Video Speech by Mr. U Ko Ko Hlaing, Union Minister for International Cooperation of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar on China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation

Video Speech by Mr. U Ko Ko Hlaing,

Union Minister for International Cooperation

of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar on China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation

Kunming, Yunnan Province, China

21 November, 2022  

Dear Excellencies and distinguished participants,

Good Evening and Mingalapar. It is a great pleasure for me to deliver the speech at this China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development and Cooperation via online. 

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the China International Development Cooperation Agency and Yunnan Provincial Government for their kind efforts to this forum. While noting the forum's purpose "To further explore and promote China-Indian Ocean Region economic and trade cooperation to a higher level and in broader fields", I firmly believe that the forum will serve as a platform for extensive discussions on Global Development Initiative (GDI), blue economy, tourism as well as education sectors.Moreover, it will facilitate the cooperation among the participating countries through policy coordination and it will pave the way to exchange views on the non-traditional security issues such as ocean climate governance and submarine resource conservation. 

As we all known, at the moment, we are facing with the serious marine ecological problems due to the impact of global climate change. Meanwhile, we are suffering economic stagnation due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we, Myanmar and the countries of the Indian Ocean Region, will have to work closely together and move forward on building global consensus on development and promoting mutually beneficial and win-win international cooperation. 

Excellencies and distinguished participants,  

Eliminating poverty is the common aspiration of all people across the world, and a shared mission of the international community. The first goal of the SDGs is to "end poverty in all its forms everywhere." Moreover, poverty reduction is included in the eight priority areas of cooperation under the GDI umbrella. Therefore, the countries in the region including Myanmar are coordinating with China to explore specific areas for potential cooperation opportunities to enhance global development and cooperation.We would like to encourage the participating countries to move forward with development projects based on the ocean, facilitating connectivity, enhancing trade and economic cooperation in line with our agreed principles since its inception of the theme of the forum is "Development for All, Theories and Practices from the Perspective of Blue Economy". 

Myanmar would like to explore cooperation on blue economy in the areas such as marine environmental protection, sustainable aquaculture and fishing practices, marine pollution, marine litter and plastic pollution, food security, trade, coastal tourism as well as research and education, capacity building and training and sharing of information and best practices. Therefore, it is necessary to have a new economic vision and approaches based on blue economy and it is time to foster measures to transform our economies to be environmentally responsive and introduce blue economic models in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Furthermore, it is time to strengthen our partnership to minimize the challenges concerned with blue economy by working on the issues such as reducing poverty alleviation and environmental problems. 

Excellencies and distinguished participants, 

Pandemics and climate change, man-made ecological disasters remind us that there is only one Planet Earth and it is our shared responsibility to work together to protect it. 

Myanmar is well endowed with long coastal line and plentiful diversified fisheries products. Therefore, Myanmar well recognizes the importance of blue economy. In this context, we assume that the blue economy is not just about providing market opportunities, it also provides for the protection and development of more intangible “blue” resources such as carbon sequestration and costal resilience to help vulnerable states to mitigate the devastating effects of climate change.  

Our country welcomes the technical assistance and support from participating countries concerned with ocean governance and digital transformation development on blue economy in order to lay down the innovative blue economic policy so that multiple benefits to people, the environment and the economy could be flourished.   

Myanmar will encourage inside and outside of the country to explore the possible priority areas of investments to promote blue economy in Myanmar since oceans and seas are the major drivers of economic growth and innovation. 

Myanmar views this Forum as a useful platform that would identify the promising strategic plans to improve the ocean governance capacity and preserve healthy marine ecosystems and resources. Showing Myanmar's eagerness to become a member country of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), Myanmar would like to cooperate with Indian Ocean Rim countries to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change and economic stagnation. 

In conclusion, I firmly believe that we can guide global development and contribute significantly to our economic recovery efforts in the post Covid-19 era by working together with all inclusive approaches and by drawing important precedents in policy making. 

I thank you.