NAY PYI TAW — Myanmar’s last session of parliament will debate an amendment to investment legislation that would decentralize the decision-making authority on foreign and local investments, government sources confirmed Thursday.
“To increase the investment benefit for states and regions and to speed up the investment process, decentralization is being pushed,” Daw Le Le Thein, deputy minister for National Planning and Economic Development, told Frontier.
The deputy minister submitted the proposed amendments to the foreign and domestic codes to parliament on Wednesday.
The proposed amendment would facilitate a coordinated approach between the central government and local governments on approvals of investments.
The government-proposed amendment is one of about 50 bills being pushed forward in the last session of the Lower House of Parliament before a new government comes to power.
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The current Lower House is led by the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party, which lost the November 8 general election to the National League for Democracy, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The last parliamentary session is due to wrap up on January 30th.
An NLD-led government is expected to take the helm in March, although its legislative powers will be crimped by the military’s control over 25 percent of the seats in parliament, giving them veto power over all proposed laws.
