 | | | | |  | | Yangon To Host ASEAN Film Festival | | | by wayne_robertson on
| | Military-run Myanmar will hold the first ASEAN film festival in Yangon next week to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 10-nation regional grouping, a local weekly journal said Sunday. The December 6-9 festival will show seven films, including Myanmar's love-story "Mystery of Snow," said The Voice. Myanmar joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997, which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The Voice said Brunei, Cambodia and Laos would not participate in the upcoming film festival. | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | Gem Museum For New Capital Myanmar | | | by wayne_robertson on
| Myanmar has projected to build a gem museum in the new administrative capital of Nay Pyi Taw in 2008 to develop tourism through displaying of the country's world famous gems, jade, pearl and jewelry, the local Voice journal reported Sunday.
The new gem museum, which will be the second of its kind next to Yangon's, will be built at a 29-acre (11.7-hectare) plot, east of Nay Pyi Taw Hotel Zone, sources with the Ministry of Mines was quoted as saying.
There is a gem mart attached with the Yangon Gem Museum where Myanmar holds its gem sale all year round on different occasions.
Myanmar started to hold gem shows annually in 1964, introducing the mid-year one in 1992 and the special one in 2004.
The latest event was a special gem, jade and pearl sale in last month with a variety of the quality items displayed for sale on the basis of competitive bidding and tender systems.
According to the emporium sources, a total of 4,665 jade, gem and pearl lots were sold with more than 4,000 gem merchants including 2,437 from abroad having visited the 12-day event, registering a record high earning ever since which was not disclosed.
The gem traders mostly came from China, China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and Thailand.
In the 44th annual Myanmar gems emporium held in March this year, which lasted for 13 days, 3,652 lots of jade, gems and pearl were sold out of nearly 6,000 such lots displayed, gaining a high proceeds of 148 million euros (185 million U.S. dollars).
Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, boasts ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.
There are six mining areas in Myanmar under gem and jade exploration, namely Mogok, Mongshu, Lonkin/Phakant, Khamhti, Moenyin and Namyar.
Jade sale stands as one of Myanmar's major foreign exchange earning undertakings, becoming the fourth largest export earning sector in the fiscal year 2005-06 with 205.47 million dollars, according to statistics.
Of Myanmar's top 10 exporters for 2006-07 which were dominated by the state sector, the Myanmar Gems Enterprise stood the third with a gem sale value of 296.9 million dollars after Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise and the Myanmar Timber Enterprise.
The government's Central Statistical Organization revealed that in the fiscal year of 2005-06, Myanmar produced 20,390 tons of jade and 28.458 million carats of gems which include ruby, sapphire, spinel and peridot, as well as 177,692 mommis of pearl. The production in the first half of 2006-07 (April-March) went to 10,388 tons for jade, 10.042 million carats for various gem and 56, 607 mommis for pearl. | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | Cyber Village for Myanmar | | | by wayne_robertson on
| Myanmar will implement a cyber village project aiming to enable every village in the country to have access to internet link like urban cities, according to computer entrepreneur circle Thursday.
A pioneer pilot project for the move will start late of this year by the open season with installation of IP Star phone lines by the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), the Computer Entrepreneurs’ Association (CEA) said. Investment is being invited from the private sector for the establishment of public access centers in villages and power source is being sought either from battery or solar energy to operate the internet in some remote villages in short of electricity as an alternative, the Association added. According to the MPT, the number of internet users in Myanmar has reached nearly 300,000, up from merely 12 in four years ago. The authorities have projected to introduce 400 public internet service centers in 324 townships in the country within three years to facilitate communication links. To attract foreign investment in the aspects, Myanmar has offered to grant both foreign and local entrepreneurs to be engaged in ICT business in the cyber city project and separate plots will be allotted for foreign and local companies with equal rights to be offered to develop the silicon mountain town, according to the CEA. Myanmar has been launching an ICT development master plan under the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) and detailed programs to link international networks are also being carried out in accordance with the master plan drafted by the Myanmar Computer Federation. | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | Campaign to save Ancient Tree in Myanmar | | | by wayne_robertson on
| Myanmar Blog Historians and scholars in Mizoram are campaigning to save a dying banyan tree planted by Mizos between 750 A.D and 1150 A.D in neighbouring Myanmar. Campaigners say the tree, threatened by river waters, is an outstanding symbol of ancient Mizo history and migration.
