Lopsided fiscal policy of SPDC

_ by Dr San Oo Aung
 

After seeing the pictures and news about the floods in Yangon, the news of diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid and Leptospirosis leading to deaths of malnourished people especially poor children followed. Catching cold leads to Pneumonia and recurrences of Pulmonary TB also followed especially in the malnourished poor people. Spread of HIV also pushed up the figures of TB cases. Malaria, especially drug resistant Malaria is also a never ending trouble in Myanmar. Malnourished children over the age of one is dangerously high up to 35% that is more than one third of the children in Burma.

More than 50% of the Myanmar’s budget is spent for the military, while only less than 5% of the funds use to spend on education and health. Therefore, there are massive cuts on health, education, and welfare programs. The numbers of children who do not attend school or who have dropped out reportedly increased in the 1990s.

When the Asia Times Online journalist Dylan C Williams enquired, World Health Organization representatives who recently visited Yangon only said that local health workers were doing the best they could with "close to zero resources".

World Health Organization’s the World Health Report 2006 - Working together for health, contains an expert assessment of the current crisis in the global health workforce and ambitious proposals to tackle it over the next ten years. In its global list of health-care performances recently, Myanmar ranked 190 out of 191 countries surveyed.

According to the “The Encyclopedia of the Nations”, SPDC's mounting deficit financing, resulting mostly from the escalating military expenditures, has had a negative impact on the economy. The regime's policies led to the growth in the money supply and accelerated inflation. Mounting foreign debt and depleting foreign exchange reserves also affected the health of the economy. Nonetheless, military expenditures increased while the funding for health and education declined.

The CIA World Factbook estimated that a very large percent of the Burmese population had incomes that placed them below the poverty line. Accelerated inflation has eroded the purchasing power of Burma's citizens. The gap between rich and poor and rural and urban areas has increased.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Myanmar’s per capita income registered only a minimal increase in these years. Many poor people are forced to send their children to work. Many women reportedly are sent to work in Thailand and some are forced into prostitution. The number of street children has also increased, and malnutrition among children is widespread. Sanitary conditions are far from satisfactory. Malaria, diarrhea, dysentery, tuberculosis, and more recently HIV/AIDS (due to drugs and prostitution) are the major health hazards of the country.

According to the World Bank estimates, only 46.9 percent of the secondary school-age children were enrolled in schools during 1995. Education beyond the primary age is not compulsory. Burmese authorities boast a literacy rate of 83 percent, though independent observers have suggested that the rate may be as low as 30 percent. Most universities have been running off and on, and students prefer to study as correspondence students because of the shifting of the universities to the remote suburban and rural areas.

The World Bank in early 2000 issued a scathing report on Myanmar's economic and political situation. Accusations have been leveled by observers that the economy relies on forced labor, and (with overt money laundering) depends on the proceeds from trafficking in heroin and methamphetamines. Rampant deforestation and other environmental problems have gone unchecked under General Than Shwe's government, along with a precipitous rise in HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. The kyat, Myanmar's currency, plunged to record lows. Burma is a top producer of illicit drugs and contributes 80 percent of all Southeast Asian production of opium. Most of the heroin available in the United States originates from Burma. The trafficking in drugs is officially illegal; thus, an accurate assessment of its contribution to the economy is impossible to gauge. A parallel black market, perhaps bigger than the state's economy, continues to pose problems.

Burma failed to achieve fiscal or monetary stability. Inflation continues to be high.

Inflation in the World Economy, 1970-2003

(Percent per annum)

The Economist reported that Myanmar is rich in natural resources and minerals, Myanmar has the world's 10th-largest gas reserves and is a land of immense economic potential. Military spending soaks up about 50% of Myanmar's budget, and the regime continues to expand its army. Recently, the government has developed some economic projects, especially in the petroleum sector, by cooperating with other countries. Economic development, however, is proceeding without public input, reliable economic data and official accountability. Moreover, thousands of people have been expelled from their homes to make way for infrastructure projects, and others have been conscripted as laborers for road and railway construction in the gas-pipeline region.

The Myanmar Commerce Ministry reported that Myanmar's trade volume had jumped 40% to $7.9 billion on the just-ended fiscal year of 2006. That growth entailed a record trade surplus of $2.1 billion, led by substantially higher natural-gas exports, according to the ministry. It said it expects foreign trade to exceed $8 billion in the fiscal year that ends in March 2008.

The International Herald Tribune, France - May 23, 2007, reported that The Chinese Foreign Ministry has published an unflattering account of Myanmar's new capital, expressing surprise that such a poor country would consider such an expensive move and not even tell Beijing, its erstwhile ally. "They are also in the process of building four golf courses," the embassy said in the article.

With Palace style residences for the Generals, big villas for ministers, government offices, military facilities, military installations, the new capital, Naypyidaw has also taken taken the lion’s share of the recent budgets.