The Nay Pyi Taw Council is setting
its goal of development in both towns and villages in sight and is working
diligently to achieve this. During the third year of the current
administration, the Nay Pyi Taw Council has accomplished several work plans in
Nay Pyi Taw’s development, carrying out cleanliness of the city and upholding rule
of law.
The media team enjoyed the chance
to interview with the Nay Pyi Taw Council Chairman Dr. Myo Aung about the
progress of the council during the third year of the incumbent government.
Q: What are some of the work plans
the Nay Pyi Taw Council completed during the three years of the current
administration?
A: There are 8 townships with 1
million residents in Nay Pyi Taw: around 350,000-400,000 is government
employees while 650,000-700,000 are local populace. The main focus - especially
in our third year- was to fill the gaps in health care, electricity,
transportation and education that people need and the Nay Pyi Taw Council
embraced the measures with great vigor. In addition, we are working with the
Nay Pyi Taw Development Committee to bring life to the city with clean streets,
thriving greenery and neat public spaces in line with the laws and regulations
in place.
Q: How is the council developing
the education sector, amongst others?
A: In the education sector, we had
over kyats 5492 million approved for the 106 work plans during the 2018-2019
financial year using the different funding sources from national to other
donations. Over 96 basic education schools have been upgraded with additional
566 teachers employed on the national and regional levels along with
introducing the new curriculum.
Q: What about the health sector for
the public?
A: The council has spent over kyats
1700 million on 24 different work plans for its 6 month mini-budget. Our
current emphasis is on immunization program such diseases as polio, diphtheria
and acute pneumonia. There were no health outbreaks last year. There is also
the 1000 bed Nay Pyi Taw hospital with 23 specialist units. Our biggest
accomplishment in last year has been on the new wing for operating heart surgery.
We operated on 79 patients successfully in our first batch and has treated over
100 patients over the 5 months. There is also the new X-ray machine installed
that reduces the side-effects for the operator. Also, as part of the One Stop
Service – a new initiative by the current administration- we treat and house
child sexual abuse victims and orphaned/abandoned babies temporarily before
handling them with the respective government departments.
Q: What about improvements
regarding infrastructure such as roads and bridges building?
A: The council is focusing on the
big roads to connect the villages. There are a total of 624 work plans with
kyats 31814 million budget from different sources for funding. These are spent
towards upgrading existing infrastructure such as the Yangon-Mandaly highway
with proper drainage so there will be no floods during monsoon.
Q: Can you talk to us more about
the Irrigation, Livestock and Farmland sectors?
A: Nay Pyi Taw has a lot of farmers
and most of their livelihood is working in the farms. This made Nay Pyi Taw
very self-sufficient in the region regarding staples. There are over 700,000
farmers working on rice paddy fields of 17000 acres producing up till 15
million tons of grains. The council is building drainage systems so there will
not be floods during heavy rains. In the 2018-19 year alone, these systems have
protected up till 2400 acres of land from flood. Regarding livestock, the
council is also distributing vaccines along with giving training on raising
livestock to over 5000 people.
Q: Can you elaborate more on
distributing electricity?
A: The biggest advantage for Nay
Pyi Taw is that we get our energy from dams including upper and middle Paunglaung
dams. Out of the 796 villages in Nay Pyi Taw Council Area, 432 villages have
access to electricity with plans for the national grid to roll out to 48 more
villages. The rest are also planned to gain access through the 2019-2020 and
2025-2026 financial years as we build more substations and wire lines.
Q: What about access to clean
water?
A: There are a total of 30 dams
that Nay Pyi Daw Development Committee is in charge of and 10 other managed by
the Irrigation Department for drinking water. We also build wells for areas
that the dams cannot reach. During the 2018-2019 financial year, there was a
budget of kyats 6200 million for over 100 work plans.
Q: Can you elaborate on the plans
for the socioeconomic development in the area?
A: Every year at Uttara Thiri
Township, the residents are often burdened by floods in the area. With the
council’s work plans activities, we managed to save over 2900 houses and 3500
acres of farm land from floods. There are also 43 additional housing units
built for government employees in the 2017-18 financial year and 76 more during
the 2018-19 financial year that is almost 20% finished. For socio-economic
development, there are more than 22 vocational training opened and planning to
organize the 72 training workships with a kyats 135 million budget planned for
the 2018-2019 financial year.
Q: What about regarding rule of
law?
A: There were educative talks by
the law enforcement officers educating people on crime. There are 51 CCTV
cameras that operate 24/7 around the gates of the towns. We have also amped up
our efforts against drugs, busting 93 cases alone last year.
Q: Can you explain to us about the
small loans program with little interest that is available for Nay Pyi Taw
locals?
A: EXIM Bank is working towards
giving small loans with minimal interest to start farmers up for their crops.
This year, the bank was able to lend to 22001 members for around kyats 3366
million. Such kind of systems protect farmers against loan sharks and lowers
their interest by heart. For other SME loans, the second round of the SME
program loaned kyats 4132 million.
Q: What about the efforts towards a
clean city?
A: There was a new market opened
last year – the Aung Zabu Market. Building such markets takes the vendors off
the streets, keeping the streets cleaner and also helping with traffic and
trash created from the sales. There were also 77 concrete bridges built, with
over 3244 feet long roads built in townships in Nay Pyi Taw Council Area. We
also decided to give out tenders to build water-fountain park in 2018 and are
already drawing out tender application outlines and requirements.
Regarding public information, we
just started broadcasting the CATV line starting 2019 February. The channel
will be broadcasting news, prospective govt projects and other services planned
for Nay Pyi Taw. The Nay Pyi Taw Zabuthiri hospital have also recently expanded
in 2018 so that it will be able to accommodate more patients.
A unique thing we have done is
regarding illegal squatters. There are over 1200 people illegally squatting in
Nay Pyi Taw. We have started projects on building affordable housing on a 15
year installments.
Q: What about preventative measures
against natural disasters?
A: Nay Pyi Taw, like other states
and regions in Myanmar, experiences a lot of natural disasters with a total of
85 last year. This affected around 934 households with a total of 19000 people
with 86 million kyats aid distributed for rehabilitation. There have been
educational talks for natural disasters and earthquake simulations along with
up till 227722 students trained by volunteer groups on aiding during a natural
disaster.
Q: Can you elaborate more on the
Smart cities initiative?
A: Nay Pyi Taw is part of the ASEAN
Smart Cities Network and is working towards the status through an Action Plan
to improve on three areas. The Hotel and embassy zones have been selected as a
pilot area with smart street lighting installed in collaboration with
Singapore. E-Government along with public services using ICT are also being
implemented towards this step. The GIS database is also under construction so
that people can look up electricity voltages and crowds in certain places
online. The GIS pilot project is currently implemented in Thapyay Gone
district.
Q: Any additional comments?
A: There are 5 main roadmaps that
our senior advisor has given. Within those, there is a call for discussion
regarding development. Our focus is tourism. We are currently working on
building a studio for entertainment on an international scale for international
attraction. Hopefully, our department contributes to the best of our abilities
to aid in developing not only Nay Pyi Taw, but the country as a whole.
Interviewer: Thi Thi Min
Translated by Myat Thu
Photos: MAIKHA
Ref: The Global New Light of
Myanmar
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