CNI News
6 June 2025
Businesspeople are questioning which businesses will be prioritized for assistance, as the SAC chairman said efforts must be made to restore businesses in earthquake-hit areas of Myanmar.
On March 28, 2025, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Sagaing, near Mandalay, destroying hotels, homes, religious buildings, roads, bridges, and towers, killing more than 3,700 people and injuring more than 5,000.
The earthquake had affected hotels and tourism, insurance companies, and small and medium-sized businesses, Businessman U Aung Pyae Sone told CNI News.
"The question is whether the government will support small and medium-sized businesses, whether it will support large businesses, or whether it will stop supporting businesses and support the grassroots. We should not talk in general terms now. How will we support households earning less than 10,000 kyats per day by enumerating them? It's necessary to tell exactly. During COVID, there were many actions taken to blacklist and arrest entrepreneurs who could not repay loans issued from the COVID fund. We should learn from these cases. Whenever a natural disaster occurs, self-serving entrepreneurs automatically emerge. On top of that, the government needs to avoid these entrepreneurs and effectively help the necessary businesses,” he said.
While seeing a place inside Bogyoke Market
The SAC Chairman Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said on May 30, 2025, that the state has earmarked 700 billion kyats for loans to support businesses and create employment opportunities, and that he wants to provide 226 billion kyats to factories and workshops including oil mills, to boost the economy.
He said that it was necessary to consider and negotiate at what interest rate.
A government often follows its own policies and does not implement what the public wants, an economic analyst told CNI News.
“Now, in the earthquake-hit areas, Sagaing, Mandalay, and Nay Pyi Taw are being given priority so that they can be up and running before the rainy season. Some hospitals, including the mobile clinic, were badly damaged. We are providing emergency assistance to them. The roads are damaged. They have been repaired. Many earthquake victims have nowhere to live, so some are currently staying in monasteries. Earthquake relief camps have been set up in wards and villages. They put up temporary shelters in parks and built them according to the township and district plans in Mandalay, and they put earthquake victims there. I don't know if the government will pay money to build houses. If their houses are destroyed, how much will it cost per family? I think the state will provide something like that." he said.
While seeing a small business
On March 28, 2025, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Myanmar, affecting more than 600,000 people in Nay Pyi Taw, Mandalay Region, Sagaing Region, Shan State (South), Magway Region, and Bago Region.
The earthquake destroyed businesses and homes, and the victims are living in evacuation centers and nearby areas.
