The report of Myanmar Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (MEITI) published last Thursday

The contribution of the forestry sector to GDP is 0.2% of total Myanmar GDP with over 698 billion kyats in 2014-2015 fiscal year, according to the report of Myanmar Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (MEITI), published on Thursday.

In 2015-2016 fiscal year, over 714 billion kyats have been contributed to the country GDP by the forestry sector.

The annual production during 2014-2015 fiscal year was over 44,000 Hoppus tons of teak and over 620,000 Hoppus tons of hardwood. In 2015-2016 fiscal year, more than 60,000 Hoppus tons of teak and over 610,000 Hoppus tons of hardwood were produced.

The reports stated that Sagaing Region has the highest harvested quantities with 47% of total teak harvest and 66% of total hardwood harvest in Myanmar and Shan State is the 2nd highest with 27% of teak and 6% of hardwood harvested.

Representative, MSG Government Sector, MEITI, Soe Yee said “Myanmar natural resources are well-preserved with sustainable forest management and rules and regulations which have been carried down for many years. Raw export was banned since 2014 and production is controlled by the Forest Department’s pre-defined annual allowable cut (AAC). Nowadays, only 10% of teak and 30% of hardwood is produced compared to the past years for environmental conservation.”

Myanmar is the 2nd country to publish forestry reports among the EITI implementing countries to promote better natural resources governance and to inform public about the tax revenues and other relevant data from the extractive industries transparently.

Regarding allocation of revenues, during 2014-2015 fiscal year, Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE) transferred over 47 billion kyats to Internal Revenue Department (IRD), over 38 billion kyats as state contributions and over 408 billion kyats to other accounts of MTE opened at Myanmar Economic Bank.

In 2015-2016 fiscal year, it was over 112 billion kyats to IRD, over 90 billion kyats as state contributions and over 407 billion kyats to other accounts of MTE.

Representative, MSG Government Sector, MEITI, Soe Yee said “Countries with rich natural resources need to carry out this kind of research and reports to know the exact data of resources being wasted. It is a big loss for the country if those resources flow only into a certain number of groups. As an EITI member country, we can reduce conflicts and corruption by a third party’s data reconciliation.”

In accordance with EITI standards, an independent administrator (IA) conducted the research by reconciling the data provided by companies operating in the forestry sector and relevant government bodies. The report took about 8 months, and it mainly cover oil and gas including transportation companies, gems and jade, mineral and pearl sectors as well as forestry sector.

(Myanmar International TV Channel: https://www.myanmaritv.com/news/myanmar-eiti-report-survey-myanmar-extractive-industries )

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