THE Construction, Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank (CHID Bank) held its special general meeting and its 7th annual meeting yesterday morning in Yangon.

Union Minister for Construction U Han Zaw, Permanent Secretary U Shwe Lay, Chairman of CHID Bank U Min Htein, the Directors-General and the Deputy Directors-General attended the meeting from Nay Pyi Taw and the Vice-Chair of the Bank, the audit team, board of directors, shareholders and officials participated in the meeting via Zoom Application.

Union Minister for Construction in his capacity as the president of the bank said that the CHID Bank was established in 2013 as the cooperative bank of the government and public with the supervision of the Ministry of Construction to take responsibility for a housing finance system necessary for the development of the housing sector to provide affordable and low-cost housings to the public.

The bank has now 17 branches in states and regions providing financial services to the people so that every citizen can have safe and secure housing, and also to the private construction entrepreneurs to build private housings. The bank has been providing long-term loans to the people with low income to buy a home since 2016 and there are 5,041 people including 1,868 people in July provided the home loans with the help of JICA’s long-term interest rate “ODA Two Step Loan”, the long-term loan to Myanmar’s Housing Sector Development from Japan.

The Union Minister said that the bank aimed to make money accessible in the construction of infrastructure for orderly urban development and to strengthen the housing finance system that included in the Economic policy of the government and during the COVID-19 crisis, as per the instruction of the Central Bank of Myanmar, the CHID Bank reduced the interest rate from 13% to 10% to the bank capital borrowers and from 8% to 5.5% to the JICA Two Step loan takers.

The CHID Bank has delayed loan repayment for April, May, June, July, August and September in 2020 and the loan takers needs to pay only the interest in those months. The bank accepted the postponement of the last payment date of the monthly payment from 5 to 15 days without charge.

The bank increased the loan amount of Commercial Loan and Construction Loan to support the construction entrepreneurs and business people and approved the new loan.

The Union Minister urged to try to stand as a leading bank which fulfils the needs of the public and to develop innovative financial services in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS).

The chairman and the deputy chairman of the CHID Bank explained the vision and the development of the bank and the development plans for the future housing sector and the future plans of the bank.

Chief Policy Officer U Win Zaw presented and took approval of the constitution of the bank.

The 7th meeting discussed the board of directors’ 2018-2019 financial year report, annual statements and profit sharing, audit report, selling and buying of the stakeholders’ shares, resignation of one third of the board of directors, selecting directors for the vacant positions for 2019- 2020 financial year, recruiting external audit and setting the fee and the Chief Policy Officers answered the shareholders’ questions sent in advance.

MNA (Translated by Ei Phyu Phyu Aung)