Jan Horník, Vice-President of the Senate of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and his delegation visited Myanmar
20.02.2020 / 10:52 | Aktualizováno: 20.02.2020 / 11:06
From 8 to 14 February 2020, a delegation of the Senate Committee on Public Administration, Regional Development and the Environment led by Vice-President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic Jan Horník visited Myanmar.
This was the very first visit of Czech legislators to Myanmar since the reopening of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Yangon in 2014. The visit was given extraordinary care and attention from the Myanmar side, which indicates a high level of mutual relations.
During the stay in Myanmar, the delegation visited the capital of Nay Pyi Taw, where they held official meetings in the Myanmar Union Parliament (Pyidaungsu Hluttaw). The Czech senators met with their counterparts in the upper house of parliament (Amyotha Hluttaw) and visited also the lower house (Pyitha Hluttaw), where they were welcomed by its chairman T Khun Myat. He mentioned with great appreciation the investment units and products exported to the then Burma during Czechoslovakian times and said that he once owned three Czech Zetor tractors. The Deputy Speaker of the upper chamber of the Parliament, Aye Tha Aung, who in 2017 attended a study trip of deputies - former political prisoners to Prague, also praised the quality of the mutual relations.
The Czech Republic is interested in developing all-round cooperation with Myanmar, and both sides have agreed that there is room for further interaction in the field of culture. Our country has registered 14 UNESCO sites and in Myanmar, the delegation of senators was quite fortunate to visit the city of Bagan, which, together with our mining region of the Ore Mountains (Krušné Hory), was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019. The Czech delegation offered the Myanmar friends assistance in preserving the Bagan heritage, e.g. in the form of a working visit of the Czech experts to Myanmar.
During their mission, the senators could not miss Yangon, the most vibrant centre of the country, where they exchanged experience from local and regional politics with regional parliamentarians. The meeting with the Chief Minister of Yangon region, Phyo Min Thein, who visited the Czech Republic during his European trip in 2017, expressed very positive feelings about the development, humanitarian and other activities of the Czech Republic in Myanmar that are meant to assist the country on its way to democracy.
The trade and economic dimension of the visit to Senate representatives in Myanmar was underscored by a meeting with the Chairman of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) Zaw Min Win. The senators' busy program also included a meeting with representatives of the Yangon Heritage Trust, where they learned about the protection of local historical buildings and were presented with a vision of the modern yet sensitive development of Yangon metropolis.
During his stay in Yangon, the Vice-President of the Senate of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic laid flowers in the Martyrs’ Mausoleum. The ceremony took place exactly on the day when General Aung San, the father of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and “founding father” of the independent Myanmar would celebrate his 105th birthday.
Such an important visit could hardly be missed by the media. All meetings and talks were reported by state television MRTV and by the government newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar and the Vice-President was also interviewed by DVB television channel and by the online media The Voice of Myanmar.
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