Myanmar gets to host ICT Global Summit 2012

MUMBAI, INDIA: As Myanmar, also known as Burma, is undertaking key political and administrative reforms including privatization of sectors like Telecommunication, the country is all set to offer huge opportunities in IT and Telecom space.

Banking on the country's transformation into the 21st century dominated by digital communication and technology, Singapore based Magenta Global is hosting first of its kind event - ‘Into Myanmar ICT Global Summit-2012.' The two-day event will be held at Yangon on December 3 and 4.

This global summit is open to telecom operators, service providers, ICT vendors and distributors, network technologists, handset and device manufacturers to explore investment and business opportunities in Myanmar. ''Myanmar is poised for significant investment in telecom and internet infrastructure. A new telecom law is in the works and clearer policies and regulations are being defined,'' said Maggie Tan, Mangeta Global,CEO.''This summit is very timely with its comprehensive discussion of regulatory and policy issues, spectrum, deployment and migration challenges for Myanmar as well as broadband Internet infrastructure needs,'' added Tan.

According to Myanmar Posts and Telecommunication (MPT), the state-funded sole provider of telecommunication services will end the six decade old monopoly in telecommunication sector by setting up a telecom corporation by end of this year. Post that, the government will amend its investment laws, regulations and introduce a new telecom law to facilitate private and global operators in the country.

It is believed that after competitive biding and auctioning process, four telcos will be allowed to operate in Myanmar by 2013 and among these four telcos, two will be foreign-local joint-partnerships. With these liberal initiatives, Myanmar's telecom and IT sector is estimated to grow around 150.4 per cent during 2012-2013. Moreover, the MPT will eventually get abolished and replaced by Myanmar Telecom and will function like a private entity without any government funding and support.

Only three million people own landline or mobile phones in Myanmar - a density of 5.6 per cent only, according to MPT. With the reforms in telecommunication, MPT expects to increase the user base to 39.5 million by 2016. According to an IDC study, Myanmar is riding strong momentum from recent significant reforms that had further government restructuring, the re-establishment of political ties, and global economic integration. New drafts of telecom and foreign investment laws are poised to open the market to foreign participation.

Moving into 2012, Myanmar's IT spending is expected to have a growth rate of 14.8 per cent as the government, businesses and consumers embrace technology for infrastructure development, process improvement, and personal communications, the study said. However, IDC study observed that despite such business changes taking place in Myanmar, it is also constrained by electricity shortages, weak infrastructure, Internet censorship and low consumerism.

According to Lam Nguyen, country director- IDC Vietnam, the recent political reforms and the historic elections in April 2012 has clearly placed Myanmar among the most attractive countries for business investments in the region. ''Riding on the wave of changes, Myanmar's ICT industry is clearly in the forefront of discussions as the country needs to embrace technology to be integrated into the global economy as well as to overcome inadequate infrastructure challenges,'' said Nguyen.

Interestingly, Myanmar could easily leap frog the current technology trends of 2G and 3G to move directly to 4G unlike India, which slowly witnessed the shift in telephony evolution from landline to mobile phones, from 2G to 3G and moving towards 4G. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) have projected Myanmar's real growth for 2012 to 2013 as 6 per cent.