Burma (Myanmar)

• tropical monsoon;
• cloudy, rainy, hot, humid summers (southwest monsoon, June to September);
• less cloudy, scant rainfall, mild temperatures, lower humidity during winter (northeast monsoon, December to April)

agricultural land:

19.2%;

• arable land 16.5%;
• permanent crops 2.2%;
• permanent pasture 0.5%

forest:

48.2%

other:

32.6% (2011 est.)

total:

33.23 cu km/yr (10%/1%/89%)

per capita:

728.6 cu m/yr (2005)

• destructive earthquakes and cyclones;
• flooding and landslides common during rainy season (June to September);
• periodic droughts

• deforestation;
• industrial pollution of air, soil, and water;
• inadequate sanitation and water treatment contribute to disease

party to:

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94

signed, but not ratified:

none of the selected agreements

noun:

Burmese (singular and plural)

adjective:

Burmese

at birth:

1.06 male(s)/female

0-14 years:

1.04 male(s)/female

15-24 years:

1.03 male(s)/female

25-54 years:

0.99 male(s)/female

55-64 years:

0.89 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.77 male(s)/female

total population:

0.99 male(s)/female (2015 est.)

total:

9 years

male:

NA

female:

NA (2007)

name:

Rangoon (Yangon); note - Nay Pyi Taw is the administrative capital

geographic coordinates:

16 48 N, 96 09 E

time difference:

UTC+6.5 (11.5 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

citizenship by birth:

no

citizenship by descent only:

both parents must be citizens of Burma

dual citizenship recognized:

no

residency requirement for naturalization:

none

note: an applicant for naturalization must be the child or spouse of a citizen

chief of state:

• President THEIN SEIN (since 4 February 2011);
• Vice Presidents SAI MAUK KHAM (since 3 February 2011), NYAN TUN (since 15 August 2012);
• note - the president is both chief of state and head of government

head of government:

President THEIN SEIN (since 4 February 2011)

cabinet:

Cabinet appointments shared by the president and the commander-in-chief

elections/appointments:

• president indirectly elected by simple majority vote by the legislature's Presidential Electoral College from among 3 vice presidential nominees - 1 each from the Upper House, the Lower House, and military members of the legislature (president elected for a 5-year term);
• note - the next president will be elected in February 2016

election results:

president (pending); Presidential Electoral College vote NA

description:

bicameral Assembly of the Union or Pyidaungsu consists of an Upper House, called the House of Nationalities or Amyotha Hluttaw, (224 seats; 168 members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by absolute majority vote with a second round if needed and 56 appointed by the military; members serve 5-year terms) and a Lower House, called the House of Representatives or Pyithu Hluttaw, (440 seats; 330 members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote and 110 appointed by the military; members serve 5-year terms)

elections:

last held on 8 November 2015 (next to be held in 2020)

election results:

• Upper House - percent of vote by party - NA;
• seats by party - NLD 135, USDP 11, ANP 10, SNLD 3, ZCD 2, TNP 2, independent 2, other 3, military appointees 56;
• Lower House - percent of vote by party - NA;
• seats by party - NLD 255, USDP 30, ANP 12, SNLD 12, PNO 3, TNP 3, ZCD 2, LNDP 2, independent 1, other 3, canceled due to insurgence 7, military appointees 110

highest court(s):

Supreme Court of the Union (consists of the chief justice and 7-11 judges)

judge selection and term of office:

• chief justice and judges nominated by the president, with approval of the Lower House, and appointed by the president;
• judges normally serve until mandatory retirement at age 70

subordinate courts:

• High Courts of the Region;
• High Courts of the State;
• Court of the Self-Administered Division;
• Court of the Self-Administered Zone;
• district and township courts;
• special courts (for juvenile, municipal, and traffic offenses);
• courts martial

chief of mission:

Ambassador KYAW MYO HTUT (since 3 December 2013)

chancery:

2300 S Street NW, Washington, DC 20008

telephone:

[1] (202) 332-3344

FAX:

[1] (202) 332-4351

consulate(s) general:

Los Angeles, New York

chief of mission:

Ambassador Derek J. MITCHELL (since 11 July 2012)

embassy:

110 University Avenue, Kamayut Township, Rangoon

mailing address:

Box B, APO AP 96546

telephone:

[95] (1) 536-509, 535-756, 538-038

FAX:

[95] (1) 511-069

• design consists of three equal horizontal stripes of yellow (top), green, and red;
• centered on the green band is a large white five-pointed star that partially overlaps onto the adjacent colored stripes;
• the design revives the triband colors used by Burma from 1943-45, during the Japanese occupation

name:

"Kaba Ma Kyei" (Till the End of the World, Myanmar)

lyrics/music:

SAYA TIN

note: adopted 1948; Burma is among a handful of non-European nations that have anthems rooted in indigenous traditions; the beginning portion of the anthem is a traditional Burmese anthem before transitioning into a Western-style orchestrated work

• rice, pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts, sugarcane;
• fish and fish products;
• hardwood

• agricultural processing;
• wood and wood products;
• copper, tin, tungsten, iron;
• cement, construction materials;
• pharmaceuticals;
• fertilizer;
• oil and natural gas;
• garments, jade, gems

agriculture:

70%

industry:

7%

services:

23% (2001)

lowest 10%:

2.8%

highest 10%:

32.4% (1998)

• fabric, petroleum products, fertilizer, plastics, machinery, transport equipment;
• cement, construction materials, crude oil;
• food products, edible oil

general assessment:

meets minimum requirements for local and intercity service for business and government

domestic:

system barely capable of providing basic service; mobile-cellular phone system is grossly underdeveloped

international:

