Members of the recently elected Myanmar Parliament, together with representatives from civil society organizations in Myanmar, visited the East Asia Institute on Friday, November 18th, 2016. The visit was held at the request of the Asia Foundation, who sponsored the delegation’s week-long visit to the Republic of Korea, to discuss EAI’s work in Myanmar as well as the Korean government system and broader governance issues. EAI introduced the work of its 2015 and 2016 programs, “Building Civil Society in Myanmar through Government Budget Monitoring” and “Strengthening Civil Society in Myanmar” which are sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Open Society Foundation. The delegation asked Dr. Sook-Jong Lee questions about the current political situation in South Korea, including how the government could work together with the citizens to mitigate the negative economic effects of demonstrations and what was next for South Korean leadership. Dr. Lee also elaborated on EAI’s place in the South Korean think tank ecosystem as a privately funded institute, emphasizing the strength of EAI’s policy and academic network as well as its multilingual publications. Participants were interested to learn about the role that EAI plays as the hub of the growing Asian Democracy Research Network as well as current South Korean policy towards North Korea.
Participants Mr. Zaw Min, Member of Parliament
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