 Your Excellencies, dear members and constituents of the World Economic Forum, good afternoon. We are coming to the end of our meeting, and the final session will be divided into two parts. The first part will be a great opportunity to have a discussion with the President of the Philippines, His Excellency Benigno Aquino, and the President of the Union of Myanmar, U. Tencent. And in the second part, we will have the reactions of our co-chairs. We will start this first part with a short speech of President Aquino. First, Mr. President, I want to tell you how interested the audience and the business leadership within your country demonstrated by the great attendance at the luncheon which you offered to the participants. I had the honor and pleasure to introduce you already on that occasion. I want to make it very short, and I was thinking how could I introduce you in one sentence, having followed the history and the last years of the Philippines very intensively. I would say you are the President who made the Philippines again proud of their country. Mr. Aquino, the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. President, His Excellency, President U. Tencent. Let me begin by congratulating Myanmar for successfully hosting this year's World Economic Forum on East Asia. My delegation and I have thoroughly enjoyed our stay here, short and very short, though it may be. And it has been a pleasure to witness a new chapter unfolding in Myanmar's history, in which all sectors and groups can participate in improving people's lives. We are encouraged by the notable steps being taken to achieve greater political and economic openness in Myanmar. The dialogues that we must partake in as regards development are long and complex. And I, like most of you, am grateful for the opportunity to gather here, share our experiences, and most importantly, learn from the experiences of others. Truly, this is as good an environment as any to come together and flesh out solutions to the challenges that confront the world today. As Professor Schwab has mentioned, the Philippines will be hosting the WEF on East Asia next year in Manila. We are hopeful that we can match the standard set in Myanmar and duplicate their success. In the spirit of enhancing our collective pool of knowledge, perhaps you will allow me to share a short version of what is going on in our country. How we have chosen to address the issue of development. As some of you may know, our administration was voted into office largely because of a vision that resonated with my countrymen. In Filipino, we said, kung walang korap, walang mahirap, which translates to if there is no corruption, there will be no poverty. This is the overarching philosophy that has guided our reforms, our policies, and our social and economic resurgence. And it is in line with this philosophy that we are fostering a business environment in our country that is highly conducive to broad base growth. Much of what we have done to attract businesses is based on the belief that the sense of justice of the predictability of outcomes breeds confidence, which in turn begets prosperity. A level playing field assures potential investors that the foundations for success in the Philippines are new ideas and hard work, as opposed to a direct line to some crooked government official. As more investors find it appealing to set up shop in our shores, more jobs get created, empowering our consumer base, which attracts even more investments and ensures that the cycle of growth and prosperity continues. This is the simple recipe behind the Philippine Revival, and we are excited to discuss it more thoroughly with all of you next year, especially since we are accelerating our agenda of social inclusiveness and equitable progress. I am certain that we can learn much from your experiences in this regard. Thus, I am inviting all of you to visit the Philippines to see with your own eyes the transformation that has taken place. I am certain that it will be a memorable experience, especially if you can set aside some time to explore a few of our renowned tourist destinations and see that it is really more fun in the Philippines. For now, I suppose it is back to work for all of us. As assured, I, along with the members of my cabinet, will be at our desks, finding even more ways to accelerate our reform efforts so that we can surprise you even more during your visit next year. It has been a productive few days for a lot of us, and I am hopeful that we all depart this beautiful country the lessons we have shared and learned will endure and that we can all look forward to following through on the commitments we have made towards building a stronger, more cooperative, and more inclusive world economy. I thank you. Thank you. Thank you, President Aquino. We all are looking forward to being in your country next year, and I want to express my appreciation also for the strong presence of your cabinet already here in Myanmar, and I also have to say we are privileged to have had a very strong relationship with the business community, with some members of the business community, as loyal supporters of the forum since many years. Now, Mr. President, we are at the end, and I first want to thank you again for the great hospitality which we all have benefited from here in Myanmar. It was a great event, and I particularly want to thank you, by the way, for the wonderful evening yesterday which showed us also parts of Myanmar's culture. We are coming now to the end, and please allow me to ask you maybe some more personal questions. Myanmar Spring, if I may call it in such a way, has become an inspiring story for many of us here, and many of us also are very curious and ask ourselves the questions why you and your government, two years ago, relatively short time ago, initiated these reforms. What was really driving you to start this courageous step to initiate reforms? Thank you very much, Mr. Executive Director. The reforms process that we have taken, in fact, it is the response to the arch of the people. Our peoples need these kind of reforms and changes, based on these requirements, that we have to end the armed conflict which had ridden the country for the last 60 years, and also to transform from the military rules to the civilian rules. These are our desires to transform, and also from the central economy towards the free market or in the economies. These are the reforms we will end to. All these reforms we are undertaking is, in fact, a response to the desire of the people. This is because people are very desirous and enthusiastic