Among business leaders in Myanmar, would-be investment from the United States (US) and Europe is known by the wry acronym NATO.“No Action, Talk Only,” Sean Turnell, special economic consultant to Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said in an interview, underscoring the country’s history of missed opportunities and unfulfilled potential.As Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economy began the transition from five decades of military rule to democracy with the swearing in of the first popularly-el

As Muslims worldwide celebrate the end of fasting for the holy month of Ramadan, a growing diaspora of Rohingya face the prospect of observing their faith under squalid, cramped conditions in refugee camps such as Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.Dubbed the most persecuted peoples in the world, the Rohingya are an Indo-Aryan speaking people from the Rakhine state in Myanmar, with Islamic influences tracing from intermarriage and conversion by Arab traders in the eighth and ninth centuries.The Rohing

Since sanctions by the United States (US) and European Union (EU) were lifted, Myanmar has enjoyed relatively strong economic growth. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Myanmar’s economy has grown at an average of 7.5 percent between 2012 and 2017.

On 6 June 2018, the government of Myanmar and the United Nations (UN) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on assistance for the repatriation of displaced persons from Rakhine State. Ever since the latest round of violence against the Rohingya occurred in August last year, more than 650,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar, crossing the border into Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.

Armed Rohingya militants have been responsible for at least one – and potentially two – massacres of up to 99 Hindu women, men, and children, according to Amnesty International. They also committed unlawful killings and abductions of Hindu villagers in August 2017. The London based non-governmental organisation (NGO) revealed this after a detailed investigation inside Myanmar’s Rakhine State was carried out.

The Rohingya crisis receives most of the global media’s attention currently due to the scale and magnitude of the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding there and rightly so. However, there is another deadly ongoing conflict in Myanmar. This conflict is between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the government of Myanmar and has often been dubbed “the forgotten war” for that very reason.

Myanmar State Counsellor and de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi will be skipping the 32nd edition of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit taking place in Singapore this week. This will be her first time missing the summit after coming into power in 2016.According to government spokesperson, Zaw Htay, newly sworn President Win Myint will be taking Suu Kyi’s place. He did not specify the exact reason for her absence at the summit.

On Tuesday, the government of Myanmar began the release of over 8,000 prisoners on humanitarian grounds under a presidential pardon granted by newly elected President Win Myint. The pardon, which coincided with the Burmese New Year, Thingyan, also saw the release of 36 political prisoners. Political imprisonments in Myanmar are as ordinary as white bread.

After an investigation by Facebook last year, it was found that Russian operatives spent US$100,000 on ads with “divisive messages” during the election campaign season in the United States (US). These “divisive messages” are thought to be fake news used to influence the American electorate.

On 28 March 2018, Myanmar’s parliament elected Win Myint as the country’s next president. Win Myint was made president after the resignation of his predecessor, Htin Kyaw the week before Win Myint was elected. Htin Kyaw did not explain his reason for resigning but many believe it was due to his poor health.