Most of Myanmar’s civil servants want to retire in Yangon, the country’s economic capital, according to a government survey.
U Kyaw Lin, deputy minister of Construction, told the Amyotha Hluttaw (Upper House) on Monday that his ministry and the Ministry of Planning and Finance conducted the survey of civil servants who were due to retire in three years.
“Most answered that they wanted to settle in Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw,” he said.
Of those who responded to the survey, 10,819 said they preferred Yangon, 3669 said they wanted to live in Mandalay, and 1125 chose the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, U Kyaw Lin said.
U Tin Htut, a retired permanent secretary, said the results may reflect the fact that most civil servants working in Nay Pyi Taw originally came from Yangon. The country’s capital was moved to Nay Pyi Taw in 2006.
“Many of them were forced to move to Nay Pyi Taw in 2006, so they want to return to their families in Yangon,” he said.
One retired civil servant said that if the survey had focussed on those who joined the government service after 2016, the results would be different.
“I don’t think many civil servants who joined later would want to go back to Yangon. I don’t want to go back to Yangon,” he said.
The government is arranging to build affordable housing for civil servants, but it does not want to build it in areas where transportation is difficult.
The Ministry of Construction is negotiating with other ministries to procure land for the housing projects in easy-to-reach areas.
Last year, the ministry spent K15 billion to build 812 apartments in Nay Pyi Taw, Yangon and Mandalay, and will build 120 more apartment buildings this year.
According to 2017 figures, over 20,000 people retire every year, of whom about two thirds want to buy apartments. This means that 13,000 housing units are needed every year for retirees.
Source: Myanmar Times
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