Burma’s Potential for Growth

In an article exclusive to Bangkok daily The Nation on Thursday, Eric Rosenkranz, the CEO of Singapore-based consulting firm e.three, expounded Burma’s potential as a market for consumer goods.

Although he resisted calling for international companies to defy economic sanctions and legal constraints on investing in Burma, Rosenkranz said, “There are plenty of opportunities for regional and international companies to develop or strengthen their business in Burma.”

Rosenkranz, whose portfolio includes consulting with multinational firms such as Proctor & Gamble, Mars, British American Tobacco and Thai national petroleum exploration company PTTEP, said that under military rule, the people of Burma had been kept “artificially poor” and that the country’s consumer goods market is “ready to explode.”

He concluded that although doing business in Burma is certainly not plain sailing, “what company can afford to ignore the potential of 50 million untapped consumers?”

e.three is a private consultancy based in Singapore with a focus on Southeast Asia and China.