Suspension Of Debt Payment: EU Announced The Suspension Of Debt For Myanmar

The European Union (EU) on the 2nd July announced the suspension of 98 million USD debts for Myanmar to help the country manage the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

EU member states Austria, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland are suspending Myanmar's repayments of debt for the May to December 2020 period. The EU announcement is the first confirmed debt suspension for Myanmar under the G20 and Paris Club’ Debt Service Suspension Initiative agreed in April. To learn more about the Debt suspension, MITV made exclusive interview with Ambassador of EU to Myanmar. 

Ambassador, European Union to Myanmar, Kristian Schmidt said “..Myanmar right now need to concentrate its resources on helping people, paying the salary to nurses, doctors, teachers and everybody who are in frontline fighting the pandemic. And of course, this happens at the time when businesses are striving to pay taxes, when tourism is down, export and so revenue.   

So the governments are under pressure and so, European Union feels right now, Myanmar needs help and shouldn’t be spending its limited resources on repaying debt to the outside world. So, in solidarity with Myanmar, we have decided that we can wait and we will defer, delay this payment and of course, we called on other bilateral creditors to do the same in order to give Myanmar breathing space…”   

In April, EU has also made the creation of 5 million Euros emergency cash under the name “Myan Ku” to support thousands of Myanmar garment workers who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Ambassador, European Union to Myanmar, Kristian Schmidt said “…when first COVID-19 started, imports from China stopped. So, there is no tax and thousands of workers in the street. That’s why, that stage, we can’t look at the success story turning into tragedy. So, very quickly my team started working on emergency fund. The idea is very simple. People who lose their jobs should not be misery, social protection and safety. So, we are paying for salary of people who have been unemployed. For the moment, we set aside enough for three months.  We have paid more than 22,000 payments but we are ready to continue because I really would hate to see what was that a great sad story.”

I’m confident the order will comeback. It’s picking up, shops are opening again and buyers are placing orders and the factory will work again. But in mean time, people need to eat, drink and pay the rent so, Myan Ku is the example of solidarity ……”

Since April, the EU has been mobilizing funds and adapting programmes for sectors in Myanmar that are most affected by COVID-19 crisis. Organized by the United Nations team in Myanmar, EU embassy has also supported the Humanitarian flight that carries in humanitarian cargo and personnel to Myanmar for prevention of COVID-19 disease.