Myanmar Latest News, Dpsmap.com

Vehicle Tracking System introduced

2007-11-11T22:48:00.001-08:00

Pioneer GIS company introduced Vehicle Tracking with Myanmar maps. Equipped with handheld GPS and digital maps, DPS managed to overlay track points of a moving vehicle on maps of Yangon, Mandalay, and the whole Myanmar map on computer.

Manay magazines and journal reported the news and claimed it will effectively manage the drivers pattern of driving and fuel consumption as the system can record and report the length of travel and time of travel for each vehicle. DPS can be contacted at dps@myanmar.com.mm, Tel 204020, 381200, fax 245230. The company address is 165, 35th street. Yangon Myanmar.

4 ministries pledge to cooperate for the development of tourism at the First ever paper reading session at Nay Pyi Daw

2006-07-29T23:16:00.000-07:00

Nay Pyi DawJuly 28. Tourism Paper reading session was held at Naypyidaw for the very first time. The event was attended by General Thein Swe Minister of Transport, Gen. Thein Zaw Minister of Post and Telecomm, Gen. Maung Maung Then Minister of Fishery and Livestock and Gen. Soe Naing Miniser of Hotels and Tourism.

Gen. Soe Naing gave opening speech and other ministers also gave words of advice for their respective ministries in relation with tourism.

Diesel price soared

2006-07-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

Diesel prices in Victoria Point are getting high up to 30 baht/li reported by resident in Kawthaung. Kawthaung business depended on fuel prices as the fishing industry is driven by black market diesel.
In an another report the whole police force is transferred due to recent prison break.

Nay Pyi Taw-Mandalay express rail service to be launched on 7 June

2006-06-07T19:17:00.000-07:00

Nay Pyi Taw-Mandalay express rail service to be launched on 7 June. <>

73.5 Million Dollars worth of Gems from Burma

2006-03-16T17:55:00.000-08:00

Quality golden pearls produced from Myanmar to be displayed at the emporium.

YANGON, 15 March — Gems and jade products, ornaments, jade figurines, private shops, and mosaics to be sold at fixed price on the ground floor, imperial jade, commercial jade, utility jade, and uncut jade stones at the environs of the hall, and gems lots and pearl lots to be sold through competitive bidding system, as per the press release from the organizers. According to the Deputy Minister Myint Thein, the quality jade, gems and pearl lots will be sold through tender and auction systems at the 43rd Myanma Gems Emporium this year.

165 gem merchants from 70 companies of 11 countries confirmed to attend the show. It is estimated that over 1,000 gem merchants will attend the 43rd Myanma Gems Emporium. South Sea Pearl is the most popular in the world. At present, the quality golden pearls produced from Myanmar will be displayed at the emporium.

Arrangements are being made to put on display of 250 lots of pearl weighing 16,030.10 mommes. A total of 34 lots of pearl will be sold through competitive bidding and 216 lots of pearl through tender.

In the annual and mid-year shows in 2005, 29 million U.S. dollars and 47.3 million dollars worth of locally- produced quality gems items were put on sale respectively.

With regard to sales of jade stone, 2,459 jade lots including five quality jade stones will be sold. At the emporium, 251 lots of gems are displayed. They are 51 lots of Mongshu gems, and 204 lots of Mogok gems including one ruby lot to be sold at 3.5 million euro floor price. Furthermore, 1,045 items of ornaments will also be displayed at fixed price.

Myanmar started to hold gem shows annually in 1964 and since then the country has earned a total of over 500 million U.S. dollars from such events including the mid-year ones introduced since 1992 and the special sale since 2004, according to official statistics.

Myanmar is a well-known producer of nine kinds of gems -- ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow and it has three famous gem lands -- Mogok in Mandalay division, Mongshu in Shan state and Phakant in Kachin state.

To boost gem mining industry, Myanmar enacted the New Gemstone Law in 1995, allowing national entrepreneurs to mine, produce, transport and sell finished gemstone and manufactured jewelry at home and abroad.

From 2000, the government began to mine gems and jade in joint venture with 10 private companies under profit sharing basis.

