National Competitiveness of Myanmar-A View from Resource-Based Strategies

National Competitiveness is one of the core issues for a country's economic development performance. Some research had proposed a National Competitiveness Model to calibrate national performance. But they seldom focused on less developed countries like Myanmar or its rich resources. Located in Southeast Asia and governed by military government, the country is trapped by its low and less developed economic growth. Basically, Myanmar has a resource-rich and agro-based industry. But, it needs to pay more attention in integrating national resources and capabilities so as to build a fully developed economic base. Therefore, based on the National Competitiveness model proposed, we try to identify the gap between the existing situation and future development from different dimensions such as economy, technology, human resources, and productivity vital to its development. In addition, we discuss exploiting national resources through government agencies. We use resource-based strategy to investigate the discrepancy between resources and national performances. From evaluating this discrepancy, the government can then set up its national development strategy to raise national competitiveness. The empirical study of Myanmar shows that it is still in the initial stage of economic development, and it needs to make comprehensive improvement, even though its national competitiveness is continuously improving. Finally, we pave a national competitiveness roadmap to provide ways of improving the resource exploitation of less developed country and developing a national long-term cooperative association with ASEAN members and non-ASEAN countries.