Ceremony to provide Funding: MoALI UM delivered the opening speech

A ceremony to provide funding to 26 villages selected through the Rural Development Fund established from the Improved Cookstoves Distribution Project in Myanmar was held at the hall of the Agricultural Education and Rural Development Training Centre (AERDTC) in Yezin, Zeyarthiri Township, Nay Pyi Taw. Union Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation U Min Naung attended and delivered the opening address.

At the ceremony, the Union Minister urged the village leaders implementing the New Village Movement Project's model village initiative to strive to be good leaders who can actively mobilize villagers to participate in the projects for their village's development.

He encouraged them to learn from the successful activities of existing model villages and work hard to make their own village’s progressive, developed, and desirable model villages. Quoting the project's motto, "The development of villages is the foundation of national development," he called for collaborative efforts to develop all villages across the country for the nation's progress.

The Director-General of the Department of Agriculture, Dr. Ye Tint Tun, presented on the implementation status of the New Village Movement model villages and future plans. Subsequently, the Union Minister provided funding support to the 26 villages in the project areas of Bago, Magway, Yangon, Ayeyarwady Regions, and Shan State. 

Deputy Minister Dr. Tin Htut then handed over training support materials, which were received by the respective village leaders. It is reported that according to the minutes of discussions from the Improved Cookstoves Distribution Project, a collaborative project between Myanmar and the Republic of Korea initiated in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, one US dollar is contributed to the Rural Development Fund for each stove distributed.

Upon completion of the distribution of the total target of 864,000 stoves over the project period, support will have been provided to a total of 106 villages. Support was already provided to 40 villages in 2019-2020 and 40 villages in 2023-2024, totaling 80 villages.

This ceremony marks the provision of support for 26 villages across 5 Regions and States to be implemented as New Village Movement model village projects. To ensure effective implementation of development activities in the project villages without weaknesses, relevant training on financial procedures and guidelines has also been conducted alongside the support.