Way cleared for more bank branches
Play
The Central Bank is making it easier for banks to open more branches by allowing them to open branches in shopping malls and other rented spaces starting in April, a director of Asian Green Development Banks (AGD) said.
AGD director Ye Min Oo noted that banks are only allowed to open branches on land they own, forcing banks to become “land owners”.
“Now, the central bank has given permission to open branches at shopping malls and also on rented land and in rented buildings, starting in April,” he said.
Families in Delta region ‘starving’
More than 500 farming families have lost another crop of rice because authorities have yet to repair sluice gates that allow about 2,000 hectares of paddy to be farmed in the delta region’s Pyinsalu township, residents said.
Failure to repair the sluice gates in the Laputta district township of Ayeyawady region meant that farmers and their families would “continue to starve”, one farmer there said.
The sluice gates were damaged during storms in 2011 and 2012, preventing farmers from storing water from the rainy season.
Farmers said they asked MP Htain Linn and the chief minister of Ayeyawady region for assistance when the pair visited the area, but the request went nowhere and the sluice gates were not repaired.
11,000 seek jobs at fair in Yangon
More than 11,000 job seekers competed for positions at 35 employers during a two-day job fair in Yangon last week, the third event of its kind.
About 1,000 of them were offered jobs during the event at MICT Park while others may be contacted in the future for interviews, organisers said.
Aung Htay Win, director of the Ministry of Labour, said the ministry is planning to hold another job fair for skilled workers this year.
“This job fair creates opportunities for qualified persons and makes it easier for employers to find,” said Nandar, managing director of Kaung Myat Thu Co, which organised the job fair. “We’ll also be able to reduce the unemployment rate in Myanmar,” she said.
Pair gets 10 years for trafficking
A woman who sold a 15-year-old girl and the man who raped her were both sentenced to 10-year prison terms last week for human trafficking.
Daw Nan Tin sold the girl to Khin Maung Thein, who subsequently raped the child, witnesses told the Yangon South District Court.
The girl had disappeared on July 9 after her mother gave her money to retrieve a sarong from a pawnshop. She was escorted home the following day by a cousin. Once safe at home the girl recounted how she had been sold to a man in Yangon and promised a secure job.
The crime was reported to a local police station in Dalla township, which filed charges against the aunt and Khin Maung Thein for violations of the Anti-Human Trafficking Law.
The court ruled there was enough evidence to prove guilt against the pair.
