Abstract
CHANGES IN THE MYANMAR BANKING SYSTEM AND THE IMPACT ON SMEs AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES
Abstract
Myanmar has been experiencing a period of rapid change, undergoing the move from military dictatorship to a reform of democracy, seeing high growth in GDP and changes in the banking, commercial and legal systems in the country. Historically, Myanmar has had a banking system that relied heavily on cash transactions. Lagging behind the rest of the world, in 2014 Myanmar allowed the introduction of modern technology such as mobile phones at an affordable price and internet usage. The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes in the banking system and the impact of the transition to an electronic banking system on SMEs and Social Enterprises in Myanmar. The study uses data drawn from interviews and surveys with entrepreneurs about the banking system. In addition, to circumvent difficulties in gathering data, because the country is still transitioning from a dictatorship to a democracy, informal discussions were also held with a wide-ranging group of people and data from a variety of formal and informal sources accessed. The main findings indicate that entrepreneurs had a low level of trust in the banking system and did not think that access to funding would be improved. The surveys also indicated that even if the system had improved, the education available was insufficient to ensure that entrepreneurs could usefully take advantage of the banking changes. This appears to be a flaw in the implementation of changes in the banking system and further detailed exploration of these issues should be encouraged. After 5 years of democratic rule, the social climate is changing sufficiently to allow for more extensive and open questioning. Future research should explore the lack of education/training to equip entrepreneurs to use the new technology. There has been little research so far in this, resulting in a gap in the knowledge base.