Myanmar’s shadow government raises US$100 million to topple military junta, fund democracy

Name: Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to 7 more years in jail, faces a combined 33-year term
Uploaded: 2023-01-15T13:17:31.000Z
Duration: 2 min 6 s
Description: Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to 7 more years in jail, faces a combined 33-year term

Almost half the money is from sale of so-called Spring Revolution Special Treasury Bonds; ‘our investors know they will benefit only if this revolution is successful’

One person has given US$6 million, funds also raised through auction of properties, including mansions owned by junta chief; junta seized power in February 2021

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Members of the Myanmar military. The junta, which seized power in 2021, announced an amnesty for 7,000 prisoners on January 4 days after increasing 77-year-old democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi’s jail term to 33 years. Photo: AFP

Bloomberg

Published: 9:17pm, 15 Jan 2023

Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government said it has raised more than US$100 million to fund its democracy effort and topple the junta.

About 45 per cent of the funds are from the sales of so-called Spring Revolution Special Treasury Bonds, according to Tin Tun Naing, shadow minister for planning, finance and investment. The debt does not pay interest and the capital will be repaid only when the democracy effort is successful.

Funds were also raised through the auction of military-linked properties. While buyers will not have immediate access to the properties which they had successfully bid on and paid for, the National Unity Government has promised they will be awarded the assets after the junta rule.

Among the assets open for bids were two mansions owned by junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, Tin Tun Naing said at a press briefing on Sunday. The funds will be “effectively used in different sectors” to ensure positive results from the democracy fight in about a year, he said.

The shadow government will soon legalise an initial coin offering (the cryptocurrency industry’s equivalent of an IPO, or initial public offering) to put cryptocurrencies at the centre of its finance plan while accepting fixed deposits in the form of money transfers and cryptocurrency deposits in a bank that will be set up soon, Tin Tun Naing said.

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Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to 7 more years in jail, faces a combined 33-year term

“To ensure the revolution will bear fruit in one year, we will make use of blockchain and cryptocurrencies to establish the Spring Development Bank by the end of next month,” he said. Anyone keen on funding the government is encouraged to use its banking functions which will be available in the first quarter of this year, he said.