 Good morning everyone. It's a great pleasure to have Don Anzan Sushi, the State Councilor of Myanmar with us this morning. Thank you. I remember after 15 years in house arrest, Professor Klaus Schwab and I had a pleasure of meeting with you 2010-2011 and there was a lot of optimism in Myanmar. And also after your landslide elections in 2005 and consequently 15, thank you. It was a test this morning. And in 2015 you took over as State Councilor in 2016 and looking at a little bit more than two years, you have no been State Councilor. What are you most of your achievements? What would you say that you have your most proud of having achieved and what is the thing you would have liked to achieve that you haven't achieved so far? I don't know whether pride is the word that I would use but satisfied perhaps. Although not full satisfaction because I think you always aim higher. That is how it goes when you're trying to build our country that has been left behind for many, many decades and you're trying to catch up. But I think if I have to give just one answer, I would say it's the way in which our people have been quick to grasp the new opportunities that have emerged, not everybody of course. You can't expect everybody to be able to put their hands firmly on the new opportunities. Young people, they have changed. And also I have to say our civil servants, not because some of our civil servants are here, but I think over the last two years we have started seeing a change in them. I'm not just talking about corruption. It's also about the fact that they feel more confident and they feel that they can take initiative much more and that they will be listened to and that they are part of the whole endeavor. So I suppose people, it's the sense that our people have greater confidence in themselves that I find most satisfactory. But what remains to be done, there's so much that I can hardly choose one to talk about. So Myanmar used to be the rice bowl of Southeast Asia. That was a long time ago. And it also had one of the best educational systems in the region. When do you think you will see real results, for example, in the educational field? You mentioned yesterday in your speech that, for example, access to the Internet has gone from 3% to 25%. Have you seen positive developments also on the educational side the last years? Yes, I have to say I'm a little surprised and very encouraged by the fact that our young people are very creative and innovative in spite of the fact that we've had a very poor education system and we have put hardly next to nothing into research. And while we're about it, I'd like to invite entrepreneurs to invest in our young people, to invest in research in Myanmar. I'd like to give a small example. A few weeks ago, I went to an exhibition of little projects that had been put together by our young people. And it is all research. And of course, we cannot give much money for research. And yet there were a number of very interesting projects. And one that struck me was very simple. But I think this is the sort of thing that we should encourage and that we should invest in. We have a tree called the koku. I was going to look up the botanical name I forgot. So I can't tell you what the botanical name is, but it's a very beautiful shade tree. It grows very tall and it's naturally symmetrical. It's like a big umbrella and it's one of the best-loved shade trees in our country. But apart from providing shade, we've always taken it all granted that it has no other use because the fruit of the koku tree is unusable. In fact, at one time we thought it was a bit of a nuisance because when we used to have these trees on the roadside, in the days when windscreens were not made of very tough grass and a koku fruit fell on a windscreen, it would be broken. So it was considered something of a nuisance. But these young people had been doing research and producing ethanol from koku fruit. And this kind of research makes me very happy because they are seeing with new eyes which things have happened there all the time and which have been ignored. So I think that's the essence of research, essence of creativity and innovation, that they have the ability to see all things with young new eyes. And I wondered whether some enterprising businessmen might not like to invest in the research to find out whether ethanol produced from the koku fruit could become profitable. So Dan-Ansa Sushi, you know, we have a lot of international CEOs also with us here and I think last year you saw foreign direct investments a little bit around 10 billion US dollars. Are you welcoming more investments and in which areas do you want more foreign investments? We are welcoming of course more investments and better investments and we also accept that we have a responsibility to make the kind of changes that would attract more of the kind of investments we want. We want, of course, I've just talked about education. So obviously what we want is investment in education, long-term research in our people, in our young people, but also in agriculture, in the agricultural sector because Myanmar is still predominantly an agricultural country. As you know about 70% of our people live in the rural area. There's now movement towards the cities to find jobs, which is, I suppose, to be expected. But we have so much potential in the agriculture sector and as people talk a lot about the importance of food security over the coming years, I like to think that our country could become what they call an agribase industrialized nation, like for example New Zealand. Like the rice bubble again? No, not the rice, I think diversification. I think we can't just stick to rice, but we must diversify and then of course we want to go up the value chain with regard to food production because in the end whatever other things we may invent, food starts from the earth. You may process it in any number of stages, but basically it has to come up. Even if it's meat, the animals have to eat whatever comes up from the earth. Following the landslide elections, your landslide in 2015 and then now having been state councillor for two years, has it been very different than you anticipated? No, because if you look back we've been in politics for about 30 years. And politics is politics. People seem to think that politics in opposition are different from politics in office. Well of course there are different sorts of responsibilities but in the end it's working with people. Unless you work with the people you cannot help a country to achieve sustainable development. And we have recently completed our Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan and that is what we're working towards. But sustainable development is something that we have always been working towards even when we were not in government. So one of the important topics for you when you were in opposition came into the parliament in 2012 in the by-elections and also before was the