Myanmar's parliament approves motion to raise state employees' salaries

Myanmar's union parliament has passed a motion calling for effectively raising salaries of state employees beginning 2015-16 fiscal year, according to parliament sources Thursday.

The motion, which covers police and military staff, also called for adopting the appropriate minimum wage of workers and for the protection of rights and interests of the peasants and fixing appropriate rewards and expenditures for officials and parliament members at various levels.

The government had allowed in January this year a pay rise for government employees for 2014-15 to help them address their daily need and improve their living standard and the salaries were increased by 20,000 Kyats (20 U.S. dollars), as well as pensions and other allowances on a proportional basis.

That was the third time President U Thein Sein allowed pay rise since he took office in March 2011.

Myanmar's parliament approved in March this year the government 's national planning bill for 2014-15 and the 2014 union budget bill, submitted by the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted in June this year that Myanmar will see a slight pick-up in growth to 8.5 percent in the current fiscal year of 2014-15.

Myanmar registered its GDP growth at 7.8 percent in fiscal year 2013-14 and 6.2 percent in 2012-13. Enditem