Burma president prioritizes poverty reduction

By Zin Linn Jun 21, 2012 7:16PM UTC

Burma President Thein Sein delivered an address at the first meeting of Foreign Aids Management Central Committee at the meeting hall of the President Office on Wednesday, the New Light of Myanmar said today.

The Union ministers, the Union Attorney-General, the Union Auditor-General, the Chairman of the Union Civil Services Board, region and state chief ministers, chairmen of Self-Administered Division/Zone and departmental heads attended the meeting.

According to the President, Wednesday’s meeting was the first meeting of the Foreign Aids Management Central Committee (FAM-CC).

The establishment was divided into two parts to open two tracks for systematically managing bilateral and multilateral aids and assistance from UN agencies, INGOs and Civil Society through different means and different channels, he added. If the UN agencies and 53 INGOs currently operating in the country would provide direct assistance down to township and village level, it would not be able to systematically deal with national development and equitable development of regions. Therefore, the committee was established to deal with that, he noted.

“So, we will make systematic management establishing the central committee, work committee and the National Economy and Social Affairs Think Tank. So, I would like to urge the Union ministries, region/state governments, and self-administered zones/division – not to accept the direct assistance from foreign embassies, UN agencies and international organizations, INGOs but to contact through focal ministries in line with procedures, – to coordinate priority sector and priority area with each other if there are projects you would like to implement with outside assistance so as to find a balance,” he emphasized.

The President said priority will be given to poorer regions. After signing MoU with international organizations, Union Ministries will have to inform to region and state governments of detailed plans for the work being done.

As indicated by the President, the FAM-WC has to coordinate between Union Ministries and Region/ State governments, and it will take responsibility to hold coordination meetings between donors’ countries and organization.

It will be the task of National Economy and Social Advisory Council to link and harmonize between International Assistance Management Working Committee and respective ministries to provide assistance via Civil Societies and INGOs, he added. The Council needs to do its part giving advice to the Government and holding of Donors’ Meetings.

He also that mentioned electricity sector development, communications sector development and micro-finance and monetary services development were priorities from the point of view of socio-economic requirements of the people. And he also recognized national reconciliation in Kachin, Shan, Karen, Mon, Chin and Rakhine States as priorities issues.

It was clear that the President urged his ministers to choose prioritized sectors and areas in order to negotiate with donor countries and organizations. He wants his ministers to deal with foreign aid constantly and to assess the value of measures. Prioritized processes for aid are rural development and human resource development processes, he clarified.

He said:
The nation will become rich only when it is industrialized. Poverty rate in Myanmar is 26%. It will be reduced to 16% by 2015 according to UN Millennium Goal. A large number of people are in neighboring countries as legal or illegal migrant workers. It means the country is losing labor. They will come back if there are jobs and higher pay equal to others.

On the contrary, President should discover some missing points on reform in Aung San Suu Kyi’s Nobel lecture. Burma’s Nobel laureate highlights points on Burma’s reform in her Nobel lecture:

The reform measures that were put into motion by President U Thein Sein’s government can be sustained only with the intelligent cooperation of all internal forces: the military, our ethnic nationalities, political parties, the media, civil society organizations, the business community and, most important of all, the general public. We can say that reform is effective only if the lives of the people are improved and in this regard, the international community has a vital role to play.

However, President Thein Sein should not fail to remember that current reform needs a genuine peaceful environment. With ongoing battles in Kachin state, the country is not ready to take delivery of International Development Aid as Donors have to ensure to stick to their ethical values. Hence, President should choose ‘taming of the military’ as his first priority.

Some analysts believe the war in Kachin state and the riots in Rakhine state show that there is factional inconsistency among the President’s cabinet members as well as in the parliamentarians. So, the President must ease the tension among the members of his government including the commander-in-chief of the military as most important priority in the name of reform.

http://asiancorrespondent.com/84699/priority-for-president-of-burma-in-the-name-of-reform/