Myanmar, 2011

Allow me to extend our

congratulations to Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser on

his assumption of the Presidency of the General

Assembly at its sixty-sixth session. I am confident that

with his wide knowledge, experience and diplomatic

skills, we will be able to achieve fruitful results in our

deliberations in addressing important and critical issues

on the international agenda.

I would also like to convey our appreciation to

Mr. Joseph Deiss for his able leadership and

contributions to the sixty-fifth session of the General

Assembly. May I also take this opportunity to once

again extend our congratulations to the Secretary-

General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for his reappointment, and

we wish to express our sincere appreciation to him for

his dedication and untiring efforts for the cause of the

United Nations.

Since I am addressing the General Assembly for

the first time after the emergence of the constitutional

Government and as the Minister for Foreign Affairs of

the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, I would like to

apprise the Assembly of recent developments and

significant changes taking place in my country. The

Republic of the Union of Myanmar has emerged as a

new democratic nation in accordance with the

Constitution approved by the overwhelming majority

of the people.

Multiparty democratic general elections were

held in Myanmar in November 2010 in line with the

seven-step roadmap. Thirty-seven political parties,

including 19 parties from different national ethnic

groups, contested in the elections. Today, elected

representatives are exercising their democratic rights in

the legislative bodies.

The President, in his inaugural speech to the first

regular session of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw on 30 March

2011, stated that all elected Hluttaw members,

including the President, are duty-bound to honour and

safeguard the Constitution of the Republic of the

Union of Myanmar. The new Government pledged that

all citizens shall enjoy equal rights under the law and is

determined to strengthen the judiciary. The

Government also assured the nation that it will amend

and revoke existing laws and adopt new laws as may

be deemed necessary to implement the provisions of

the fundamental rights of the citizens.

With a view to maintaining and promoting

friendly relations with all countries in the world,

Myanmar is reaching out to the international

community. In the past five months, Myanmar has

received the visits of State leaders and high-level

delegations from our neighbouring countries, as well as

from other regions and international organizations. In

return, President Thein Sein paid official visits to the

Republic of Indonesia and the People’s Republic of

China. The President also attended the eighteenth

summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

(ASEAN) in Jakarta.

The new Government has launched a series of

economic, social and policy reforms designed to

improve the socio-economic life of the people of

Myanmar. One of those measures is the stepping up of

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its efforts to reduce poverty. In Myanmar, about 70 per

cent of the population resides in rural areas and

engages in agricultural and livestock farming. In order

to boost production and enhance the economic

development of rural areas, the Government has

adopted forward-looking economic policies. Those

policies will lead to sustained, inclusive and equitable

economic growth, which will in turn increase

employment opportunities, promote agriculture

development and reduce poverty.

Towards that end, the new Government has

adopted the National Rural Development and Poverty

Reduction Plan to alleviate poverty and to improve the

livelihood of people residing in rural areas. A central

committee and various work committees have been

formed to supplement the eight tasks laid down under

the National Plan. Furthermore, the new Government

has increased pension allowances for retired service

personnel commensurate with the changing economic

and social conditions of the country. With a view to

encouraging foreign trade, the Government reduced the

export tax from 8 per cent to 2 per cent and granted

export tax exemptions for all agricultural and timber

products.

It is regrettable that the Government’s efforts to

improve the livelihood of the people of Myanmar are

being hampered by economic sanctions. I would

therefore like to call upon countries that have imposed

unilateral sanctions on my country to lift those

restrictions. It will also contribute to our efforts to

achieve our Millennium Development Goal (MDG)

targets.

Myanmar attaches great importance to the

promotion and protection of human rights. The

fundamental rights of the country’s citizens are

guaranteed by relevant provisions of the State

Constitution. With a view to promoting and

safeguarding the fundamental rights of its citizens as

set forth in the Constitution, the Myanmar National

Human Rights Commission was formed on

5 September 2011.

Myanmar’s cooperation with the United Nations

has been clearly demonstrated by the Government’s

acceptance of the fourth visit of Mr. Tomás Ojea

Quintana, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of

human rights in Myanmar in August 2011.

Mr. Quintana recognized and welcomed the steps taken

by the Government to improve the human rights

situation in the country. He also welcomed the

Government’s stated commitments to reform and the

priorities set forth by the President.

Myanmar has been cooperating closely with the

United Nations Human Rights Council. Myanmar’s

Universal Periodic Review (UPR) report was submitted

and reviewed by the UPR Working Group last January

and adopted at the seventeenth session of the Human

Rights Council last June. Myanmar has agreed to

accept 52.4 per cent of the total recommendations. We

strongly believe that the UPR process is the most

dependable and non-controversial monitoring

mechanism for addressing and rectifying the human

rights situations of all countries.

