HEARTBEAT OF THE NATION

1000
Ks.

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

DAILY EDITION

ISSUE 43 | FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015

PAGE

PHOTO: AFP

How
long can
Myanmar
ignore this
crisis?
As Malaysia and
Thailand refuse
to allow boats
laden with stricken
migrants land
on their shores,
patience appears
to be dwindling
with Myanmars
insistence that
it bears no
responsibility for
the boats, many
of which contain
Muslims fleeing
Rakhine State.
A six-year-old rescued migrant from Myanmar is photographed by Indonesian immigration personnel in Aceh province on May 13.

Consortium to bid for

last telecoms licence
Yatanarpon Teleport plans to form a consortium of local partners to bid for Myanmars
fourth and final telecoms licence, company officials have told The Myanmar Times. EXCLUSIVE 10

NEWS 7

Myanmar shows its metta

Volunteers raised more than
US$100,000 to help the relief effort in
Nepal following two earthquakes in the
past month that left thousands dead.
BUSINESS 11

Retailers push for beer

and liquor imports
Twenty-two companies are lobbying to
begin legal imports, three months after
they pulled products from their shelves.

2 News

Page 2

THE MYANMAR TIMES MAy

Ay 15, 2015
A

Kayleigh Long |
kayleighelong@gmail.com

THE INSIDER: change this

Once was Burma ...

Archival material courtesy of Pansodan Gallery
First floor, 286 Pansodan, upper block, Kyauktada township

Socialist-era mermaids, from Forward magazine.

Ring busted
Six men were reported to have been
caught in a sting operation on a
gold-smuggling racket in Chennai
earlier this week, according to a
May 12 article by the New Indian
Express (probably an esteemed
publication, however one whose
reliability I cannot vouch for) entitled
Myanmar gold in rectum, six walk
into a trap, which sounds more like
the beginning of a strange haiku than
a news story.
According to the Express, six
men (traveling in pairs) had crossed
overland from Myanmar, heading to
Imphal then on to Kolkata or Delhi,
before flying into Chennai where,
unbeknownst to them, a crack team
from the Directorate of Revenue
Intelligence were ready to receive
them.
After initial resistance, the six
reportedly confessed that they were
indeed carrying contraband gold in
their rectums, a modus operandi they
used at least six times earlier, an
official was quoted as saying.
After they wilfully agreed to
evacuate the contraband, DRI officials
waited till they were in possession of
the expertly packed gold bars.
Each man had two packets in his
rectum, containing three bars each.
These bars were rolled in two layers
of carbon or graphite paper and
taped into a smooth surfaced body
with black insulation tape.
The gold was reportedly worth 1.6
crore, and while my crore conversion
skills are somewhat rusty, I think its
valued somewhere in the vicinity of
US$160,000, or a bit over $26,000 per
butthole.
The story was also picked up by
Mizzima as Gold smuggling ring
busted, which is an accurate if not
wincingly visceral turn of phrase to
use given the context (particularly
if the image used in their article is
to be believed the ingots pictured
weighed 1kg each and looked rather
unwieldy).

They were indeed

carrying contraband
gold in their
rectums, a modus
operandi they used
at least six times
earlier.
Chennai official
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence

Skynet
It was revealed last week by Glenn
Greenwalds The Intercept that the
NSA has (or had) a secret program
called Skynet, which sifted through
metadata to track people suspected

of having terrorist connections.

Skynet is also the name given to the
computer system that went rogue
in Terminator and set out to destroy
humanity. It was not clear if the
NSAs name choice was inspired by
the movie, or the Myanmar satellite
pay TV operator of the same name.
All that can be said for sure is that
Myanmars Skynet is definitely a
Terminator reference. Or maybe its
the other way around.
Wa Secret Garden
This week The Irrawaddy ran a scoop:
Theyd managed to track down the
Was secret garden of aircraft and it
was as the Wa had previously stated
a pretty sad-looking, clapped-out
collection of helicopters set amid
some fairly janky gardens. This is
as close as anyones got to verifying
the contents of a Janes IHS intel
report from 2013, which stated the
UWSA had purchased five gunned-up
Chinese choppers.
Late last year UWSA spokesperson
U Aung Myint, while dismissing claims
theyd also recently acquired FN-6
Manportable Air Defence Missiles
(MANPADS), told The Irrawaddy that
they had bought some aircraft.
Of course, we bought aircraft.
And two submarines. But there are
no engines inside them. We put those
machines beside the road to grow
gardens in them.
And it does seem that is the case, if
not a fairly egregious abuse of the term
garden, judging by the photographs.
Given the Wa territory is landlocked
and mountainous, importing a boat
and the husk of a helicopter does seem
like an unnecessarily difficult logistical
undertaking and therefore a bit of a
weird choice but maybe they just
wanted a boat. That, or it was a flippant
move from a freewheeling narcostate
designed to inspire fear and intrigue.
Im not sure which version I prefer.
In brief:
Dwindling Ayeyarwady dolphin
population prompts new concerns
about the impact generations of
inbreeding has had on the species:
Were pretty sure theyre not supposed
to look like that, said one cetologist
Next week:
UK Foreign Office unearths trove
of forgotten top secret colonial-era
records (this actually happened see
Mondays edition)

The number of visible badges on U

Thein Seins Boy Scout uniform at a
recent ceremony. If you know what
these are for, please get in touch.

4 News
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THE MYANMAR TIMES MAY 15, 2015

Change to sections 59(f), 436

long way off, warns USDP rep
Senior member Thura U Aung Ko says amendments to key sections unlikely even under the next government

EI EI TOE
LWIN
eieitoelwin@gmail.com

A SENIOR Union Solidarity and Development Party official says change to key
sections of the constitution may not be
possible for more than five years, as another prominent politician warned delays in amending the constitution could
lead to a political crisis.
As the remaining time to change the
constitution before the election ticks
away, Thura U Aung Ko, a central executive committee member of the ruling USDP, hinted that no major changes
will be made to the constitution during
the current governments term.
Speaking to journalists during a
break in the parliamentary session of
May 13, he said, Everybody knows that
changes to section 436 are 99 percent
impossible. The government doesnt
want to change it, he said.
Change might not even come under
the next government, to be formed early
next year following elections in November, Thura U Aung Ko warned. Its going to take a long struggle.
The opposition National League
for Democracy has said it plans to

approach constitutional amendment

without revoking section 436. Yesterday
spokesperson U Nyan Win refused to
discuss its strategy in light of Thura U
Aung Kos comments. At the moment
we dont to reveal our next move We
await parliaments decision, he said.
The May timetable for a nationwide
constitutional referendum set by parliamentary Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann
already seems beyond reach, as parliament has yet to agree on what proposed
amendments should be put to voters for
decision.
We cant see a nationwide referendum taking place in May we havent
even discussed the amendment bill
yet, said Sai Bo Aung, a member of the
Constitutional Amendment Implementation Committee. A June date is now
looking more likely.
The long process of constitutional
amendment is a catalogue of missed
deadlines. In January, a draft amendment bill proposing changes to sections
of the charter, including 59(f), which
bars Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from being
eligible for the presidency, was submitted to hluttaw.
However, Speaker Thura U Shwe
Mann has not yet tabled the bill for debate. MPs have supported that decision,
saying no significant changes to the
2008 constitution can be made until an
agreement is reached among the main

political players.
In particular, the military has a veto
over constitutional change through its
grip on 25 percent of the seats in both
houses of parliament. The allocation of
those seats to the military is guaranteed
under another controversial provision
of the constitution, section 436.
On April 10, six-way talks involving
President U Thein Sein, Commander-inChief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing,
Thura U Shwe Mann, Amyotha Hluttaw
Speaker U Khin Aung Myint, Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi and U Aye Maung of the
Rakhine National Party, representing
ethnic minorities took place in Nay

I never believed
that parliament
could change the
constitution. But
that doesnt mean
we will give up
trying to find a way.
U Aye Thar Aung
Rakhine National Party

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Chin parties
to meet on
electoral
cooperation

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Pyi Taw at the request of parliament

in an effort to reach common agreement on the amendments. Though no
deal was reached, participants agreed
to meet again and talks are expected in
the coming weeks.
Ko Pyone Cho, a member of 88 Generation group, which helped the NLD
collect 5 million signatures calling for
amendments to sections 59(f) and 436,
said yesterday he was seriously concerned at the delay.
If its 99pc impossible to change
the constitution we should cooperate
in finding solutions. I cant say precisely
what those might be, he said.
The United Nationalities Alliance
(UNA) is planning a conference of political parties, ethnic armed forces and
civil society groups to discuss constitutional amendment, said UNA central
committee member U Aye Thar Aung.
I never believed that parliament
could change the constitution. But that
doesnt mean we will give up trying to
find a way. The conference will consider
the matter, he said.
U Aye Maung agreed, saying it
would be impossible for the referendum to be held in May, adding, The
extent to which we can change the constitution depends on the next six-way
meeting. Its very important to get tangible results. If not, it is likely to lead to
a political crisis.

