THE MM COMMUNITY

MM Community is a government finance and public relations solution designed to supercharge Myanmar’s public infrastructure development in local communities. The initiative is a crowdsourcing platform where local communities could raise and fund public infrastructure projects through project-based government bonds. For instance, a local citizen is concerned with a lack of clinics near his living area. With that in mind, he proposes a local clinic project idea on the MM Community platform.... The regional ministry of health then reviews the request and approves the local clinic, publishing a funding campaign on the platform offering project based government bond. Local communities and donors would then crowdfund the loan. Once the project is implemented, loan repayments, interest along with project specific perks such as medical vouchers would be paid back to the communities. The MM Community platform provides two main values to the government: potentially millions of annual interest savings, and a democratic feedback and social validation system for infrastructure projects. With USD 13 billion of domestic public debt standing at 8.6% interest, MM Community offers the government a cost saving alternative by issuing as low as 0%-interest loans. The low yield is made possible with the shift of incentive from investment return to local infrastructure improvements. Further savings could be made from donations and impact investments from companies’ corporate social responsibility departments. The centralisation of the Union Government’s power, the confusion between ministries’ jurisdictions, and the lack of effective communication within the government has been major challenges for Myanmar. Feedback from community often requires a long time to reach decision makers if at all. Through project suggestions and funding campaigns, MM Community serves as a structured democratic feedback and social validation system to improve communication between communities and government.More