The 4,050-hectare emerging Yadanabon Cyber City is located on the highway between Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin and the building of a teleport and incubation in the new ICT satellite town as the first phase is underway.

Separate plots will be allotted for foreign and local companies with equal rights to be offered to develop the silicon mountain town, sources with the Computer Entrepreneurs' Association was quoted as saying.

Hardware used in mobile phones will be produced in the cyber city, the Ministry of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs disclosed.

Myanmar has been launching an ICT development master plan under the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI), aimed at narrowing the development gap among the regional members and detailed programs to link international networks are also being carried out in accordance with the master plan drafted by the Myanmar Computer Federation.

Being a signatory to the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement initiated at 2000 Singapore summit, Myanmar has formed the e-National Task Force to support the IT development.

Besides, the country has also signed a series of memorandums of understanding since 2003 with companies from Malaysia, Thailand and an ASEAN organization on ICT development.

Myanmar introduced e-education system in early 2001, establishing one ICT park (now known as Myanmar Info-Tech) in Yangon and another ICT park in Mandalay in two following years to provide ICT services in the country.

Meanwhile, some local private companies in Myanmar have been set to provide new high-speed communication lines to internet users under a cooperation program extended to the private sector by the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunication under the ministry which is currently the only source of new internet services in the country.

According to the telecommunications authorities, the number of internet users in Myanmar has reached nearly 300,000, up from merely 12 four years ago.

So far, Myanmar has also launched some e-government systems including e-visa, e-passport and e-procurement to effect management of government bodies. Source: Xinhua