H.E. U SOE THA, MINISTER FOR NATIONAL PLANNING AND
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
AT THE III UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
(Check Against
Delivery)
Mr.
President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Delegation of
Myanmar, allow me, at the outset, to congratulate you upon your election as
president of the Conference. We are fully confident that your able leadership
will guide this Conference towards achieving its objectives. Allow me also to
congratulate other members of the Bureau upon their well-deserved election. At
the same time, I wish to express our sincere gratitude to EU and the Government
of Belgium for hosting this Conference and for their generous hospitality to
all of us.
Mr.
President,
The previous two Programmes of
Action adopted for the LDCs were to achieve sustainable economic growth and
development during the 1980s and 1990s. But a comprehensive evaluation of the
precarious socio-economic conditions in the LDCs confirm that the
imple-mentation of the previous programmes
of action is unsatisfactory.
The international community has been
far less supportive of LDCs in many areas foreseen in the programme of action.
Unsustainable external debt, paucity of development finances, low levels of
technological, institutional and human capacities, lack of export
diversification and market access and vulnerability to natural and man made
disasters are among the factors severely affecting the growth and development
prospects of the LDCs. The aim of the draft programme of action for the LDCs
for the decade 2001-2010 is to significantly improve the human conditions of
more than 600 million people in LDCs during the present decade.
Mr.
President,
I would like to briefly review the
overall economic performance in Myanmar over the past decade. Myanmar is located in Asia region. Its total
land area is 676,578 sq-km and the total population is 51 million. It shares
borders with Bangladesh and India on the northwest, the People's Republic of
China on the northeast,the Lao people's Democratic Republic on the east and
Thailand on the southeast.
Since inception of market oriented economic system
in 1988, the government has laid down various development plans to gain
progress. During the period from 1989 to 1991, stabilization programmes were
formulated to revitalize the economy and Myanmar's economy was managed by
formulating and implementing annual plans. Due to concerted efforts and
extensive participation of the private sector, Myanmar's economy began to
restore. Hence, during the three years period from 1989 to 1991, GDP rose at
the growth rate of 5.9 percent and GDP per capita consequently increased. To
place emphasis on the economic development of the country, Four Year Short-Term
Plan (1992 to 1995) was formulated and an average annual growth rate of 7.5
percent was attained during that
period. The recent five year plan was started from 1996 and completed in 2000.
The growth rates were 6.4%, 5.7%, 5.8%, 10.9% and 13.6% from the year 1996 to
2000 respectively. The average annual growth rate of 8.4% was achieved during
the recent completed five year plan.
It
is expected that Myanmar could be able to maintain high GDP growth rate this
year but the rate might be somewhat lower than the previous year.
Mr. President,
The government is
endeavouring for the sustainable economic growth of the country and the fruits
of economic development to be equally enjoyed by the entire people. While
raising the standards of living and quality of life of the people, new economic
opportunities are being created by adopting wide-ranging economic reform
measures which include among others, decentralizing central control, legalizing
of border trade, liberalization of trade policies, allowing foreign investment,
encouraging and promoting private sector development, initiating new financial
management system and streamlining taxes and duties in the context of proper
evolution of the market-oriented economic system. Furthermore, improvement in
banking sector to become more responsive to private sector needs was also made.
All these reform measures have gained momentum as evidenced by significant
growth rate of 13.6 percent in 2000 as well as downward trend in inflation and
also improvement in volume of trade.
The inflation declined
during the last five year plan. It was 20% in 1996, reduced down to –1.6% in
2000 and the rate is expected to be less than 3% in 2001. As regards exports
and imports, exports increased at an average annual growth rate of 13.1 percent
during the last five years. During that period, imports increased at the yearly
average growth rate of 5.2 percent. Total volume of foreign trade increased at
the average rate of 7.6% during the last five years.
Myanmar is inviting
and welcoming FDI. However, FDI
reduced drastically in 1998 and 1999. The external factors have played the major role in the decline of
FDI. With the onset of financial crisis in Asia in 1997, coinciding with
tightening of certain restrictions upon Myanmar, there was a perceptible
slowdown in foreign capital inflow . But FDI started to pick up last year. A
total of $ 7.2 billion of FDI has been approved on a cumulative basis since
1989.