It is a cause that has captured the imagination of Mizos, who have been discussing the fate of the tree on the internet and other forums, and has even brought together musicians and artistes to give a concert.
The tree, known as 'Khampat Bungpui' - or the Khampat Big Banyan - stands on the banks of the river Khampat and is believed to have been planted there by early Mizos as they were settling in the Kabo valley in Myanmar. Khampat is also the name of the town the river runs through.
'There is no historical proof as such but according to known records the tree was planted by our forefathers during 750-1150 A.D,' Mizo historian B. Lalthangliana said.
As with many other societies around the world, there is very little written historical record in Mizoram. Instead, historians draw upon an abundant and rich tradition of oral history that is passed down generations by word of mouth.
P.C. Biaksiama, a Mizo scholar who has visited the Khampat Bungpui, said the survival of the tree was at stake. 'During the monsoon now, the Khampat river is flowing quite close to the tree. Another monsoon will wreak havoc on our heritage tree,' he said.
Now concerned citizens in the Mizo capital of Aizawl and Khampat village have formed a body called the 'Khampat Bungpui Humhalhtu Committee' (Khampat Bungpui Preservation Committee).
A number of other Mizo associations have also stepped up to help the cause. The Mizo Zaimi Inzawmkhawm, an association of Mizoram singers, organised a concert in June in the cause of preserving the tree.
Campaigners are also gearing up to negotiate with the Myanmar government, with the help of the Mizoram government.
'Since the tree is not on our territory we will find a way to negotiate with the Myanmarese government through the state government,' Biaksiama said.
'It is by using this tree that we are able to trace our history - it is a heritage for us, and no boundaries should prevent us from preserving it,' he added.
Botanists in Mizoram say the Khampat banyan is an offshoot of the original one that has now developed into a fully-grown tree. A banyan tree has prop roots, which usually develop into trees that continue to grow even after the mother tree has died.
'There's a high chance that Khampat Bungpui still lives on. The parent tree might have died long back but sure enough the aerial roots will still be there,' said Laltlanhlua, a Mizoram forest department official.
The preservation committee takes its inspiration from previous successes with the Rih Dil, a lake of equal importance to the Mizos that is also situated in Myanmar. A link road for Mizo tourists is now in place and a special permit to visit the lake is recognised by the Myanmar authorities.
As with the tree, the Rih Dil too occupies a special place in Mizo mythology - ancient Mizos believed there is a paradise under the lake's bed. And many Mizos still believe that departed souls go the Rih Dil, their eternal resting place.
'The Rih Lake is also preserved by the people of Mizoram. In the same way, we can preserve the tree. It will be much easier since Khampat village has a majority Mizo population,' Biaksiama said.
But Mizos living in Khampat are mostly poor farmers who can do little to help save the tree. There are also reports that the military government in Myanmar discriminates against the Khampat Mizos.
Mizos are believed to have originally come from China in around 700 A.D. They reached Myanmar's Hu Kaung valley and eventually the Kabo valley around 750 A.D. The valley is a strip of land extending from the present eastern border of Manipur to the river Irawadi in Myanmar.
When they first reached Khampat village, the more dominant Shan tribe drove them out, forcing the Mizos to move further west and settle down in what is now Mizoram. But a significant population returned to Khampat in 1914 and settled there.
Equally, many descendants of the original Khampat Mizos have chosen to settle down in Aizawl - a symbol of cultural continuity where international borders count for little.
