The Burmese parliament’s upper house has finished compiling a report on the targeted attacks and killings of Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia, and said it is planning to send the report to the Malaysian parliament. The report, which urges the Malaysian government to curb the violence and protect Burmese nationals, was presented to MPs in Myanmar’s upper house. During a parliamentary session in September, MP Khin Maung Latt from Arakan State put forward a question to the upper house seeking to know what action Myanmar’s parliament should take to address violence against Burmese nationals in Malaysia.

In response, the upper house decided to look into the issue. After the resulting report was presented to parliament, upper house speaker Khin Aung Myint told MPs that it will be translated into English and sent to Malaysia’s parliamentary speaker.

Khin Aung Myint also said that if Malaysia doesn’t respond, Burma’s parliament will raise the issue again during ASEAN’s Inter-Parliamentary Assembly.

Myanmar’s Ministry of Industry signed an agreement to borrow US$20 million from a Singaporean private bank and $30 million from a Vietnamese state-owned bank so that it can increase government loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) a ministry official said.

Aye Aye Win, deputy director-general of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Center, said a total of $50 million in capital had been secured by the ministry and would be loaned out through its Small and Medium Industrial Development Bank (SMIDB) next year.

“We signed a MoU in October. We’ll borrow 20 million US dollar from Singapore and the rest from Vietnam,” he said.Aye Aye Win said the funds would be borrowed from the overseas bank at a 4 percent interest rate, adding that loans will be made available to Burmese businesses at “between 6 percent and 8.5 percent, but we are considering the possibility of setting the interest rate at 6 percent.”

The government has been drafting a new SME Bill that was brought before Parliament earlier this year, but scant details have been made available about the bill. An estimated 88 percent of all businesses in Myanmar are small and medium sized enterprises.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is reportedly also cooperating with the government to help scale up government loans to SMEs in Myanmar. JICA plans to provide funds to this end through the Finance Ministry, but few details have been released about the plan.

President Barack Obama gave a blunt assessment of the need for further reform in Myanmar’s move toward democracy, weighing into sensitive controversies over the treatment of religious minorities and a prohibition keeping opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from running for president.

Suu Kyi, released four years ago from more than two decades of confinement, is now a member of Myanmar’s Parliament but is unable to run in next year’s presidential election because of a constitutional rule barring anyone with strong allegiances to a foreign national from standing for the presidency. Suu Kyi’s sons are British, as was her late husband. “I don’t understand a provision that would bar somebody from running for president because of who their children are,” Obama said, with Suu Kyi by his side. “That doesn’t make much sense to me.”

Obama and Suu Kyi took questions from reporters from the back patio of the house where she spent much of her time under house arrest. The two were warm and affectionate in their interactions, sharing a long embrace after their opening statements and joking with each other throughout their remarks.

Obama has been pressing Myanmar’s leaders to amend the Constitution, but has been careful to not directly endorse his fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate as the country’s next president. He also raised an issue that has led to criticism for the opposition icon — her reluctance to address the abuse of minority Rohingya Muslims who are deeply disdained by most people in Myanmar.

“Discrimination against the Rohingya or any other religious minority I think does not express the kind of country that Myanmar over the long term wants to be,” Obama said. “Ultimately that is destabilizing to a democracy.”

Obama also toured the Secretariat Building, where Suu Kyi’s father, independence hero Gen. Aung San, was assassinated by political rivals in 1947.

Obama had broadly embraced Myanmar’s move away from a half-century of military rule, suspending U.S. sanctions and rewarding the country with high-level visits from American officials. But Myanmar has stalled in fulfilling its promises of political and economic reforms, and in some cases has lost ground.

“We shouldn’t deny that Burma today is not the same as Burma five years ago,” Obama said. “But the process is still incomplete.” “We shouldn’t deny that Burma today is not the same as Burma five years ago,” Obama said. “But the process is still incomplete.”

Both Obama and Suu Kyi warned against complacency in the move toward democracy. Suu Kyi described the process as going through “a bumpy patch.”

Suu Kyi opened the press conference by addressing reports of tension between the U.S. and those working for democratic reforms in Myanmar. “We may view things differently from time to time but that will in no way affect our relationship,” she said.

Suu Kyi said it’s flattering to have a constitutional provision written with her in mind but it’s not how the law should be written. The 69-year-old said she and her supporters are working to change it and welcome Obama’s support.

The Kazakh delegation headed by the Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan has visited Myanmar.

During the visit to the capital city of Myanmar, Naypyidaw, Marat Yessenbayev met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Myanmar Maung Lwin Vunna. The diplomats discussed the state and prospects of the Kazakhstan – Myanmar cooperation and exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Kazakh Ambassador informed the Foreign Minister of Myanmar on the current socio-economic development of Kazakhstan and its prospects in the light of the main provisions of the President’s Address to the nation “Nurly Zhol – Path to the future”.

Myanmar is currently developing very rapidly. The country is rich in mineral resources including oil and gas. Myanmar Foreign Minister Maung Lwin Vunna noted great potential for further development of Kazakhstan – Myanmar relations in the fields of energy, investment and tourism.

The two sides also discussed cooperation within international and regional organizations, and expressed their intention to provide mutual support in the United Nations, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, the Association of South-East Asia Forum “Asia-Europe” and the Asia Cooperation Dialogue.

In addition, Ambassador of Kazakhstan met with the Chairman of the Federation of Tourism Myanmar Jan Win. The meeting took place in Yangon, the former capital of Myanmar. The parties expressed their intention to sign a memorandum of cooperation in the field of tourism.