Myanmar president seeks cooperation for country's development

Myanmar President U Thein Sein Monday urged development partners to work hand in hand with his government for future development of the country.

He made the call at the opening of the Second Myanmar Development Cooperation Forum which kicked off in Myanmar's capital Nay Pyi Taw under the theme, 'Accelerating actions for progress through enhancing inclusive coordination', Xinhua reported.

Telling the forum that Myanmar has projected 9.1 percent GDP growth rate for the fiscal year 2014-15, he called for systematic management and utilisation of development aid and concessional loan, technical assistance and local and foreign investment in order to achieve the targeted growth rate.

He disclosed that Myanmar has formulated its first five-year national development plan as well as Myanmar comprehensive development plan.

He said this was done with the belief that its would help development partners to better align their aid, support and assistance with the country's development priorities and plans and to continue cooperating with the government in its reform process and make the development plan more effective.

He recalled that during the past 30 months, the government has undertaken four phases of reform process with momentum, namely political reform, economic reform, public administration reform and private sector development reform.

The first phase has created favourable conditions for national reconciliation with mutual understanding built with ethnic minority groups, while the second phase achieved good socio-economic development outcome, with the country gaining 7.3 percent GDP growth rate in 2012-13 which exceeded the projected growth rate of 6.7 percent.

The third phase, which is being carried out, is to reduce central control and improve administrative capacity of local governments, while the fourth phase is to improve law-governing economy, trade and investment as well as logistical and institutional infrastructure.

In the remaining months of his government's terms, he said, it would focus on seven priority areas and implement projects that will directly benefit the people in terms of electricity, water supply, agriculture development, employment creation, tourist development, financial development and trade and investment development.

He invited all development partners to closely cooperate with his government under the Nay Pyi Taw Accord for social and economic development of Myanmar.

Organised by the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development (NPED), the inaugural session of the two-day forum was also attended by Myanmar Vice President Sai Mauk Kham, World Bank (WB) President Jim Yong Kim, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) Under Secretary General and Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer as well as related ministers, parliament members, representatives from development partners, donor countries, local and foreign non-governmental organizations and social organizations.