Posted by Ksny - MyanmarGems

Asean Tourism Forum site : www.atf2006.com

2006-01-09T18:03:00.000-08:00

ASEAN 10 January : The web site for Asean Tourism Forum www.atf2006.com is rich with all the vibrant information on the Asia's premier tourism event ATF 2006. Many visitors to the web site are in search of the event information as well as business opportunities in ASEAN travel sector. The web site will continue to feature the event but will eventually be updated with ASEAN Tourism information from April 2006 onwards. Buyers, Sellers and Writers can continue participate in the www.atf2006.com which will become a ASEAN Tourism portal to commemorate 25th ASEAN Tourism Forum - according to the web site owner.

ATF 2006 official website online

BY RUBY GONZALEZ

After several weeks of being kept in the dark, the trade would be kept abreast on the progress of ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2006 with the launch of its new website, www.atf2006.com, on September 1, according to secretariat/ central communications head for ATF 2006, Susan del Mundo.

The website will be managed by the Philippines, which has taken over hosting of ATF 2006 from Myanmar.

Meanwhile, preparations for host city Davao have started revving up.

Official venues have begun upgrading their facilities and services. The NCCCMall Convention Center has been designated as the venue for the opening ceremony while the Marco Polo Hotel would provide accommodation to the VIPs. Sites for the ministerial meetings and conferences are still being finalised.

Locations being considered for these events are the Davao Convention and Trade Center, Central Bank Auditorium, or the function rooms of other proposed official hotels such as Waterfront Insular Hotel, Grand Regal, The Royal Mandaya, and Apo View Hotel.NCCC is being eyed to be the venue for the travel exchange (TRAVEX). del Mundo said the final decision would depend on the recommendation made by the event organiser.

With a short lead time, support from Davao’s government and private sector is helping the Department of Tourism (DoT) get on in preparing for the event.

del Mundo said an announcement that Davao City would be hosting ATF in 2006 had been made to the locals in the latter part of August during its annual Kadawayan, a thanksgiving festival.

“It turned out to be a double celebration,” she said. “While they were celebrating Kadayawan, they were also very happy that the city will be hosting the biggest travel forum in South-east Asia.” DoT said some 3,000 guests from all over the world are expected to attend ATF 2006.

The last time the Philippines hosted ATF was in 1998 in Cebu. Immediately after the news broke at the start of August that the Philippines will be hosting ATF 2006 a year earlier than the originally scheduled, other destinations in the country expressed keen interest in vying for the host city status. Among these were Manila, Clark and Cebu.

Naga Traditional New Year Festival 2006

2006-01-09T01:37:00.000-08:00

Naga Traditional New Year Festival 2006 will be held as per the following details.

Itinerary: Yangon-Mandalay-Homalin-Htamanthi-Leshi-Htamanthi-Homalin-Mandalay-Yangon for 5 Days / 4 Nights.

Schedule: 12th ~ 16th January 2006
Deadline for confirmation of naming list: 10th January 2006
Deadline for issue of Myanmar Airways tickets: 11th January 2006

Cost per Person: US$ 850 exclusive of domestic airfares to and fro Yangon, Homalin, and Mandalay respectively.

Contact: +95 1 204020

More ...

Welcome to Naga Traditional New Year Festival 2006

Yangon-Mandalay-Homalin-Htamanthi-Leshi-Htamanthi-Homalin-Mandalay-Yangon
(5 days / 4 nights)
January 12 Leave from Yangon Airport to Homalin by flight via Mandalay. More visitors come on board at Mandalay and the plane leaves for Homalin. Arrive at Homalin and proceed to Htamanthi by boat, lunch on board. Arrive at Htamanthi, enjoy dinner and rest for the night.
January 13 Breakfast at Htamanthi and depart to Leshi by car. Arrive at Leshi. Enjoy lunch and check-in to your accommodations built with native materials. Enjoy dinner and rest yourself for have a night sleep.
January 14 The traditional Naga Ceremonial Pole will be erected at the festival grounds and Naga clans in their traditional costumes will be there to participate. Explore the surrounding villages or the town of Leshi and see the Naga in their daily life.
January 15 The Official Opening Ceremony of the Naga New Year begins on the festival grounds early morning. Partake the traditional New Year food and rice wine with the Naga community elders. After the conclusion of the official ceremony, dance competitions by various Naga villages. In the evening a large bonfire is lit and everybody takes part in welcoming the Naga New Year, dancing around the bonfire.
January 16 Depart Leshi for Htamanthi by car. Arrive at Htamanthi and proceed to Homalin by boat. Lunch at Homalin. Depart Homalin for Mandalay and Yangon by flight.
End of service.

