Off the wire
• Roundup: Thai giants eye big projects in Vietnam's retails industry  • Draw results of 2016 Thomas and Uber Cup finals  • Spotlight: China's economic transformation offers opportunities for LatAm to develop manufacturing industry  • Indian stocks open higher  • Australian woman tests positive for Zika after returning from Tonga  • Shandong reveals list of problematic vaccines  • S.Korea says DPRK can conduct 5th nuke test at any time  • Russian university rector detained amid abuse of power probe  • Myanmar parliament approves gov't formation plan  • Future of New Zealand agriculture lies in move away from commodities: study  
You are here: 　 Home

1st LD Writethru: Myanmar parliament approves gov't formation proposal

Xinhua, March 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

Myanmar's parliament on Monday approved President-elect U Htin Kyaw's plan of forming a new government with reduced ministries.

The proposal was approved by a vote of 611-3 with 21 abstentions.

President-elect U Htin Kyaw made his first public appearance by delivering a speech in the Union Parliament, clarifying the plan of forming a government with 21 ministries and 18 ministers, slashed from 36 and 32 respectively in the outgoing government.

U Htin Kyaw said his cabinet aims to prioritize quality over quantity, build a corruption-free government, focus on national interest, save public money and form an efficient and consolidated government.

Cutting some ministries could save state budget of over 5 billion kyats (about 5 million U.S. dollars) which can be used as fund for education, healthcare and rural development, he said.

He told government employees not to worry about their jobs, saying they will continue to be taken care of under public servants law.

U Htin Kyaw submitted to the Union Parliament his proposal of government formation last Thursday.

Some of the ministries are being combined into one, such as the merging of seven ministries at the president's office to one.

One new ministry was added in the new government set-up which is the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs, indicating that the new government attaches importance to ethnic affairs which are to be separately dealt with to boost national reconciliation.

Of the 21 ministries, ministers for three particular ministries -- defense, home affairs and border affairs are to be named by the military under the constitution.

Meanwhile, U Htin Kyaw will submit a list of nomination of his cabinet members to the Union Parliament on Tuesday for approval, according to the agenda of the parliament announced on Monday. Earlier in the day, the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) had said the list would be submitted on Thursday.

U Htin Kyaw of the NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won the presidential race last week.

The new government is initially set to be sworn in on March 30 at the parliament while the handover of the duties of head of state is due to be carried out at the Presidential Palace. Endit