Myanmar/Burma ICT Briefing (2007)

In November 2005 the residents of Burma’s capital Rangoon (Yangon) awoke to discover the military junta, led since 1992 by General Than Shwe, had moved the entire central government apparatus to the isolated mountainous region of Pyinmana in the centre of the country. As the Financial Times, 1 December 2005, suggested, this seemed a strange way to bring greater contact with remote parts of the country and ‘upgrading the country’s weak transport links and communications networks would probably be far less expensive as well as more beneficial to the economy in the long run.’ From the outset, the new political capital did not even have facsimile communications, but uniting the country militarily and combating regional separatism or even federalism is the driving ideology of the junta.

Downloads:

• 2007_10_TRP_Myanmar_Paper