role of the military in the parliament. As a result of your constitution the military have 25% of the MPs in the parliament. You're having new elections in 2020. Do you see any chance for a change in the constitution so all the MPs will be elected by the people and not 25% by the military? We had a debate in the legislature in 2014 about the constitution, amendments to the constitution. And this is a long debate which went on for several weeks. And there we presented our official stand with regard to the constitution. We were very very frank about the parts of the constitution that we thought should be changed and we stated that 25% unelected parliamentarians was not in line with democratic values and this has to change. And that all legislators should be elected freely by the people. But we also made the point that in the interest of national reconciliation and stability we would negotiate this step by step that we wouldn't... There were some people who recommended what they call amending the constitution on the streets which is to say going out and having demonstrations and starting a movement that will force a change in the constitution. But this has never been part of the policy of the NLD. I think very very few people realize that during our 30 years as a political party we have not once organized a public demonstration. We have tried to do everything within the framework of the law because we believe that rule of law is absolutely essential for the stability of our country for the security of our people. So we said no we were not going to amend the constitution on the streets. We would do it through negotiation within the lawful channels but this was something that we were very open about and the military knows that we do not accept the unelected 25% and we want to negotiate a change step by step. So this will be interesting to follow. Another challenge for Myanmar is of course related to the officially 135 different technical groups and there are still conflicts with some of them. The last years there has been a lot of focus on the situation in the Rakhine state and this is a question that you also get very often and I think last year you committed to also repatriate a million people that fled from the Rakhine state to Bangladesh. What is the time table for this repatriation? Well the first repatriation was supposed to have started on the 23rd of January but at that time Bangladesh said they were not ready yet. So because we signed an MOU on the 23rd of November in 2018 so that was in 2017. But that was when it was supposed to have started. So as there are two countries involved we can't alone decide when the repatriation has to begin because they have to come back from Bangladesh. We cannot go and fetch them from Bangladesh and we have to accept them at the border in line with the agreements in the memorandum of understanding. So how do you feel about this situation with the Muslim minority that has fled to Bangladesh, Rohingyas or Muslim minority? Do you feel that the military in Myanmar has handled this well or would you have known in hindsight seen this handled in a different way? Because there has been a lot of international focus and also the UN has come out with pretty strong statements on this. Well yes, I know this has been a lot of international focus but when you say how did the military handle it I think perhaps I was thinking of the military aspect of the operations because of course the political aspect is something for which the government has to take responsibility. And as I like to say from time to time although we only have 75% of power we have to accept 100% of the responsibility. That's what elected government is all about. There are of course ways in which we with hindsight might think that the situation could have been handled better but we believe that for the sake of long term stability and security we have to be fair to all sides that rule of law must apply to everybody. We cannot choose and pick whom should be protected by the rule of law and I have to keep repeating because very few are interested in that aspect of the situation that in the Rakhine there are many small groups, ethnic groups and religious groups and they are not just Muslims and the Rakhines as seems to be the perception of much of the world. For example we are very small ethnic groups that are fast disappearing but nobody seems to be interested in them and yet they are the ones who could disappear altogether and some are now down to four figures. For the government we have to be fair to all of them even if the rest of the world is not interested in the smaller groups we have to make them feel and understand that they will be treated on an equal basis and that their rights and their security matter as much to us as that of the Rakhines and the Muslims which are the big groups and of whose presence and whose problems the whole world is aware. So this is, if you like, this is part of the responsibilities of a duly elected government. Some people, a democratic government is never elected by 100% of the voters but you have a responsibility to all even the ones that did not vote for you. But when the Rakhine state is a big state, it's a big area but also as a humanitarian and as a human being if you look at the burned buildings and the situation for children and women following what has happened there I think it also touches you as a human being, this thing. Well this is a very reason why one of the first things that my government did when we took up the responsibilities of administration was to organize a central committee for development and rule of law in the Rakhine and this is well before the first terrorist attacks which launched the lightest round of problems and when we asked Dr. Kofi Annan to form a commission to help us with this again nothing had taken place, the terrorist attacks had not occurred and the problems had not arisen but we saw from then that we needed to do something to ensure that there would be sustainable peace and prosperity in the Rakhine we were very aware of that and this is what we started to do immediately but then after the first terrorist attacks in October 2016 then some of our plans had to be postponed because we had to deal with immediate problems that had arisen. Looking at the two years now before the next elections what are the most important things for you to achieve? Is it in education, is it in job creation, is it in peace and reconciliation with the other groups that you still have armed conflicts with? Well we always say that peace and prosperity cannot be divided you can't have sustainable peace without prosperity and you can't have sustainable prosperity without peace these two go together so if we have to choose one priority target it would be peace and prosperity together we can't really divide the two and of course education is basic to both because it's through education that you teach the people to understand how to create peace