Siem Reap: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Myanmar President Thein Sein on Friday for landmark discussions days after Washington eased its sanctions on the once-pariah state.
The pair began talks in the Cambodian tourist town Siem Reap on the sidelines of a US business conference, after the US on Wednesday gave the green light to firms to invest in Myanmar, including in oil and gas, in its greatest loosening of tough sanctions so far.
It is Clinton’s second meeting with Thein Sein after she became the first US Secretary of State to visit Myanmar in half a century during a trip to the country late last year, as reforms took hold of the long military-dominated nation.
Washington has faced criticism from rights groups concerned it is moving too fast in its eagerness to cash in on Myanmar’s vast business potential.
But the decision will please US firms eager not to miss out on what some economists expect to be a gold rush in the resource-rich nation.
Asian firms have been doing business in Myanmar for years, while the European Union suspended most of its sanctions against the country in April.
“I am sending a very prestigious business delegation,” Clinton told Thein Sein, after shaking hands with the former general, adding that she wanted the representatives to hear his plans.
A high-level group of US business leaders will be visiting Yangon and the capital Naypyidaw in the coming days.
Reform process
Myanmar on Friday said Thein Sein and Clinton were expected to discuss changes that have swept Myanmar since a quasi-civilian government replaced the military junta last year.
“The meeting shows the support of the US government to Myanmar’s reform process,” Zaw Htay, director of the president’s office, told AFP.
Clinton acknowledged Friday in a speech to a women’s forum in the Cambodian tourist town of Siem Reap that in Myanmar as it opens up “there will be a lot of challenges” but said she hoped to see “continuing progress there.”
Washington was setting up “protections to ensure that increased American investment advances the reform process” she said, as US firms will have to report on transparency and labour rights.
