They are access to social services, reducing rural poverty, private-sector competitiveness, financial inclusion, access to energy, and public-sector governance.

“We are committed to supporting the people of Myanmar through the new administration,” World Bank country manager Abdoulaye Seck said at a press conference recently.

“Myanmar has the potential to follow a similar path of inclusive growth as other Asian countries that enjoyed long periods of rapid income growth. The country faces a long road ahead in addressing continued challenges to close disparities across Myanmar’s geography, ethnic communities and income groups. We will continue supporting Myanmar people to overcome these challenges.”

Seck said the six areas were interconnected, and the government needed to be transparent and engage with citizens in sending out accurate information in a timely and transparent manner.

He said sustaining a strong pace of growth through a diversified economy was critical to achieve this, with policies that could enable a structural shift to more productive and labour-intensive activities.

He added that the WBG would also emphasise such things as natural-resources management.

Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank vice president for East Asia and Pacific, last week met with National League for Democracy chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi.

“It is one of a few meetings we had over the past few weeks. The meeting ended very positively, and we are very much encouraged to see how we can cooperate to ensure inclusive growth in Myanmar. We will be engaging more with the new administration. There will be many more discussions,” he said.

The World Bank last year completed its first full country strategy, the “Country Partnership Framework”, for Myanmar. The three-year framework outlines support for Myanmar and its people in transforming the country, reducing extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity.

The Bank is convinced that Myanmar’s economy has huge growth potential, with an anticipated economic-growth rate of 8 per cent per annum over the next five years. With the right policy choices, a growing economy can provide more jobs and higher incomes for Myanmar people.

According to Habib Rab, World Bank senior country economist, the bank is looking at ways to increase Myanmar’s fiscal efficiency, by helping prioritise government projects as well as boosting government revenue through improvements in tax administration.

Public debt is also on the agenda, to ensure that government borrowing will not create unnecessary costs and risks to its sustainable growth.

As foreign investment remains crucial for future development, Charles Schneider, World Bank senior operations officer, said Myanmar had a lot to do. In the latest “Doing Business” report, Myanmar ranked 167 out of 189 economies around the world.

Schneider said there had been only a few small changes for Myanmar since its debut on the list three years ago. In the last three years, Myanmar ranked 187, 182 and 167 respectively.

Schneider said commercial arbitration, regulatory reforms such as financial-structure reforms – part of which was formation of the credit bureau, which is under way – and efforts to enact the new company law were the areas Myanmar need to emphasise in the short term.