Myanmar's economy continues to remain essentially agricultural although the process of industrialization had begun in the early 1950s. Agriculture contributes 35 to 45 per cent of GDP (in value added) and provides employment for 60 to 70 per cent of the labour force. Agricultural products still dominate in Myanmar's exports, accounting for about 44 per cent of total imports in 1985/86. The figure was the same for the year 1939/40, that is, the structure of exports remained the same as about half a century ago. With the government's efforts at diversification, in the last few years some new items such as animal and marine products have become increasingly more visible, but not manufactured goods. Rice and rice products and forest products are expected to continue to dominate in Myanmar's exports even in the foreseeable future.

In 1990/91 export earnings constituted only 2.6 per cent of GDP and financed about 85.5 per cent of total imports. During the post-war years of the early 1950s, exports accounted for 50 per cent of GDP, and in the early 1960s about 20 per cent (Hill 1986, p. 30). This is a drastic fall in exports for the Myanmar economy. Table 3.1 sets out data on Myanmar's exports and GDP during the last three FYPs.

The share of exports in GDP grew very slowly, from 4.8 per cent in 1974/75 to 8.4 per cent in 1980/81 (see Table 3.1 and Figure 3.1). After the peak in 1980/81, exports slowly declined to 2.6 per cent in 1990/91, although the average annual growth rates of both GDP and exports were 3.6 per cent and 26.0 per cent, respectively. In short, the share of exports in GDP decreased from 50 per cent in the early 1950s to about 3 per cent within forty years. Although this decline in the level of exports in the Myanmar economy has become more pronounced in the last few decades, it does not thus imply that exports are not important to the economy.