Yangon residents stage a protest calling for constitutional change in May 2014. Photo: AFP

Concern as Speaker calls for

bill to protect constitution
HTOO THANT
thanhtoo.npt@gmail.com
PARLIAMENTARY Speaker Thura U
Shwe Mann has urged the government
to speed up drafting of a bill to protect the 2008 constitution legislation opposition MPs fear could hinder
campaigns to amend the charter.
The Speaker made the comments
yesterday in response to a proposal
from opposition MP U Thein Nyunt to
revoke the 1959 Constitution (Protection) Act. Thura U Shwe Mann said
that while the act should be revoked,
replacement legislation was needed
first.
I want to urge the ministry concerned and Union government to

submit the bill for the 2008 Constitution Protection Act to the hluttaw as
soon as possible so that the 1959 Constitution (Protection) Act can be revoked, said Thura U Shwe Mann, who
submitted the proposal in his capacity
as the representative for the seat of Zayarthiri in Nay Pyi Taw.
Earlier, U Tin Maung, secretary
of the Pyithu Hluttaw Committee for
Citizens Fundamental Rights, Democracy and Human Rights told the hluttaw that revoking the 1959 act would
result in a lack of protection for the
2008 constitution.
Deputy Attorney General U Tun
Tun Oo said the bill to protect the
2008 constitution is being written by
the Ministry of Home Affairs.

We gave them legal advice on the

bill on April 24, he said.
During the discussion no detail
was given on the contents of the bill,
but the proposal has concerned some
MPs. Daw Khin San Hlaing, the Pyithu
Hluttaw representative for Pale from
the National League for Democracy,
said she was worried about how the
bill would impact her partys efforts to
amend the constitution.
At the moment, people are waiting
to see how the constitution is amended, what clauses can be amended
there, and if sections 436 and 59(f) are
changed, she said. But at the same
time the Speaker is urging the protection of the constitution.
Translation by Thiri Min Htun

NINE Chin political parties are set to

work out details today of how to cooperate in the forthcoming general
elections to maximise their chances of
winning seats.
Salai Isaac Khen, director of Gender and Development Initiative, an
NGO, told The Myanmar Times yesterday that the aim was to set out guidelines for cooperation.
The political parties will go deeper
and an electoral cooperation framework would be probably drawn from
the meeting, he said. The meeting is
a follow-up to an election agreement
reached on Mach 21 by nine out of
10 ethnic Chin parties who said they
would seek to avoid fielding candidates against each other.
The countrys diverse ethnic groups
have high hopes of increasing their representation in parliament in this years
elections. The need to cooperate is driven by concern that having too many
candidates from local parties competing against each other will enable the
National League for Democracy or the
Union Solidarity and Development Party to win seats under Myanmars firstpast-the-post voting system.
Salai Isaac Khen, who has acted as
moderator for the Chin parties, said
todays agenda also includes discussion of the draft nationwide ceasefire
agreement signed on March 31 and
the role of Chin political parties in
dialogue with the government once a
ceasefire is finalised.
Recently due to fighting near the
border of Rakhine and Chin states,
local Chin residents left their homes.
This will also be another topic to be
discussed, he said.
Salai Lian Hmung, a member of the
Chin National Front (CNF), will also
attend the talks. Lun Min Mang

News 5

www.mmtimes.com

Journalist charged six months

after press freedom protest
MRATT KYAW THU
mrattkthu@gmail.com
A SENIOR editor at Thamaga weekly
said yesterday she had been charged
by police for her involvement in an unauthorised rally calling for freedom of
expression held in Yangon more than
six months ago.
Ma Shwe Hmone said she had been
ordered to report to Kyauktada township police station on May 16 to face
charges under the peaceful protest
law.
I dont know why they ordered
me. That event was more than six
months ago from now. But Ill face the
situation and charges, she told The
Myanmar Times.
Journalists and activists held a
rally led by Myanmar Journalists
Network (MJN) near Sule Pagoda in
central Yangon last November 2 to defend freedom of expression. The event
marked the International Day to End
Impunity, a movement set up to commemorate the massacre by gunmen of
57 people, including 32 reporters and
media workers, in the Philippines in
November 2009.
Ma Shwe Hmone had been a senior
reporter for Myanmar Thandawsint
and moved to Thamaga as chief of
staff. She is also an executive committee member of the MJN and a director
of the Myanmar Journalism Institute.
Explaining the delay in bringing
charges, Captain Win Tin of Kyauktada police station said, We were busy
at that time. And we were taking time
to get her information such as her
address and so on. We got hers just

Govt seeks to
extend martial
law in Kokang
HTOO THANT
thanhtoo.npt@gmail.com

Ma Shwe Hmone (centre) takes part in a protest in Yangon last year. Photo: Wa Lone

recently. So we can inform her now.

MJN members and activists had
been granted permission by police to
hold the rally but not in a public location downtown.
One activist from Generation
Wave and I asked the police for permission. So I think they targeted me
although there were many journalists
attending, Ma Shwe Hmone added.
MJN secretary U Myint Kyaw told
The Myanmar Times that he was

responsible for the rally and he could

not understand why the authorities
pressed charges after six months.
Twelve media workers are behind
bars in Myanmar amid concerns that
the government is backtracking on
reforms. A chief editor and a senior
reporter of The Myanmar Post are expected to be freed today after serving a
two-month sentence with hard labour
for defaming military members of parliament.

PARLIAMENT will today discuss

a request from the government to
extend martial law in the Kokang
border region, where the Tatmadaw
has been battling ethnic Chinese rebels for over three months.
Minister for Defence Lieutenant
General Wai Lwin, acting on behalf
of President U Thein Sein, made the
proposal before a joint session of
the two houses of parliament, saying the 90-day extension was necessary because the situation had not
been normalised.
Heavy fighting has been reported along mountain ranges close
to China in recent days by official
Myanmar newspapers, NGOs and
social media on the Chinese side of
the border.
The president declared 90 days
of emergency rule and martial law
in Kokang on February 17. It was
the first time his reformist administration had imposed direct military
rule in any part of Myanmar since
taking office in 2011.
The defence ministers proposal
was added to the agenda for debate
yesterday, but Pyidaungsu Hluttaw
Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann said
it would be discussed today.

Fighting between the armed

forces and the Kokang-based Myanmar National Democratic Alliance
Army (MNDAA) erupted on February 9 after nearly six years of relative calm in the self-administered
region.
The ethnic Chinese militia led
by Peng Jiasheng, who has been accused by the US of being a narcotics
kingpin, is backed by two other ethnic armed groups, the Arakan Army
and the Taang National Liberation
Army.
The government has rejected
ceasefire proposals by the MNDAA despite calls by China for
dialogue.
The fighting has displaced tens
of thousands of mostly ethnic Chinese civilians, with the bulk fleeing across the border into China.
Access to Kokang has been tightly
controlled under martial law while
the Tatmadaw has ordered the media not to report statements by the
MNDAA.
Declaring martial law on February 17, U Thein Sein granted administrative and judicial power to
Tatmadaw
Commander-in-Chief
Senior General U Min Aung Hlaing
for the speedy restoration of law
and order in the region.
Translation by Thiri Min Htun

www.mmtimes.com

NEWS EDITOR: Thomas Kean | tdkean@gmail.com

IN DEPTH

Can Myanmar, and the region,

continue to ignore the crisis?

News 3

LANGKAWI

Police hunt
trafficking
mastermind
on Langkawi
FIONA MACGREGOR
newsroom@mmtimes.com

LAIGNEE
BARRON

NYAN LINN
AUNG

ON the brink of an escalating crisis,

with migrant-laden boats bearing
down on Thailand, Malaysia and
Indonesia being repelled back to
sea, the region has reached a critical
impasse.
Rights group estimate some 8000
impoverished Rohingya and Bengalis
are adrift at sea, abandoned by those
who smuggled them through international waters and abandoned by
the neighbouring nations that insist
Myanmar bears responsibility for a
problem it has long described as a
domestic issue.
But with no one willing to allow
the boats to disembark, observers
say the region is facing the choice of
leaving the thousands on the boats to
their grim fate, or foregoing strict adherence to a longstanding policy of
not meddling in each others affairs.
For its part, Myanmar insists the
boats are none of its concern.
Several migrants have already
died in the face of regional indecision. Both Indonesia and Malaysia
which has long been a recipient of
Muslims smuggled out of Rakhine
are now swatting the boats away,
refusing to allow the sick and the
starving to land.
They are gambling with lives,
said U Maung Kyaw Nu, director of
the Burmese Rohingya Association
of Thailand.
Members of the association claim
to have had contact with one of the
vessels stranded at sea on May 12.
Their condition is very dire
they have no food and at least five
have died, he said.
Several rights groups, the United
Nations, the United States and Australia have called for a coordinated,
intergovernmental rescue mission
for the smuggled men, women and
children believed to be stuck on overcrowded wooden boats. The lack of
response has only underscored the
regional failure.
Its clear theres no regional task
force thats currently set up to handle
this, said Vivian Tan, spokesperson
for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Bangkok.
If authorities dont step up and
disembark we dont have the technical capacity to handle this. We cannot track and locate these boats.
The spiralling humanitarian crisis
took hold of the region after Thailand
sought to repair a bruised reputation
as a trafficking hub by cracking down

Children play in a camp for Muslim IDPs on the outskirts of the Rakhine State capital Sittwe in January. Photo: Yu Yu

on secluded smugglers camps, the

destination for disembarking Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants.
But Thailands disruption of the
route prompted smugglers to abandon their human cargo, and in recent
days 2000 migrants have swum to
shore or been rescued in Indonesia
and Malaysia.
In the last three years, more than
100,000 members of the Muslim minority group have undertaken perilous sea voyages in order to escape
persecution and abysmal conditions
in IDP camps, according to UNHCR.
More than 25,000 people, at least
half of whom were Rohingya a
group the government officially refers
to as Bengali joined the smuggling
route in the first three months of this
year, double the number over the
same period last year, UNHCR said.
While many of those so far rescued say they are from Myanmar,
Nay Pyi Taw denies it bears any
responsibility.
Presidents Office director U Zaw
Htay said those who arrived in Indonesia and Malaysia might not be
from Myanmar.
But regional patience is clearly
faltering. Together with human
rights groups, both Indonesia and
Malaysia are shifting the blame back
to Myanmar.
During a citizenship evaluation
yesterday in Indonesia, several of
those rescued off a smuggling boat
held placards self-identifying themselves as Myanmar.
Some of them have been living in
Bangladesh but they are from Myanmar, they are Rohingya, said Kharul,
the political attach at the Indonesian embassy in Yangon.
As chair of ASEAN this year,
Malaysia was expected to bring the
heated Rohingya topic to the table.

