"The Covid-19 Economic Relief Plan (CERP) that the government rolled out in the last week of April is a welcome initiative for a country that is suffering from both the assault of the novel coronavirus and the massive economic impact of the nationwide lockdown that the government has imposed to stop its spread. More than 50 measures were laid out in the 15-page document. But the plan is more of a wishful shopping-list, with only two items being assigned specific amounts: up to K500 billion (US$360 million) in loans for small- and medium-sized businesses in selected sectors; and K100 billion ($72 million) for trade financing. There are also a number of important measures for containing the novel coronavirus that are missing. Logic of CERP is Unexplained The narrative that explains the logic of the plan is absent. How the different measures are integrated is unclear. There is no prioritization of measures. Everything seems to be a priority so that, in effect, nothing is a priority. Without clear prioritization, allocating resources becomes a very haphazard process. It has since become known that the total budget comes to 2.09 to 2.8 trillion kyat, or $1.5 to $2 billion. How this figure is arrived at is unknown but, comparing it to economic relief or stimulus packages in other countries, it is on the low side. It comes to less than 3 per cent of Myanmar’s GDP of $77 billion in 2019. In contrast, it has been reported that the economic relief fund of Thailand comes to almost 9 per cent of GDP and that of Singapore to 8 per cent. Perhaps what is coming in as emergency foreign aid from the World Bank and bilateral donors has not been factored in the CERP. But, even if one adds a generous figure of $1 billion in aid, that would make the CERP only slightly lower than 4 per cent of GDP..."