• country code - 95;
• landing point for the SEA-ME-WE-3 optical telecommunications submarine cable that provides links to Asia, the Middle East, and Europe;
• satellite earth stations - 2, Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and ShinSat (2011)

• government controls all domestic broadcast media;
• 2 state-controlled TV stations with 1 of the stations controlled by the armed forces;
• 2 pay-TV stations are joint state-private ventures;
• access to satellite TV is limited;
• 1 state-controlled domestic radio station and 9 FM stations that are joint state-private ventures;
• transmissions of several international broadcasters are available in parts of Burma;
• the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia (RFA), BBC Burmese service, the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), and Radio Australia use shortwave to broadcast in Burma;
• VOA, RFA, and DVB produce daily TV news programs that are transmitted by satellite to audiences in Burma

total:

5,031 km

narrow gauge:

5,031 km 1.000-m gauge (2008)

country comparison to the world: 36

total:

29

by type:

cargo 22, passenger 2, passenger/cargo 3, specialized tanker 1, vehicle carrier 1

foreign-owned:

2 (Germany 1, Japan 1)

registered in other countries:

3 (Panama 3) (2010)

country comparison to the world: 86

major seaport(s):

Moulmein, Sittwe

river port(s):

Rangoon (Yangon) (Rangoon River)

• 18-35 years of age (men) and 18-27 years of age (women) for voluntary military service;
• no conscription (a 2010 law reintroducing conscription has not yet entered into force);
• 2-year service obligation;
• male (ages 18-45) and female (ages 18-35) professionals (including doctors, engineers, mechanics) serve up to 3 years;
• service terms may be stretched to 5 years in an officially declared emergency;
• Burma signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on 15 August 1991;
• on 27 June 2012, the regime signed a Joint Action Plan on prevention of child recruitment;
• in February 2013, the military formed a new task force to address forced child conscription;
• approximately 600 children have been released from military service since the signing of the joint action plan (2015)

males age 16-49:

14,747,845

females age 16-49:

14,710,871 (2010 est.)

males age 16-49:

10,451,515

females age 16-49:

11,181,537 (2010 est.)

male:

522,478

female:

506,388 (2010 est.)

• over half of Burma's population consists of diverse ethnic groups who have substantial numbers of kin in neighboring countries;
• the Naf River on the border with Bangladesh serves as a smuggling and illegal transit route;
• Bangladesh struggles to accommodate 29,000 Rohingya, Burmese Muslim minority from Arakan State, living as refugees in Cox's Bazar;
• Burmese border authorities are constructing a 200 km (124 mi) wire fence designed to deter illegal cross-border transit and tensions from the military build-up along border with Bangladesh in 2010;
• Bangladesh referred its maritime boundary claims with Burma and India to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea;
• Burmese forces attempting to dig in to the largely autonomous Shan State to rout local militias tied to the drug trade, prompts local residents to periodically flee into neighboring Yunnan Province in China;
• fencing along the India-Burma international border at Manipur's Moreh town is in progress to check illegal drug trafficking and movement of militants;
• over 90,000 mostly Karen refugees and asylum seekers fleeing civil strife, political upheaval, and economic stagnation in Burma were living in remote camps in Thailand near the border as of year-end 2013

IDPs:

up to 662,400 (government offensives against armed ethnic minority groups near its borders with China and Thailand) (2015)

stateless persons:

• 1.45 million (2014);
• note - Rohingya Muslims, living in Rakhine State, are Burma's main group of stateless people;
• the Burmese Government does not recognize the Rohingya as a "national race" and stripped them of their citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship law, categorizing them as "non-national" or "foreign residents";
• under the Rakhine State Action Plan drafted in October 2014, the Rohingya must demonstrate their family has lived in Burma for at least 60 years to qualify for a lesser naturalized citizenship and the classification of Bengali or be put in detention camps and face deportation;
• native-born but non-indigenous people, such as Indians, are also stateless;
• the Burmese Government does not grant citizenship to children born outside of the country to Burmese parents who left the country illegally or fled persecution, such as those born in Thailand

current situation:

• Burma is a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor and for women and children subjected to sex trafficking;
• Burmese adult and child labor migrants travel to East Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and the US, where men are forced to work in the fishing, manufacturing, forestry, and construction industries and women and girls are forced into prostitution, domestic servitude, or forced labor in the garment sector;
• some Burmese economic migrants and Rohingya asylum seekers have become forced laborers on Thai fishing boats;
• some military personnel and armed ethnic groups unlawfully conscript child soldiers or coerce adults and children into forced labor;
• domestically, adults and children from ethnic areas are vulnerable to forced labor on plantations and in mines, while children may also be subject to forced prostitution, domestic service, and begging

tier rating:

• Tier 2 Watch List – Burma does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but it is making significant efforts to do so;
• the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making a significant effort toward meeting the minimum standard for eliminating human trafficking;
• in 2014, law enforcement continued to investigate and prosecute cross-border trafficking offenses but did little to address domestic trafficking;
• no civilians or government officials were prosecuted or convicted for the recruitment of child soldiers, a serious problem that is hampered by corruption and the influence of the military;
• victim referral and protection services remained inadequate, especially for men, and left victims vulnerable to being re-trafficked;
• the government coordinated anti-trafficking programs as part of its five-year national action plan (2015)

• world's third largest producer of illicit opium with an estimated production in 2012 of 690 metric tons, an increase of 13% over 2011, and poppy cultivation in 2012 totaled 51,000 hectares, a 17% increase over 2011;
• production in the United Wa State Army's areas of greatest control remains low;
• Shan state is the source of 94.5% of Burma's poppy cultivation;
• lack of government will to take on major narcotrafficking groups and lack of serious commitment against money laundering continues to hinder the overall antidrug effort;
• major source of methamphetamine and heroin for regional consumption (2013)