Informal activities and informal moment of goods and people have been quite significant due to many factors. Although various policy measures have been developed to mitigate these informal activities, there has not been any study regarding the sources of these informal activities, their costs and benefits, impacts and consequences of the existence and non-existence of these activities, or how these activities could be mitigated without having significant negative economic and social impacts on the local people and the economy as the whole.

 

This paper attempts to identify factors behind causes and effects of informal flows in goods and persons across the borders between Myanmar and its neighboring countries, especially China and Thailand, and to address related issues and possible policy implications. This paper is a result of various surveys and studies in many places in Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, and China from 2005 to 2009 under several research projects.

Downloadable for Free

http://www.irasec.com/components/com_irasec/media/upload/OPO-04-MyanmarInformalTrade-Winston-web.pdf

The Author

Winston Set Aung has been involved in many international and regional research projects in various countries including Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Japan. He has successfully completed over 40 international and regional research projects in more than 10 countries. He has written various research papers in cooperation with several international and regional academic, research and policy institutes that include University of Tokyo of Japan, Institute for Security and Development Policy of Sweden, Mekong Institute of Khon Kaen in Thailand, Chulalongkorn University of Bangkok, Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI-Asia), Nomura Research Institute of Japan, UNDP, etc. He is currently a Founder and the Director of Research of the Asia Development Research Institute (www.asiadevelopment.org), and also a Founder and Executive Director of Asia Language and Business Academy (www.alba-edu.com) of Myanmar. He is also a non-resident senior research fellow at the Institute for Security and Development Policy of Sweden. In addition, he is a member of the Research Advisory Committee of Mekong Institute which is an inter-governmental organization of the Greater Mekong Sub-region based in Thailand. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Mekong Societies published by Center for Research on Plurality in the Mekong Region, Khon Kaen University of Thailand.

The Irasec – The Observatory

The Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia, based in Bangkok, Thailand, calls on specialists from all academic fields to study the important social, political, economic and environmental developments that affect, together or separately, the eleven countries of the region (Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viêt Nam).

The Observatory is in charge since 2008 of the analysis of illicit cross-border movements within mainland Southeast Asia. It supports research programmes and publishes both academic and strategic works. It is based within the Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia in Bangkok.