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Forestry has traditionally been one of Myanmar's most important economic sectors, generating more in export earnings in the period 2010-2018. It is estimated that the country will have lost 12 million ha of forest between 1990 and 2020 - the third largest absolute forest loss of all countries during that period. The government now aims to restore or reforest about 884,000 ha on reserved forest (RF) and public protected forest (PPF) land under its 2016-28 Myanmar reforestation and rehabilitation program (MRRP). A range of reforms is needed to encourage private sector investment. These include: (i) identification of sufficiently large areas of suitable land close to potential processing sites or transport infrastructure and planning of land-use allocation; (ii) improving the availability of information on identified areas and on the process of acquiring plantation leases; (iii) streamlining leasing procedures and terms and scope of leases, including possible private management of state plantations; (iv) simplifying regulations on harvest and transport of plantation timber; (v) reviewing the suitability of current fiscal incentives, including tax holidays; (vi) improving information on areas and productivity of established plantations; and (vii) identifying priority research and development needs and delivery mechanisms.

"The archives of the Grand Secretariat currently housed at the Institute were originally kept at the Grand Secretariat Storehouse in the Ch'ing imperial palace. They were removed from the Storehouse when it underwent renovation in 1909. After the overthrow of the Ch'ing, these archives changed hands several times, and were, at one point, even sold to a paper recycling factory. Eventually, the Institute purchased them from Li Sheng-to, a book collector, in 1929 thanks to the efforts of Fu Ssu-nien, the Institute's first director. There are over four thousand Ming (1368-1644) documents and more than three hundred thousand volumes of Ch'ing (1644-1911) archival materials in this collection, including imperial decrees, edicts, memorials, tribute document, examination questions, examination papers, rosters of successful examination candidates, documents from the offices of the Grand Secretariat, documents from the offices for book compilation, and old documents from Mukden. Memorials make up the bulk these documents.The archives contain valuable source materials for institutional, social and economic historians. They record general administrative activities and legal cases, many of which cannot be found in Ch'ing legal compendia." (cited from database website)