ROHINGYA'S CRISIS : ECONOMIC IMPACT

MYANMAR : The government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized for failing to speak out against the military crackdown in Rakhine, and -

Investors have voiced concerns that sanction long hobbled the economy for years under military rule could be reinstated over it.

Foreign investment official said on Wednesday he ''totally underestimated'' the economic damage of the Rohingya crisis, adding that the outcry over the jailing of two Reuters reporters would also have some impact on his country's reputation.

Asked at an investor forum in Singapore what impact the crisis had on Myanmar's economy and investment, the director general of the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration [DICA], which promotes private sector development and investment, said previously the government had been able to control outbreaks of communal tension.

But the crisis in Rakhine State was different.

''I totally underestimated,'' the official, Aung Naing Oo, told the forum, referring to the impact of an eruption of violence in 2016, which snowballed in 2017.

''But after two years.......now you can see that FDI in Myanmar is heading down, it is declining,'' he said, referring to foreign direct investment, though adding that he was confident the government could stabilise the situation.

Approved foreign investments into Myanmar has fallen in 2016 and 2017, according to data issued by the DICA , which operate under the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development, and last year was the lowest since 2013.

Myanmar's government spokesman, Zaw Htay, contact by telephone responded with a message to say he was not immediately able to take any questions. [Agencies].