Instead, the blocs members have so

far adhered to a longstanding regional non-interference policy, including at recent meetings held on
Langkawi, the holiday island that is
now playing host to more than 1000
smuggled people who swam from
their abandoned boat on May 10.
The sudden influx as well as the
looming prospect of receiving hundreds more appears to have broken
Malaysias non-interference resolve.
Yesterday, its Deputy Home Minister
Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafa told AFP
the crisis was Myanmars fault.
We need to send a very strong
message to Myanmar that they need
to treat their people with humanity,
he said.
He also revealed that he anticipates the Rohingya issue will be on
the next ASEAN meetings agenda.
Everyone in the neighbourhood
knows who started the problem, and
Nay Pyi Taws refusal to discuss it is
infuriating leaders in other capitals,
especially as the size of this boat
crisis expands, said Phil Robertson,
deputy director of Human Rights
Watch Asia Division.
Thailand announced it will hold
a regional summit on May 29 to
tackle issues that went unsaid at the
ASEAN Summit in April, but experts
have questioned whether the meeting is simply an attempt to convince
the international community that
action is being taken. The looming
release of the US State Departments
annual Trafficking in Persons Report,
due out in June, may also be a factor
in the apparent response.
By the time the Thai Prime Ministers regional meeting rolls around
on May 29 will there be any boat people left to save? said Mr Robertson.
But while Myanmar officials are
on the Thai prime ministers invitee

list, its unclear whether Nay Pyi Taw

plans to attend.
Daw Khin Nwe Oo, a deputy director general at the Ministry of Labour, said Myanmar and Thai labour
officials will meet on May 20, and
based on the discussion Myanmar
will decide whether to participate in
the Thai summit.
Some observers say the government stands to gain internationally
from participating in a regional solution, but fears a political backlash
locally, where there is little sympathy
for the Rohingya.
The Myanmar government is
getting a bad reputation over staying silent on this issue, said U Kyaw
Lin Oo, a Myanmar-based regional
affairs analyst. At the same time,
he added, the government will not
want to disturb its local political
landscape before an election.
While pressure is mounting the
longer the stranded boats stay unaided, the international community
has not shown it is serious about forcing Myanmar to improve conditions
in Rakhine State, said Hanna Hindstrom, Asia information officer at Minority Rights Group International.
So as long as the international
community is unwilling to follow up
on its demands, Myanmars leader
can continue to pay lip service to the
problem and proceed with business
as usual in Rakhine, she said.
And without Myanmars cooperation, regional efforts to resolve
the crisis will not address the forces
that compel desperate migrants onto
boats bound for foreign shores.
Myanmar holds the ball, said
Maung Kyaw Nu of the Rohingya Association in Thailand. And if Myanmar
really was interested in doing something they wouldnt be letting some of
their own people drown at sea.

MALAYSIAN police have scoured the

holiday island of Langkawi in search of
a Thai man who allegedly oversaw the
trafficking of thousands of illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The head of the Langkawi police
told The Myanmar Times yesterday
that officers had searched all possible
locations on the island for Pajjuban
Aungkachotephan.
The former senior Thai government
official, who is also known as Ko Tong,
is believed to have fled Thailand for Malaysia after a warrant for his arrest was
issued by Thai police on May 9.
Police searching his private island
base of Rat Yai off Satun province in
southern Thailand reportedly found 19
unmarked graves. Local media reported
that Satun governor Dejrat Simsiri had
on May 13 confirmed the bodies at the
site were those of Thai people and had
been identified by relatives.
Superintendant Harridh Kam Abdullah, officer in charge of Langkawi
police district, said it was not certain
Mr Pajjuban was on the island, but
added, We have sent out men and our
resources to search for him in all possible locations, and are still stepping up
efforts to try and locate him.
Mr Harridh said the search on Langkawi had been carried out independently from the manhunt conducted
by Thai authorities, but that his officers
might engage with them in the future.
On May 13, Major General Paveen
Pongsirin, a deputy regional commander in southern Thailand, told reporters
that Ko Tong was a mastermind of
the trafficking gang in Satun province,
which borders Malaysia.
Maj Gen Paveen added, He has a
lot of assets tens of millions of baht
in assets have been seized. He is a very
prominent figure.
The manhunt was launched as Malaysian authorities continued to deny
entry to boats carrying thousands of migrants, who remain trapped at sea with
little remaining food or water. The crisis
comes after a clampdown in Thailand
on human traffickers left boats unable
to land there or in other nearby countries, including Malaysia.
More than 1000 people from Myanmar and Bangladesh, many of whom
had been at sea for weeks, landed on
Langkawi on May 10, pulling the picturesque island to the centre of an international humanitarian crisis.
Longstanding claims by rights
groups that thousands of people from
Myanmar have been held by traffickers in appalling conditions have been
backed up by the recent discovery of
mass graves and remote jungle camps
in southern Thailand, close to Malaysias border.

TRADE MARK CAUTION

6 News

THE MYANMAR TIMES MAY 15, 2015

Suntory Holdings Limited, a Japanese corporation of 1-40

Dojimahama 2-Chome, Kita-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka, Japan, is the
Owner of the following Trade Mark:-

SUNTORY
Reg. No. 1099/1995
in respect of Beers, mineral and areated waters and other nonalcoholic drinks; fruit drinks and fruit juices, syrups and other
preparations for making beverages, alcoholic beverages.
Fraudulent imitation or unauthorised use of the said Trade Mark
will be dealt with according to law.
Win Mu Tin, M.A., H.G.P., D.B.L
for Suntory Holdings Limited
P. O. Box 60, Yangon
E-mail: makhinkyi.law@mptmail.net.mm
Dated: 15 May 2015

TRADEMARK CAUTION
Klongsuan Cotton Industry Co., Ltd., a Company incorporated
and existing under the laws of Thailand, and having its registered
office at 299 Moo 2, Soi Prachauthit 90, Prachauthit Road, Ban
Klongsuan, Prasamut Jadee, Samutprakarn, 10290 Thailand,
hereby declares that the Company is the Owner and Sole Proprietor
of the following Trademark.

U Win Cho poses for a photo in December before contesting the Yangon City Development Committee election. Photo: Zarni Phyo

Activist to protest YCDC car tax

KYAW PHONE KYAW
k.phonekyaw@gmail.com

Reg. No. IV/2911/2015 (12 March 2015)

The above trademark is used in respect of Household or kitchen
utensils and containers; combs and sponges; brushes (except paint
brushes); brush-making materials; articles for cleaning purposes;
steel wool; unworked or semi-worked glass (except glass used in
building); glassware, porcelain and earthenware not included in
other classes in Class 21.
Any fraudulent imitation or unauthorized use of the above mark or
other infringements whatsoever will be dealt with according to law.
Daw Thit Thit Kyaw, (H.G.P.)
For Klongsuan Cotton Industry Co., Ltd.,
c/o BM Myanmar Legal Services Limited (Baker & McKenzie)
# 1206, 12th Floor, Sakura Tower, 339 Bogyoke Aung San Road,
Kyauktada Township, Yangon,
The Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Dated: 15 May 2015

TRADE MARK CAUTION

LEONIAN SINGAPORE PTE LTD., a corporation duly
organized and existing under the laws of Singapore, of 4 Chang
Charn Road, Singapore 159633, is the Owner of the following
Trade Marks:-

Reg. No. 2384/2015

YANGON authorities face a one-man

protest this weekend as a local resident takes to the streets to denounce
the policy of taxing out-of-town vehicles, and the tax collectors who carry
out that policy. And theyre not even
polite about it.
Activist U Win Cho, who may or
may not be accompanied by supporters, is taking on Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC), and has applied to Kyauktada township police for
a permit to hold his protest on May 17.
YCDC levies payment on vehicles
with licence plates from outside the
city of Yangon, meaning that even
vehicles bearing YGN plates that hail
from the 12 Yangon Region townships
outside get stung for the tax. Only vehicles registered in the 33 city townships under YCDC authority get off
scot-free.
At least cars from within Yangon
Region are charged a lower rate: between K100 to K500, depending on the
weight of the car. True out-of-towners,
from the hinterlands of Mandalay, Nay
Pyi Taw or Bago, are charged between
K1000 and K10,000 a day for the privilege of entering our fair city.

