Mizzima News

Chiang Mai (mizzima) – Beset by endemic poverty, constitutional crises, widespread ethnic unrest and derelict infrastructure, two of Asia's most troubled states – Nepal and Burma – are looking to reestablish a direct air link in the hope of facilitating further tourism and the injection of much needed foreign currency.

On Thursday, the Yangon Times reported that Nepalese authorities had approached Burmese counterparts about restarting the direct air link, severed since 1988, ironically, due to growing unrest in Nepal at the time.  

According to 2008 International Monetary Fund statistics, Burma and Nepal rank 163rd and 164th, respectively, out of 179 countries surveyed with respect to nominal annual per capita income, with Burma's citizens on average besting Nepalese by three US dollars – $462 to $459.

In 1990, as Burmese citizens were going to the polls for an ill-fated election, mass demonstrations in Nepal tore down the decades old panchayat system of governance, with protesters demanding the restoration of multiparty democracy, human rights and other fundamental freedoms. The intervening twenty years have since witnessed a ten-year civil war with Maoists and repeated crises of legitimacy in government.  

Due largely to the unrest, tourism in Nepal, according to government statistics, failed to meet its projected level of 700,000 for the year 2002 – a goal established in 1997 just as the civil war was germinating in the Himalayan foothills. However, for 2007, tourism did manage to eclipse the half million mark, representing an increase of some 37 percent and netting the country $US 230 million.  

Meanwhile, owing to its own internal unrest and international ostracization, tourism statistics for Burma from 2002 and 2007 remained relatively static, with gross numbers of 212,000 and 248,000, respectively, according to the Pacific Asia Travel Association.  

In comparison, Thailand, in 2007, witnessed approximately 15 million tourists flood into the Kingdom.

Burma and Nepal are each party to the seven-member Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), which as part of its initiative seeks the promotion of regional tourism.