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Myanmar’s finance minister resigns

By REUTERS
May 27, 2018

YANGON: Myanmar's Finance Minister Kyaw Win has resigned, President Win Myint said on Friday, weeks after local media first reported he was under investigation for alleged corruption.

Kyaw Win was "allowed to resign," the president said in a short statement posted on the presidencys official Facebook page late on Friday.

The presidential office did not give a reason for the resignation in its statement.

Earlier this month local media reported that Myanmar´s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had searched Kyaw Win´s residence, and this week the Yangon-based English-language news magazine Frontier cited the ACC's head as saying it was in the final stage of an investigation into corruption allegations against him.

Reuters was not able to reach Kyaw Win for comment and neither the Myanmar government spokesman nor the ACC responded to requests for comment late on Friday.

Spokesmen from ACC and the president's office have previously refused to confirm or deny reports of the raid, according to Frontier. Details of the alleged investigation were not available but it would be Myanmar´s highest-level corruption probe since de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi came to power in 2016.