Inquiring about the philosophy behind the policy at the Htaukkyant toll
gate, U Win Cho, who drives a car with
YGN plates from outside the city, says
he was subjected to abuse by an insolent official.
The YCDC staff were rude, and a
man in civilian clothing made a violent gesture, he complained yesterday.
Cars registered in the 33 city townships are not liable for the tax. But the
toll gate staff demand it from all cars
with YGN plates. People are being
robbed, and are not speaking up. I will
take up this matter personally, he told
The Myanmar Times yesterday.
He said about 50 people who feel
the same way told him they would join
forces with him outside City Hall on
May 17 and march around downtown.

KYAT

10,000
Fee payable for some out-of-town
drivers when entering Yangon

I dont know who they are. When

I announced my protest on Facebook,
some people phoned to say they would
join me and some replied via Facebook. Even if they dont come, I will
protest alone, he said.
He said the entrance tax was particularly unfair because he has already
paid the wheel tax when he applied
for his licence at the Road Transport
Administration Department. The staff
there were rude too, he said.
Im not trying to dodge taxes. I
want to point out the mismanagement
of YCDC. If they need the tax, they can
have it. But theyre paying a private
company to collect the duty. How does
that work? he added.
His protest will also cover YCDCs
failure to address the parking shortage and the blockages caused by street
vendors, he said.
U Cho Tun Aung, chief of YCDCs
public relations and information department, said, If he wants to protest,
let him protest. We cant stop him.
Well just get on with our work, he
said quite politely.
A YCDC statement on the policy
said it was intended to relieve congestion in the city streets by deterring
cars from entering the urban Yangon
unnecessarily.

Japan to assess safety

of Rakhine ferry fleet
JICA rebuffs Myanmar request for new vessels following ferry tragedy in March,
instead sending a five-member team of experts to ensure rest of fleet is seaworthy

Reg. No. 2385/2015

in respect of Class 25: Clothing, waistbands, wristbands
(sweatbands), clothes for sports, footwear, sports shoes, boots for
sports, headgear for wear, socks and stockings, gloves [clothing],
belts [clothing], headbands [clothing]. Class 28: Sports equipment,
machines for physical exercises, appliances for gymnastics, golf
clubs, grips for golf clubs, golf club bags, grips for golf clubs, golf
club shafts, head covers for golf clubs, golf balls.
Fraudulent imitation or unauthorised use of the said Trade Marks
will be dealt with according to law.
Win Mu Tin, M.A., H.G.P., D.B.L
for LEONIAN SINGAPORE PTE LTD.
P. O. Box 60, Yangon
E-mail: makhinkyi.law@mptmail.net.mm
Dated: 15 May 2015

HTOO
THANT
thanhtoo.npt@gmail.com

FOLLOWING the disastrous ferry

sinking in Rakhine State in March,
Japan is sending experts to evaluate
where Myanmars boats are going
wrong and just how safe the remaining vessels are, according to the Ministry of Transport.
Myanmar had asked the Japan
International Cooperation Agency
to provide a new fleet of lightly used
ferries suitable for Rakhine State conditions, according to U Han Sein, a
deputy minister for transport.
However, Japan replied that no
such crafts could be found and instead

a five-member technical group will

analyse the state of the governmentowned fleet in Rakhine.
The five-member group arrived on
May 10 and started their task to analyse the water crafts owned by the [Inland Water Transport] department on
May 12. They will submit a report after
they discuss with the officials concerned, U Han Sein told the Pyithu
Hluttaw session on May 13.
Using the evaluation from Japan as
a guide, the department will proceed
to substitute out unsuitable vessels in
Rakhine State and other regions, he
added.
Currently, 12 vessels are in operation in Rakhine, but the deputy minister did not specify countrywide figures.
Even without specifics of numbers
needed or potential costs, the plan to
stop using dangerous vessels received
support from parliamentarians.

Id like to ask if the government

can buy better water crafts using the
state budgets since Japan cant provide
[vessels], said Daw Khin Saw Wai, the
Pyithu Hluttaw representative from
Yathedaung in Rakhine State.
At least 72 lives were lost when the
Aung Takon 3 ferry sunk in southern
Rakhine State in early March. Since
then, Rakhine State locals and ethnic
MPs have campaigned for better safety
standards, especially as the government investigation into the accident
revealed numerous safety issues including overcrowding as well as the
fact that the crew and captain may
have been drunk at the time of the
incident.
In response, the government recently instituted a policy of stocking
vessels with life jackets and also offering training to staff on how to respond
in an emergency.

News 7

www.mmtimes.com
FEATURE

Myanmar shows its metta for Nepal

Shortly after news broke of a devastating earthquake, Myanmar groups began searching for ways to help ease suffering in the Himalayan nation

CATHERINE
TRAUTWEIN
newsroom@mmtimes.com

MYANMAR citizens have donated

more than US$100,000 to assist relief efforts in Nepal, where a series
of devastating earthquakes has killed
and injured thousands, and left many
more homeless. About 1000 families
have benefited as a result, but volunteers say they are also focused on
finding ways to help those affected in
Nepal rebuild their lives, including
through education.
The relief effort began almost immediately after the first earthquake
hit, with a meeting of individuals in
Myanmar linked to a Nepal-based
bilateral group, the Nepal-Myanmar
Friendship Council (NMFC).

1000

Families in Nepal that have received

assistance from volunteers linked to the
Nepal-Myanmar Friendship Council

One of the people who took part in

the meeting, writer U Win Min Htwe,
appealed to those in his personal network many of them musicians to
donate. Word also spread through local news, and after only five days of
fundraising the volunteers had collected $50,000.
This is from all races and all religions that came together to help Nepal, said Deepak Adhikari.
U Win Min Htwe and U Maung
Win also associated with the NMFC
flew to Kathmandu on May 2,

arriving the following day in a city

that from the air appeared deceptively undamaged.
From the plane, we [thought]
nothing had happened, said U
Maung Win, who is also managing
director of Yangons Goma Mogok
Gems.
Damage revealed itself in cracked
and collapsed buildings, and then in
flattened areas further afield. They
visited a playground with a football
field where people camped in tents.
U Win Min Htwe said many had
gone back home, while others were
attempting to return to villages outside the city even as aftershocks rumbled, which led to heavy traffic and
even rows with police.
The men made their way out of the
city, but not far. Travelling 30 kilometres took two hours.
We can cover the [area] very near
to Kathmandu, U Win Min Htwe
said, adding they were the first to deliver aid materials to a village not far
from the city centre. So many devastated areas and so many troubles.
On May 4, the men scoped the
needs of a nearby village, Okhapourwa, and began handing out tarpaulins, blankets and beaten rice which
can be eaten without cooking the
next day. A Facebook page created
to help others keep track of their donations and efforts, Nepal Myanmar
Metta 2015, reported that the supplies
reached nearly 350 people.
Meanwhile, their visit to Nagarkot,
a major tourist destination about 30
kilometres east of Kathmandu, highlighted the disparity between the
countrys rich visitors and those subsisting in poverty. About one-quarter
of Nepals population lives below the
international poverty line less than
$1.25 a day according to United Nations Childrens Fund data from 2011.
Have you ever been to Nagarkot?
So many billionaires, millionaires ...
but [at] the bottom of that, small villages are just like hell. Up is paradise,
then hell, U Win Min Htwe said.
U Win Min Htwe said that the

Members of a Myanmar relief team, including U Win Min Htwe, hand out supplies
in Okhapourwa village near Kathmandu on May 5. Photo: Supplied

A building in Kathmandu leans precariously following the earthquake. Photo: Win Min Htwe

NMFC and the Non-Resident Nepali

Association a Nepali diaspora organisation headed up in Myanmar
by U Maung Win together thought
out ways to not only meet villagers
immediate needs, but also provide
longer-term support.
One village where they distributed
supplies, Dhada Gaun, had no school,
so they decided to build one as soon
as possible. The building could house
a library and serve as shelter if disaster strikes again.
U Win Min Htwe and U Maung
Win returned to Yangon on the morning of May 12. That afternoon, a second major earthquake of magnitude
7.3 rocked Nepal. The UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs said 66 people had been killed,
with more than 1000 injured.
This complicates an already precarious situation, Dan Sermand, the
Nepal country director for Mdecins
Sans Frontires, said in a statement.
There is going to be more trouble accessing the affected areas.
But the Nepali associations are not
the only groups in Myanmar doing
their bit to help the relief effort.

Since the end of April, a group of

youth volunteers has been singing
outside shopping centres throughout
Yangon to raise money for disaster relief, with donations eclipsing $5000.

