Searching for ‘pockets of effectiveness’ in weak governance states: Preliminary examination of the securities and exchange commission of Myanmar

Abstract

After decades of military rule, internal conflict, and international isolation, Myanmar has embarked on a course of institution building. In light of Myanmar's low rating on the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank Group), the nation faces an enormous challenge in developing public institutions that meet its needs and expectations. This challenge includes development of institutional capacity that will allow Myanmar to participate in international economic affairs. A step in this direction involves the creation of a securities exchange market mechanism. The current study considers the establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar (SECM) to support securities regulation. It applies a novel organization level of analysis strategy that considers SECM as a 'pocket of effectiveness' (POE) in the context of a low-performing public institutional setting in terms of the good governance criteria of responsiveness, accountability, and transparency (RAT). While the study finds evidence of progress in building Myanmar's securities regulation, it also finds limits in RAT development that challenges the SECM's potential designation as a 'POE'. Based on feedback from proximate stakeholders in the daily work of the Aust J Publ Admin. 2020;79:225-241. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/aupa © 2019 Institute of Public Administration Australia 225 226 SOE ET AL. SECM, recommendations are offered for revised policies and practices in order to resolve them. K E Y W O R D S good governance, institution building, Myanmar, pocket of effectiveness, securities regulation

Economic Governance Building: Assessing the Securities Exchange Regime from a Co-Production Perspective in 2021 Pre-Coup Myanmar

“…To answer the study's central research questions, data were acquired to support analysis through use of Tun, Lowatcharin, and Crumpton (2020) model. Evidence was produced from the following secondary and primary data collection approaches: Review of official documents associated with planning, implementing, and operating YSX and SECM. Review of contemporaneous newspaper and online articles regarding the formation and operation of the Myanmar SER. Review of scholarly research on the formation and operation of the SER. Secondary analysis of the data acquired by Soe et al (2019) for their study of SECM. The data were acquired from semi-structured interviews with 20 knowledgeable informants from SECM, companies listed on YSX, employees of securities companies, and 5 companies assessed to be potentially listed on YSX. Additional analysis was performed to assess the meaning of the results of the hybrid organisation analysis in terms of the responsiveness and accountability characteristics of the two primary components of the SER, SECM, and YSX.…”

“…The realisation of good/sound governance has been thwarted in developing countries by weak institutions, lack of democratisation and participation, scarcity of social capital, and corruption. Recent evidence has considered the impact of weak institutions on the realisation of good/sound governance objectives in Myanmar and how NPG approaches that include blends of public and private action to co-produce responses to public problems are required to overcome them (Soe et al 2019; Tun, Lowatcharin, and Crumpton 2020; Tun et al 2021). The current study offers new evidence regarding this.…”

“…Of more specific interest to the current study, Japanese public and private entities played – and continue to play – dominant roles in the co-production of the design, implementation, and operation of Myanmar's SER. This has included the design and operation of both the YSX and the SECM (Soe et al . 2019).…”

“…In a recent article, we considered the importance of economic institution creation to development objectives in developing settings such as Myanmar (Soe et al 2019). In the case of Myanmar, the development of capital and equity markets is an important institution building step (Batchelder, 2018; Parikh, 2018; Snow, 2018; Soe et al . 2019).…”

“…economic activity and transactions more generally, cannot function well in its absence’ (25). As a component of a national economic governance framework, securities exchanges play important roles in supporting the entrance of developing countries into international markets and their capacity for meeting development objectives (Miles 2005; Sainteville 2011; Soe et al 2019). Economic governance components such as securities exchanges that reflect internationally recognized standards of good corporate and public governance are important for the operation of emerging economic systems (Naser et al 2006; UNDP, 2011; Soe et al 2019).…”