By – Zin Linn

Burma/Myanmar remains one of the world’s least developed countries, and was ranked 138 out of 182 countries in the 2010 UN’s Human Development Index.

Burma is one of Asia’s poorest countries, reflected in its health indicators. It had the 44th highest infant mortality rate of the 193 countries listed by the UNICEF in its 2011 State of the World’s Children report.

Burma is regularly along with the most corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index – in 2012, it was ranked 172 out of 174 countries, third from the bottom after Afghanistan and Somalia.