"Recently, two different assessments have come out regarding anti-corruption efforts and their successes in Myanmar. The President U Win Myint, in his new year speech delivered on 17 April, stated that “if we were to show visible and tangible results you would see our successes to a certain extent in the area of preventing and combatting corruption, a chronic disease which has taken deep roots for many administrations. Our Union Government has been taking action against corruption in accordance with the law without favoring anyone with only the interest of the people and the country in our minds.” On the other hand, the head of the Myanmar’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) U Aung Kyi declared in his April 29th annual report to the Union Parliament that corruption remains rampant in the country, despite the intense efforts. He based this claim on the findings of a nationwide survey, conducted by an independent party, and underlined the key factors contributing to a culture of corruption: self-interest, resistance to change, ineffective measures, and poor rule of law. Both the ACC’s report to the parliament and the survey report are not yet publicly available. The Challenges of Defining and Measuring Corruption and Its Impacts In the literature on corruption, there is no consensus regarding the term’s definition. Different people have different perceptions of corruption and there is no single way to define it. However, it is most commonly defined as the use of public power and office to private ends, and it can take various forms such as bribery, extortion, influence, fraud, embezzlement, payoffs for political favors, and preferential access to services. According to Myanmar’s Anti-Corruption Law, enacted in 2013, “corruption” refers to “the misuse of his post by the competent authority for making to act something [sic] or to avoid the lawful act or to give the legal right to someone or to prohibit the legal right incorrectly, or giving, accepting, obtaining, attempt to obtain, proposal, promise or discussion by any means the corrupt [sic] from the relevant person for him, or any other person, or organization directly or indirectly.” The best indicator of corruption so far is the level of public sector corruption perceived by businesspeople, analysts and experts in countries around the world, though this remains open to criticism. The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) developed by Transparency International has been the most-used indicator of corruption levels across the world. It is a composite index based on 13 independent surveys specializing in governance and business climate. The index provides extensive data on perceptions of corruption within countries, and ranks them according to how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be. A country is scored on a scale of 0 (most corrupt) to 100 (least corrupt)..."