Week in Review: Myanmar
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90% phone access by 2020 Under a five-year telecom master plan, 90 per cent of the population will have access to mobile phones, landlines and satellite networks by 2020.
The plan, drafted in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank, will also offer access to the Internet at a speed of 7.2 megabytes to 85 per cent of the population.
Domestic firm protection
The Lower House’s Economic and Trade Development Committee plans protection, anti-dumping and countervailing bills to
protect domestic businesses.
Win Myint, the committee’s secretary,
said last week that all countries that are members of the World Trade Organisation including the United States are open to free trade but they also need to protect domestic players.
MIC permits for five firms
The Myanmar Investment Commission has agreed to award permits to five investment projects, including Fortune International’s hotel, which will be built on the military’s beachfront plot in Rakhine state.
Among the five, only one belongs to a foreign company – Japan’s garment manufacturer GFT Enterprise.
The other three are Europe-Asia Beverage, which will produce milk, soymilk and bottled water,Vent D’est and Eden Hotels.
WFP extends operations
The UN World Food Programme will extend its operations in Myanmar to 2017, to provide food and cash assistance to 2.9 million
food-insecure people.
It said last week that assistance remains necessary during “this critical and protracted period of transition”.
More than 13 million people, or 26 per cent of Myanmar’s population, still live below the poverty line and more than 35 per cent of children show signs of stunted growth caused by chronic malnutrition.
This year, floods and landslides left more than 440,000 people in need of food assistance, and the 2011-12 violence in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine states have displaced more than 172,000 people who also continue to need food assistance.
Myanmar-Israel defence MoU
Parliament has allowed Myanmar to sign a memorandum of understanding with Israel for defence and security cooperation.
The MoU contains provisions for cooperation in military exercises, legal provisions for defence and security, information, military assistance, military finance, science and technology and military medical practices.
BTMU’s lab
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ has formally opened the Computer and Language Laboratory at the Myanmar Institute of Banking.
This lab, donated by the Japanese bank, is equipped with 50 computer laptops and language training resources. It will allow members of the banking association here raise their staff’s proficiency in computer and language programmes through the institute.
The donation is in line with a memorandum of understanding signed by the bank and the institute last year, which aims to provide training programmes and the transfer of banking technology and knowledge that will strengthen Myanmar’s capabilities in banking and finance.
“Our partnership with Myanmar Banks Association is a good way for us to contribute in a meaningful manner towards the long-term development of Myanmar’s financial markets,” Go Watanabe, chief executive officer for Asia and Oceania, said last week.
