Good morning,I’d like to present a paper on Myanmar and International Community: the World Bank, IMF and the United Nations. The aim of this paper is to examine the process of Myanmar reform and the engagement of International Community into Myanmar. Myanmar in Transition and Reform Process, The Role of World Bank in Myanmar’s Transition, The Role of IMF in Myanmar’s Transition, and the Role of United Nations in Myanmar’s Transition.

Now I’d like to start. Myanmar in transition enters a new stage of national development. The new Administration has facilitated its democratic transformation process since March, 2011.After 2011, the assistance of international community is being gradually introduced to Myanmar reform process. The World Bank has fully reengaged with the Government of Myanmar to support Myanmar reform process. And IMF technical assistance increased into socio-economic sector of Myanmar and UN agencies have been at the center of foreign aid to Myanmar’s economic development and humanitarian assistance.

Now I’d like to focus on Myanmar’s internal transition and reform process. And it is repeated from U KO KO Hlaing’s representation so I’d like to quick on this. Myanmar is undergoing a transformation for a new stage of national development. Since the new government took office in 2011, Myanmar has embarked on a triple transition: from military system to democratic governance; from a centrally-directed economy to market-oriented reforms; from sixty years of conflict to peace in the border areas. The new government of Myanmar started a wave of reforms in August 2011 and declared that the government completed successfully the“first stage of reforms”which mainly targeted at political and governance changes to achieve peace and national unity;  and formed a new body of“Peace Committee,”to accelerate the process of peace-building in many complicated affected areas, the government is undergoing the“second stage of reforms”which targets at immediate improvement of economic and social wellbeing of the  development of policies and reform strategies that can achieve peoplecentered development and human resource development. While Myanmar envisions building a modern, democratic and developed nation, the government is searching for a strategy for promoting inclusive growth and poverty reduction.

The strategy puts the highest priority of national development on creating good governance and clean government. As part of its comprehensive reform procedure, significant changes have taken place in the financial sector by enacting Microfinance Law in November 2011, Foreign Exchange Management Law in August 2012, and Central Bank of Myanmar Law in July 2013, giving the central bank an autonomous to implement its monetary policies and Securities Exchange Law in July 2013. Myanmar has allowed foreign banks to open their representative offices in the country. Foreign banks could bring both economic and political benefits to Myanmar. Allowance of foreign banks in domestic market would mean that Myanmar is taking a bold step towards regional and global integration. For the fellow ASEAN member countries, it would be a strong signal that Myanmar has committed itself to integrate into ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) which is scheduled to be in place beyond 2015. Therefore, allowance of foreign banks would improve the country’s political image not only among its fellow ASEAN member countries but also in the global community. With regard to capacity building of the central bank and local banks, many international organizations including IMF, World Bank, ADB and bilateral organizations are helping Myanmar by providing financial and technical assistance at the banking sector.

On 10th June 2014 President U Thein Sein highlighted that the importance of Third Wave Reform which is concerned with ensuring a solid foundation for a new democracy to take root in a higher level standard for people, therefore Myanmar is now implementing reform process with more momentum.

Now I’d like to highlight the role of World Bank in Myanmar’s transition.

For Myanmar’s current triple transition, the engagement of the World Bank Group (WBG) will be important since Myanmar needs technical support and implementation support. Myanmar became a member of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1952, International Finance Corporation in 1956, International Development Association in 1962(IDA), The World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency in 2013. The Bank’s first project in Myanmar was approved in May 1956, supporting the Government’s rehabilitation and modernization of the railway and inland water transport sectors. There have been a total of 35 projects in Myanmar. In 1988, the Government went into arrears to IDA but Myanmar has remained a member of World Bank Group. In the period since 1987, the Bank has supported only one project in Myanmar, the“Avian Influenza Support”project which was complemented in 2011.

Following the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in 2008 in Myanmar, the World Bank provided technical support to conduct the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment. The Bank also supported Social Impact Monitoring (SIM) in the affected areas. In Nov.