about these reforms, and in fact we are undertaking these reforms in response to the desire. As you mentioned, it is only two years of our government, from the office, and we try our single thought, we spend no single thought to take these reforms. Many often those reforms are easier said than done. We are glad that you have started those reforms and you have a certain framework for your reforms, but I would like to know more how you will really implement those reforms. What are the stages of the reforms? And at the end, what tangible and sustained benefits will you bring to your people? You said it was the desire of the people, which motivated you to undertake the reforms. Now if you respond to the desires of the people, how will you integrate the people into the reform process? Because inclusiveness, I think, is a key word for the success of the reforms. As you have asked, the reforms process, when we are taken, we have a feeling with a number of the difficulties and challenges. And we have to take the initiatives on certain difficult issues. For instance, the peace and stability desire by the people, to ensure the peace and stability in the march in the country. Then we have to tackle two parts. The first part is the political factor, that when we are taking the political reforms, we have to ensure our inclusive political process. And we have, this is also the one of the areas to grant the amnesties to the prisoners who have been detained for the last several reasons. We are granted the amnesties to these people because we aim them to be part of our political process. Then some of them who have released, now they have started all political parties and are taking the preparations to take part in the full government relations. The most difficult part, when our government assumed the offices, there was the arms crew, which they were the only 11 armed groups. If you look at some other countries, when they are doing for the peace talks, they have to deal with the one or two particular groups. Our case, we have all together 11 armed groups, and also we have only very short time frames. The negotiation process is very, very risky and also opposing very numerous challenges. Nonetheless, within the two years frame, the time frame, we have reached the agreements with these people, the groups. And today, the Myanmar, which has experienced the armed conflicts for the last 60 years, now enjoying the armed conflicts on almost every part of their country. The ceasefire, in fact, cannot assure the lasting peace in the country. That is, in this regard, in many times, and also political aspects, we have to continue. And then, as regards the people's desires, and the, now, as all these border areas now enjoying the ceasefire, then we have to do the sectors like the livelihood, creation of livelihood in this way. They are benefiting from this kind of the livelihood. And also, as you are all aware, our countries has been suffering from the all forms of the economic sanctions for the last 20 years. These, they still, the impact of this kind of economic sanctions are developed by the majority of the people. About 70% of our population are resized in the rural areas. And who are also living under the poverty line. They are the, so that we have to ensure the economic growth. The, when we are undivisible, ensuring the economic growth, we have to address the poverty reduction rather than the prosperity of the country. And also, in consideration of the response, we have to, we carry out implementation of the rural development and poverty alleviation to the activities. And then, this is the, to provide the financial, the capital to those who are living in this financial, also introduced the microfinance programs to the poor, the farmers, and also the, who are engaged in the activities, so that they can also enjoy the certain benefits. In fact, the, who engage in the, or jobs, for instance, those who are the higher drivers, they have to spend their money to return it to the owner, from the money they have the, such for the whole day. Then the owner fees, this is, so, everything they, the, such have to spend for the owner fees. Today, we have the, created the, established the corporate systems through which we also the, is the, the land loans to these people within one year. These are the, the higher drivers. They know, they can also, the, the lead towards the ownership. And in similar, similar manners, we are also creating this kind of initiatives for the, those who are, the people who are engaged in the sewing machines. So the main point is, that we have, please focus on the poverty reduction rather than the, bringing prosperity to the country. Now the, as a result, they have enjoyed the benefits from these activities. For economic development, that we have advantages, as well as the, we have requirements. The advantages we have is that the, the, our countries, in the geographical positions, and also this is located between the, the most populous country. And also the positions is against the bridge between the south and southeast Asia. It's our, the position of our neighboring countries is more than two billion. That is a, the postings are very huge potential market. And also we have the, we are reaching the natural resources. We have forests. And also we have the lives of breedings. We also have the mineral resources. And also our plantations. As an on-shore and off-shore, the gas, natural gas and the wall and at the blocks. These are the, our, the, the foundations for our endeavors for the economy's growth. However, but we cannot rely on all our natural resources. And we have the sufficient, the sizable, the labor force. Our population is more than 60 million. Because of the insufficient, the employment opportunities about three million MMR people are seeking to job opportunities abroad. It is impact because we do not have a sufficient job with me right here in Myanmar. So if you can create the sufficient job opportunities and also through the establishment of the factories, they can also, we have a sizable workforce. These are the advantages we have. And while we are enjoying these, the advantages we have that the weaknesses, the requirements for, we can see that. The first is the, the, the capital is at the requirement. And also the second part is that the advanced technologies, which in fact are the, because of the, due to the economic sanctions, we are, our technology is again behind. And then also our, the endeavors for the human resource diplomacy in the very initial stage. These, that is a reason to acquire the capitals and also