Singapore's Support for Myanmar's Democratic Process

Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs how is ASEAN lending support to Myanmar and her people as they face a new phase in democracy.

Myanmar's reform efforts over the past year have been significant. At the 14 May sitting last year, I informed the House that the ASEAN Leaders had welcomed Myanmar’s free and fair by-elections of 1 April 2012, in line with ASEAN’s support for Myanmar's implementation of its Seven-Step Roadmap to Democracy. The by-elections brought Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, into Myanmar’s Parliament for the first time.

Since then, the Myanmar government has continued to make progress. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is now an active participant in the Parliamentary and national reconciliation process. Reforms in several areas have been implemented. President Thein Sein has reiterated his government’s commitment to improve governance and bring about people-centred development. Myanmar passed its new Foreign Investment Law last November.

Their government has stated that it is committed to the reform process and the socio-economic development of its people. The road ahead, nevertheless, remains challenging due to Myanmar's many developmental needs, particularly in human resource development. The country needs the continued support of the international community to tackle these challenges and maintain momentum for its reforms. For this reason, ASEAN has consistently maintained that sanctions on Myanmar should be lifted to encourage broad-based development and help Myanmar's government to continue on the path of reform.

ASEAN is thus heartened that our long-standing advocacy has found resonance with the international community. Many countries have recognised and reciprocated the positive steps taken by Myanmar's government over the past year. The US lifted a nearly decade-old ban on most imports from Myanmar in November 2012, just before a historic visit by President Barack Obama, while the EU earlier announced that it would suspend most sanctions. Japan has decided to waive more than half of Myanmar’s debts. Such steps send a clear signal that the international community wants to help Myanmar integrate into the global system, which would in turn improve the lives of its

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people.

Myanmar will hold the Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014. This will be an important Chairmanship, coming just before ASEAN's goal of achieving an ASEAN Community in 2015. Myanmar is working hard to ensure a successful Chairmanship year with the support of the ASEAN Member States. On our part, Singapore will continue to provide capacity building programmes for Myanmar officials in preparation for their Chairmanship, and to help Myanmar deliver a successful outcome. These are part of the broader support that Singapore, as a neighbour and a fellow ASEAN member, has given to Myanmar's reform efforts. In January 2012, we signed the Singapore-Myanmar Technical Cooperation Programme MOU during President Thein Sein's State Visit to Singapore. Under this MOU and other existing training programmes, we provide training to Myanmar in economic development, human resource development, and public administration, which Myanmar has identified as priority areas for development.

Our bilateral assistance complements the technical assistance that ASEAN continues to provide to Myanmar through the Initiative for ASEAN Integration or IAI. The IAI aims to help ASEAN member states such as Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and indeed, Myanmar, narrow the development gap to achieve the vision of an ASEAN Community. In 2011, Singapore extended our contributions to the IAI for another four years from 2012 to 2015. This is our fourth pledge of S$50 million, bringing our contributions to a total of about S$170 million. Singapore will continue to do what is within our means, both bilaterally and through ASEAN, to help Myanmar with its reform efforts.