After reshuffling his cabinet last week, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has appointed his economic advisor, retired Lt-General Nyo Saw, to two vital economic committees—one that control foreign exchange and another that oversees trade.
Nyo Saw was appointed to the Foreign Exchange Supervisory Committee (FESC), and the Committee on Ensuring a Smooth Flow of Trade and Goods when they were reconstituted last month.
He was appointed as Min Aung Hlaing’s economic advisor last month.
Yangon-based executives say that Min Aung Hlaing is hoping that Nyo Saw can solve the foreign-currency crisis caused by a steep decline in foreign trade and foreign investment since the February 2021 coup.
The FESC is tasked with stabilizing exchange rates, and scrutinizing spending of foreign currency on imports of essential commodities that are not produced domestically, such as fuel, medicine, oil, fertilizer and building materials, according to junta media. The other committee Nyo Saw was appointed to focuses on trade.
Nyo Saw’s business experience, however, is in military-owned companies. He is the chairman of one military-owned conglomerate, Myanmar Economic Corporation, and holds a senior post at another, Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. He also holds a senior post military-owned Inwa Bank. Nyo Saw also chairs a committee to import fuel from Russia, the regime’s major arms supplier. The committee was formed in August 2022 as fuel shortages hit the country.
Along with his experience in military-owned businesses, he is also considered to be loyal to Min Aung Hlaing.
“Min Aung Hlaing has the trust and confidence in Lt-General Nyo Saw,” a Yangon-based executive said.
Nyo Saw was part of the 23rd intake of the Defense Services Academy, and later served as the commandant of both the Defense Services Technological Academy and the Defense Services Academy, as well as the head of the central and southern commands before he retired as quartermaster general in 2020.
Nyo Saw’s swift rise to senior economic posts in the junta will be ineffectual, a Myanmar-based economist told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity. One person cannot salvage an economy that has collapsed due to political instability and mismanagement, the economist said. The situation is even more precarious because very little foreign currency flows into Myanmar and two state-owned banks crucial for international transactions have been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, the economist added.
“The ongoing economic crisis was triggered by the coup. There won’t be changes in the economy without political changes first,” he said.
In June, the United States sanctioned Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank and Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank for enabling the military regime to fund violence with foreign currency earned from state-owned enterprises.
The sanctions on the two banks, which have been the key financial institutions controlling the flow of foreign currency in Myanmar for decades, have seriously disrupted junta’s access to US dollars and US dollar transactions.
