Myanmar Government In Content Launching CDBC For Revolutionary Financing

Myanmar is still controlled by the military junta. (photo: @TheMyanmarTimes)

JAKARTA - Half a year ago the military junta in Myanmar revealed its plans to launch a digital currency. Now the country's official government, which was ousted in a coup in 2021, has also voiced its own intention to launch a digital currency that uses frozen national funds.

In an interview Tuesday, September 6 with Bloomberg, Myanmar's Minister of National Unity Government Planning in exile, Tin Tun Naing, requested a permission from the US government to use nearly all state reserves, frozen by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since February 2021.

The funds that Naing mentioned have been frozen on Singapore, Thailand and Japan accounts and could reach billions of dollars. But Naing still doubts the United States could decide to allocate these assets directly to the Government of National Unity, he pointed out the possibility of using them as reserves to support alternative central bank digital currencies in exile. The money is needed to support revolutionary efforts in this country.

The Government of National Unity consisted largely of lawmakers who won the democratic election in November 2020, but was eventually ousted by the country's old military junta in February 2021. Previous efforts to gain financial support included the issuance of revolutionary bonds and auctions of a large house belonging to junta leader Min Aung Hlaing.

In February 2022, a junta representative claimed that the military plans to spend digital currency to support payments in Myanmar and "help improve financial activities" in the country.

Before the military seized power, the Central Bank of Myanmar had warned that anyone in Myanmar caught trading digital assets could be imprisoned or fined.

However, in December 2021, the Government of National Unity announced that it would recognize Tether (USDT) as the official currency.