Hla Myint | |
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Hla Myint, photo taken at the LSE in 1985.
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Born | 1920 Burma |
Nationality | Burmese |
Fields | Economics |
Institutions | LSE |
Alma mater | London School of Economics |
Known for | Development Economics |
Hla Myint (Burmese: လှမြင့်, pronounced [l̥a̯ mjɪ̰ɴ]; born 1920) was a Burmese professor of economics noted as one of the pioneers of development economics. He stressed, long before it became popular, the importance export-orientation as the most useful "engine of growth".[1][2][3] After obtaining a Ph.D. in economics at the London School of Economics (with a thesis on the Theories of Welfare Economics), he taught as an economics professor at the University of Rangoon, from 1945 to 1952.[4] He also served as the university's rector from 1958 to 1962.[4] He was an Economic Adviser to the post-independent Burmese government's National Planning Department and the State Agricultural Bank's committee in the 1950s.[5]Hla Myint was influential in the National Planning Committee's drafting of an outward-looking economic development plan for the country, which was rejected in favor of an insular, inward-looking plan.[4]
Hla Myint served as as Emeritus Professor Of Economics, teaching development economics, at the London School of Economics from 1966 to 1985.[6][2] As an example, in 1972 he authored an important study supported by the Asian Development Bank, Southeast Asia's economy: Development Policy in the 1970s, which emphasised the importance of an export-oriented development strategy for the region. In that study, he argued that the existing import substitution policies commonly followed in Southeast Asia should be replaced by a new industrialization policy based on the expansion of manufactured exports.[7]