In 2015, Australian Brad Jones was in Singapore, wondering if someone was pulling his leg about a CEO job on offer in Myanmar.

It was a fair question. The country was just beginning to emerge from decades of isolation. An almost mystical place, the nation formerly known as Burma tended to cast a life-long spell over the few Westerners who made it in but it was also a crony economy, where pockets of wealth were controlled by a few and the military had their hands in every pie. Was there really, Jones wondered, a reputable investor who believed the economy would be opened up, transformed to one where the rule of law prevailed? Or was it still too early for that type of thing?