In an Oct. 11 meeting in Tokyo held at the initiative of Japan, 26 countries and five international organizations including the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank agreed to work together to help Myanmar with its reform efforts. The problem of Myanmar's overdue debts — the biggest obstacle to the country's full return to the international community — is likely to be solved. It is hoped that the fruit of the meeting will give impetus to Myanmar's democratization and economic reform efforts so that it can quickly end its isolation in the international community.
Japan, Myanmar's largest creditor, announced that it will forgive some ¥300 billion of Myanmar's roughly ¥500 billion overdue debts to it, convert the remaining some ¥200 billion debts into new low-interest loans and resume yen-denominated concessional loans at the earliest time possible next year.
The ADB and the World Bank also expressed their intentions to clear Myanmar's overdue debts to them in January 2013. Myanmar owes about $500 million to the ADB and about $400 million to the World Bank. Japan plans to help the two banks' debt clearance efforts by offering bridge loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation to Myanmar so it can return the debts by utilizing the JBIC loans, with a view to the ADB and the World Bank resuming loans to Myanmar