Reuters-INTERVIEW-Myanmar hopes for

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Subject: Reuters-INTERVIEW-Myanmar hopes for World Bank, IMF aid 

INTERVIEW-Myanmar hopes for World Bank, IMF aid
09:32 a.m. Jul 09, 1999 Eastern
By Rajan Moses

YANGON, July 9 (Reuters) - Cash-strapped Myanmar is seeking financial and
technical help from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to help
it weather tough economic times, the nation's central bank chief said on
Friday.

Teams from the IMF and World Bank recently visited Myanmar to assess its
economic situation, governor Kyaw Kyaw Maung told Reuters in an interview.

Asked if they had promised assistance, he said: ``It depends on them. We
have been looking forward to it for quite a long time.''

The World Bank stopped its assistance programme to Myanmar in 1988 after the
military took power by bloodily suppressing a pro-democracy uprising. But
this year a World Bank mission visited to assess its economic and
humanitarian needs.

The IMF has been holding annual consultations with Myanmar but does not have
an aid programme in the country.

The issue is complicated by Western sanctions on Myanmar because of its
human rights record, especially its treatment of the pro-democracy
opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
won the country's last election in 1990 by a landslide but has never been
allowed to govern.

Kyaw Kyaw Maung said Myanmar needed help for its economic reform plans.
``Right now our reserves are very low,'' he said.

He said Myanmar, which has been buffeted by the side effects of the Asian
economic crisis in the past two years, had enough reserves to finance two
months of imports.

It had been able to sustain itself without foreign assistance for some time
despite a lack of adequate foreign exchange revenue thanks to a food surplus
to feed its people.

It was also helped by unconventional border trade with neighbouring
Thailand, China, India and Bangladesh, which generated just enough cash to
oil the wheels of commerce in outlying areas.

``We are a food surplus country. We are rich in mineral resources, forestry
resources and so on. We also have open border trade with all our
neighbours,'' he said.

The governor said the authorities had managed to keep the country afloat by
enforcing strict fiscal discipline and controlling public expenditure while

keeping the budget deficit under control. He did not give details about the
budget deficit.

Myanmar is a rice producer and exporter. It also produces a variety of other
foods such as pulses, and vegetables.

Kyaw Kyaw Maung said Myanmar had exported rice to neighbouring Southeast
Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia in order to share its surplus
food resources with them in exchange for others goods and services.

He said Myanmar's inflation rate stood at more than 40 percent but this was
based on prices in Yangon.

``Of course, the cost of living in the remaining area in the country is
lower than in Yangon,'' he said.

Deputy Governor Than Lwin said he expected gross domestic product growth for
the fiscal year to next March to be around five to six percent, barely
changed from last year's 5.6 percent.

He said Myanmar was still able to post growth last year despite the Asian
crisis because it was not directly affected.

Myanmar had little in the way of short-term borrowings and had kept a tight
rein on its banking system, he said.

The country has 20 local private banks and their bad loans were quite small
given tight lending controls.