Technical Advisory Network of Burma

Background:

The Burma Fund works in close consultation with various sources, including stakeholders in the democracy movement, research and donor institutions, it recognizes the need for strengthening partnership with technical experts from Burma. Therefore, it organized the assembly of available scholars, technical experts, graduate students from Burma with various academic and research backgrounds. In 1999, TBF has done the initial identification and exploration on the availability of experts worldwide. An initial invitation has been extended to a select group of experts with the anticipation that the group will disseminate the idea to the larger audience with the Burmese expatriates and academic communities. With a profound feedback from the initial exploration, the TBF organized the first inaugural conference. Members of the TAN made presentations on their findings about Burma's socioeconomic and political conditions and discussed measures to correct the failings. The conference, entitled, "Burma in the New Millennium," was also attended by young Burmese scholars, who are expected to take part in research activities with the help of TAN members.

Rationale:

Burma's administrative, social and infrastructure systems have been neglected for more than 30 years leading to a state of crisis in the country. The current regime lacks capacity and ability to make significant progress: it does not allow open and honest discourse and consequently has caused a "brain-drain" exacerbated by closing down the education system and imprisoning or forcing into exile many of its most talented people. Also, the regime's dependence on force to remain in power has led it to spend more than half of Burma's public budget on the military. This effectively deprives the country of the resources to develop in a sustainable way.

Filling this gap, Burma's democracy movement has stepped up its efforts to plan and prepare for the transition process in Burma and to develop public policies for sustainable democratic governance. However, lack of coordination between researchers has previously weakened the ability of those seeking a peaceful transition to democratic governance to have a meaningful and continued discourse on policy options and to develop a consistent strategy in respect to organizing the transition and development process.

Technical Advisory Network was established to meet this need. The international context provides a forum for dialogue creating a truly shared governance vision incorporating the views of Burmese researchers, international scholars and Burma's democratic forces representing all ethnic networks. The results of this dialogue, a shared vision of governance and policy plans can then be brought to the country when a government that is committed to addressing the needs of the people is in power and facilitate the country's rapid improvement.

The TAN seeks to meet the planning need in a highly structured and process-oriented fashion. It emphasizes the importance of quality, diversity of views and participation. The TAN facilitates the development and documentation of public policies and plans to advance Burma to a democratic and civil society. It implements its research and policy planning projects with close involvement of technical experts, and research organizations under the guidance of outstanding individuals in their respective fields. It does not seek to supply all of the technical skills required for a sophisticated analysis and assessment of policy options itself but relies on the expertise of its TAN.

Program:

The TAN invites individuals on a highly select basis to become members of the Network based on their expert knowledge and potentially outstanding contributions to issues that are vital to Burma's future transition and development process, including but not limited to the following areas:

· policies for transition to democratic governance post military rule (including: moving from humanitarian assistance to transition and development, reintegration of soldiers and displaced persons into the national economy, capacity building for good governance, frameworks of governance, reconciliation),
· economic (rural development, fiscal policy, etc.) and social (i.e. education, health) policies for transition and development
· rebuilding civil institutions (rule of law, media, private sector development)

Members of the TAN provide input, quality control and direction to research and policy planning activities in a structured fashion. They are also asked to support the search for additional individuals and organizations qualified to participate in the implementation of such activities. On a case-by-case basis, members of the TAN are asked to participate in:
a) peer review networks: in this capacity TAN members are invited to develop, guide review, assess and comment on draft research reports prepared by project teams,
b) project development teams: in this capacity, TAN members are asked to contribute to the development, funding and assembly of research teams for TBF's research and policy planning projects,
c) research and policy planning teams: in this capacity, TAN members are asked to assume leading and supporting roles in specialized research project teams, and
d) conferences and workshops: in this capacity, TAN members are asked to lead working Networks, represent TBF sponsored research project findings, the results of their own research and expertise to specialised conferences and workshops.

A TBF senior staff member acts as coordinator to members of the TAN, while project task manager relate to them in the context of project administration and evaluation. Members of the Technical Advisory Network, in alphabetical order, are:

Dr. Chris Breyer (HIV/AIDS)
Prof. Ronald Findlay (Economics)
U Myat Htoo (Infrastructure / Communications)
Dr. Kyi May Kaung (Economics)
Prof. Khin Maung Kyi (Economics)
Dr. Thein Lwin (Education)
Dr. Maung Myint (Economics)
Dr. Sein Myint (Energy Policy)
Dr. Myo Nyunt (Agriculture)
Dr. Hnin Hnin Pyne (Community Planning & Public Health)
Dr. Nancy Hudson-Rodd (Environment)
The Honorable Janelle Saffin (Legal/Constitutional Affairs)
Dr. Khin Ni Ni Thein (Water Resources)
Dr. Chao Tzang-Yawnghwe (Military/Ethnic Nationalities)

Profiles:

