Soe Htike Aung
The cabinet member said that there has been no dissatisfaction with the development of Kayah State in these more than four years governance of state government.
U Urk Maw, the Secretary of the Kayah State government, said at a press conference held by the Kayah State government on July 24 at the State Hall that there is no dissatisfaction with the fact that everyone has been working together for the development of the region for more than four years.
U Urk Maw said, “The most successful projects are in the hotel and tourism sector, roads and transportation sector, electricity distribution sector, Irrigation water supply, development sector, education and health sectors, and it has been named the 2019 Cleanest City of ASEAN as a State Honor in the hotel and tourism sectors.”
The Bishop of the Catholic Church, Fr. Anthony, said although they are satisfied with the development of the region to some extent, there are some issues they still have to report by themselves to the member of state government as the candidates gave their promise of building road and providing water access during the 2015 election campaign.
“Their (state government) candidates promised during the campaign what and how they will do. When they become members of parliament, we have to report about it. We report about the road construction issue and water supply issue. In fact, it is not our duty. Indeed, we have to focus on religious activity as we are religious leaders. For example, the MPs should look after at their constituencies that they have promised,” he gave his analysis.
Kyaw Thu Aung, the State Director of the Kayah State Department of Rural Development, said he was satisfied with the state development sector as the current state government could implement quite many projects of Kayah State’s rural development during their governance in over four years.
“One significant thing is we could implement the new industry which we implemented the rural product trading roads, and rural bridges. In the same way, as our department, we have the people-centered approach, which is managed by the community themselves, known as CDD project. We have done the community-driven development project. In the other villages, we are disbursing the poor families with loans for their income, and they use it to implement for their agriculture, the livestock business, private businesses, and other businesses. Besides, we also implement the Emerald Green Projects for them,” U Kyaw Thu Aung told the Kantarawaddy Times.
Mu Anjala, the General Secretary of the Union of Karenni State Youth (UKSY), said although the region’s development has seen significant improvements in education and health, it improves well in the cities but not in the villages.
“For example, we can see significantly change in health and education sectors. In education sector, the reform is initiating. However, it does not work and cause lot of problems in the village although it goes well in the city,” she said.
Khun Bi Htoo, the Chairperson of the Kayan National Party (KNP), said that what the NLD has changed in the state now is just the erecting a statue of General Aung San statue in a public park and only urban streets.
“Obviously there are only two. It is that the statue arrived in our state and the roads are a little bit better. However, they could not implement any construction of strategic roads and bridges in terms of the quality and project strategic plan,” he said.
Khun Bi Htoo added his analysis that although they have spent the public funds for building the main roads and bridges, there is no other use and promotion of quality control components, employment opportunities for youths, ethnic rights, and education.
It mentioned in the 2019 annual report of Kayah State Government that during the 2018-2019 fiscal year, the State Development Supervision Office could implement the projects of road/bridge construction, water supply, electrical project, building construction, and the religious activities with the state fund (4036.756) million kyats and union fund (4501.49) million kyat for the purpose of public social developments.
For rural development, 831.627 million kyats were spent on (8) transportation roads and (16) bridges for the trade of rural agricultural production, and 689.422 million kyats was spent on the project of water supply and distribution in (64) water scarce villages, according to the report.