Cost per pax US$ 850.
Above cost includes accommodation, meals, Homalin-Leshi-Htamathi (by car & by boat).
Excludes Yangon - Homalin - Yangon US$ 350.
Mandalay - Homalin - Mandalay US$ 275.
Yangon - Homalin - Mandalay US$ 310.
Mandalay - Homalin - Yangon US$ 310.

Closure of Thandwe Airport Avoided

2005-11-09T19:36:00.000-08:00

MEETING was held at the head-office of the Department of Civil Aviation, attended by the Director General and officials of the department, tour operators, hoteliers and airlines.

It was decided that:

- A closure of the airport in November, December and January should be avoided, as tourists have made firm travel plans that often can not be changed.

More info on Myanmar Latest News.

2005-10-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

Myanmar Computer News : Myanmar Unicode Language System

2005-10-14T00:10:00.000-07:00

Myanmar Computer News : Unicode Myanmar Language System suscessfully implemented

Myanmar technicians have successfully invented computerized unicode Myanmar language character system, contributing towards the development of nformation and communication technology (ICT) in the country, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Thursday.

The credits goes to the Myanmar info-Tech Corporation stands the first organization in launching Myanmar unicode font installer software on the Internet.

Myanmar language consonants, vowels, numbers and special symbols can be used on computer in digital form, the e-National Task Force was quoted as saying.

The Myanmar language characters, which are in accord with orthography, can be used in word processing, e-mailing and writing web page in any computer system, the sources added.

Meanwhile, expedition of the work of translating world languages into Myanmar on computer is also underway.

In a bid to expand the country's Internet services, a Canadian ICT company has reached a memorandum of understanding with Myanmar to run an Internet service provider (ISP). The current private ISP in Myanmar went to the Bagan Cybertech Co., which had initiated the Internet and the internet-based telephone system in 2001 in cooperation with the Shin Satellite Co. of Thailand.

Moreover, Myanmar is also finalizing an upgraded draft of an ICT master plan for implementation to speed up the ICT development in every business sector in the country.

According to official statistics, the number of internet users in Myanmar has stood over 70,000 since it was introduced. The number of subscribers rose 133 percent within a year from 2003 when it was only 30,000.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has launched some e-government systems including e-visa, e-passport, and e-procurement to effect management of government bodies.

Myanmar introduced e-education system in early 2001. Being a signatory to the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement initiated at the regional summit in Singapore in 2000, Myanmar has also formed the e-National task Force to support the IT development.

The country has also signed a series of MoUs with companies from Malaysia, Thailand and an ASEAN organization on ICT development.

More infomation available on MyanmarComputer.com

Myanmar Travel Association arranges phone lines for its members

2005-09-19T22:53:00.001-07:00

Union of Myanmar Travel Association managed to get permits for 10 telephone lines for its members, according to its news letter dated 19th September, 2005.

There were 115 applicants and the 10 successful bids are as follows :

1.Malika T&T
2. Myanmar Sky T&T
3. Myanmar Tourism T&T
4. Fascinating Land T&T
5. Myanmar Frangipani T&T
6. Sun T&T
7. Golden Mother Land T&T
8. Ruby River T&T
9. Yomawadee T&T
10 KST T&T

All successful applicant has to contribute 500,000 kyats to UMTA in addition to the cost of phone line it is learnt.

Naga New Year Festival

2005-09-11T21:40:00.000-07:00

Every year in January. NAGA New Year is celebrated. This year, the Festival will be celebrated in Layshi, Sagaing Division, Union of Myanmar.It is the tradition of the NAGA people to share joy and happiness with friends and guests on this auspicious New Year and Thanksgiving celebrations to mother nature for granting bountiful harvest for all year round.Myanmar is a land of diverse topography and national races. High up on the mountains of North West Myanmar are the proud national group, known to the world as NAGA, one of the over 100 different national residents of the Union of Myanmar.