in their own country and how to create prosperity and education I mean in a very broad sense not just what we teach in schools but what we... it sounds a little arrogant to say teaching the people at large but to give the people an opportunity to learn more about what kind of role they can play in building up peace and prosperity in the country Looking at ASEAN and the relationship with your neighbors it is said that Myanmar is where India and China meets you're also involved in this different initiatives for example also Belt and Road Initiative do you see major positive results of this also for Myanmar? Yes of course we've always been between China and India it's not just that recently suddenly we found ourselves within China and India this has been so since the world began and I think people have forgotten that we actually Burma as an independent nation since 1948 had a very good record of well balanced foreign relations we've always had very good relations not just two neighbors with China and India but also with the western countries including the ex-colonial power and of course with our neighbors as well United States too? The United States too when we first became an independent nation we were very much supported not just by our neighbors but by the United States and by the European countries and of course now that ASEAN has been established and I have to say that I take great pride in saying that in one of my father's last speeches just before he was assassinated in 1947 he talked about the possibility of a regional organization which is what ASEAN is now so he was thinking about that way back in 1947 and now that ASEAN is in place we do want to have more not just friendly contacts but practically mutually profitable contacts with our neighbors Talking about the U.S. you probably saw also Vice President Pence yesterday appealed to you and to me on March to let the two Reuters journalists out of jail I think they got a sentence of seven years what is your response to Vice President Pence? Well I think what I want to know is whether they feel that there has been a miscarriage of justice the case has been held in open court and all the hearings have been open to everybody who wished to go and attend them and if anybody feels that there has been a miscarriage of justice I would like them to point it out and I wonder whether very many people have actually read the summary of the judgment which had nothing to do with a freedom of expression at all it had to do with the Official Secrets Act but I don't think anybody has actually bothered to read it and they should read the summary and point out You've read it? Of course I've replied to read it and I think it would be very remiss of any member of the government not to have read it but I would like them to read the judgment and point out where they think there has been a miscarriage of justice there has been a miscarriage of justice and you know of course that due process allows them to appeal the sentence But I guess you also as a democratic leader don't feel comfortable with journalists being jailed It's not a matter of... they were not jailed because of a journalist they were jailed because the court has... the sentence has been passed on then because the court has decided that they had broken the Official Secrets Act So if we believe in the rule of law they have every right to appeal the judgment and to point out why the judgment is wrong if they consider it wrong So looking at Myanmar second largest country in ASEAN more than 50 million people a lot of aspirations still a lot of people don't have access to electricity there is still a lot of development issues After two years do you think you've got the support from the international development community as you expected where do you feel that the international community can support more on Myanmar's transition into then in the future I guess aspiration is a middle income country Well actually with what you mentioned electrification I think the improvement in electrification is one of the... our achievements that has been noted by the Myanmar living conditions survey the improvement is very good and it's particularly good because it has taken part in rural areas but with regard to whether we have received as much development aid as we expected I can't say that we expected development aid as such we've always taken it for granted that one has to earn what one gets and even aid and assistance has to be earned by what you are able to put in as well it's not just sitting there and waiting for somebody to help you but helping yourself so that there are others who feel that they would be happy to take part in the enterprise as well Looking at this country in Vietnam as mentioned in the Secretary General's message yesterday there was like more than 50% poverty in this country just a few decades ago I know there is only 3% Are you expecting the same kind of development in your country and do you think you have the policies currently to achieve this? I think so, but of course policies don't stay static policies need to be changed if it is obvious that changes need to be much we must change and adapt but we are very impressed by what Vietnam has achieved and they've also shown that it's achievable so we're getting close to the end because there is a live TV debate after us but we are very pleased to have you back at our World Economic Forum Summit in ASEAN and my last question is looking forward the elections are coming up in 2020 I guess you will be running again as the leader of your party where do you think, if you also win the elections in 2020 where do you think Myanmar will be in 2025 what do you think you will achieve? Well let's get over one hump at a time I think first we've got to concentrate on winning the 2020 elections and we want to win because we deserve to win not because we want to win and meaning to say that if we win the 2020 elections I would like it to be because we have done enough for the country, for the people to accept that the party should continue to take responsibility of course one always wonders whether it's a good idea to want to win the elections again and again but part of the democratic process is that you work through a party system so if you want to maintain the stability and if you want to continue with the development plans that you have laid down then it becomes important to win the next elections but I don't want that to be the be all and the end all for our political party we want to be part of the process of well lifting our country out of poverty of bringing sustainable peace and progress and prosperity but in order to do that practically speaking it would be important to win the elections in 2020 and we just have to make sure that we make enough progress between now and then for the people to decide that they can safely continue to give us a responsibility to look after our country Thank you so much to Don Ancestor Shea Steak Chancellor