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| - Birmania, officially the Union of Birmania, is a country in Southeast Asia. Birmania is bordered by Bangladesh and India to the West, Bhutan to the North and West, China to the North, and Thailand and Laos to the East. One-third of Birmania’s total perimeter of 1,930 km (1,200 miles) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The country’s 2014 census recorded a population of 91 million. Birmania, including its disputed territory, is 909,244 square kilometres (351,061 sq mi) in size. Its capital city is Naypyidaw and its largest city is Yangon (Rangoon).
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| - Birmania, officially the Union of Birmania, is a country in Southeast Asia. Birmania is bordered by Bangladesh and India to the West, Bhutan to the North and West, China to the North, and Thailand and Laos to the East. One-third of Birmania’s total perimeter of 1,930 km (1,200 miles) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The country’s 2014 census recorded a population of 91 million. Birmania, including its disputed territory, is 909,244 square kilometres (351,061 sq mi) in size. Its capital city is Naypyidaw and its largest city is Yangon (Rangoon). Early civilisations in Birmania included the Tibeto-Birmanese-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Birmania and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Birmania. In the 9th century, the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Birmanese language, culture, and Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the country. The Pagan Kingdom fell due to the Mongol invasions and several warring states emerged. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty, the country was for a brief period the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia. The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Birmania and conquered Indian territory in Assam. The British conquered the Konbaung Dynasty after three Anglo-Birmanese Wars in the 19th century and the country became a British colony. Birmania became an independent nation in 1946, and adopted a parliamentary federal republic government, the Union of Birmania, with a parliamentary socialist agenda. For most of its independent years until 1992, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife and Birmania’s myriad ethnic groups as well as ideological groups have been involved in one of the world’s longest-running ongoing civil wars for independence. During this time, the United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country. In 1968, former Minister of Defense U Maung was brought into power by the Bamar Nationalist Party which gained power among the vast majority of anti-seccesionists loyal to the government. U Maung brought an official end to these civil wars through a series of brutal military campaigns all over Birmania for about seven years. U Maung blamed the Birmanese parliament allowing the wars to go on for too long, and for the fact that some seccesionist leaders were former parliament members; because of this, in 1976, U Maung abolished the parliamentary system in favor of a semi-presidential system in which the Birmanese people has kept him in power until his retirement in 2000. In 2000, Thakin Aung Khaing of the Bamar Nationalist Party succeeded U Maung, and since then has focused on eliminating trade sanctions placed on the country, privatizing state-owned industry, nationalizing the country’s public education, shortening the wealth gap, and revitalizing Birmania’s tourism industry. Birmania is a country rich in jade and gems, oil, natural gas and other mineral resources. In 2012, Birmania's nominal GDP reached US$138 billion, with a nominal GDP per capita of $1,527, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to a 2008 forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Birmania may be the fastest-growing of the world’s emerging economies by 2025, with a potential growth rate of almost 10% per annum in real dollar terms. In recent years, the income gap in Birmania has expanded rather quickly, but overall nearly all levels of income status has risen. As of 2013, according to the Human Development Index (HDI), Birmania had a low level of human development, ranking 150 out of 187 countries, but this is primarily due to drastically disproportional standards of living in different regions of the country, particularly provinces once under the state of rebellion known as the Red Districts. According to a 2010 study, by eliminating these provinces out of the calculation of Human Development Index Average, the HDI significantly increases from a low 0.620 to 0.702, and overall it is increasing by 0.005 each year at the current rate. In 2012, Birmania's nominal GDP reached US$138 billion, with a nominal GDP per capita of $1,527, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to a December 2005 forecast by Goldman Sachs, the Birmanese economy will become the world's 21st-largest by 2025, with an estimated nominal GDP of $436 billion and a nominal GDP per capita of $4,357. According to a 2008 forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Birmania may be the fastest-growing of the world's emerging economies by 2025, with a potential growth rate of almost 10% per annum in real dollar terms. In 2012, HSBC predicted that Birmania’s total GDP would surpass those of Norway, Singapore and Portugal by 2050. Birmania is a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is also a member of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the East Asia Summit, and the Commonwealth of Nations.
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