In a press conference in Naypyidaw on 4 October 2013, legally," he was quoted as saying. "We use it when needed. We don't know about the $11 billion that people are talking about."

The statement is related to an interview The Irrawady had with Jelson Garcia, the Asia programme manager with the Banking Information Center, in September 2013. Garcia had said that the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and International Monetary Fund officials informed him that the Burmese government held as much as $11 billion in a number of Singaporean bank accounts. 

BIC is a US-based non-profit organisation that monitors international financial institutions. ADB and the World Bank had recently re-engaged with Burma after President Thein Sein announced new efforts toward political and economic reforms.