As the first phase of the project, 100 such centers, also known as the Public Access Centers (PAC), will be opened in the current fiscal year of 2006-07, the first year of the three-year project which began in April, the Myanmar Info-Tech disclosed.
The internet services, which include E-mail and network game, were made available by the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and the Myanmar Info-Tech.
To improve the country's internet access, the authorities are also extending connections of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line ( ADSL) to every township, setting the target to be met by the end of this year.
According to the MPT, ADSL has already been installed in some areas of Yangon and the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw, and 7,000 more ADSL connections will be added to link the whole country under a national plan which also involves vast replacement of its existing telephone wires to make the internet connections 500 times faster than now.
The present telephone wire capacity of 4 kilobytes per second would be upgraded to 2 megabytes per second, the MPT said.
At present, internet subscribers are said to be frequently meeting with difficulties of downloading from the internet promptly.
Some businessmen and companies relying on internet to run their businesses welcomed of the target to extend the ADSL installation to across the country, and hoped more would be done to improve the existing connections.
According to official statistics, the number of internet users in Myanmar reached over 70,000 as of the end of 2005, up from merely a few thousands in 2000, registering the highest rate of increase in five years in Southeast Asia region.
Despite the sharp increase, the number of internet users in the country still stands the least compared with other SEA countries with one internet user per 1,000 population.
Meanwhile, a Myanmar and a Canadian information and communication technology (ICT) companies have reached a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to run an internet service provider (ISP) in Myanmar as part of the country's bid to expand such services, earlier reports said.
The ISP will be established by the Ahaed Co. of Myanmar and the Teleglobe of Canada and the internet-based telephone system will be extensively used after the establishment.
Besides, a Hong Kong company, the SS8 Networks Inc., has also agreed with an ICT company of Myanmar to run security services for ISPs in Myanmar, according to reports.
So far, Myanmar has launched some e-government systems including e-visa, e-passport, and e-procurement to effect management of government bodies.
The country introduced e-education system in early 2001, with one ICT park (now known as Info-Tech) in Yangon and another ICT park (now known as Yadanabon Cyber Corporation) in Mandalay having been set up in the two following years to provide ICT services in the country.
Meanwhile, Myanmar has also launched an ICT development master plan under the Initiative for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Integration, aimed at narrowing the development gap among the regional members. Detailed programs to link international networks are also being carried out in accordance with the master plan drafted by the Myanmar Computer Federation ( MCF).
Accordingly, Myanmar is developing an ICT-related new satellite town in Pyin Oo Lwin, northern Mandalay division, and construction of a teleport and incubation in the satellite town as the first phase is underway, earlier reports said.
The new satellite town named Yadanabon Myothit, which covers a land area of 10,000 acres (4,050 hectares) and located near the second largest city of Mandalay, is striving to become a silicon mountain town attracting private investment in the ICT business.
Being a signatory to the e-AFA initiated at 2000 Singapore summit, Myanmar has formed the e-National task Force to support the IT development.
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.
With the improvement of public internet services, the country sees a step closer towards ICT development, experts said.
Quelle/Source: People's Daily Online, 04.10.2006
