TOKYO: Japan vowed yesterday to resume loans to a reforming Myanmar and called on global creditors of the one-time pariah state to chip in more, chiding China for skipping a key lenders’ meeting.
Representatives from two dozen nations and a handful of international organisations attended the meeting to discuss Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank’s annual meetings in Tokyo.
Reports last month said lenders would pledge $1bn for Myanmar to help pay its debts as the former military state is increasingly welcomed back into the world community.
But the meeting yesterday produced few concrete details.
“Japan is planning to resume its full programme in Myanmar with concessional loans... at the earliest possible time next year,” Finance Minister Koriki Jojima told the meeting, without elaborating.
“It is high time that the international community join efforts to underpin reform efforts by Myanmar, and reintegrate Myanmar as one of its members,” he added.
Myanmar’s finance minister Win Shein called for more help, saying: “We are in the midst of an unprecedented and multi-faceted transition... from a state-centred economy to a free-market economy”.
In a statement after the meeting, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank said they were “advancing necessary preparations to jointly assist Myanmar in clearing their respective arrears” early next year.
Myanmar’s government invited foreign investment in its agricultural sector as part of efforts to revive its struggling economy.
“It is the best time and good chance to invest in Myanmar due to its available climate condition, available vast land resources, manpower resources and favourable policy for agribusiness,” Khin Mya Mya, a deputy director at the agriculture ministry, told a conference in Yangon.
“We warmly welcome investors to invest in Myanmar,” she said, adding that the country’s large areas of farmland and low labour costs presented attractive opportunities.
The government particularly wants to promote investment in industrial crops such as rubber and palm oil. Myanmar was once known as the “rice bowl of Asia” but five decades of military rule, economic mismanagement and international isolation took a heavy toll on its farm sector.
Japan agreed with Myanmar in April to forgive 300bn yen ($3.8bn) of the 500bn yen it is owed.
Myanmar has been rapidly rehabilitated since polls that saw the election of a nominally civilian government, setting off a race to tap a potentially lucrative market which is rapidly opening up after years of isolation.
Resource-poor Japan, with its export-reliant economy, is looking to foster growth in the resource-rich Mekong region, a part of the world that is also being courted by China.
Agencies
