(VOVworld) – US President Barack Obama formally announced the lifting of US sanctions on Myanmar on Friday by terminating an emergency order that deemed the policies of the former military government in Naypitaw a threat to US national security.

US President Barack Obama meets Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi at the Oval Office (Reuters: Carlos Barria)

The emergency order was imposed in 1997 by former President Bill Clinton and strengthened a decade later by the subsequent George Bush administration. In his letter to the US House and Senate speakers, Obama stressed that his decision to reinstate preferential treatment for Myanmar under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, will give US businesses and non-profit institutions greater incentive to invest in Myanmar. He said he hopes Naypidaw will become a US’s democratic and prosperous partner.