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| | | | | | | Special Gems Sale Myanmar | | | by wayne_robertson on
| A special gem, jade and pearl sale began here Thursday, offering a variety of such items to be sold on the basis of competitive bidding and tender systems.
According to the Central Committee for Sponsoring the Special Sale of Gem, Jade and Pearl, the quality items on sale include 246 gem lots, 5,878 jade lots and 349 pearl lots.
A total of 2,910 gem traders including 1,669 from abroad, have so far arrived to join the 12-day event held at the Myanmar Gems Mart and the Myanmar Convention Center until July 16, the sponsor said, adding that foreign exchange proceeds from the sale will be designated as legal export earning.
The present special gem, jade and pearl sale for both foreign and local gem merchants is the third of its kind introduced since four years ago in addition to the annual and mid-year ones.
During the last special sale held in June 2006, nearly 1,500 foreign and local gem traders bid for the items.
In the 44th annual Myanmar gems emporium held in March this year, which lasted for 13 days, 3,652 lots of jade, gems and pearl were sold out of nearly 6,000 such lots displayed, gaining a record high proceeds of 148 million euros (185 million US dollars).
That emporium was attended by 3,421 merchants, of whom over 2, 000 were foreign ones mostly coming from China, China''s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and Thailand.
Myanmar started to hold gem shows annually in 1964, introducing the mid-year one in 1992 and the special one in 2004. | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | Burma Private Airline Lauches First International Flight | | | by wayne_robertson on
| A Myanmar national private airline, Air Bagan, formally launched its maiden flight Tuesday morning between Yangon and Bangkok as its first international air route. The maiden flight was inaugurated by Myanmar Transport Minister Major-General Thein Swe and Yangon Commander Brigadier-General Hla Htay Win at the Yangon International Airport. The airline's Yangon-Bangkok-Yangon air route will run daily using a 228-seat airbus A 310-200 aircraft. The airline plans to stretch wing to China's Kunming before September, U Tay Za, Chairman of the Htoo Trading Company which runs the airline, told Xinhua. He also revealed that extension of flights to other destinations such as Singapore, South Korea's Incheon, Cambodia's Siam Reap, India's Chennai and Bangladesh's Dhaka will also be covered the plan. He further disclosed that rough agreement has been reached for the flight to Incheon in August and it is expected to be finalized next week, adding that two more A 320 aircraft will be bought. Air Bagan has been flying between Yangon and 17 domestic destinations, presently using two Fokker F-100, two France-made ATR-72, three ATR-42 aircraft and two airbus A 310 totaling nine, the official added. Inaugurated in November 2004, Air Bagan was the third largest domestic private airline after Air Mandalay and Yangon Airways and the first full private investment airline in Myanmar. According to official statistics, foreign airlines flying Myanmar have reportedly reached 14 including Thai Airways International, Indian Airlines, Qatar Airways, Silk Air, Air China, Malaysian Airlines, Bangkok Airways, Jetstar Asia, Phuket Airline and Thai Air Asia. | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | Cricket Returning to Myanmar | | | by wayne_robertson on
| | YANGON, Myanmar // As early birds in Myanmar's ramshackle but bustling former capital made their way to work, they heard a sound many might have struggled to place. Through the tinkle of temple bells and the rumble of traffic was the distinctive crack of a leather ball on a willow bat. Decades after the country's British colonialist masters departed, taking their game with them, cricket is making a comeback. The current standing of the game in Myanmar is reflected in the amount of coverage that citizens got of cricket's World Cup played recently in the West Indies: none - not on state television or radio or newspapers. But on a tree-fringed field, within sight of the magnificent Shwedagon Pagoda, hordes of youngsters dived into kit bags to bring out bats, leg pads, gloves and stumps. For 1 1/2 hours one weekday, boys and girls threw themselves into a fun, knockabout version of the staid old game while slightly older youths practiced their batting and bowling skills. For 9-year-old William Phyowai, having his first taste of the game, it was a revelation. "It's great! It's fun!" he said. For Aye Min Than, who has been playing for two years, the appeal was more cerebral. "Cricket's different from other sports," the lanky 21-year-old bowler said, smiling