The NAGA Hills, as commonly referred to, have steep slopes and deep ravines. Cold wind blows during the winter months. Summer months are not hot but cool. Streams leap over huge boulders or hiss quietly along. The climate may be harsh for the NAGA people and those of the brethren Myanmar nationals, but the NAGA New Year Festival in the NAGA Hills will give each and every visitor to Myanmar an experience which is closer to nature, and an experience to cherish.

This year's NAGA Festival will be celebrated during the 2nd week of January 2006. The exact dates will be announced soon. The venue of the Festival is Layshi in Sagaing Division, which is accessible from Mandalay to Homalin by plane; an adventurous upstream to Htamanthi by boat or car and to Layshi by car.Further information on NAGA Festival 2006 will be posted on website soon.

Tourist map covering all the country destinations nears completion

2005-09-06T22:03:00.000-07:00

"Tourist Maps of Myanmar" will feature all the destinations in the country and the best of it all is - its free - said the Managing Director of Design Printing Services. According to DPS, the map will be available by next week - 12th. September, 2005.

Aye Min Oo added that these maps will travel to many tourist generating countries like United States, United Kingdom, West Europe and all major travel trade fairs.

His maps can be ordered by phone + 95-1-204020 or via the web site www.dpsmap.com and , according to Mr. Aye Min Oo, they will be posted free (postage will be paid by DPS).

Popular Tourist Map of Myanmar to come out soon.

2005-08-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

The popular Tourist Map of Myanmar from DPS will come out in end August. Although it was primarily targeted for Asean Tourism Forum 2006 to be held in Myanmar, now it is planned to distribute at the ATF 2006 in Phillipines. More over the new Mandalay tourist map wil also be published soon.

30-member team leaves for Berlin travel show

2005-07-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

A 30-member delegation led by the Myanmar Marketing Committee of the Myanmar Tourism Promotion Board left for Germany earlier this month to attend the world's biggest travel industry show. The International Travel Bourse in Berlin from March 11 to 15 features more than 100,000 exhibitors. Last year's event attracted more than 200,000 trade visitors and members of the public from throughout the world and 6700 travel writers and journalists from more than 80 countries. The event is held at the Messe Berlin Exhibition Centre, which has 150,000 square feet of display space. As well as members of the committee, the delegation includes the representatives of 14 travel agencies, five hotels, the national flag carrier Myanmar Airways International, three domestic airlines and Design Printing Services, which makes maps, including thode for use by travellers. The committee is being represented at the show by the committee's public relations manager, Daw Khine Wai Thwe, who said Myanmar has a 100 square metre booth which cost €20,000 in rental fees. "The booth is open on all sides which allows us to display our products effectively," she said ahead of the delegation's departure for Germany. Daw Khine Wai Thwe said she would distribute promotional materials for the annual ASEAN Tourism Forum being held in Yangon for the first time next January. The managing director of Taw Win Travel Co., Ltd. and the treasurer of the committee and the Union of Myanmar Travel Association, Daw Rita Myint, said promoting the ATF would be one of her priorities at the show. "It is the right place to make the world know about the ATF in Yangon and attract as many buyers and sellers as we can," she said. Daw Rita Myint said she would also promote Myanmar's beach destinations. "We need to promote our unspoiled beaches and the fact that they were not hit by the tsunami," she said. . Daw Rita Myint, who will be attend ing the ITB for the 10th time, said she concentrates on promoting Myanmar as a destination rather than her company's products. "The first step is to promote the country," she said. "In the past, people didn't even know where Myanmar was. Only in recent years have they started to learn about the country's attractions and show an interest in visiting." The managing director of Design Printing Services, U Aye Min 0, said he planned to take 3000 tourist maps of Yangon, Mandalay and Bagan, and 400 CDs produced by t e company to distribute at the show. "The CDs provide information about destinations and suggested itineraries as we as video displays to provide prospective visitors with a glimpse of what Myanmar offers. They are designed toenable travellers to easily browse travel packages," said U Aye Min Oo who will be attending the show for the fourth time. U Aye Min 00 said the CD also has software to direct users to a website. www.atf2006.com. Which has been established to promote the ATF In Yangon