Lawmakers Urge Yangon Govt for Transparency in Development Projects
By The Irrawaddy 9 May 2018
YANGON — Lawmakers from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party urged the Yangon regional government to stick to rules and regulations when carrying out development projects.
Six lawmakers discussed on Monday the government’s proposal on urban development projects funded by local and international investment in Yangon from 2018-21, including transportation infrastructure, housing and economic development projects totaling more than 1.3 trillion kyats.
The proposal also includes a new city project on 2,400 acres of land on the west bank of the Yangon River. The timeframe for that project – which is slated as a pilot for the New Yangon City project – is 2018-26 and the costs are still being calculated.
The lawmakers complained that they had little or no idea about the projects and criticized the government’s lack of transparency.
During the discussion, lawmaker U Kyaw Zayya said he wanted the Yangon government to work according to the law.
Article 33 of the State and Region Government Law says “the government shall carry out state or regional level projects with the approval of the (state or regional) parliament.”
“We are not against the projects. But we want the government to implement them properly. We want the government we elected to work according to the law,” he said.
Lawmakers U Kyaw Min Han and U Zaw Win Naing said most of the projects in the proposal lacked detailed implementation plans and requested revisions in the details.
Lawmaker U Thein Myint said Yangon now faces problems like traffic congestion, security and rule of law, and asked whether the government was leaving this Yangon as it is now in order to build a new one.
On Monday, another six lawmakers will join the discussion on the proposal.