through teeth stained red with betel juice. "It boosts your mental sharpness. It's a game for the mind." Such a scene would have been unthinkable just a few years ago when cricket was all but dead here. But in 2005, the Myanmar Cricket Federation was formed and began a vigorous program of promotion, including this annual three-week summer school. The federation's president - better known locally as a movie star than as a sporting evangelist - watched and nodded with satisfaction. "The schoolboys in Yangon are interested; that's the initial stage," said Nyunt Win. "Now it's growing. We're going to promote cricket in other states this year so I hope there'll be more players coming." The growth has been steady. Besides school teams, Yangon has eight clubs, the central town of Taunggyi has two, and a new one was set up last month in Mandalay. There are national teams at under-15 and senior levels, and work will start shortly on a new showpiece ground on the outskirts of Yangon. The Asian Cricket Council, the sports development body in the region, has donated gear worth thousands of dollars. It's not about to challenge the dominance of soccer in Myanmar, but cricket is unquestionably on the rise. "Cricket is developing as well in Myanmar as it is in any other new country," the council's development manager, Sultan Rana, said in an e-mail. "The most encouraging sign is to see that children have taken a liking to the game." In some ways it's puzzling that cricket should need a revival. After all, Myanmar - then called Burma - was a province of the British Raj, along with what are now the cricket-crazy nations of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The imperial Victorians played the sport as fanatically in Myanmar as they did everywhere else, so why did the game flop here yet flourish among its neighbors? Nyunt Win, who became a cricket convert after he was sent to school in India, wonders whether bitterness over the colonial experience played a part in cricket's post-independence nose-dive. "When Myanmar people get hurt, it stays," he said. Kyi Myint was one of a handful of enthusiasts who tried for years to keep the game alive. Today, as a wiry, white-haired 77-year-old, he's passionately involved in the latest efforts to promote the sport. He suggests a combination of factors for the decline, including Myanmar's political upheavals in the years after independence. "There were other things, too," he said, "like a lack of grounds, and our Burmese boys were more interested in soccer and boxing." Today, thoughts turn to the future. Nyunt Win believes Myanmar's young cricketers can make an impact on the international stage. They've done that already, though not in the way they'd choose. In its debut tournament, the ACC Trophy 2006 in Kuala Lumpur, the national team suffered a defeat so calamitous there can have been few to surpass it in the annals of international cricket. In a one-innings match against Nepal, the team was all out for just 10 runs. The batsmen scored just five of those runs themselves, the rest came from so-called "extras" - minor infringements of the game's laws by their opponents. Nepal reached its target of 11 runs after facing just two deliveries from Myanmar's first bowler. With a dignity that Rudyard Kipling would have heartily applauded, Nyunt Win kept his head and sent a message to the Asian Cricket Council. "Thank you for giving us a chance to find ourselves," it said. "Thank you for your patience and understanding. This failure has to be the beginning of our success."
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| | | | | | | Myanmar to Host Davis Cup Group Tournament | | | by wayne_robertson on
| | Myanmar will host the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group Four tournament at the Theinbyu tennis courts here next week, according to the Tennis Federation of Myanmar (TFM) yesterday. It will be the second time that Myanmar hosts the Davis Cup matches which is scheduled on May 9-13, the TFM said. Ten countries -- Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Syria, host Myanmar, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan -- will be divided into two groups and the winner of each group will qualify for the Group Three tournament, it said. Four Myanmar players will compete in the five-day tournament, it added. Myanmar hosted the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group Four tournament for the first time in April-May 2005, in which Singapore and Bangladesh qualified for the Group Three tournament.In 2006, Jordan hosted the tournament and Oman and United Arab Emirates qualified. Myanmar finished third in the 2003 Davis Cup regional tournaments in Sri Lanka.
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