Press Release No. 16/148

Press Release: Fourth Conference on the Coordination of Financial Sector Technical Assistance to Myanmar

April 1, 2016

On March 24, 2016, the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) hosted in Nay Pyi Taw the fourth meeting of the Committee for the Coordination of Financial Sector Technical Assistance to Myanmar (COFTAM), a group that was established on April 25, 2014.

Participants included multilateral agencies--the Asian Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, International Monetary Fund, Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT), United Nations Capital Development Fund, and the World Bank, and bilateral development partners –the Australian Federal Police, Bank Negara Malaysia, Bank of Thailand, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Embassy of Japan, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the Toronto Centre, UK Department for International Development (DFID), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. Treasury Office for Technical Assistance (OTA), and representatives from several departments of the Central Bank of Myanmar, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development.

The eight sub-sector working groups met individually and developed views on priority issues in their subgroups and on the needs, sequencing of, and collaboration on training and technical assistance (TA) in their sectors. The subgroup presentations recognized important milestones achieved in the financial sector, including the January 2016 passage of the new Financial Institutions Law, the start of operations of the Yangon Stock Exchange, the launching of CBM-NET (i.e. real-time gross settlement and mechanized check clearing system) in January 2016, the Financial Inclusion Road Map in February 2015, the establishment of the intra-governmental Banking Sector Financial Reporting Implementation Committee, and the publication of the Financial Sector Development Strategy. At the same time, there was agreement on the need for improved collaboration and sequencing of TA and training, especially in advance of the proposed CBM training center.

It was agreed that each sub-group would continue a regular dialogue by exchanging views periodically with the aim of buttressing coordination and collaboration.