U.S. assistance helps local enterprises to expand, creates new economic opportunities for local communities, and improves the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

Burma has enormous economic potential. It is a resource-rich country with access to large and growing markets. Nonetheless, a quarter of the country’s people live in poverty. Decades of isolation, systemic corruption, and mismanagement have failed to benefit the vast majority of the population, chiefly the 70 percent of the population engaged in agriculture. United States Government programs are working to meet those challenges by collaborating with civil society, universities, other donors and the private sector to support Burma’s people.