Myanmar Morning News For May 28

WB Predicts Myanmar Growth at 6.7 Percent
Given the government’s efforts to accelerate reforms and to modernize the financial sector, Myanmar’s economy is projected to increase to 6.7% next year, according to Ellen Goldstein, World Bank director for Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.
— Financial Tribune

China’s $7.5bn Myanmar port ‘crazy,’ Suu Kyi adviser says
Myanmar, rather understandably, seems to be baulking at a proposed $7.5bn price tag for a new deepsea port to be built by the Chinese.
— The Load Star

Ethnic Chin refugees unsafe in Myanmar, unprotected in India
The Rohingya crisis in Myanmar has made headlines worldwide, but the Rohingya are not the only minority being persecuted.
— Al Jazeera

U Myint advocates quick-wins for Myanmar’s economy
EVEN as international agencies pronounce a favourable outlook for Myanmar, former chief presidential economic adviser U Myint has identified policy areas that can help ensure that an improving economy benefits ordinary people.
— Eleven Myanmar

$19m boost for Myanmar Metals
Famed prospector Mark Creasy and Chinese-owned Broken Hill miner Perilya have agreed to pump more than $19 million into Myanmar
— The Australian (paywall)

Myanmar warns telecom operators re online gambling links
Myanmar’s government may be growing more receptive to land-based casinos, but online gambling remains indelibly inscribed in the authorities’ Bad Books.
— CalvinAyre

Myanmar domestic aviation: big growth potential but too many airlines
Myanmar’s domestic aviation market has grown by 150% this decade and has huge potential. But the market continues to suffer from overcapacity and a lack of profitability.
— Centre for Aviation

Myanmar-Singapore trade reaches 3.8 bln USD in FY 2017-18
Trade between Myanmar and Singapore reached 3.8 billion U.S. dollars in the 2017-18 fiscal year which ended in March, up 833 million dollars or 28 percent from the 2016-17 fiscal year, according to statistics of the Commerce Ministry Sunday.
— Xinhua Net

Myanmar peace process being destroyed on multiple fronts
Will Myanmar ever hold another round of talks in its floundering 21st Century Panglong peace process? With a third round of meetings first planned for January and later pushed back to May, there is no clear sign at month’s end that the government, military and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) plan to reconvene any time soon.
— Asia Times

Chemical firms, casinos targeted as region battles menace of synthetic drugs
Mobile phone signals peter off in the homesteads of Hopong township, reached by gravel-lined roads chiselled into the steep Myanmar mountainside.
— The Straits Times

Deputy Home Affairs Minister Leaves Post to Return to Top Military Job
The deputy minister of home affairs, Maj. Gen. Aung Soe, was promoted on Friday to the rank of lieutenant general and is expected to leave the cabinet to take over as commander of the Bureau of Special Operations. The BSO oversees the regional military commands and reports directly to Amy chief Sen. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.
— The Irrawaddy

Garment and footwear exports increase three times
Exports from garment and footwear industries have increased around three times during five years, said Aung Htoo, Deputy Commerce Minister at Myanmar Buyer’s Forum Stakeholders Conference.
— Eleven Myanmar

683 removed from Myanmar’s immigration blacklist in two years
A total of 683 people, including 403 foreign citizens, as well as 35 passports were removed from blacklist in Myanmar during the two-year tenure of the incumbent government, according to a press release from the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population yesterday.
— Borneo Bulletin

Myanmar receives back first 62 returnees from Bangladesh: gov’t
Myanmar has received first 62 returnees through Nga Khu Ya reception camp in Rakhine state, who had fled to Bangladesh due to the Rakhine conflict, according to a statement from the State Counselor’s Office Sunday.
— Xinhua Net

Bid to boost SMEs financing in Myanmar
FOLLOWING the recent issuing of Myanmar’s first credit bureau licence to a joint venture company between Singapore’s Asian Credit Bureau Holdings and Myanmar Banks Association, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) now have a chance for a brighter future, according to government officials and industry experts.
— Eleven Myanmar

‘Our families would be killed’: Rohingya brace for monsoon season
Marooned on a dusty slope in the world’s largest refugee camp, Osiur Rahman looked to the hill where a Rohingya girl was buried in a landslide just days earlier and contemplated his chances should the earth give way beneath his feet.
— Coconut Yangon (metered paywall)

Average inflation rate hits 4.12 pc in April
The average inflation rate in late April was 4.12 per cent, with the highest rates reported in Rakhine, Mandalay and Ayeyarwady, according to the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO).
— Eleven Myanmar

Myeik market sees low demand for jengkol beans
The jengkol beans market in Myeik District, Taninthayi Region, has cooled with the demand for the fruits going down this harvest season, according to local wholesalers.
— The Global Newlight of Myanmar

This Week in Parliament (May 21-25)
In the Lower House, lawmaker U Zone Tein of Chipwe Township asked if the Union government would grant special funds for the rapid development of impoverished regions. Deputy Minister for Border Affairs Maj-Gen. Than Htut replied that the Union government has adopted and is implementing long-range regional development plans, and has therefore no plans to grant special funds.
— The Irrawaddy

Feature photo Jacques Beaulieu

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Myanmar morning news by AEC News Today is your one stop source for Myanmar news on matters of governance and policies affecting Asean business communities. It is published M-F by AEC News Today: Governance, not government; policies not politics.

Myanmar Morning News For May 28 added by Leakhena Khat on May 28, 2018
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Leakhena Khat

Leakhena is a junior journalist at AEC News Today who is also currently studying International Relations, which she finds adds perspective to her work reporting on the Asean Community.

“I love what I am doing so much as it gives me a lot of great experience and provides challenges to my mind.