In my mind, I
feel they are my
relatives ... How
can we not act
when our relatives
are in trouble?
U Win Min Htwe
Writer and fundraiser

Told not to donate straight to the

embassy because the cash would end
up in a government bank account, the
group has yet to decide how to donate
the funds.
One singer, Sai Thant Zin Tun,

said mothers and children could be

the beneficiaries, or that money could
go toward building a school.
They are [our] brothers and sisters, he said.
U Win Min Htwe has a one-word
answer to explain the support in Myanmar for Nepal: metta, or lovingkindness. He added that the Nepalese
Gurkha are famous in Myanmar, so
when first quakes epicentre turned
out to be in Gorkha district, Myanmar rushed to help.
In my mind, I feel they are my
relatives. If I feel they are strangers,
I cannot do this work, U Win Min
Htwe said. So as they are our relatives in my mind not only in Nepal
but also all over the world, human
beings are our relatives in our minds
how can we not act when our relatives are in trouble?
Since their first trip to Nepal, the
group has doubled its fundraising total. U Maung Win said hes not sure
when theyll return to the country
but if the aftershocks and earthquakes continue, the need for assistance from all corners of the globe,
including Myanmar, will only grow.

8 News

THE MYANMAR TIMES MAY 15, 2015

Views

What is the UEC scared of?

FIONA
MACGREGOR
fionamacgregor@hotmail.co.uk

EMBERS of a new
political entity calling
itself the Womens
Party have been told
by the Union Election
Commission they should change
the organisations name, it was
reported this week.
It appears the government told
party leaders the name was too
general, as the word women
represented a wide variety of voters
throughout the country.
Given how often women are
ignored in politics, it is heartening that the authorities recognise
women are voters, too.
However, in this case they seem
to be missing the point.
Presumably, the fact that around
half the electorate is female, and
deserves to be fairly and equally
represented in a way it is not at
present, is why the founders of the
Womens Party decided to launch
the group.
In a country where less than
5 percent of national parliamentarians are women, the need to
increase female representation is
clear. It is a worthwhile political
goal in itself.
The party, informally established
in October 2014, has said it aims to
boost the number of women of all
ethnicities engaged in politics. So
the name Womens Party would
seem to be a very accurate description of what it stands for.
But apparently the men in charge
dont all see it that way. The UEC
reportedly requested that the party
change its name, or at least alter it
by putting something in front of or
behind the word Womens.
They could hardly give a clearer
message that womens issues are
not considered important enough
to matter in their own right but
are expected to have some other
political angle to give them validity.
In the UK, Sandi Toksvig, a comedian and broadcaster who recently
founded the Womens Equality Party,
has described facing similar challenges within a British context.

Officials guard baskets of votes in a polling station in Kawhmu township during the April 2012 by-elections. Photo: Ko Taik

Asked why she had not joined

an established political party,
she told the BBC, Most of the
mainstream parties seem to treat
womens issues as if we were a
minority group rather than, in fact,
what we are, which is the majority
of the country. So you get separate
womens manifestos, or you get
childcare talked about as if it was
only a womans issue.
And the Womens Party in Myanmar is not alone in suggesting that
a party can choose to focus less on
traditional political divides to work
for gender equality.
Ms Toksvig described how the
Womens Equality Party is going
to be non-partisan. Its not going
to be right or left. Its going to be a
very pragmatic, female approach to
things, which is to say, What is the
problem that we have in front of
us? And what is the most practical
and possible way in which we can
solve this?
It is an approach politicians of
all genders could benefit from.

Of course, some would argue

that women in politics do not necessarily behave much differently
from men in politics. However,
such a debate remains mainly a
matter of theory, because women
so rarely get the opportunity to
work in a political arena that
hasnt been established and dominated by men.

The Womens Party

in Myanmar is not
alone in suggesting
that a party can
choose to focus
less on political
divides to work for
gender equality.

This is certainly true in Myanmar today.

Writing in the Huffington Post
this week, Catherine Russell, US
ambassador-at-large for global
womens issues, highlighted the
lack of women in Myanmars most
important institutions.
[In] the government, the
military, and some powerful civil
society groups women are underrepresented, which means their
status and political influence are
limited, she wrote.
Yet, Ms Russell recognised
that even in the face of so many
challenges, women in Burma are
doing great things for their country.
Imagine what they can do if their
voices, perspectives, and leadership
are fully included.
Its an inspiring vision and one
a truly inclusive party for women
could help achieve. But perhaps it
is also what those powerful men in
Myanmar with vested interests in
maintaining the status quo are so
worried about.

EDITORIAL

What are
the forces
driving
migration?
THE surge of boat people arrivals
into Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand
merits closer enquiry into the issue of
regional migration. The majority of
the trafficked people are from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Human rights organisations have
blamed Myanmar for the exodus,
saying that it has been prompted
by discrimination toward minority
groups.
There are obviously deep problems in Rakhine State in respect to
human rights. But economic opportunities, or lack thereof, are also a
major driving force.
Myanmar and Bangladesh have
a similar per-capita GDP around
US$1200. A major difference is in
population density. While Bangladesh has less than a quarter of
Myanmars land mass, its population, at 156 million, is three times
as large.
For many people living in Bangladesh and Myanmar, the greener
grass lies beyond the countrys borders. The higher wages in countries
like Malaysia, with a per-capita GDP
of about $11,000, and Thailand, at
about $5500, entice many thousands
to go abroad each year.
Economic disparity in the region is an issue that needs to be addressed. But responsibility lies not
just with poorer countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh, but also their
richer neighbours and the international community as a whole.
Countries must also come together to tackle the crime at the heart
of this latest outflow of migrants.
Many of these people have been held
in horrendous conditions by human
traffickers, who are now dumping
them on foreign shores.
The culprits are simply exploiting
the poor and helpless for financial
gain. They and those others who
facilitate their despicable trade
must be brought to justice, whether
they are in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia or Myanmar.

10 THE MYANMAR TIMES MAY 15, 2015

Business
Local consortium to claim
Myanmars fourth telco licence
CLARE
HAMMOND
clarehammo@gmail.com

YATANARPON Teleport (YTP) is

working with a management committee to form a consortium of local partners, which will bid jointly
for Myanmars coveted fourth telecommunications operator licence,
according to YTP chief executive
officer U Shane Thu Aung.
After years in which the telecommunications sector was dominated
by state-owned monopoly Myanma
Posts and Telecommunications
(MPT), in 2012 officials confirmed
plans to reform the industry.
In June 2013, following an international tender, licences were
granted to Norways Telenor and
Qatars Ooredoo. State media announced that the government
would also grant license to two local operators Myanma Posts and
Telecommunications and Myanma
Economic Corporation as a joint
venture and the other Yatanarpon
Teleport Co which will reshape itself as a public company.
Since then, despite widespread
speculation, there has been no official announcement either to confirm or deny that there will be a
fourth operator a fifth if MECTel,
a partially army-owned operator,
is also counted.
Throughout 2014, YTP held discussions with a number of potential international partners, including Malaysias Axiata Group and
Thailands True Corporation Public Company, according to sources
close to the negotiations, but no
deal was signed.
Then, toward the end of last
year, Reuters reported that YTP
planned to sign a US$800 million
deal with Vietnams Viettel Group,
which is owned by the Vietnamese

government via the Ministry of

Defence.
Six months on, there has been
no announcement by either Viettel or YTP, leading to rumours that
the deal will not go ahead.
We are founding a new consortium under the direction of a
management committee, which
includes the deputy minister of
the Ministry of Communications
and
Information
Technology
[MCIT], and we are working to
make sure the steps are correct
and transparent, said U Shane
Thu Aung.
Details about the structure will
be made public soon, he said. The
second stage will be forming a
joint venture with a foreign partner, which will be done through
a transparent selection process,
according to the guidelines of the
management committee, he said.
He did not comment on whether or not Viettel would be involved
in this process. Viettel could not
be reached for comment by press
time yesterday.
A consortium is necessary to
ensure the fourth operator will
be highly efficient in terms of decision making and corporate governance, said U Shane Thu Aung.
This is particularly important
as it will be entering the market
at a late stage. The airplane has
already taken off and the only option is to land it safely at the next
runway, he said.
The consortium will not be
under the name of YTP. It will be
partly government-owned, and
will also sell shares to the public.
Negotiations are still ongoing as to
whether the government will hold
a majority stake, he said.
Access to Myanmars underdeveloped telecommunications market is much sought-after. In 2013,
when the government invited expressions of interest (EOIs) from
international firms for two operator licences, a total of 91 foreign

companies and consortiums submitted proposals.

