Myanmar’s lead opposition leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi has urged caution in a policy speech to the World Economic Forum of East Asia, as the world watches her nation’s reform process.
“These days I am coming across what I call reckless optimism,” the Nobel Prize winner told an audience in Bangkok, adding that global policy makers should take an approach of “healthy skepticism.” On her first foreign trip in over 20 years, Suu Kyi told her audience that Myanmar’s reforms are only beginning and would require hard work and national solidarity. “Our success, how irreversible the reform process is, will depend on national commitment,” she said.
The heart of her speech dealt with the dire state of Myanmar’s economy. She emphasized the need for foreign investment as sanctions are loosened on the economically isolated country, but warned that the wrong type of approach would only add to corruption and the concentration of wealth in fewer hands. ”We want it to mean jobs,” she said bluntly of investment. Coupled with her focus on economic growth and job creation was a strong emphasis on expanding educational training for Myanmar’s youth. While professing her appreciation of higher education, Suu Kyi said that the country most focus on practical training. “There is a great need for basic skills, we need vocational training much more than higher education,” she said.
The internationally recognized democracy leader has stepped up her public profile since recent parliamentary by-elections saw significant gains for her party. Visiting Thailand, on her first foreign trip in over 40 years, Suu Kyi met economic migrants from Myanmar, who greeted her warmly. She also was received by Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Later this month, Suu Kyi will travel through Europe where she will stop in Norway to pick up the Nobel Prize she was awarded but unable to receive in person in 1991.
