President Nominates New Finance Minister Following Resignation
By The Irrawaddy 28 May 2018
YANGON — President U Win Myint has nominated a new minister of planning and finance following last week’s resignation of U Kyaw Win, who is under investigation for corruption.
The president has nominated U Soe Win, a member of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), to replace the outgoing minister in a submission to the Union Parliament on Monday.
It is the most senior government post to be vacated since the NLD came to power in early 2016.
The government’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) began investigating U Kyaw Win days after receiving a complaint against him on May 3.
Before the probe was eventually confirmed, news reports had been circulating for weeks that the minister and his son were being investigated for corruption by both the ACC and the Home Affairs Ministry’s Bureau of Special Investigation.
Their home in Yangon was searched and U Kyaw Win has been banned from leaving the country, according to reports.
U Soe Win, 80, is currently the country managing director of Deloitte Touche Myanmar Vigour Advisory Ltd. He has over 30 years of professional experience in international banking with the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) and has been an advisor to Myanmar’s taxation, investment law and banking sectors.
He is also a senior member of the NLD Central Economic Committee. According to the independent Renaissance Institute Myanmar, U Soe Win joined the Foreign Exchange Department of MFTB as deputy manager in 1961.
He was sent to the UK for training with National Westminster Bank and the Bank of England in 1976. He was appointed deputy controller of foreign exchange at MFTB in 1990 and general manager in 1993.
He left MFTB to join Pricewaterhouse Associates Ltd in 1996. In 2003 he founded Myanmar Vigour Co., Ltd, which became a member firm of Deloitte in June 2015.
U Soe Win is also a member of the Bar Council in Yangon. He was extensively involved in drafting banking laws and regulations and fiscal policies during his tenure with the state bank.