However, while the international licences allow 100 percent
ownership, the fourth licence is
thought to be reserved for a local
company, meaning that international investors may only hold up
to 49pc.
Furthermore, the new operator will need to raise between $1
billion and $2 billion to compete
seriously in the market. Estimates

We are founding
a new consortium
under the direction
of a management
committee.
U Shane Thu Aung
YTP CEO

place the cost of the licence alone

at around $450 million.
In YTPs case, the investment
structure would have required the
foreign partner to provide more
than $1 billion in financing, in return for a 49pc stake. It was difficult, because anyone investing
that amount would naturally want
a serious degree of control and
comfort, said a source close to one
of YTPs prospective international
partners.
Few local companies are able
to raise this amount of capital
without an international partner.
Those who can lack the technical
expertise to compete seriously in
the market.
It is likely to take some time
for the consortium to be formed
and approved, the joint venture
partner to be secured, and the licence to be awarded. Meanwhile,
after launching just last summer,

Telenor Myanmar announced a total of 6.4 million subscriptions by

the end of the first quarter 2015,
of which 58pc were active data
users, and Ooredoo Myanmar reported 3.3 million customers by
the same date.
The results coming out for the
international operators are very
encouraging, so the fourth operator should be keen to get in gear,
given the growth of the market.
Clearly everyone else is making
money, said a Telenor equity analyst at an international bank.
But U Shane Thu Aung is confident it wont be too late. Many
countries have latecomers. We will
use latecomer strategies we will
come in very fast and use the existing infrastructure, he said.
He has had discussions with
tower companies, but has not yet
commissioned any sites, he said.
Others agree that the fourth
operator has a decent chance at
success. Concerns about losing
the first-mover advantage are not
entirely warranted. A fourth operator coming in at a late stage could
get up to 20pc market share if the
company was well managed, said
a director at a Myanmar telecoms
tower company.
YTP is an internet service provider. It was originally known as
Bagan Cybertech and was later renamed Myanmar Teleport. In 2007,
as the result of a joint venture between MPT and a number of private companies, it was rebranded
as Yatanarpon Teleport.
Japans KDDI Corporation and
Sumitomo Corporation signed a
joint operating agreement with
MPT in July last year, to become
Myanmars third operator, with a
view to investing up to $2 billion
over ten years.
The consortium includes two
local partners: Myanmar Information and Communication Technology Development Corporation,
and A1 Construction Company.

MPT adds
8 million
subscribers
since July
CATHERINE TRAUTWEIN
newsroom@mmtimes.com
MPT has sold more than 8 million SIMs
in the seven months since Japanese
telco KDDI and Sumitomo Corporation
began a joint operations agreement in a
bid to modernise the state-owned telco.
KDDI, which on May 12 released its
financial report for the fiscal year ending March 2015, stated that launching
operations in Myanmar had boosted
revenues for its global services segment, with the segments operating revenues posted at 320.6 billion yen (US
$2.7 billion) up more than 20 percent
over the year prior.
The company first officially entered Myanmar last July when it
joined Sumitomo Corporation in setting up a subsidiary, KDDI Summit
Global Myanmar (KSGM), to assist
state-owned MPT in competing with
then-forthcoming international telcos Ooredoo and Telenor.
Officials at the Japanese company
told The Myanmar Times in a January
interview that MPTs penetration of the
Myanmar market stood at 11 million
active SIM cards, though hedged the
figure could represent an inaccurate
picture of its user base.
The company now claims MPT has
sold more than 8 million SIMs since
July, with steady sales growth anticipated in the future.
In its report, the Japanese firm said
sales were propelled by fresh rate plans
and data communications discounts
rolled out over the year and launched
to ensure customers could avail themselves of services at flexible rates.
In a May 12 presentation on its
financial results, the company highlighted its new Swe Thahar plan for
consumers launched in January, which
began charging subscribers for data
per megabyte rather than by amount of
time online, as well as the debut of an
MPT brand stand at Yangons international airport.

Slow liftoff for helicopter association as market grows

AYE NYEIN WIN
ayenyeinwin.mcm@gmail.com
THE Myanmar Helicopter Association
was launched last week at the Heliops
Myanmar Conference and Exhibition in
Yangon, with a view to developing helicopter operations across the country.
The newly formed association
will be led by U Tin Aye, who aims
to take on negotiatons between international companies and the Myanmar government to facilitate development of the business.
The main purpose of the association is to advance helicopter operations in Myanmar, which has a lot of
offshore and onshore operations. We
think this could become the biggest
helicopter market in South East Asia,
said Frank Boland from Global Integrated Service Ltd, during the May
7 to 8 Heliops Myanmar conference
held in Yangon.
In Myanmar, most of the helicopters are currently owned by the

military. In the future, the association

hopes that more helicopters will be
used in business, and for search and
rescue missions. Companies are also
very interested in the use of helicopters
for Myanmars offshore businesses and
for use in tourism.
To develop the business in Myanmar, we need money and technology.
Investors hope to run a scheduled helicopter service in addition to charter
helicopters, as the market develops,
said U Htun Tint Aye, director at Air
Mandalay Limited.
We have formed a helicopter association but we can do nothing right
now. Helicopters are so expensive,
and nobody can land in Myanmar. We
need helicopters and pilots, and permission from the government.
Ultimately, the success of the industry hinges on whether or not the
government decides to support it, he
said. In addition, it is important to
ensure that it benefits the Myanmar
people.

A helicopter sits on the

tarmac at Yangon International
Airport. Photo: Thiri Lu

Foreign companies can help with

technology, but they shouldnt do this
without involving Myanmar citizens,
he said.
He suggested that if foreign firms

wanted to operate helicopters, the government could allow joint ventures with
local companies, with a 51-49 percent
shareholding structure.
As I know, most of the companies

are interested in offshore and tourism.

Helicopter operations can be developed
in Myanmar. But we must do it systematically, said director general U Win
Swe Tun from the Ministry of Transports Department of Civil Aviation.
Helicopters are useful in the mountain regions, and would be necessary
for rescue operations during a natural
disaster. But this task is currently assigned to the army, he said.
The army does not need to follow the rules and regulations of civil
air transportation. If companies enter
into the helicopter business, they will
need to follow the regulations, whether they are flying charter or scheduled
services, said U Win Swe Tun.
There is also a need to build supporting infrastructure, as Myanmar
has insufficient airstrips to support a
developed helicopter industry, he said.
We hope this industry will develop very quickly, and believe it will
probably change over the next three or
four years, said Mr Boland.

11

BUSINESS EDITOR: Jeremy Mullins | jeremymullins7@gmail.com

Busted pipeline slows

down the gas supply on
which public transit relies

Facebook changing the

game for the future of
digital media

BUSINESS 12

BUSINESS 14

Exchange Rates (May 14 close)

Currency
Euro
Malaysia Ringitt
Singapore Dollar
Thai Baht
US Dollar

Buying
K1217
K302
K809
K33
K1089

Selling
K1237
K315
K822
K35
K1091

Retailers push for beer

and liquor imports
Customer demand is
AYE THIDAR growing for foreign
KYAW brands, and our
members frequently
ayethidarkyaw@gmail.com
FREQUENT customer requests for for- complain.

Farmer Phor Armas collects raw rubber from rubber trees at a plantation
near Samnuktong, Thailand. Photo: Bloomberg

Rubber price spike

starts to erase losses
SU PHYO WIN
suphyo1990@gmail.com
RUBBER prices jumped last week
in keeping with world prices and
an improved exchange rate, but it
is not enough to dig domestic producers out from mounting losses.
International prices have
plunged by as much as 75 percent
from highs reached briefly in
2011, and local prices have kept
pace. While there has been something of a turnaround recently as
a supply glut is eased, prices have
stayed low.
Myanmar Rubber Planters
and Producers Association secretary general U Khine Myint said 1
pound (0.45 kilograms) of locally
produced unprocessed rubber
fetched K600 previously, but has
increased to about K725 last week.
In Tokyo yesterday, rubber for
May delivery opened trading at 214
yen (US$1.79) a kilogram, or $0.81
or K883 per pound. In 2011, prices
topped out at 549 yen a kilogram
for benchmark Tokyo rubber.

Local rubber generally trades at

a discount to international prices.
Current prices are said to be
not too profitable for planters,
said U Khine Myint.
The monsoon also starts locally
in about two weeks, which generally freezes processing of all but
the best-equipped shops.
U Khin Kyu, owner of Zabudate
rubber plantation in Kayin State,
said the recent uptick in prices
may show some upside after a period of long declines.
Prices had fallen as low as
K520 or K580 in the past, but
now prices are higher than K700,
he said. Were seeing more buyers in the area, and thats helping
local prices.
Some farmers previously told
The Myanmar Times they had shut
down during the price fall.
Mawlamyine-based rubber researcher Daw Theingi Myint said
rubber is a crucial crop for some
areas of the country. The cash crop
is particularly prevalent in Mon
State and Tanintharyi Region.

eign beer and liquor are leading members of the Myanmar Retailers Association to push for government permission
to begin legal imports.
About 300 outlets from 22 different
companies have joined in lobbying to
begin legal imports and sales after they
stopped sales on February 20, following what it says was pressure from the
Tax Advisory Board and the Ministry of
Commerce.
Imports of foreign alcohol are generally illegal in Myanmar, though there
are loopholes for hotels and duty-free
shops. Government officials had generally looked the other way on imports
until launching a series of raids in late
2013.
Myanmar Retailers Association
deputy chair U Myo Min Aung said the
associations members have received
many customer complaints in the past
three months since imported alcohol
was pulled from the shelves.
We are thinking and trying to import brands again. Customer demand
is growing for foreign brands, and our
members frequently complain that local shops are killing them with lowerquality local products made jointly by
local producers, he said.
U Myo Min Aung added domestic
producers are not in a position to fill all
the market gaps and different market
segments.
The Ministry of Commerce pledged
to provide legal avenues to liquor imports following its raids on importers
in 2013 and 2014. Beginning in March
this year, the Ministry of Commerce
opened a legal import avenue only for
wine imports, though so far companies
are still working to obtain the necessary
approvals to proceed. The ministry has
also pledged to further open the market

U Myo Min Aung

Myanmar Retailers Association

to beer and liquor imports, though no

legal route to do so has been announced
so far.
U Myo Min Aung said there is less
demand for wine than for beer or liquor
in the local market. While demand is
bigger for beer and alcohol, the government should set a respectful policy that
is convenient for all sides, he said.

