Yangon – Myanmar’s president on Wednesday signed a Bill giving Aung San Suu Kyi a new role of state adviser, shoring up her influence across all branches of government despite vehement opposition from the still-powerful military.

Suu Kyi is determined to rule the former junta-run nation regardless of an army-scripted constitution that bars her from becoming president, as she strives to meet the aspirations of millions of voters who gave her pro-democracy party a landslide election victory last November.

She is already foreign minister and met her Chinese counterpart for talks on Tuesday, prioritising Beijing in her first foray into international diplomacy since her National League for Democracy officially took power last week.

The bill outlining her advisory role, which mentions the Nobel laureate by name, enables Suu Kyi to wield influence over parliament as well as in the Cabinet in a position officially called “state counsellor”.

It was signed into law by President Htin Kyaw, Suu Kyi’s longtime aide and effective proxy, following debates in both houses of parliament that have seen protests by the army’s legislative representatives.

“The president has signed the state counsellor bill today,” president office deputy director-general Zaw Htay told AFP.

He declined to give further details on the legislation, which sped through both houses of parliament thanks to the NLD’s huge majority.

Dawn of a new era in Myanmar as Aung San Suu Kyi’s party takes over

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AFP, Reuters

In a dramatic lower house session on Tuesday, unelected military MPs – who make up a quarter of the legislature because the constitution reserves seats for them – stood up to register a protest that their suggested amendments were being ignored.

The bill was then sent straight to the president without a vote in the combined legislature because no clauses had been altered.

One army MP, Brigadier General Maung Maung, complained to reporters after Tuesday’s session that the passage of the bill was “democratic bullying by majority”.

Impoverished Myanmar has seen dramatic changes since 2011 as the military released its stranglehold on power after decades of repressive rule that saw Suu Kyi and many of her colleagues imprisoned or held under house arrest.

Foreign tourism and investment have begun to flood into the resource-rich nation of 51 million. But the new government faces stiff challenges, particularly smoothing relations with the army and tackling ongoing civil wars in ethnic minority border areas.

SHANGHAI – China’s top planning agency has ordered issuers of so-called enterprise bonds and their underwriters to assess the risks of default and report back to the government in a nationwide campaign to limit systemic financial risk.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) ordered issuers to take stock of their ability to repay principal and interest and submit reports by April 15 every year, starting this month, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the notice and a copy seen by Reuters.

Concerns have been rising over company debt after corporate bonds rallied to levels that analysts see as a possible sign of bubbly market conditions given the rising level of indebtedness and defaults.

In China’s fragmented bond issuance system, the NDRC is responsible for approval of “enterprise bonds” of one-year and above issued by non-listed, mostly state-owned companies. The China Securities Regulatory Commission and People Bank of China regulate other categories of corporate debt.

The NDRC did not have an immediate comment on Wednesday evening when contacted by telephone and fax.

Companies at risk of defaulting on their bonds must report the situation to the NDRC in a timely manner, the notice said. It urged bond underwriters to make inspections of issuers and submit reports to the agency.

The purpose of the inspections was “to protect the stability of the bond market, protect investor interests and prevent local or systemic risks against the backdrop of heavy downward pressure on China’s economy and rising default risks”, the NDRC said.

China’s bond market is much larger than its stock market and institutional exposure to bonds runs deeper. Many analysts believe a bond market crash would create a greater risk to economic stability than a crash in the stock market.

“We’re seeing an increasing number of defaults, and the government has realised the seriousness of the issue,” said Wang Qing, an analyst at Yuanta Securities. “The situation is still manageable, so the government wants to prevent it from becoming a systemic problem.”

Corporate debt surged to 14.4 trillion yuan (S$3.0 trillion) as of the end of 2015, central bank data showed. It was not clear what proportion was enterprise bonds.

As part of the self-inspections, issuers must check funding sources for bond repayments, how bond proceeds have been used, and whether agreements are honoured and disclosure properly made.

Those who fail to conduct the inspections and make proper disclosures would be punished, the NDRC said.

The bond market is a key market for China to develop as it moves to rationalize the allocation of capital and is critical to plans to internationalise the yuan currency.

The local bond market recently further opened to long-term foreign investors allowing greater access to yuan-denominated assets.

For years, China’s bond market has worked on the assumption that the government would not allow a default. Issuers were effectively guaranteed by the state. However, China began in 2014 to cautiously allow bond issuers to miss payments.

Late last month, state-owned Dongbei Special Steel Group Co Ltd, an unlisted steel manufacturer based in the northeast, missed a payment on an 800 million yuan short-term note.

Another firm, power equipment maker Baoding Tianwei Group Co Ltd, also defaulted at the end of March on a 1 billion yuan private placement note.

In the past month, ratings agencies Moody’s and S&P have downgraded the outlook on China’s sovereign credit rating on concerns the government’s reform agenda will proceed more slowly than expected.