As for national reconciliation, the Government

offered an olive branch to all the ethnic armed groups

in the country through Announcement No. 1/2011 on

18 August, and some of those groups have accepted the

Government’s offer. The Government also granted an

amnesty on 16 May 2011, with 20,000 inmates having

been released by the end of July. I would like to take

this opportunity to inform the General Assembly that

the President, in exercising the mandate vested in him

by the Constitution, will grant a further amnesty at an

appropriate time in the near future.

The President invited people to work together for

the interest of the nation despite differences.

Accordingly, he received Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on

19 August 2011, and, putting aside differing views,

they had candid and cordial discussions with a view to

finding common ground and exploring a potential

cooperation in the interest of the nation and its people.

The foregoing are some of the significant items

of progress we have achieved in our democratization

process.

As an agro-based country, Myanmar is following

with keen interest the issues involving the effects of

climate change. Since agriculture is highly dependent

on the climate, the implications of the climatic

situation on agriculture cannot be ignored. Lately,

floods and droughts have devastated crops and

agricultural production in our region. It is evident that

developing countries are the most vulnerable and will

therefore be the first to suffer from global warming and

climate change.

We therefore look forward to reaching tangible

outcomes at the upcoming seventeenth Conference of

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the Parties to the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change and the seventh

Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the

meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Durban,

South Africa. Although the road to Durban will be a

difficult one, my delegation shares the view that our

discussions on the issue should be placed within the

context of promoting sustainable development. In that

regard, we would also like to stress that all three

pillars, namely, economic development, social

development and environmental protection, need to be

promoted in an integrated, coordinated and balanced

manner.

Myanmar strongly condemns terrorism in all its

forms and manifestations. In today’s world, terrorism

and transnational organized crime are increasingly

threatening human society. Myanmar is also among

those countries that have been victim of the scourge of

terrorism. In that regard, we would like to express our

deepest condolences to the bereaved families of

victims of terrorism around the world. We welcome the

Secretary-General’s commitment to conducting a

global threat review in order to re-assess security

threats in the wake of the deadly attack in Abuja,

Nigeria. Myanmar stands ready to cooperate at the

regional and international levels to prevent and combat

terrorism and transnational organized crimes. Without

a stable and peaceful environment, sustainable

development would not be possible for the people of a

country or in a region and beyond.

The Millennium Declaration set 2015 as the

target date for achieving the Millennium Development

Goals, which were formulated to address the welfare

and needs of people around the world. Despite some

progress, development efforts have been hindered by

various factors, such as slow economic growth,

diminishing resources, increasing food prices and

ongoing concern over food security, increasingly

frequent natural disasters and the challenges posed by

climate change. Each country has the primary

responsibility to generate its ways and means for

achieving social and economic development. However,

national efforts to that end need to be supported by the

international community.

For our part, Myanmar is determined to promote

better living standards and the equitable development

of its people. To generate income, microfinance

schemes have been introduced at the grassroots level.

According to the United Nations Development

Programme, the poverty rate in Myanmar has

decreased from 32 per cent to 26 per cent in recent

years. However, we have to redouble our efforts to

achieve MDG 1 by the year 2015.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

Weapons is the cornerstone of international efforts to

prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, promote

nuclear disarmament and cooperation, and ensure

access to nuclear energy. As a signatory to the Treaty,

Myanmar remains committed to the three pillars of the

treaty. As a strong advocate of nuclear disarmament,

Myanmar has been tabling a draft resolution on nuclear

disarmament every year since 1995, one which enjoys

wide support from Member States. Myanmar firmly

opposes the proliferation and production of nuclear

weapons and strongly supports any efforts leading to

the realization of a world free of the threat of nuclear

weapons and their by-products.

Recently, the world around us has changed. We

have seen changes in Governments and political

landscapes. Myanmar has transformed and is moving

towards becoming a democratic nation in a smooth and

peaceful manner. We have now embarked on a series of

reforms in various sectors to bring about

democratization and economic development and

improve the lives of our people.

The steps taken by the Government of Myanmar

are concrete, visible and irreversible. We will ensure

that the reform process is incremental, systematic and

dynamic. Myanmar is strongly determined to continue

implementing the democratization process despite all

of the current challenges. At this critical juncture, the

encouragement, understanding and support of the

international community are crucial to Myanmar’s

transition to democracy.