Difficulty importing alcohol is not

the only concern. The Ministry of Home
Affairs has also restricted sale of new alcohol permits to liquor shops, resulting
in a secondary market for the permits,
with prices two or three times the official cost of the permits.
Ministry of Commerce adviser U
Maung Aung said the ministry has not
planned to freely give away licences to
import beer or liquor, as opposed to
wine, and the plan for the more popular alcohols may not be implemented
immediately. Legal imports of beer and
wine must await a separate Ministry of
Commerce notification before they can
begin.
Importers must be accountable
for these items. They need to guarantee the quality of brands, taxes,
warehousing and many other things,
so the ministry will not give a licence
to all suppliers, even though demand
is huge, he said.

Opinion is divided on whether local substitutes are up to the job of replacing

foreign tipple. Photo: Staff

12 Business

THE MYANMAR TIMES MAY 15, 2015

Public transit slowed by gas pipe fire

AUNG
SHIN
koshumgtha@gmail.com

YANGONS public transport network

has been affected by a disruption in
its fuel supply, as an onshore natural
gas pipeline has sprung a leak.
The 14-inch (36-centimetre) diameter pipe connects Yangon to
Nyaungdon field, about 55 kilometres
(34 miles) northwest of the city. It
is the main conduit for compressed
natural gas to Yangon, which is used
to power many of the citys buses and
taxis, a senior Myanma Oil and Gas
Enterprise official said yesterday.
A fire broke out on the pipeline
during the evening of May 12, which
damaged the pipeline. Regional fire
brigades and the pipeline office of the
Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise took
care of the incident, which took place
in a village in Htantabin township.
The fire was caused by burning in
a paddy field, said the official. The
pipeline has been temporarily fixed.
Other minor leaks occur in the gas
supply network in Yangon due to its
age.
We are going to reinstall parts
of the pipelines when other offshore
pipelines are ready, the officials said.
The Nyaungdon-Yangon pipeline
generally sees flows of 20 million cubic feet per day for use in Myanmars
largest city.
U Myo Win, owner of a CNGfuelled bus, said some filling stations
have had to temporarily shutter and

supply has been restricted.

Our bus lines have been affected,
he said. We can only complete three
rounds trips a day, where we used to
complete five.
Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise
runs a total of 41 CNG filling stations
in the Yangon area. It estimates there
are 26,849 vehicles, including taxis
and busses, which use the fuel.
Many drivers prefer CNG as the
price is subsidised by the government, making the fuel much cheaper
than petroleum.

We can only
complete three
rounds trips a day,
where we used to
complete five.
U Myo Win
Bus owner

All public bus lines and more than

15,000 private taxis are fuelled by
subsidised CNG, according to Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise.
The pipeline accident has also affected private taxi drivers.
It started last Wednesday. We
didnt get any gas due to the pipeline
leakage, said U Tun Win, driver of a
privately-owned CNG-powered vehicle.
Fuelling in CNG stations now
takes a long time due to long
queues, though things are returning
to normal.

A statue of Bayinnaung
guards the Yangon
museum.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise officials install a natural gas pipeline near Yangon last year. Photo: Supplied

The government earmarks more

than 300 million cubic feet of natural
gas per day for domestic use. About
7.1 percent of this fuels vehicles, but
most of it is for running gas-powered
generation stations, as well as state
and private factories.
A previous Ministry of Energy announcement said 78pc of gas went to

turbines and 15pc for powering industry

during the April to November period.
Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise
officials previously announced that
about 35 kilometres of ageing gas
transmission pipelines to CGN stations were to be replaced last year.
In 2014, Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise also began building a new,

bigger pipeline to increase the amount

of gas available for domestic use.
These include a 56km pipeline
connecting Ywarma to the northwest of Yangon to Thaketa township
southeast of the city, and a 32km
pipeline connecting Myochaung in
Ayeyarwady Region to Shwe Pyi Tha
in northwest Yangon.

Private insurance slowly catching

on, says deputy finance minister
SHWEGU THITSAR
khaingsabainyein@gmail.com
PRIVATE insurance entered the market three years ago and has slowly
been generating more business, according to deputy finance minister
Dr Maung Maung Thein.
State-owned Myanma Insurance
ended its monopoly on many types of
insurance in early 2013, and a number of companies received licences,
helping to spread knowledge of insurance, he said. The market is gaining
momentum to meeting international
standards, but it is still young and
needs more experience, he said.

We can say the market has been

developed if we look at [and compare
to] a time when Myanma Insurance
was the sole operator.
Dr Maung Maung Thein also
said that the market has developed
through competition, adding the existing companies now earn up to K1
billion (US$917,000) a month from
insurance premiums.
iKBZ general manager U Aung Soe
Oo said raising awareness is the main
challenge for the existing insurance
companies.
Its not a huge challenge, because
if we try, people will become aware of
our services. But it is important to get

awareness to the public so we have to

try harder, he said.
Before Cyclone Nargis, people
were not interested in insurance, but
now they see the benefit, he added.
The firm is also working to
spread knowledge of insurance particularly outside of the major cities
by distributing pamphlets and holding seminars.
Dr Maung Maung Thein also
said that the current number of insurers 12 private companies and
state-owned Myanma Insurance is
the right amount for the market at
present.
Translation by Zar Zar Soe

The visitors met with regional

authorities and businesspeople at
Ngapali, where the district administrator explained the potential of
the beach, including a local population already used to dealing with
tourists.
Investment will come sooner
or later, so we need to find a way
of maintaining the Ngapali beach
environment long-term before the
boom time comes. We also have to
make full use of the opportunities
for foreign investment, he said.
Ngapali attracts many repeat
visitors. The Thai delegation was
surprised at the beauty of the
beach, and some said it was better
than Phuket.
U Aung Myo Min Din, chair of the
Rakhine Hoteliers Association, said
the visitors were seeking potential

sites for investment or cooperation,

including the banking, fishing and
tourism sectors. Investments in the
hotel business at Ngapali would provide more jobs for local people, he
said.
We need to start capacity-building before the foreign investment
comes in, which is why we are planning free hospitality training to interested residents, starting May 31,
he said.
Myanmar Fisheries Federation
vice chair Daw Toe Nandar Tin said
she would welcome investment in
livestock and fisheries though local
residents should retain sea fishing
rights.
Our regional neighbours can
benefit from our local knowledge,
and we can benefit from access to
their high technology, she said.

Total Gameplay Studio

expands its empire
Ngapali may be more beautiful than
Phuket, according to a delegation

AUNG KYAW NYUNT

aungkyawnyunt28@gmail.com

MYANMARS historical heroes will

wage war to expand their empires
in a new game from Total Gameplay
Studio, due for launch this September, according to the design firms
chief technology officer U Myint
Kyaw Thu.
The Yangon studios Age of Bayinnaung Android app named for a
famous 16th century king will take
users back in time back to the Taungoo Dynasty. Everything in the game,
from legendary Myanmar leaders to
its set and soundtrack, comes back
to local lore.
We created the game to teach
others about Myanmars history and
heroes, U Myint Kyaw Thu said.
Age of Bayinnaung is the latest
in a series of apps from Total Gameplay Studio that incorporate elements of local culture. The company
has also released games where users

can play chinlone or drive a trishaw

at Thingyan.
Meanwhile, the new apps venerable cast of characters includes
Hanthawaddys final monarch Binnya Dala, Taungoos poet prince
and brief king, Natshinnaung, as
well as his Portuguese ally, Filipe
de Brito e Nicote.
Buildings in the game were designed to look like those in Myanmar, and the apps audio will be a
mix of tradition and popular local melodies, according to U Myint
Kyaw Thu.
Though the game has similarities to international titles like Clash
of Clans and Clash of Kings, Myanmar users say they like Age of Bayinnaung for the local touch.
Well prefer Age of Bayinnaung
over Clash of Clans and Clash of
Kings because we can play it with
our King or hero characters, said
Clash of Clans gamer Ko Kyaw Zin
Win.

EI EI THU
91.eieithu@gmail.com
NGAPALI beach is more beautiful
than Phuket, according to a Thai
delegation making its first visit to
the Rakhine State resort. Tourist
industry observers say the delegations visit, led by the Thai ambassador to Myanmar, is the latest sign
of foreign investor interest.
U Khin Aung Htun, joint secretary general of the Myanmar Tourism Federation, told The Myanmar
Times yesterday that the May 9 visit
by 28 Thais included representatives of the fisheries, trading, engineering, water treatment, banking
and airline industries.
In addition to Ngapali, they
also took in Kyaukpyu, Sittwe and
Mrauk Oo, he said.

