Aung San Suu Kyi asks for help to meet Burma's needs

  1 June 2012 Last updated at 02:41 GMT     ... 

 

Aung San Suu Kyi: ''We have to try to eradicate corruption''.

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called for help to meet the country's needs.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Bangkok, she said job creation and training was vital for Burma's young population.

She added that when investment comes into the country, then it should not fuel corruption or inequality.
Burma's military-backed civilian government has started a series of reforms to open up the country.
Practical plans
 
''I am here not to tell you what to do but to tell you what we need,'' she said in her first major speech outside of Burma for more than 20 years.

She urged investors who are planning to put money into Burma to do so with an awareness of the need for improvement in the lives of ordinary Burmese people.

''We do not want investments to mean greater inequality and greater privileges for the already privileged,'' she said. ''We want it to mean jobs.''

She continued that skills training would be a key factor in enabling Burma's workers to fill any of the new jobs that are created.

''There is a great need for basic skills,'' she said. ''We need vocational training much more than higher education.''

While she said that she valued the latter, she added that the international community should consider the country's needs ''in a very practical way''.

Freer movement
 
For the past two decades, Aung San Suu Kyi has been either under house arrest or was afraid that if she left Burma she would not be allowed to go back.

But recent reforms led to her election to parliament last month and she is playing an increasingly prominent role both inside and outside of Burma.

She is due to travel to Europe later this month.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18291862