Mr Morris distributes food to children at a monastic school at Sin Kyo village in Magwe Division on August 2.

THE head of World Food Program, Mr James Morris, has appealed to the international community to provide more assistance to the United Nations agency’s relief efforts in Myanmar.

Mr Morris made the appeal at a news conference in Bangkok on August 5 following a visit to Myanmar to assess WFP assisted projects in the country.

A statement issued at the news conference quoted Mr Morris as saying that the agency needed more funding for its two projects in Myanmar.

The statement said the agency was yet to receive 40 per cent of funding needed for poverty alleviation project launched last year in northern Rakhine State and in Magwe Division.

The WFP had estimated that the two-year project would cost US$12 million.
The statement also said only 20 per cent of the $8 million required had been provided for the other project, launched in June to supply 20,000 tonnes of rice to former opium poppy growers in northeastern Shan State.

The WFP has been supplying rice rations to former opium growers in Shan State since they stopped growing the crop in 2003.

During his four-day visit beginning on August 1, Mr Morris met the Prime Minister, General Soe Win, as well as leaders of national groups and members of non-government organisations.

It also included a trip by Mr Morris to Magwe Division on August 2.
Mr Morris said his discussions during the visit had touched on the operating conditions for aid agencies.

“The ability to provide assistance when and where it is required and to assess needs are key humanitarian principles, and they need to be supported in Myanmar,” Mr Morris was quoted as saying in the media statement.

Speaking to Myanmar Times on August 10, the WFP’s country director for Myanmar, Mr Bhim Udas, said the government had agreed to consider a proposal made during the visit to exempt the WFP and other aid agencies from having to pay a 10 per cent export tax on rice purchases on the domestic market.

Mr Udas said described as positive the outcome of the visit, the first to Myanmar by the head of the Rome-based WFP since it began operations in Myanmar in 1995.

“Mr Morris was able to reaffirm to the government that WFP mission in this country is purely humanitarian,” Mr Udas said.