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	Abdoulaye Seck, country manager for Myanmar, explained that he understood the country was in need of electricity and had sketched a master plan for powering Myanmar. However, World Bank had no desire to give any financial aid to coal-fuel power plants.</div>
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	Myo Myint, an energy expert at the bank, said: &ldquo;There is still potential for hydropower and gas reserves left untapped. We have yet to explore coal and those reserves found so far are poor in quality. To my knowledge, we will have to import coal if we set up coal-fired power plants. So I believe we should first try to run on resources at hand.&rdquo;</div>
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	World Bank has given a US$140-million interest-free loan to an electrical power project in Mon State. In the process, the old power plant in Thaton will be replaced with a combined cycle gas turbine with a 115-megawatt capacity.</div>
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	It also gave an interest-free US$400-million loan to the National Electrification Project.</div>

World Bank refuses to fund coal power in Myanmar

YANGON - The World Bank Group says it will not give any financial assistance to coal-fired power projects in spite of Myanmar’s increasing need for electricity.