Just last month I made my first visit to Myanmar, a place Rudyard Kipling referred to as "quite unlike any land you know about". While decades of isolation have helped this century-old observation hold true, on arrival in July I was immediately struck by the vibrancy and a palpable sense of change in the air.
The country's immense potential is reflected in the Asian Development Bank's most recent analysis, which shows that Myanmar has the potential to follow Asia's fast-growing economies and expand at 7 percent to 8 percent if it continues on the path of across-the-board reforms initiated earlier this year.
If Myanmar stays true to these reforms — and I was impressed by the resolve of many officials I met last month — the country should become a middle-income nation and could more than triple per capita income by 2030.