Myanmar: Myanmar's Widening Rural-Urban Divide

Jun 17, 2014 | Deutsche Welle
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Over the past years Myanmar has instituted a set of economic reforms designed to boost growth. But economist Lex Rieffel tells DW little has changed, especially for the 70 percent of the population living in rural areas.

Decades of economic mismanagement under the former junta and years of sanctions by the West left Myanmar impoverished for years. But as the Southeast Asian nation, earlier known as Burma, began to emerge from military dictatorship in 2011, most Western embargoes were lifted in response to wide-ranging political and economic reforms introduced.