Pink Gold - nick name of Myanmar Bloggeress has sharp eyes like
no other. She singled out one of the billboards at Myaynigone
Junction and found that there will be Six Myanmar ICT Week(s)
advertised by Yatanarpon Teleport.
U Aung Zaw Myint, the president of Myanmar Computer Industry
Association, said the opening of the teleport building on
14th December will be followed by the Six ICT Week exhibition
organised by the Ministry of Communication, Post and Telegraphs.
He said the event will include 50 out of 120 exhibition booths
where locals and foreign ICT companies, cyber cafés and
bookshops will showcase products such as software, hardware and
electronics, while the Myanmar Computer Professional Association
will organise network gaming, programming, web design
competitions.
“Eighteen foreign companies
including communication technology giants like ZTE Corporation
have already reserved booths, and some government ministries
will showcase their e-government projects,” said U Aung Zaw
Myint in first week of December but latest records shows that
only 5 ( ZTE, Alcatel Shanghaibell, CBoss, IPTel and UDPL) will
be there according to U Sein Win from Myanmar Info Tech.
He said it was the first time
the annual ICT Week will be held outside Yangon.
“Despite the new location we
expect big crowds because the timing coincides with other
festivals in Pyin Oo Lwin,” U Aung Zaw Myint said.
The New Light of
Myanmar reported that top junta officials, including the
Minister of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs, Brig-Gen Thein
Zaw, will be attending the ceremony to mark the opening of
Yadanarbon Myothit, a
satellite town just outside Maymyo, 40km east of Mandalay.
An IT manager at
the Mandalay office of the Myanmar ICT Development Corporation -
the organization that established MICT Park in Yangon - said
the government pushed to complete building work in six months.
The manager said
the development will also seek to attract “the investment of
foreign companies, we hope.”
In May 2007, The
New Light of Myanmar called the new “Cyber
City” an
“international level Silicon Valley plan.” But it is not clear
how the government expects to attract foreign firms to the site
given that Maymyo is a sleepy hill station with no civilian
airport. The nearest commercial airstrip is 70km away in
Mandalay and takes two hours to reach by car.
Myanmar opened a
similar project - the MICT Park - in Yangon in January 2002
aiming to bring in expertise from overseas. However, Grape
City of Japan is
currently the only 100-percent foreign-owned company operating
there. At a cost of about US $26,000 for a minimum three-year
lease, it advertised to offer companies a 24-hour supply of
electricity-a rarity
in Myanmar-and a relatively reliable internet connection. Things
changed when the former prime minister General Khin Nyunt was
ousted. The Bagan Cybertech and Teleport is now under the
control of Signal Corps and services were degraded to that of
the Myanmar Post and Telecommunications. No new service was
available from Bagan Cybertech and Myanmar Posts and
telecommunications started selling iPstar of Shin Satellite from
Thailand under the brand name "MPT satellite terminal".
