Originally from World Arbitration Reporter (WAR) - 2nd Edition

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I.  INTRODUCTION: ARBITRATION IN MYANMAR – HISTORY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Since 2011, Myanmar has seen a renewed effort at reforming its political, social and economic landscape.  Apart from sweeping changes to the political and rights regime, efforts were made to open up the economy, encourage foreign investment, relax import restrictions and export taxes, reform the anti-corruption regime and unify the currency exchange systems.

A key development to note was the introduction of the investment law in 2016, which consolidated the foreign investment law  and citizen investment law  into a single piece of legislation.   This is part of the efforts to further modernise the investment regime and ensure consistency with best practices in the ASEAN.

In this background, Myanmar also recognises the importance of providing a strong and certain dispute resolution framework to foreign investors in the country.  Foremost, the 2016 investment law provides that the Myanmar Investment Commission shall establish and manage a grievance mechanism to resolve, prevent the occurrence of disputes, and carry out the relevant inquiries before the matter is referred to any court or arbitral tribunal.  The 2016 investment law also recognises the ability of parties to select a dispute resolution mechanism of their choice, including offshore options such as arbitration seated outside Myanmar.

These are important measures that have been adopted by Myanmar to encourage investment into the jurisdiction. Therefore, it is of some importance for greater awareness of the regime of arbitration law in Myanmar, which has also seen substantial development in recent times. This chapter provides a summary of the key developments and proposed changes in Myanmar arbitration law.