Message of Greetings sent by President U Win Myint on Occasion of 69th Anniversary Kayah State Day Celebration

DEAR ESTEEMED ethnic national brothers and sisters residing in Kayah State, On this auspicious special occasion of the 69th Anniversary of Kayah State Day, I wish to send good wishes and greetings to all Kayah ethnic nationals and Union-born ethnic national brothers and sisters living in Kayah State to be blessed with good fortune, prosperity and auspiciousness.

In Kayah State, nine Kayah racial groups, as well as Bamars, Kayins, Shans, Pa-Os and Innthas have lived in close friendship together since ancient times. In accordance with the 1947 Constitution, Karreni State became one of the states of the Union of Burma; later in accordance with the Constitutional Amendment Act of 1951, Karreni State was officially designated as Kayah State beginning from 15th January 1952 by popular referendum. The date on which “Karenni State” was called “Kayah State” was designated as Kayah State Day, and we have now reached 69 years. Every year we have celebrated Kayah State Day on a grand scale attended by throngs of people with exhibition rooms for ethnic culture, dance contests for ethnic national traditional dances, musical entertainments, boat races, sports competitions, paddy pounding competitions, bazaars and exhibitions for various merchandise.

However, to my great regret, because of the COVID-19 pandemic all over the world, we are not able to celebrate this event on a grand scale as in previous years. Starting from the time the COVID- 19 disease first occurred in Myanmar, Kayah State worked to the utmost to contain the spread of the infection and was able to contain the infection spread to a certain extent. Kayah State became the state with the least amount of positive cases.
Therefore, I wish to record my appreciation individually to all those who have participated in the COVID-19 protection, control and treatment activities with goodwill and metta to the fullest extent on a voluntary basis, taking on any of the assigned duties; and also to all the ethnic national brothers and sisters who have followed the health instructions and awareness bulletins scrupulously.

At the present time, we are carrying out the COVID-19 protection, control and treatment activities all over the country with full momentum; at the same time, our Union Government has been working for all-round development all across the Union as well as the harmonious development of all states and regions. In Kayah State also, we have been working for the supply of drinking water, transport, electric supply, education, health, agriculture, livestock farming and rural development in order to achieve multi-sectoral development.

Kayah State is in possession of cultures and traditions as well as mountains, streams and natural beauty which are the good basic conditions where tourism can thrive successfully, and we may perhaps call it a smoke-free industry. Therefore, we exerted continuous efforts to promote community-based tourism for foreign and local travellers starting from the end of 2014; this resulted in the gradual increase of foreign and local travellers. We are now seeing more job opportunities for local ethnic nationals and upgrading of their socio-economic development.

Due to the united efforts and cooperation of all ethnic nationals living in Kayah State, success has been achieved in each sector such as politics, economy and social sectors. You were given the Patient Safety Champion award in 2019 presented by the Ministry of Health and Sports, Allround achievement award for the 50-bed traditional medicine hospital, and first prize for enthusiastic participation in the states/regions December people’s sports physical fitness movement. You have obtained all these awards deservedly. So I urge you all to keep up your good efforts.

Although we have encountered difficulties to implement development projects due to armed conflicts in Kayah State, as armed conflicts have decreased to a bare minimum, we have been able to carry out more regional development projects.

As peace prevails in the countryside and transportation networks improve, the socio-economic life of ethnic nationals

in Kayah State will improve. Therefore, I wish to urge the ethnic armed organizations in Kayah State in great seriousness to join hands and participate fully in the Union peace process and the political dialogues and discussions.

For peace and development which is necessary for the perpetuation of the Union, for establishing the Democratic Federal Union which is the aspiration of all ethnic nationals, we have already convened the Union Peace Conference – 21st Century Panglong meetings up to the fourth session. We have obtained several agreements. In accordance with the common agreements relating to democracy and the federal system which came out of these sessions, I wish to urge all the ethnic nationals to work together with the Union Government with the unity of spirit and desire for the establishment of a peaceful and developed Democratic Federal Union fully imbued with political essence having the characteristics of justice, freedom, equal opportunity, and self-determination.

With these thoughts, I send this message of greetings on this auspicious occasion.

Sd/-

(Win Myint)

President