Myanmar’s generals struggle to restart its stalled economy

IN MID-JANUARY Thaung Tun, who was then Myanmar’s minister of investment, promised local and foreign business folk a swift recovery from damage wrought by covid-19. Plans for whizzier internet and renewable energy, he said, would bring opportunities they could once “only have dreamed of”. Two weeks later the army launched a coup, bundling Mr Thaung Tun and other members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s cabinet into detention. Some analysts now think the economy could shrink by as much as 20% this year.

Business-friendly technocrats of the type who once advised Thein Sein, the retired general who served as president until 2016, hold little clout in the new regime. The army has shut companies it believes are harbouring opponents, including many media firms, while also trying to force businesses it deems essential to stay open. The army is frightened by rolling strikes that have been organised in protest against the coup and the hundreds of killings its soldiers have carried out while putting down demonstrations. In March authorities in Yangon, the commercial capital, briefly detained branch managers from supermarkets across the city so they could remind them to stay on the job.