Developing corporate governance in Myanmar - lessons learned from corporate governance development in Indonesia

Abstract

Recent development in Myanmar shows a growing concern of the needs of corporate governance. With enormous economic and political transformations in Myanmar, corporate governance is really important to increase Myanmar's economic potential and foreign direct investment. With the hope and expectation of growing economic potential following the current transformation in Myanmar, the need of good corporate governance is inevitable. Similar to other Southeast Asian countries, the most severe problems in Myanmar arise between controlling and non-controlling shareholders instead of problems which arise from the separation of ownership and management. This type of problems is referred as type II agency problems. This paper, to my best knowledge, may be among the first paper which discusses corporate governance in Myanmar. Thus, it should encourage greater debates and discussions on Myanmar's corporate governance. Applying institutional theory and agency theory, this paper provides recommendations to combat type II agency problems and promote good corporate governance.