Myanmar becomes ASEAN infrastructure fund member

Myanmar has become a full member of the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund (AIF), joining other ASEAN members and Asian Development Bank (ADB), a semi-official media quoted a statement of AIF Director for Myanmar U Maung Maung Win as saying on Friday.

Myanmar's membership with the AIF is an important step towards further integration into ASEAN and the global economy as well as helping the country to access funding to invest in infrastructure to support its long-term development, U Maung Maung Win tolda meeting of AIF Board here.

At Thursday's meeting, the AIF Board passed a pipeline project for 2015 and discussed the indicative pipeline for 2016-17, covering the priority sectors of water, transport and energy, the report said.

AIF has so far financed a total of 165 million U.S. dollars for infrastructure projects of power transmission and sanitation in Indonesia and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, ADB, which is a shareholder in AIF with 150 million dollars equity, acts as the overall administrator of AIF, providing support in a number of areas such as establishment of various frameworks to guide AIF operation.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.