Mr. President,
In
view of the topography and natural resources, Myanmar strives for the
development of the economy based on the agriculture sector. Being an agrarian
country, Myanmar has food surpluses. Not only promotion of agricultural
productivity but also the needs for development of fishery industry and marine
resources business are being attended to. Forests of Myanmar are well conserved
and policies designed for sustainable development and prevention of
environmental degradation have been laid down. As plans to increase the
production of food are being formulated and implemented, it is firmly believed
that not only will Myanmar have domestic food sufficiency, it will also be able
to fulfill regional requirements for food to a certain degree.
Myanmar
has been striving for the development of infrastructure with concerted efforts
using its own resources. Roads, bridges and dams are being built in all the
regions of the country. One of the main aims of the current Five-Year Plan
commencing from 2001 to 2005 is to develop the power and energy sectors. In
Myanmar, electricity supply system is based on hydropower and gas turbine
stations. The average annual growth rate in electricity generation over the
past ten years has been 11.4 percent, and sales have grown at the same rate. To
promote the capacity utilization of electric power, Myanmar plans to commission
4 gas turbine projects and 8 hydropower plan projects during the current Five-Year Plan commencing from the year
2001. The government, with the participation of private sector, plans to invest
more in the infrastructure development endeavours.
Mr. President,
Myanmar’s social
infrastructure development is very promising. The National Education Quality
Improvement Special Four Year Plan covering 2000 to 2003, is currently in
progress with the vision to create an education system that is on par with that
of international standard and that can generate a learning society capable of
facing the challenges of the Knowledge Age. The literacy rate is 91 percent and
hopes to reach 97% in 2010 but continued efforts will be made for the remaining
illiterates to become literates in the 21st century. Enrolment rate
in primary education is estimated at 96 percent and completion rate of primary
education is 80 percent by 2010. At present, it is 91 percent and 52 percent
respectively. Infant mortality, at birth, per thousand live birth was 55.0 for
urban areas and 62.5 for rural areas in 1999. To enable every citizen to attain
full life expectancy and enjoy longevity of life is the main objective of the National
Health Administration.
At the time when
Myanmar is making every effort for the development of the social and economic
conditions of its people, she does not receive normal assistance and full
co-operation from some international institutions as it should be, in spite of
being a family member. Nevertheless, Myanmar is working hard for socio-economic
development of her people by relying upon her own resources. At present Myanmar
is experiencing restrictions being imposed in a number of areas. Myanmar has
not been able to mobilize official grants and loans from bilateral and
multilateral agencies, normal for a country at its stage of development. Should
there be no restrictions being imposed on Myanmar, we believe that Myanmar will
be able to graduate from LDC list
within this decade.
Mr. President,
Myanmar, as an LDC since 1989, has been endeavoring
for the all-round development of the country, devoting huge amount of its own
limited resources. These endeavors have resulted in considerable and tangible
achievements that “include, among others, peace and stability of the state,
accelerated growth of the economy and alleviation of poverty through
socio-economic development of the country especially in the remote and border
areas.
The
programme of action for the LDCs for the 1990s embodied a commitment to arrest
and reverse the decline in the socio-economic condition of the LDCs but the
1995 High-Level Intergovernmental Meeting on the Mid-term Global Review on the
Implementation of the Programme of Action and subsequent reviews by the Trade
and Development Board clearly showed that the commitments contained in the
Programme of Action have not been fully implemented. The present Third United
Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries will create a framework for
partnership based on mutual Commitments by LDCs and development partners to
undertake concrete actions for improving socio-economic conditions and poverty
alleviation of LDCs without any discriminations.
Mr. President,
Debt Problems are a
serious obstacle to the pursuit of economic and social development of the LDCs.
According to the LDC 2000 report, two thirds of the LDCs have an external debt
burden that is unsustainable according to international criteria. About 75% of
Myanmar’s concessional debt is owed to bilateral creditors, primarily Japan and
to a much lesser extent Germany and the remainder is owed to multilateral
institutions. Germany made a write-off for the debts for 1985-87. France
cancelled its loans to the amount of French Francs 497 million. The government
of Japan is extending debt relief grants to Myanmar and the total grant
amounted to Japanese Yen 65.9 billion as of March 2000.As regards loans for
multilateral institutions, IBRD/IDA and ADB have suspended their lending
operations since 1988. In Myanmar, external medium and long-term public debt
was US $5.1 billion in 1998 and US $ 5.4 billion (p.a) in 1999. Myanmar would
welcome the initiatives for debt relief and debt cancellation and expects to
benefit fully from the initiatives. An immediate action in support of
development efforts of the LDCs is to alleviate heavy debt burden which is a
major impediment to economic recovery of the LDCs. Outright cancellation of
outstanding ODA loans to the LDCs is highly desirable.