Prof. Ronald Findlay, B.A. (Rangoon), Ph.D. (MIT), was born in Rangoon in 1935 and educated at St. John's Diocesan Boys' High School and Rangoon University, where he obtained his B.A. in 1954. He was Tutor in Economics at Rangoon University until 1957 when he went to MIT on a Ford Foundation scholarship. He obtained his Ph.D. at MIT in 1960 and returned to Burma as Lecturer and later Research Professor at the Institute of Economics. He left Burma in 1969 for Columbia University in New York, where he is the RAGNAR NURKSE Professor of Economics and Chairman of the Economics Department. He is the author of Trade and Specialization, Penguin 1970; International Trade and Development Theory, Columbia University Press, 1973; Trade, Development and Political Economy: Selected Essays of Ronald Findlay, Edward Elgar, 1993; co-editor of The Political Economy of Poverty, Equity and Growth: Five Small Open Economies, Oxford University Press, 1993; and Factor Proportions, Trade and Growth, MIT Press, 1995, and numerous articles in economic journals on international trade, economic development and political economy. He has been a university professor at the Institute for International Economics Studies, Stockholm; the Stockholm School of Economics; the Institute for Higher International Studies, Geneva; the New University of Lisbon; the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore; Nuffield College, Oxford and Fudan University, Shanghai.
Contact Address: Department of Economics, Columbia University, 420 118th St., New York, NY 10027. USA.

Dr. Kyi May Kaung holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as Masters degrees from Penn and Rangoon University and a BA from Rangoon. Her 1994 dissertation focused on strategy and structure in Burma between 1962 and 1988. In Burma, she worked at the Institute of Economics as a Senior Lecturer, before coming to America in 1982 on a Fulbright Fellowship. Dr Kaung has translated and compiled textbooks on Burmese economic history & written articles in Burmese, as well as done work on translating economic terminology into Burmese. Since 1992, Dr. Kaung has had an active parallel career as a poet and freelance writer with two published collections of poetry, several monologs performed on stage, short stories, a full length play, an allegorical novel, collaborations in poetry and music and many works in progress. She currently works as a Radio Broadcaster at Radio Free Asia in Washington DC, where she is honored to have the opportunity to help provide news and information to the people of Burma. Her main interests are the humanity, human rights and the arts, and the political economy of Burma.
Contact Address: Radio Free Asia, 2025 M Street N.W., Washington D.C. 20036. USA.

Prof. Khin Maung Kyi, B.Com (Rangoon), M.B.A. (Harvard), Ph.D. (Cornell), lecturer then professor in University of Rangoon, Institute of Economics, 1954-1978; Professor in Agribusiness, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia, 1978-79; Associate Professor in Business Administration, National University of Singapore, 1979-1988; Senior Management Specialist, International Irrigation Management Institute, 1988-1990; Senior Fellow, Department of Business Policy, National University of Singapore, 1991- to date. His research work on Burma includes surveys of local industries, business studies, planning and pricing studies, studies on the reorganization of state owned industries and many other studies on the economic development of Burma. He also served as a consultant to various government agencies such as Price Committee, Price Control Committee of the Ministry of Trade, Railway Tariff Committee of the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Planning and Finance. He was also a member of the Advisory Committee on the National Ideology, better known as Thirty-three member committee, to the Chairman of Burma Socialist Program Party. He also held honorary positions in various academic bodies, including the member, secretary, and later president of the Burma Research Society. Born of traditional Myo-thu-gyi (township headman) family in a small town in central Burma, he participated actively in national independence struggle and then as a youth movement leader.
Contact Address: Prof. Khin Maung Kyi, Senior Fellow, Faculty of Business, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 109260.

Dr. Myo Nyunt, B.A. (Rangoon), Ph.D. (Wisconsin), was Assistant Lecturer and Lecturer of Economics in Rangoon University from 1966 to 1979. He has done many studies on village economy and agricultural development while serving as an adviser to the Ministry of Trade in Burma. He went into development practice in 1979 starting with Rural Development Corporation in Sabah, Malaysia for four years. He was also appointed as Principal Economist and later Assistant Secretary for Economic Planning and Policy at the Ministry of Finance and Planning in Papua New Guinea from 1983 to 1989. He also worked at the Department of Health in Western Australia for five years. He is currently a fellow at the Center for Development Studies in Edith Cowen University, Australia.
Contact Address: Centre for Development Studies, Faculty of Health and Human Science, Pearson Street, Churchlands, Western Australia 6018, Australia.

Dr. Chao-tzang Yawnghwe, B.A., M.A.(Rangoon), Ph.D.(British Columbia), was lecturer in Rangoon University. He is the son of late Sao Shwe Yawnghwe, first president of independent Burma. He served the Shan State Army, a Shan resistance group that fought against the military regime that ended the civilian rule in 1962. He published a book entitled, The Shan of Burma: Memoirs of a Shan Exile, a classic that provides a detailed account of Shan revolution and ethnic relationships in Burma. He is presently teaching at British Columbia University in Canada.
Contact Address: 2063 Concord Ave, Coquitlam, B.C. V3K 1K4, Canada.