Myanmar will become a major beneficiary of an assistant package worth 10.5 million USD, provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Australia, to promote private sector development, according to Myanmar ’s Global New Light newspaper.

The private sector in the country is facing a number of challenges to improve productivity and competitiveness, ADB’s Country Director in Myanmar said, as quoted by Global New Light.

In addition to a co-financing package of 10 million USD, ADB unveiled a technical assistance worth 500,000 USD to help the Mekong Business Initiative in a bid to promote the private sector in Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries including Cambodia , Laos , Myanmar and Vietnam.

The Mekong Business Initiative will become operational from December 2014 to November 2017 to ensure an increase in the number of new businesses and small and medium- sized enterprises registered in GMS countries.

In January this year, ADB provided Myanmar a 60 million USD loan to improve the electricity system in Yangon, Mandalay , Magway and Sagaing.

Another 80 million USD loan was granted for Myanmar in November to fund the upgrade of a 54-km highway in the Ayeyarwady region as part of the ADB’s commitment to help Myanmar build a modern road in the future.

ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through economic growth and regional integration. In 2013 alone, ADB assistance totaled 21 billion USD, of which 6.6 billion USD is co-financing fund.-VNA