The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Lower House in Myanmar Parliament) has allowed loans totalling US$ 300 million from China Exim Bank. The loans will be used for country’s micro-financing, agricultural and livestock sectors and in improvement of coop- erative groups, according to the Union Min- ister for Cooperatives U Kyaw Hsan. He said, out of over 60,000 villages across the nation, only over 20,000 will be covered by the microfinance program if Ks.100,000 is allocated for a rural family on average. The Union Min- ister said US$220m of the loans from Exim will be provided for the members of coopera- tives who have not received loans previously and $5om for who have received loans before and over $3om for agricultural machines. The government has stated aims to reduce poverty rate of the country from 26 percent to 16 per- cent in 2015.