2012, the WBG’s Board of Executive Directors endorsed an Interim Strategy which is reaffirming support for the government’s reforms to improve the lives of the people of Myanmar. This strategy guides the WBG’s work in the country through March 2014 which focuses on accelerating poverty reduction by helping to reform institutions to deliver better services to people of Myanmar. Under the Strategy, the WBG is focusing technical assistance and policy advice on health, education, social protection and telecommunications sector. During President of WBG visit to Myanmar in January, 2014, he announced plans by the World Bank Group for a $2 billion multi-year development package for Myanmar. This will include projects to help improve agriculture, access to energy and health services, to provide support for other key development priorities. Since re-engaging with Myanmar, in addition to the $80 million pre-arrears clearance IDA grant，the WBG has provided financial assistance to the country. This page is World Bank Group’s Projects Financed in Myanmar under IDA, from this table, from November, 2012 to March,2014, World Bank financed Myanmar’s Community Driven Development Project, Myanmar Reengagement and Reform Project, Myanmar,  Electric Power Project, Technical Assistance for Telecommunication project, public finance management project and Education asset are protected.

Now I’d like to highlight the Role of IMF in Myanmar’s Transition. Under the new Myanmar government, the Framework for Economic and Social Reforms (FESR) has been drafted to accelerate Myanmar’s greater integration into the international community. Reforms also take place in economic and financial policies to ensure macroeconomic stability. These reforms are jointly monitored by the Government of Myanmar and the IMF. On 1st April 2012, Myanmar introduced a floating rate system for retail transactions. During 2012, IMF’s technical assistance activities increased substantially focusing on operational independence for the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) financial sector reform, and statistics. In November 2012, an IMF mission held discussions with the government that led to a program of economic policies and institutional reforms to be implemented through December 2013 and monitored by the IMF. The new Myanmar government requested IMF staff to assist financial authorities of Myanmar in monitoring the implementation of the program via a joint assessment in 2014 called a twelve-month staff-monitored program (SMP) by the IMF. This would support Myanmar broader reform efforts. IMF continued support to Myanmar in terms of policy advice, technical assistance and training. As for Myanmar, the CBM is improving its monetary policy framework in collaboration with the IMF. Therefore, that is now our role in insisting Myanmar to implement this policy of micro finance stability  and to strengthen reform process.

Now I’d like to elaborate the Role of United Nations in Myanmar’s Transition. Myanmar’s transition has created new opportunities and challenges for the UN to help steer Myanmar towards peace, democratization and development. UNDP has been providing development assistance to the people of Myanmar since the 1950s. As Myanmar reengage in the international community, UNDP in Myanmar also underwent a transformation from (Human Development Initiative)HDI to fully-fledged multilateral development partner. The UNDP Country Office’s work is now focused on capacity development across all three Pillars of the program. The local governance team (Pillar 1) delivers program to helps strengthen community driven development institutions. The Local Governance team worked closely with respective government ministries and departments. UNDP convened jointly with the General Administration Department of Ministry of Home Affairs for the first National Forum on Local Governance in August 2013. The event launched the local governance program and created new space for dialogue an opportunity to share experience that could inform ongoing government reforms. The Climate Change, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction team (Pillar II), carries out program to reduce Myanmar’s vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change improve environmental and natural resource management. UNDP is the Chair of the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Working Group. With UNDP’s support, Myanmar government passed its Disaster Management Law in July 2013. UNDP supported the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement to establish the national disaster loss database system. The Democratic Governance team (Pillar III) carried out program to promote democratic governance and the rule of law to strengthen democratic institutions. 2013 was the first year of UNDP’s Democratic Governance Program. The parliamentary work under UNDP’s program is implemented jointly with the International Parliamentary Union (IPU). During 2013, UNDP organized training workshops, provided technical assistance regards to lawmaking. The knowledge of Union level parliamentary procedures and process are increased. UNDP also started to promote leadership of public administration reforms. And enhance civil service management by focusing on the improvement of training for civil service management.

Now I’d like to conclude my paper. The new government has undertaken four phases of reform process with momentum. These reforms are seen as in right track / positive steps which have led to increasing engagement with the international community. The external assistance from international development partners would be much helpful in narrowing the capital and technology gap as well as enhancing development process. According to both IMF and ADB, Myanmar has limited capacity to handle macroeconomic management and sound economic policies and structures. Therefore, International community particularly the World Bank and IMF are attempting to help Myanmar to overcome these limitations, monitor and assess the progress. Moreover, UNDP provides its share of contribution to Myanmar reform process from three pillars. To achieve the reform process, Myanmar will take times in scaling up as knowledge and experience expand and investing in coordination with development partners to identify respective areas of cooperating and bondage.