the technology, the advanced technology. We look forward to the foreign investments. Today we are inviting foreign investments. If the, we enjoy the flow of the foreign investments, we will also have the capital, financial capital as well as the advanced technology. Also we will, the further strengthen our human resources and the development. These are our future aspirations. Today the, through our deliberation as the world cannabis for anyone's history, that, that we are, I want to assure that there's a great venues opportunities for a, a Myanmar for the foreign investment. If these are the foundations that join buying the, the technologies and advantages you can bring in, this will bring about benefits to the people as you mentioned earlier. Mr. President, this was the first large scale international meeting here of business leaders, young leaders, NGO leaders, thinkers. You got a lot of advice and many ideas were born. What was your personal reaction? What, what as, as the president having very much engaged in the deliberations of this meeting, what do you take out of this meeting? The first point, we, our country used to be an isolated country for the last 20 years and through the holding of such the forums we can demonstrate we are part of the global communities and also we are getting back to our right place. This is as a very, the, the delight in factors and also with the, this is the time we are trying to have the, we are laying foundations for the economics, the economics development now through this forum. So we have the state leaders, also the economics at the response and also who have the chief assessors in the economics activities, also young leaders as you mentioned earlier and through this at the economics forum, this will definitely contributes to our, the, bring about the, the ideas and also opinions. So this is the really definitive, the very beneficial, the confluence for our country. Thank you, Mr. President. President Aquino, in the luncheon today you, you said you have the recipe for strong, sustained, inclusive growth. Can you describe just for those who were not at the luncheon the key elements of the recipe and how they may be applied also to a country like Myanmar? May we start out with, we believe we possess a lot of natural advantages. We have the right demographic numbers, figures and personalities. We have a splendid location. We're about four hours away from all the major areas in Asia and four hours in either direction. We had, we had, and we have abundant natural resources. We have a very educated populace, although there are questions as to whether or not they're in the right fields. Now, having all of those advantages, the question that really bedeviled a lot of us was why were we falling behind when we were not that far behind the other countries in the region? And I guess added to that mix is a population that, that really took back government and demanded of government good governance. So that is the last portion of the mix that empowers, you have an empowered government supported by the people, that in turn empowers the populace to ensure the stability of the future and the stability of the changes that are happening that will lead to increased prosperity for our country. Mr. President, you just emphasized the support of the people. How did you achieve the support? Because I think for a reform process, particularly if you ask for sacrifices, which any reform process entails, you have to have the support of the people because the people have to know such short-term sacrifices are compensated by long-term benefits. Not too long ago, let me give a specific example. I was a member of our Congress. There were a group of students of 18 nursing students who visited our Congress and I asked them as soon as you passed your courses, you finished the board exams and you passed, how many of you will stay in the country? Of the 80 students that I was talking to, only two of them raised their hands. It seemed that so many of our countrymen were cynical of the future in particular that they saw no hope in the country. Suddenly, I guess 2010 was the turning point in a sense. This was an opportunity, the term of my predecessor was ending. There was an opportunity and we were promising a 180-degree change in governance from that which was experienced. So I think a lot of people will know that I had no plans of running in 2010. We decided in the period of something like 40 days, our campaign was in effect, the preparations for a campaign happened in a period of about three months where others were preparing for it for their campaign. We had a lot of propaganda material sourced by the people and everybody in effect was investing that here we will have a different candidate, different from that which has been preferred by all of the political machineries and who promises to really affect change and this seems to be our chance and fortunately, we believe that in the three years that we have been governing and I think our countrymen have agreed in our on the right track. As a case in point, let me give you just a few examples of what good governance has brought. We have a ministry of public works in highways, a lot of our countrymen would say this would be one of the most corrupt agencies and today its reputation is that it doesn't bring in just projects on budget, it actually brings in most of its projects under budget and ahead of schedule and even three years ago not too many people believed that would have been possible. Look at the school building program we have. We are supposed to finish 66,800 classrooms that we lack when we started out by the end of this year and the budget actually just supports 8,000 classrooms per year and in the six-year term we'll just have 48,000 but through various schemes including public private partnerships we will finish this lack whereas before I was content to have in grade school three shifts for our school children who were going to class in the early evening and would go home in the middle of the evening so I guess the bottom line is the people were in a sense desperate for change they saw at least a chance of a beginning of change they threw their luck in with us and I believe that they are for the most part satisfied with what we have achieved and where we are now. President Aquino, you are working in a parliamentary democracy and you have a majority you just won nine out of 12 seats again for the Senate. How do you in such a parliamentary democracy when you have a transformation which is very intensive requiring a lot of change how do you integrate the