''It is an honor to participate in this signing and exchange of notes ceremony which builds on agreements signed a year ago, on 22 February 2018. Allow me to thank Government of the Union of Myanmar and specifically Union Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement His Excellency Dr. Win Myat Aye for leadership and partnership throughout this process. We look forward to continued strong leadership and partnership from the Government in the new phase of the programme. In 2018, we signed agreements totaling US$20 million that aimed to reach half a million people in Rakhine. This year, eight agencies – IOM, UN-Habitat, UNDP, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UN Women, and WFP will receive will receive funding from agreements totaling US$37 million for humanitarian operations in Kachin, Rakhine and Shan, and development initiatives in Rakhine State. I thank the people and the Government of Japan for their continued support to allow the UN to respond to meeting the needs of vulnerable communities in the three states. I would like to recognize the indispensable role of His Excellency Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, Special Envoy of the Government of Japan for National Reconciliation in Myanmar, who led the efforts to forge this partnership that merges the strengths of bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Thank you also to His Excellency Mr. Ichiro Maruyama, Ambassador of Japan to Myanmar, for his tireless support to make this partnership happen. The Ambassador has always emphasized that the objective of this partnership is to benefit all communities in need. Finally, I would like to appreciate the work of the UN agencies who have been implementing the grants from the Government of Japan signed in 2018. They are IOM, UNDP, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UN Women, and WFP. They have integrated their activities in line with the humanitarian-development-peace-human rights nexus to achieve better results. Their projects deliver simultaneously on tall three pillars of the UN Charter: peace, development and human rights. As Kofi Annan said: “There is no peace without development, there is no development without peace, there is no peace and development without human rights.”...''