A Burmese employee of a South Korean bank was killed in Yangon in March after soldiers fired on a company van that was taking her home from work
Business-friendly technocrats of the type who once advised Thein Sein, the retired general who served as president until 2016, hold little clout in the new regime. The army has shut companies it believes are harbouring opponents, including many media firms, while also trying to force businesses it deems essential to stay open.
Four months after the takeover long queues continue to form at cash machines, which frequently run out of banknotes. People wait past dusk to get money, even though being out after dark increases the risk of running into trouble with soldiers patrolling the streets. In May an official from the central bank said that frightened citizens trying to withdraw their savings were in fact aiming to “disturb the country and create mistrust”.
Internet restrictions are making online commerce difficult. The junta started blocking all mobile internet in mid-March, in an effort to stymie demonstrations. In recent weeks it has started allowing access to selected online services, though social-media sites remain off limits. Investors were once keen on Myanmar’s digital economy, which grew particularly swiftly during lockdowns imposed to control the spread of covid-19.
Restaurants and shops in the posher bits of Yangon have reopened, but customers remain sparse. A fruit-merchant in the city’s Chinatown says that although it is getting much easier than it was to transport produce around the country, “there are far fewer buyers than before”. A foreigner who runs a consumer-goods business in the city says he has yet to restart operations since deciding to down tools in February, in part because of worries about the safety of staff.
Activists would like more businesses to take a stand against the regime. On May 12th Tom Andrews, the’s rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said companies “should exert the maximum leverage on the military”. More than 200 firms, local and foreign, have backed a joint statement calling for democracy and the rule of law. But the army has a history of violence against the staff of businesses that upset it, says an executive at a big foreign company.
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