Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, Ministry of Transport and Communications and Ministry of Industry held a press conference at the Ministry of Information in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday over the accomplishments in the third one-year period of the government.
Child Protection Programme
At the press conference, Union Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Dr. Win Myat Aye said as part of the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) and Child Protection Programme, Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement has provided month cash assistance to children aged under two years old in Naga Self-administered Zone, Chin State and Rakhine State in the 2017-2018 fiscal year and in Kayah and Kayin states in 2018-2919 fiscal year.
The Ministry is planning to carry out the same programme in Ayeyawady Region and Shan State in the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
The ministry has expanded the social pension programme for the aged people to a nationwide level, providing cash assistance to over 180,000 people aged 85 and above.
The ministry is planning to establish child care centres nationwide to give care to children aged three to five.
Tasks of Youth Care
Youth policy was approved by the State in 2018. There are 16 sectors in the policy and strategies for implementing the policy has been adopted. Representatives from regions and states are carrying out the tasks which are given priorities.
Response to disaster, rehabilitation
The ministry is carrying out disaster management system with commitment to quickly response and rehabilitation after the disasters.
The disaster management committees were also formed at regions, states, self-administered division and zones, districts, townships, wards and villages, and that the rehabilitation tasks were carried out in momentum in 2018.
The ministry spend over K2 billion on providing rice seeds to farmers who were hit by floods in 2018 and renovation of religious buildings after the disaster.
With the use of the National Disaster Management Fund, the ministry constructed 102 cyclone shelters and multi-purpose shelters 220 nationwide in 2018.
The year 2018 can be called as the year of rehabilitation because the Rehabilitation Department and the Social Welfare Department has worked hard for the people with disabilities last year. Besides, the ministry has prepared to carry out rehabilitation works once the camps of the internally displaced people in Kachin and Rakhine states are shut down.
Plans are underway for better treatment to be delivered in a separate department in top gear to the people with disability; to the elderly; to the drug addicts; to the trafficked victims; to the abandoned kids; to the child soldiers; to the helpless women; to the IDPs of conflict zones; and to the migrated families.
More emphasis is being centered for the people with disabilities during the third year term of the new government with all round care in five-year strategic plan. The ministry is also working together with the Ministry of Health and Sports to upgrade the Wathtikan and Phekhon rehabilitation camps handed over by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The ministry has expanded the rehabilitation period from 35 days to three months.
The Ministry is also cooperating with Thailand, China and Indonesia to carrying out rehabilitation of the victims of the human trafficking and also in Hpakant.
Rakhine issue
The ministry is working hard to bring harmony between the two different communities. Realising that socio-economic development can bring the peaceful coexistence between them, the ministry is making utmost efforts for development of socio-economic life in Rakhine State.
Union Minister Dr. Win Myat Aye also reiterated that Myanmar is ready to accept the returnees from Bangladesh and will cooperate with ASEAN in future tasks.
U Win Khant (Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Communications)
With approval from the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw on 3 December 2018, we negotiated for the 80 million yuan interest-free loan with China to purchase 28 train coaches. We signed the Exchange Letter on 14 March and will receive the coached within two years.
Kerry Logistics Co. Ltd and Resource Group Logistics Co. Ltd, who both won tenders for the Dry Port project, cooperated with Myanma Railways and under the BOT system successfully completed and opened the Ywar Tar Gyi Dry Port on 18 November 2018 and Myit Nge Dry Port on 23 January 2019.
Since the dry ports opened up, we conduct cargo train routes twice a week and have run 69 trips as of today while transporting 3,007 cargo containers weighing 57,786 tonnes.
We’ve had 5.9 million vehicles registered in March 2016 and 7.2 million in December 2018. We’ve called tender to construct airports in Heho, Mawlamyine and Kawthoung under the PPP system and are currently handling negotiations to sign contracts.
We began construction on the airport in Falam, Chin State, in 2015-2016 FY using funds from the Union budget. The airport will be capable of handling ATR-72 planes and is currently 50 per cent complete. We are aiming to have it fully operational before September 2020.
We conducted 18 projects for improved waterways and 204 for embankment in 2018-2019 FY. In the same fiscal year we built 7,145 feet of retaining walls along Wam Pone port, Golden Triangle region, Myanmar-Thai border and the Myanmar-China border areas.
