The signing ceremony for Financing, Loan and Separate Agreements with German government-owned development bank KfW was held yesterday in Nay Pyi Taw. Photo: MNA
Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Planning and Finance as well as, Dr. Christine Heimburger, Director, East Asia and Pacific of KfW and Mr. Lorenz Gessner, Interim Country Director of KfW Office Yangon signed the Financing, Loan and Separate Agreements for the “Rural Electrification Programme: Off-grid Component” (REP: Off-grid) and the “Locomotive Workshop Ywataung” (LoWoY).
The signing ceremony was accompanied by Dr. Aung Thu, Union Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, U Thant Sin Maung, Union Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, U Tun Tun Naing, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Planning and Finance, Mr. Thomas Silberhorn, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), German Development Counsellor Dr. Katharina Spiess and several stakeholders from Myanmar Government.
In 2014, the Government of Myanmar developed a comprehensive and ambitious National Electrification Plan (NEP) which is to bring electricity to everyone by year 2030.
The Rural Electrification Programme: Off-grid component comprises of EUR 9 million grant funds which will be channelled by the Department of Rural Development under the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation.
The grant funds shall be used to electrify the rural areas in Shan State which will not be connected to the grid in the near future by Solar Home System and communal PV system. It is planned to install around 19,000 Solar Home Systems which will provide access of energy for up to 30,000 people. Additionally, DRD staff, local enterprises and technicians as well as village electrification committee will receive training.
Railway Workshop and integrated vocational training centre in Ywataung near Mandalay were financed through German Financial Cooperation funds about 30 years ago.
Therefore, an amount of EUR 5 million (IDA loan) has been committed to refurbish the selected locomotives in the Ywataung Railway Workshop as well as to support most urgently required training materials for the attached vocational training centre. By doing this, the locomotives can operate more frequently and smoothly. This will be especially the case for the branch lines and thus benefit the population in rural areas. Further, the efficiency of training at vocational training centre will rise due to the usage of modern training materials.—Myanmar News Agency