31 January

Union Minister for Commerce Dr Than Myint sent his video message to the ceremony of World Pulses Day 2021 and 1st annual meeting of Myanmar Digital Economy Association yesterday.

In his video message, Union Minister discussed the beans and pulses export, potential for beans and pulses and efforts of the ministry in improving that sector.

The Union Minister also said the farming sector plays a key role for the economy, trade and job opportunities of the nation for being an agricultural country. There are 65 per cent of beans and pulses export via sea route and 35 per cent via land border.

According to the data of 2019, Myanmar exported beans and pulses to 60 countries. The most export volume goes to India, China, Singapore, Pakistan, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the UAE, Malaysia and Japan.

During COVID-19 outbreak, although some export sector saw a sharp decline, the agricultural export volume was higher than before.

He also highlighted the plan to prioritize the beans and pulses sector in National Export Strategy (NES), domestic production of quality beans and pulses, low expenses, higher export volume, increased local beans consumption and production of value-added products.

He then stressed the need to prioritize the interest of bean farmers as well as the business people.

The Union Minister also appreciated the cooperation work between Myanmar Digital Economy Association in implementing the Digital Economy Innovation Advocacy Project, which is a part of EIF Tier-2 project.

He also discussed the momentum of the digital economy that benefits various socio-economy sectors including e-Commerce, Online Learning, Telemedicine, Online job hunting, Online concert and Sharing economy.

The ministry distributed Good Practice Guide for the businesses to switch from offline to online amid COVID-19 pandemic. It also provided technical aids to SMEs to penetrate the global market via a digital platform, suggestions to draft e-Commerce Guidelines to develop Application and work plans to go online registration for e-commerce.

The Union Minister then stressed the need to make efforts to adopt IT technology in e-commerce, youths and MSMEs.

He also discussed the arrangements to draft e-commerce law by cooperating with the Ministry of Transport and Communications and Trade Net 2.0 system to offer better public services.

MNA (Translated by Khine Thazin Han)