22 Sep

Union Minister for Planning, Finance and Industry U Soe Win participated in a teleconference meeting yesterday morning with Mr Newin Sinsiri, the Country Director for Myanmar from the Asian Development Bank, and the officials from International Monetary Fund, and Japan International Cooperation Agency about financial and technical assistance for Myanmar’s COVID-19 Economic Relief Plan.

They discussed COVID-19 related situations in Myanmar, implementation of the CERP, the Myanmar Recovery and Reform Plan, efforts to minimize COVID-19 impacts on businesses by using state budgets and international financial assistance, cooperations between ADB, IMF and JICA and future plans. ADB, IMF and JICA officials explained their assistance for implementation of CERP, and future plans based on CERP Monitoring Framework and indicators.

At low interest rates, ADB provided loan to Myanmar on COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support (CARES) Programme, IMF provided loans to Myanmar on Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) programmes, and JICA provided loans to Myanmar on COVID-19 Crisis Response Emergency Support Loan programme. Those loans are for the CERP, so implementation of the CERP will be monitored and assessed. The virtual meeting was also participated by Deputy Ministers U Maung Maung Win, U Sett Aung, and Dr Min Ye Paing Hein, Permanent Secretary U Tun Tun Naing and other officials, IMF’s Representative Mr Neil Saker and JICA’s Chief Representative Mr Noriji Sakakura.

MNA (Translated by Maung Maung Swe)