The 9th coordination meeting of the Private Sector Development Committee (PSDC) was held in Nay Pyi Taw for raising ease of doing business ranking

Vice President U Myint Swe who is also the Chairman of the Private Sector Development Committee attended and addressed the 9th coordination meeting of the Private Sector Development Committee (PSDC) held in the meeting room of the Ministry of Commerce yesterday morning.
Present at the meeting were committee Deputy Chairman Union Minister Dr. Than Myint, members Union Ministers Dr. Aung Thu, U Win Khaing, and U Ohn Maung, Union Attorney General U Tun Tun Oo, Deputy Ministers U Maung Maung Win and U Aung Htoo,
Central Bank of Myanmar Deputy Governor U Soe Thein, chairmen and vice chairmen Deputy Governor U Soe Thein, chairmen and vice chairmen of five work committees, officials from Group on increasing Ease of Doing Business Ranking, Permanent Secretaries, Directors-General, President of Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) and departmental officials.
At the meeting the Vice President said the day’s meeting was the ninth coordination meeting of the 20-member PSDC formed with notification (79/2016) issued by the Office of the President on 24th October 2016 to effectively implement private sector development works. It had reached a term of two and half year and it had formed five work committees to implement five tasks.
PSDC meeting was started in 28 November 2016 and it met four times in 2017, three times in 2018 and this was the first meeting in 2019. From the first to eighth meeting 69 decisions were made out of which 64 were implemented and 5 remaining to be implemented. The remaining five are urged to be implemented through setting a time frame.
Trade sector plays an important role in the country’s economic development and according to figures private sector participation in the trade sector was found to be between 80 to 90 percent. Furthermore to support the private sector development works monthly meetings with businesses have been conducted to help resolve the difficulties they were facing. As of 2019 April a total of 26 meetings were held and up to the 25th meeting a total of 339 difficulties faced by the business were submitted and all were resolved and responded back to the business.
Of those, some need more time to conduct continuing works and those were also being conducted by officials from the 5 work committee in meetings with relevant ministries and business persons until completion. In conducting sector wise implementation for private sector development, progress in some matters were found to be slow so relevant ministerial departments and state/region government members were urged to emphasize on speeding up the progress.
Illegal imports through the border is threatening the existence of micro, small and medium enterprises and special illegal trade prevention and control groups were formed in nine states and regions. As of 2019 March a total of 436 cases of detaining illegal goods worth about K 5.145 billion were made.

To ensure smoothness in conducting businesses for private sector development, coordination between ministries was required and for timely coordination a 13 member Ease of Doing Business Ranking Promotion Work Group led by Deputy Minister for Commerce was formed and it had been doing the best it can. Everyone knew that ten support groups for each “ease of doing business indexes” were also formed.
Questions raised by World Bank to calculate 2020 Ease of Doing Business Ranking were answered by end April 2019. A video conferencing was also held between related index wise groups and officials from World Bank head office on 3 and 4 April 2019. The group led by Deputy Minister for Commerce setup an Action Plan to April and 27 reform work processes were established and conducted in the index wise support groups.
The reason why emphasis had been placed on these reform work processes was for soon to be published World Bank Doing Business report as well as for sustainable development of Ease of Doing Business work process. Each ministerial department was to designate short and long term index wise reforms and work toward achieving success. Only then can businesses conduct matters like registering a company, constructing a warehouse, acquiring electricity, acquiring loan and taxes paid smoothly in a short time frame with least expense. Therefore for progress of Ease of Doing Business Ranking all related departments were to reform laws, rules, procedures and policies to be in accord with the time. New technologies were to be utilized to conduct reforms, smoothen and speed up the works. Decision and implementations made by the government must be made known to the departments and the people while decisions made at the meeting were to be implemented quickly. In addition to this preparation of sector wise Reform Action Plans required for Doing Business Report 2020 were to be made.
Everyone knew that private sector development plays the primary role for a country’s economic development and socio-economic development of the people. Therefore when ministerial departments and government organizations provide services for public sector development successful systems and norms used in the countries of the region must be copied and reforms conducted where reforms were needed. Reforms were to be measured not by the ministry’s own norms but by international norms said the Vice President.
Meeting attendees were urged to openly discuss for private sector development and progress in Ease of Doing Business Ranking said the Vice President.
Next, committee Deputy Chairman Union Minister for Commerce Dr. Than Myint explained and discussed about trade opportunities and difficulties, status of border trade and works conducted for private sector development.
Afterwards, committee secretary Permanent Secretary U Aung Soe explained about implementation of decisions made at the eighth meeting and future work processes.
Private Sector Development Committee members in attendance also explained, discussed and suggested on various matter relating to the private sector development while Ministry of Planning and Finance Permanent Secretary U Tun Tun Naing explained about “Work Committee to reestablish the role of government role in business and service sector works.”
Finally, Vice President U Myint Swe commented and coordinated on the explanations, discussions and suggestions made and concluded the meeting after delivering a closing speech.— MNA

(Global New Light of Myanmar: http://www.globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/private-sector-development-committee-meets-for-raising-ease-of-doing-business-ranking/ )

​