Employment in the commercial sector has grown slowly since independence (and even declined in the 1980s and ’90s). Formal salaried work employs only about one-tenth of the adult workforce. The proportion of women in salaried work is very low. Basic wages are higher than in most of Southeast Asia, but productivity is relatively low.

There is a shortage of people able to perform skilled work, which is concentrated in the capital and in mining areas, and the shortfall is made up by thousands of foreign workers. The government has had little success in encouraging rural village-based development aimed at reducing migration to urban areas by people seeking formal employment.

Foreign investment and taxes thereon have dominated the cash economy and government receipts since independence, and there has been low revenue from the formal sectors of growth in agricultural commodities, except palm oil. 

The small size of the salaried workforce limits the personal income tax base, and the bulk of tax revenue comes from company taxes. A 10 percent goods-and-services tax (GST) is the main form of taxation on the great majority of the population. 

The GST only makes a modest contribution to state revenues, even though 60 percent of it is returned to the province of origin.