opposition into this process and how do you avoid you need a certain consensus how do you avoid too much polarization of the camps. A lot of the issues that we espouse and fight for we believe are sound in terms of the analysis of the problem and the proposed solutions we invite dialogues to thresh out all of the issues we incorporate the ideas presented by other elements that may not have been in full support of the measures that you would want to integrate the opposition into the preparation process of one of the more controversial measures we passed is what we call responsible which is a productive health bill we are a staunchly Catholic country and that church does not sanction artificial means of family planning so we try to reach out members of the church we add amendments to the measure that would make certain provisions of it more palatable to those who were initially totally opposed to it we came up with the product where in the majority were comfortable with it got passed into law so that has been always the process and I believe I learned it from my parents the idea of consensus might be higher to achieve but once achieved provides the firm foundation for anything you want to achieve down the line. One question you fought corruption in your country and corruption is so much built into the genes of a society what do you consider the single most important step to stamp out corruption in our country? My predecessor is answering several charges in his presently dating she has used the crime of plunder and plunder is an unbailable offense in our country now to ensure that that happens one of my, well the top four promises I had during the campaign when I ran the fourth was judicial reform we had a chief justice of the supreme court who felt that they were above the law or the law doesn't apply to them and under our system such a justice can be impeached and for the first time we have impeached sitting chief justice of the supreme court to underwent the complete process and we proved when he was deficient in following the laws which he was supposed to have faithfully served so we believe we have sent a message to everybody else who has lessened love that there is the culture of impunity is over and I keep emphasizing to the cabinet and especially our secretary of justice that the success of our campaign has to be the ability to imprison those who have done wrong for our people it cannot be that do what you want while you're in power and forever after be accountable for it that I think is something that our people are really eager to see happen when you look at all your achievements you still have to do with a lot of with a large pocket of poverty in your country what will you do in the next years in order specifically to lift out those people of poverty well you have to deal with the problem today addressing the problems that were created in the past and preparing for the future so how does that translate? number one there were a lot of onerous contracts that our predecessor entered into that really made no economic sense that was really riddled with graph and we cancelled the contracts and we will go into arbitration for the contracts that were already executed and we were prepared to go that difficult route instead of continuing that which was wrong but in terms of the current situation those of our countrymen we have an estimated 4.4 million families living under the poverty line and for them we are investing with a program called a conditional cash transfer the primary condition is to keep your children in school we hope that by the time they graduate the high school level there will be a marketable skill ready that will increase their prospects for advancing in terms of higher paying job opportunities now the third is massive investment in education not just in putting up the schools not just in getting more teachers but actually even having we call it a roadmap for reform in our state universities and colleges wherein they have to be more attuned to the needs of the communities that they serve rather than be ivory towers that are have a disconnect with the rest of society as an example we had a professor in a university called the Beacoll State University and he was complaining that the government well their institution was conducting innumerable and repetitive studies on rice and corn the issue is the primary product for this university or the region where this university was was coconut so it was told all of the studies that were repetitive were irrelevant to the needs of the community so he studied coconut and he's the guy who came up with a new material called Coco Coir which is used throughout the world presently and the byproduct of the process of creating Coco Coir is a replacement for Pete Mosul he's now embarking on and government will be funding processing sites that will transform the waste materials of coconut into very valuable resources and that is the focus we have on addressing and of course health and it's a very important portion we have enrolled we started out with 63% of the population enrolled in the national health insurance program we are now at the 86% level and the 14% that we're still targeting happens to be the informal settler sector that we're having a little difficulty in identifying and enrolling the program President Tenzan you just listened to your president colleague from the Philippines and the Philippines has the advantage to be ahead in the reform process what is your reaction to what President Aquino said President Aquino this is my colleague in the ASEAN free walk the in fact the reform process for the last 30 years time of the president the president the parents also you are enjoying the certain degrees of the achievements but this mind enjoy the tenure with your endeavours we have noticed the significant improvement particularly in the judiciary matters as you have discussed earlier such improvement also this is one of the areas we have to improve in our countries and also we take and also the decimation of the educations and the education sectors and also this is a sharing of the experiences, thank you thank you very much President Tenzan President Aquino would end this first part by again appreciating the hospitality I have here a symbolic brought with me a symbolic Swiss Glock you know in Switzerland we hang them around the house now but they are also a sign of presidency so because you can create order so I would like as a symbolic gesture of moving from Myanmar to Philippines I would like to ask President Tenzan to hand over this Glock to President Aquino