In
the LDC context, more aid is a precondition for effective aid, and effective
aid is necessary for economic growth, poverty reduction and sustainable
development. ODA flows continue to be of critical importance in sustaining
growth and development in LDCs. The volume of ODA should be progressively
brought into in line with the UN target of 0.2 percent of industralized
countries' GDP for the LDCs. ODA flows
currently represent less than 0.2 percent of the total GDP of the Development
Assistance Committee (DAC) countries, far short of UN target.
In
real capita terms, net ODA to LDCs has dropped by 45% since 1990 and is now
back to the levels of the early 1970s. The decline in level of ODA is therefore
a matter of a serious concern. ODA to Myanmar was very limited in the past
decade. The Government of the Republic
of Korea provided US $ 59.8 million and OPEC Fund provided US $ 35.8 million to
Myanmar during the last 10 years. UNDP also does not have a Country Programme
in Myanmar but instead it has been carrying
out a Programme of Human Development Initiatives involving humanitarian
projects at the grass root level. The amount of ODA assistance in Myanmar were
US$ 56.2 million, 45.2 million, 48.9 million, 51.1 million and 76.3 million
from the year 1996 to 2000 respectively. The ODA levels provided to Myanmar are
low, much lower than those provided to other economies in transition in the
region. For example in 1997, ODA per capita provided to 3 neighbouring
countries of Myanmar were about US$ 14 to 82 while in Myanmar it was only $1.0.
Myanmar welcomes substantial external resource flows for the sustainable
development of its socio-economic
condition.
Mr.
President,
For further economic development of Myanmar,
another five year plan will be
implemented from the year 2001 to 2005 with a view to achieving high growth
rate. The main aims of the economic plan are : to extend setting up of
agro-based industries and other required industries in building an industrial
nation as the first stage; to develop the power and energy sectors to be in
conformity with the developing trend of industries; to extend the agriculture,
livestock and fishery sectors in order to meet the local demand and to export
the surplus; to set up forest areas and to green the arid districts, to extend
the health and education sectors’ development and progress of human resources;
to develop the rural areas; and to ensure all-round development in other sectors.
Poverty
alleviation and rural development are the priorities as well as important tasks
of the government. 71% of the total population of Myanmar live in the rural
areas and thus the task of the development of those areas is a challenge for
the government and our primary concern. Integrated rural development plan has
been laid down for 2001 to 2005 with a view to raise the socio-economic
conditions of the rural populace, focusing on:-
1.
construction
of roads between villages in rural areas and to link with urban areas;
2.
making
water available for people as well as for cultivation;
3.
uplifting
the education standard, improving the quality of teachers, enabling school age
children to attend class, making sure children learned well and literate in the
schools;
4.
uplifting
of rural health care system , and
5.
bringing
about the economic growth of the rural populace.
In
our endeavors for the economic and human resource development of the country,
the bilateral and multilateral technical and economic cooperation will be much
beneficial to raise technology and productivity which will undoubtedly alleviate
the poverty condition. Should we have normal cooperation from international
communities our economic development will be much faster, the living standards
of the people will be higher and poverty will be alleviated earlier.
Myanmar is launching regional and international
cooperation with full confidence. As the nation values her sovereignty she also
respects the sovereignty of all nations. Myanmar will be a friendly country
with all other countries and international organizations of the world and will
continue to work towards better understanding and cooperation.
Mr. President,
I would like to stress
what already was stated in the Least Developed Countries 2000 Report, i.e. the
LDCs need a "New Deal" in international development cooperation and
we support the five key elements suggested by UNCTAD.
We notice that
Myanmar's endeavours are in line with the Commitments contained in the draft
Programme of Action for the decade. We strongly support the draft Programme of
Action.
In conclusion, May I
express our sincere wish for the successful formulation and adoption by the
conference of an effective programme of action for making substantial progress
toward halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty and suffering
from hunger by 2015 and promoting the
sustainable development of the LDCs in
this decade.
Thank you.
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