Bangkok: Myanmar is in urgent need of basic education to ensure continuous reform, said democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Bangkok.Suu Kyi said Myanmar is in grave lack of people capable of carrying out reform measures that the government is proposing, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

“How do we find people to make sure our reforms are irreversible? We need capacity to be built from ground upwards,” Xinhua quoted Suu Kyi as saying.

Myanmar needs basic education that can enable people to live a decent life, she said, calling on investors to bring job and training for young people in Myanmar.

“We don’t want investment that means more corruption, more privilege to the already privileged. We want investment that means job, together with training that can enable unemployed young people to have jobs,” she said.

Suu Kyi, also a parliament member, is on her first visit overseas after 24 years at home, 15 of those under house arrest.

Suu Kyi’s trip came two months after her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), overwhelmingly won the April 1 by-elections, taking 43 out of 45 open parliamentary seats, of which 37 with the House of Representatives (Lower House).

Suu Kyi herself won a seat of House of Representatives with Yangon region’s Kawhmu constituency.

She and her party’s parliament representatives were sworn into office on May 2, while insisting on its three-point stance — rule of law, internal peace and constitution amendments.

Following her trip to Bangkok, Suu Kyi is also scheduled to start her first tour to some European countries in June.

- BERNAMA/cc