Geography Burma speech Burma, or Myanmar as it was previously called, has a population of 54, 584, 650.

Its capital city is called Rangoon. One of the industries that links Burma and Australia is Aid. Australia gave Burma approximately $63.8 million this year. This aid goes towards increasing the overall living standards of Burmese citizens. As shown in the fact file, Burma is the lowest country in the world for health expenditures, only spending 2% of its national income on the health industry. Providing aid will allow the government to spend more money on health services. As well as health expenditures, Burma is also affected by many natural disasters such as these. These natural disasters can wreck havoc throughout the country and have often destroyed many villages and thus the aid Australia provides can rebuild these villages. The infant mortality rate is 47.74, which means for every 1000 births, 47 of those babies are dying. To put this in perspective, Australia only has 4.5 babies dying every 1000 births. This is over 10 times less than Burma! 1 in every 14 kids under the age 5 dies. AusAid says (We) will prioritise essential maternal, newborn and child health services by providing vital immunisations and ensuring more births are attended by skilled health professionals. Aid is important for Burma because, as shown in the table, they have limited hospitals and hospital beds. Increasing the amount of aid can be beneficial for future years as more sick and injured people can rest in a clean and sanitised area. Burma is in East Asia, on the border of China, India and Thailand. Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea are also borders to Burma. Advantages and Disadvantages for Burma receiving aid The main advantage of Burma receiving aid is improving the general standards of living for the Burmese. Depending on the aid they receive from Australia, mainly aid improving health conditions, the country can function to a better capacity. Burma can also utilise the health aid coming from Australia to help Burmese people to live with less sicknesses and injuries. This improves the nations population and infant mortality rate, meaning they will grow into a bigger nation. Another advantage for Burma receiving aid is for the children to receive education. A quarter of Australias aid is going towards providing young children with proper education so they can grow up into smart adults. The next generation of Burmese will be educated. Some disadvantages for Burma could be having corrupt governments who do not use the money for the country but for themselves. This is why Australia has an aid category for helping the government. Having warlords stealing the money is a problem and disadvantage for Burma receiving aid, as the warlords grow in

power and could be a threat to the government. As well as these problems, while Burma receives aid it is not creating its own sustainable wealth, they are using other countries money to build up the country. This can be a disadvantage when Australia pulls out of giving aid to Burma, as they may not know what to do and how to run the country. Advantages and Disadvantages for Australia giving aid to Burma One of the main reasons Australia gives aid to Burma is to create a political partnership with them. AusAid informs us "by helping to build stronger communities and more stable governments we improve our own economic and security interests." Having a stable government and country also increases Australias trade options, as well as not needing Australian troops to sort out arguments or problems. Another side reason Australia gives aid is to gain public support from ethical people, the majority of Australia. The disadvantages are loss of money to the government, higher taxes, and other countries getting jealous. Providing money to countries overseas means less of our money is staying in Australia. The government is losing the amount of money it has to spend on Australia and because of this they need to make taxes higher. This affects everyone in the country and could turn a positive thing into a negative thing for the Australian public. Finally, other third world countries who may not be receiving aid from Australia may not view us in the same way, as being caring and compassionate, and they may be jealous of Burma which can affect Burmas and even our relationship with them.