Aung Kyi

Aung Kyi (အောင်ကြည်) is the incumbent Minister of Information, and previously the Minister of Labor and Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement in the Cabinet of Burma. He has been Minister of Labor since 2007, having been appointed on 24 October 2007 by the then ruling State Peace and Development Council. In October 2007, he received an additional, concurrent appointment as minister for relations to detained National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Career
Aung Kyi is a retired major general in the Myanmar Armed Forces. He graduated from the 40th intake of the Officers Training School. He was named deputy minister for labor in November 2006, and in that capacity has been in charge of relations with the International Labor Organization. In February 2007, he brokered a deal with the ILO to establish a new system of reporting of complaints of forced labor. He was appointed Minister for Labour in October 2007.

Aung Kyi has a reputation for relative accessibility, compared to the predominantly secretive leaders of the junta.

Aung Kyi's appointment as the junta's official liaison to Aung San Suu Kyi in October 2007 followed worldwide condemnation of the junta after its violent crackdown on the 2007 Burmese anti-government protests. The junta then sought to reopen talks with Suu Kyi, the detained leader of the National League for Democracy.

The creation of the Cabinet-level position of liaison minister, to "smooth relations with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi", had been suggested to the State Peace and Development Council by United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who had been working on a diplomatic solution to the political crisis in Myanmar.

Aung Kyi's appointment as minister of relations is concurrent with his duties as minister of labour.