How Myanmar is promoting young ICT geeks in transforming the nation
The world has seen Myanmar growing to be one of the new hotspots for all kind of global investors while its young tech geeks are dedicated to transforming the nation.
Most of the investors are encouraged investing here because the country is very rich in natural resources with cheap labor. Its IT and telecommunication sectors has grown tremendously the past ten years. One can see this by looking the statistics regarding the rising number of cellphone users in the country.
Nowadays, most of the population has access to the internet by 80 percent as compared to 2011 when it was only 1 percent having the opportunity to access Facebook on their phones.
It is obvious that the IT business opportunity is available and investors can't wait to grab the chance. Most of the investors have been opening IT firms such as Australian tech entrepreneur David Madden who founded Phandeeyar in Myanmar which is an IT training institute funded by Samsung, Google, and Hewlett-Packard.
To promote young talents, Phandeeyar opened the first start incubator at the cost of US$25,000 for local start-ups funding their business plans. This is a great fortune for the Myanmar’s standard.
The USA also has made the boost by lifting the economic sanctions against the country since Ann San Suu Kyi took power in 2015 with her National League for Democracy. Her regime has given priority to the local IT industry.
Though Myanmar still has some limitations such as the electricity supply in many remote areas which hinders the growth of internet and cellphone in the country. It will take some time to many much Burmese to adapt the electronic payment as most of them don’t even have bank accounts.
People are increasingly getting used to buying and selling commodities, digital products and even acquiring service via smartphone apps, which are developed and run by young tech entrepreneurs.
China has not been left behind as Chinese giant telecommunication YANGON made a debut to send ten bright students to study the Communication, Information, and culture in ICT technology in China. The chosen students who are young geeks will study through the program "Seeds for the Future" in the Huawei Offices.
Huawei agreed upon a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the transport and communication ministry to cooperate in the ICT development. The company will sign another MoU to fund a five-year project with regional government of Yangon to promote ICT talent development.
The company has a plan to sign another MoU for a five-year project with Yangon regional government for promoting the growth of the ICT Talent. This will greatly assist the young geeks to prosper in the ICT sector as prospected.
