Nathan Associates will implement a five-year program to increase broad-based economic opportunities in Burma (Myanmar) through more inclusive economic governance rules and processes and by increasing access to finance for businesses, individuals, and other emerging economic actors.

The $23.3 million project, the U.S. Agency for International Developments Private Sector Development Activity, is set to begin August 1 in Burma’s capital, Naypyitaw.

The project is the latest in Nathan’s Myanmar experience spanning more than 60 years. The firm implements the Economic Reform and ASEAN Integration (ERA) activity, a program under USAIDs US-ASEAN Connectivity through Trade and Investment (US-ACTI).

Nathan’s first project in the country was in 1953, when Robert R. Nathan Associates produced an economic and engineering development program for the government of the Union of Burma. The program was one of the first adopted by a developing country in the post-World War II period of decolonization and has been a model for other countries.

The Private Sector Development Activity will support the private sector in Burma by promoting and facilitating more inclusive and transparent economic policymaking and implementation; increased civil society, private sector, and government capacity to engage in inclusive economic governance; and increased savings and foreign direct investment.