Yangon is unable to provide adequate housing for its growing population as the number of households exceeds the governments capacity to construct new housing projects by over three and a half times, Yangon regional chief minister said on Monday.
Chief Minister of Yangon Region, Myint
Swe was addressing the issue during the opening ceremony for a new
housing development bank that will help lower-income families purchase
new houses. Yangon is Myanmar's biggest city with a population of four
million as of 2007, which experts say is expected to rise rapidly as
more people move from the country side to the city.
"The population in Yangon has increased
significantly since 2000. According to the statistics from the Yangon
City Development Council, only 36,000 housing projects were constructed
within five years between 2004 and 2009. However, statistics show that
the number of households continue to increase by 26,000 every year. So
Yangon is facing a housing shortage," said Myint Swe during the opening
ceremony of Construction and Housing Development Bank Public Company.
According to Myint Swe, 10 percent of
Myanmar's total population lives in Yangon. The demand for public
housing has been rising due to a growth in urban population as a result
of increased migration from rural to urban areas.
"As Yangon became wider and its
population continues to increase rapidly, it is an important issue for
not only the Yangon regional government but also the Union government to
provide housing that meets health standards and increases living
standards," he added.
The Construction and Housing Development
Bank was established to provide cheap housing through installment plans
for low-income families, pensioners and government workers.
"The reason is that the government was
unable to invest much in the housing sector as it has to carry out
development tasks all over the country with the State's budget. Now
private companies have become involved in the construction of housing
and the government has set down the policy to solve household shortages
using a 'public and private partnership' system," said Kyaw Lwin, the
Minister of Construction.
source: Eleven Myanmar
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