Photo Essay: A Light in Burma’s Darkness

Burma is well-known for the repression of its ruling military junta. Nevertheless, the country’s economy is growing, in large part to due to the drug trade, migration, and foreign investment.

By , International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Colombia.

On the edge: Despite pervasive poverty and U.S. and EU sanctions, Burma’s economic growth is predicted to reach 6 percent in 2009. Most of that boost will come thanks to foreign investment in commodities, from China in particular. Tachilek, shown here on March 31, is the first Burmese town you’d hit crossing the friendship bridge from neighboring Thailand. The city offers a glimpse into the economic life of a country starved of contact with the Western world: Chinese goods fill merchant stands, and illegal drugs make their way out of the country, as do the countless migrants leaving Burma to seek work.

Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Elizabeth Dickinson is International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Colombia.

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