Japan offers Myanmar $250m loan

NAY PYI TAW - Japan has offered Myanmar 25.8 billion yens'($258 million) of loan to help the country's development projects, official sources said Thursday.

The loan was announced by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when he met with Myanmar President U Thein Sein on the sidelines of a series of events of the 25th ASEAN Summit being held in Nay Pyi Taw.

The Japanese government envisions the loan will be used to improve infrastructure of a port and power facilities in Thilawa, southern Myanmar, reinforce the country's electricity distribution network and help lenders for small and medium enterprises, the sources said.

In his bilateral meeting with U Thein Sein, Abe voiced support of Myanmar's democratization and peace making process.

Abe attended the 17th ASEAN-Japan Summit and 6th Mekong-Japan Summit on Wednesday and will continue to attend the 9th East Asia Summit and 17th ASEAN+3 Summit on Thursday.

Wednesday's 17th ASEAN-Japan summit discussed promotion of ASEAN-Japan tourism , full implementation of ASEAN-Japan Free Trade Area, and regional cooperation through Thilawa Special Economic Zone, in which Japan is a major investor.

The summit also exchanged views on the implementation of plans adopted at the 40th Anniversary of ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit held in December 2013 in Japan and promotion of disaster management program of ASEAN and Japan.

The participants also discussed the preparatory process of the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction scheduled for March 14-18, 2015 in Sendai, Japan.

The 25th ASEAN Summit and a series of related meetings kicked off in Nay Pyi Taw Wednesday.

Myanmar is the rotating chair of ASEAN this year.