National reforms attracted more domestic and foreign investments in 2014 and improved the communications and information technology sector. In a population of 51.486 million people in 2016 the teledensity was 86.20 per cent. Three years later, the population has increased to 54.074 million people and teledensity has climbed to 99.57 per cent. Similarly, the number of Internet users in 2016 was 55.41 per cent of the national population and has now increased to 82.56 per cent.
We received approval from the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw in December 2018 to borrow US$93 million from South Korea in order to construct an e-Government Integrated Data Center (eGIDC)that meets international standard Tier 3. We are working to send a Loan Pledge Acceptance Letter to South Korea and aim to have the eGIDC operational by early 2022. As phase 2 of the Myanmar satellite Condosat system, we made an IRU investment to be included as MyanmarSat 2 in Intelsat Satellite Operator’s newest satellite to be launched in August this year. This will give us 864 MHz satellite channel that can be used starting from November this year until it the satellite expires in the next 15 years.
We are facilitating discussions between Japan’s Hokkaido University and our Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University to launch our nation’s own Earth Observation Satellite (EOS) as the third phase of our satellite system. We are aiming to begin work on it in the coming 2019-2020 fiscal year.
We have installed one weather radar each in Kyaukpyu, Yangon and Mandalay in 2015, 2016, and 2018, respectively, to be updated on the location, intensity and trajectory of cyclones in real time and to issue warnings with haste. The radars scan for signs of cyclones once every 15 minutes. We are currently negotiating with Japan to install a weather radar in Dawei to have more comprehensive data across the nation. In 2015-2016 FY, we had 188 meteorology, hydrology and earthquake centers and within three years we opened 2 new meteorology centers, 2 hydrology centers and 5 earthquake centers.
U Ko Ko Lwin (Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Industry)
There are six industrial training centers under the Ministry of Industry and they regularly produce experienced mechanical workers every year. Their centers have formed mobile vocational training units and have conducted ‘mobile industrial and vocational training courses’ for youths in rural areas and workers in industrial zones.
The short-term courses cover automobile, electrical and welding courses via three mobile vocational training trucks. As of now, they have opened 25 training courses and taught 1,242 trainees.
Additionally, No.2 Industrial Training Center (Mandalay) has opened a one-year Japanese language course that has taught 198 trainees and send 40 graduates to Japan.
We plan to open two more training centers in Thaton and Monywa with support from the Indian government. We are also begin renovation on the center in Mandalay with support from China. These are our accomplishments and plans in the human resource development front.
As for the pharmaceutical sector, in the 2018-2019 FY, we have tested and are producing 15 brands of medicine from Pharmaceutical Factory (Insein) and 5 brands of medicine from Pharmaceutical Factory (Inyaung).
In the third year of the civilian government, we have produced K49 billion worth of safe and quality medicine, which has filled in 10 per cent of the national requirement and reduced foreign medicine imports.
With support form Australia, we have produced snake antivenom in freeze dried form at the Insein factory and distributed it to rural areas with no access to electricity and proper pharmaceutical storage conditions. The medicine will remain potent for 5 years if stored at normal room temperature.
Myanmar uses 75 million saline injections every year but the Ministry of Industry used to be able to produce only 5 million. But now, we have completed construction of a new production line for international quality saline at the Inyaung factory in Kyaukse. Now we will be able to produce 15 million units a year and fulfil 20 per cent of the national requirement.
We addressed the domestic requirement of 1/40 yarns through a private sector collaboration with India’s technology September 2016. In 2018-2019 FY, we produced 1.35 million pounds of yarn and are planning to expand production to meet increasing demand.
We are undertaking research to combine our original products of medical dressings, locally produced gypsum, and cloth bandages to produce P.O.P bandages at the Textile Factory Branch (Myingyan). We have formed the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance, Myanmar to check the quality of domestically assembled ambulances. We have produced 55 standard type ambulances for the Ministry of Health and Sports and will produce new models in the 2018-2019 FY assembled with medial equipment and medical grade trimming parts that meet the end user’s needs.
We have constructed a 350-ton capacity silo in Maungtaw, Rakhine State, on 19 February this year and have transferred it to the Rakhine State government.
During the new government’s administration, the Ministry of Industry has submitted a report on its 3,481.912 acres of confiscated land to the Central Committee for Scrutinizing Confiscated Farmlands and Other Lands. The ministry has handed over 2,276.201 acres to the collector and is continuing processes to return the remaining 1,205.64 acres.
The question and answer session then commenced with ministry officials replying to questions raised by the attending journalists. —MNA (Translated by GNLM)
