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The government plans to resume yen loans to Myanmar "at the earliest possible date next year," Finance Minister Koriki Jojima said Thursday at a meeting held in Tokyo alongside annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group.
Yen loans from Japan to Myanmar have been suspended since 1987. To restart lending, measures will be implemented in January to settle Myanmar's delinquent debts to Japan, Jojima said.
At an April meeting with Myanmar President Thein Sein, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda pledged to forgive 300 billion yen of the country's 500 billion yen debt and to resume new low-interest loans to Myanmar.
The government believes it is important that the people of Myanmar enjoy the "tangible fruits of [the country's democratic and economic] reforms," Jojima said.
Fresh yen loans will likely be used to improve infrastructure such as roads, ports and power supply systems. Tokyo also intends to help Japanese companies expand into Myanmar, which is seen as the last economic frontier in Asia.
"We are committed to building a new Myanmar" that will "actively and responsibly participate in our shared mission to build a thriving and harmonious Asia," said Win Shein, Myanmar's finance and revenue minister.
The meeting on Myanmar was hosted by Japan and attended by 26 countries and five international organizations including the IMF and the World Bank.
China, however, chose not to participate due to tensions with Japan over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
"We had hoped that China would discuss its own approach to assisting Myanmar," Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs Takehiko Nakao, who chaired the meeting, said at a press briefing. Those at the meeting welcomed Myanmar's ongoing reforms toward democratization and national reconciliation, as well as economic reforms, the Finance Ministry said.
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