France's future assistance depends on 2015 elections

Annick Girardin, France’s Minister for Development and Francophony, told Myanmar Eleven during a press conference in Yangon on late Thursday that the French support for the nation will mainly depend on the 2015 elections.

“Like other countries, France is always keeping an eye on the upcoming general elections as we have committed to support the democratisation process in Myanmar. We expect the new government that will take office after the elections will continue going towards the democratic path,” said Girardin, marking 2015 as a very important year for Myanmar.

“We have planned to increase our support tenfold. So far, the French support for Myanmar has amounted to about 100 million euro. In 2013-2014 fiscal year, we provided more than 22.3 million euro grants for Myanmar. We will sharply increase our support from 2015 onwards. Yet, our support may largely depend on the elections,” she said.

 

Girardin expressed her optimism about the government’s democratisation process and fairness of the elections. 

“As for France, it took a long time for us to practice democracy. So I expect you will see further improvements in Myanmar’s democratisation process soon,” she said.

When asked about how France would response if the elections do not meet their expectations, Girardin answered, “European Union hopes to send watchdogs to Myanmar during the elections period in order to ensure that Myanmar is going forward to its democratisation process. We do expect fair and transparent elections. For the time being, it is hard for me to comment beyond that. Sometimes, we need to take EU’s decision into serious consideration when providing our support to Myanmar.”

The minister also underscored the importance of national reconciliation in the nation’s development.

“We pay serious attention to the developments in peace building process, particularly on the national reconciliation. For example, in the conflicts in Rakhine State, the government needs to find the solution which is acceptable by all the groups of people living in the region,” she said.

“As France believes that Myanmar is going towards the democratic path, we have been supporting the country since 2011. On the negotiations for the peace building, we have learnt that the government has been discussing with ethnic groups since it took office. At the same time, we also notice that there are some attacks between the army and the [ethnic] armed groups in some ethnic areas.”

Last year, most of the French bilateral support went to rural development and environment as it provided 8.4 million euro assistance for the sector, which was 38 per cent of the total support. Thirty-three per cent (7.4 million euro) was for improving health and water. Eleven per cent (2.4 million euro) was for culture, education, and media while its support for two other sectors --  governance, civil society, and gender (2.1 million euro) and humanitarian assistance and food security (2 million euro) -- accounted for nine percent of the total support each. 

According to the minister, Myanmar’s development will mainly depend on health, education, peace building, and democratisation. She said the French government will prioritise such sectors as health, media, democratisation, education, culture, agriculture, humanitarian aid according to the bilateral development plan.

Girardin also underscored the importance of rural development in the nation’s sustainable growth.

“The government should set policies for the rural development. But we have noticed that the government is prioritising the major needs of cities, rather than rural areas. For the rural development, the government needs to cooperate more with the private sector to create the better standard for the rural people,” she said.

She added that French Development Agency (AFD) has been financing a lot to rural development activities since 2012, and France has been a major supporter of water and sanitation in rural areas. From 2015 onwards, AFD’s plans for Myanmar will include providing loans to rural people with very little interest in order to support the rural development. She also said the EU finalised its Myanmar development project, which would provide the support worth 700 million euros during 2014-2020. 

Girardin’s three-day visit ended on December 6. During her stay, she met health officials as well as students of French Institute and Myanmar Journalism Institute.