, happiness, love, peace and prosperity as you start 2018 with your family, loved ones and esteem colleagues.

God bless.