International Business 13

www.mmtimes.com

IN BRIEF
Sharp cuts to keep firm afloat

Japanese electronics giant Sharp yesterday said it was cutting thousands of

jobs in a fresh turnaround plan to keep
it afloat as the struggling firm posted a
bigger-than-expected US$1.86 billion
annual loss.
The 222 billion yen ($1.86 billion)
net loss much bigger than an earlier
30 billion yen forecast came as Sharp
said it would cut about 10 percent of its
49,000-strong global workforce, including 3500 jobs in Japan.
The firm said it hoped to swing to
an 80 billion yen operating profit in the
current fiscal year, but it did not give a
net profit forecast.
The embattled Aquos-brand maker
said it would sell the building that
houses its Osaka headquarters to raise
cash, roll out unspecified pay cuts and
launch a drastic capital reduction plan
to wipe away huge losses.

Korean firm inks Abu Dhabi oil deal

Korean group GS Energy secured a 3

percent share in an onshore oil concession in oil-rich Abu Dhabi on May 13,
making it the third company with a
participating share in production.
The agreement signed by Abu
Dhabi National Oil Company and GS
Energy gives the Korean firm a 40-year
concession, state news agency WAM
reported.
The share amounts to 3pc, it said,
without giving a value.
The Korean firm becomes the third
foreign company after Frances Total
and Inpex of Japan to participate in the
concession.

Modi takes aim at tax dodgers

Indian lawmakers approved a crucial

bill that aims to unearth billions of
unaccounted-for dollars believed to
be illegally stashed in foreign banks by
Indians to avoid paying tax.
The upper house of parliament
passed the bill that calls for fines as
high as 10 million rupees (US$156,500)
and prison terms up to 10 years for
offenders.
The passage of the legislation
underscores Prime Minister Narendra
Modis resolve to trace hidden and
undeclared cash outside the country,
known as black money.
Mr Modi pledged during his highoctane election campaign last year to
bring back black money within 100
days of being elected, after accusing
the previous Congress Party-led government of failing to crack down.

Singtels fourth-quarter profits up

Singapore Telecom (Singtel) said
yesterday fourth-quarter net profit
rose 4.5 percent year-on-year, boosted
by strong performances in the home
market and regional associates as its
digital business expands.
Net profit totalled S$939 million
(US$709.4 million) in the three months
to March, compared with S$898 million
in the same period last year, Southeast
Asias biggest telecom firm by revenue
said in a statement.
Revenue rose 5.1pc to S$4.34 billion
from S$4.13 billion.
The group and its associates successfully captured the strong growth
in mobile data services, with strategic
investments in networks, distribution,
customer initiatives and support,
Singtel said in the statement. AFP

Qatar Airways chief lashes back at

US criticism in subsidy row
The head of Qatar Airways lashed back
at criticism that state-owned Persian
Gulf airlines have an unfair financial
advantage, saying efforts to block the
carriers from American airports come
from greedy US competitors.
There are no grounds for denying
Persian Gulf airlines access to US markets, Akbar Al Baker, chief executive
officer of Qatar Airways, said on May 13
after meeting with US transportation
regulators in Washington.
Mr Al Baker accused US airlines
of bullying tactics, providing crap
service and being unwilling to compete
directly. Bloomberg

BEIJING

Now the Chinese debt clean-up

MORE than six years after China
unleashed a record credit boom to
shore up growth in the grip of the
biggest global financial crisis since
the 1930s, policymakers are starting
to address the shaky financing that
resulted.
In a template that could be expanded, regulators laid out ground
rules for local governments to swap
high-yielding, short-term loans for
lower-cost, longer-term municipal
debt.
Officials in Beijing are relying
on inducements for banks to take
on the new bonds, seeking to avoid
a nationalisation of the borrowing
that would increase the central governments debt-to-gross-domesticproduct ratio. At least part of the
exchange theyd like to be done privately, between the existing borrowers and lenders deals that could
minimise disruption to markets.
A successful swap of the initial
1 trillion yuan (US$161 billion) of
loans would help limit the risk of a
full-blown financing crisis among
Chinas cities and provinces.
At stake is ensuring that local
authorities retain the wherewithal
to continue building infrastructure
critical to the nations urbanisation
drive.
The challenge will be convincing financial institutions to make the swaps

The Shanghai World Financial Center (centre) is still under construction,

but will be 632 metres (2073 feet) on completion. Local debt has become a
towering problem. Photo: AFP

and purchase the new bonds, part of a

broader push by authorities to develop a municipal-debt market. Among
the incentives for banks to step up is
the ability to use the new securities as
collateral for loans from the central
bank through three of the Peoples
Bank of China liquidity programs.
It will significantly reduce the
refinancing risk and interest rate
burden for local governments, JPMorgan Chase & Co economists, led
by Zhu Haibin in Hong Kong, wrote

in a May 13 note. However, in

practice the public offering scheme
is constrained by inadequate interest from banks due to low yields of
the special local government bond.
The transactions also could help
bolster banks lending capacity, by
reducing their loan-to-deposit ratios,
according to Mr Zhu at JPMorgan.
Coupon rates on the new securities shouldnt be lower than the average yield on sovereign notes with
similar maturities in the five days

before the issuance date, according

to a document from the PBOC, Ministry of Finance and China Banking
Regulatory Commission dated May
8. Rates should not be higher than
1.3 times comparable sovereign
yields, according to the document.
Jiangsu, a province north of
Shanghai, may become the first local
authority to complete a swap, when
it proceeds with a bond sale that it
delayed in April, pending steps by
the central government to buttress
the program. The province now
plans to sell 52.2 billion yuan of securities May 18, of which 30.8 billion
yuan would be swap securities.
Besides auctions, the central government is encouraging some of the
swaps to be done through private
placements which should be completed by August 31, according to the
document.
The Communist leadership team,
led by President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, is addressing the
consequences of the policies of its
predecessor group, headed by Hu
Jintao and Wen Jiabao.
The previous administration won
plaudits round the world in 2008 for
a decisive 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion at the time) stimulus program to
strengthen growth in what was then
the worlds third-largest economy.
Bloomberg

14 International Business

THE MYANMAR TIMES MAY 15, 2015

WASHINGTON

Facebook deal shakes media

FACEBOOK pushed deeper into the
media business late on May 13 by
crafting a deal with news publishers which allows the social network
to deliver articles directly to readers and could reshape the news
landscape.
The long-anticipated move by
Facebook means it will host news
items on its servers to give readers
faster access.
The plan has been hotly debated
in the news industry by those who
argue it can help struggling media
groups, and others who say news organisations will lose control of their
content to the social network.
The new feature called Instant
Articles makes the reading experience as much as 10 times faster than
standard mobile web articles, Facebook said.
Sharing on Facebooks mobile app
is growing but the average article
takes about eight seconds to load.
Partners in the launch are The
New York Times, National Geographic, BuzzFeed, NBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News,
Spiegel and Bild, Facebook said.
Facebook France chief Laurent
Solly said that French media groups
would also join the effort.
It will be mostly dailies at the
start, but we are open to all news
organisations, Mr Solly said in a radio interview.
Facebook said publishers may
sell ads in the articles and keep the
revenue or use Facebooks ad network. Publishers will also be able

to track traffic and other data of

their content hosted by the social
network.
Instant Articles will initially be
available on the Facebook app for
iPhone, but Facebook is working to
expand the platform.
A recent Pew Research Center
report found some 30 percent of
Americans get at least some of their
news from Facebook.
But media groups have been struggling with the shift to digital from
print, both in terms of delivering relevant articles to readers and in getting
ad revenue from online services.
Some in the news industry argue
the plan gives Facebook too much
control of the news.
Overall I dont think it is a good
idea, said Dan Kennedy, a journalism
professor at Northeastern University.
Mr Kennedy said Facebook is
not transparent about how it shows
users news and the site can make
changes that promote or demote
content, with a major impact on
news organizations.
When news organisations turn
over a key part of their publishing
platform to a large corporation with
its own agenda there are some real
risks, Mr Kennedy said.
New York Times media critic David Carr, who died in February, said
last year that media outlets would
essentially be serfs in a kingdom that
Facebook owns under such a plan.
I can see why these news sites
are tempted by the offer, but I think
theyre going to regret it, said John

Gruber who writes the Daring Fireball news blog.

Facebooks formula for structuring its news feed has long been
a source of controversy, with some
arguing it creates an information
bubble that segregates readers into
like-minded groups.
A study published last week by
Facebook found this was not the
case that the sites members were
exposed to considerable cross-cutting content but some analysts
said the conclusions were debatable.
Danny Sullivan, founding editor
at the Search Engine Land blog, said
the move opens the door for Google
to make a similar news partnership
that could have a major impact on
the news industry.

If news and
technology can come
to terms, we can
begin to reinvent
journalism in a
distributed world
with new business
models.
Jeff Jarvis
Journalism professor

I worry what it means when the

free and independent web is mirrored within the walled gardens of
two giants, Facebook and Google,
Mr Sullivan said in a blog post.
Joshua Benton of the Neiman
Journalism Lab at Harvard University said a risk for publishers is losing
control of ad revenue to Facebook.
Premium publishers charge premium advertising rates, Mr Benton
said in a blog post.
So what happens if brands realise they can reach a Times [or Atlantic or Spiegel] audience more efficiently and more cheaply without
dealing with the publisher directly?
Mr Benton said the deal may
give publishers a wakeup call to
invest more time and resources into
being faster on the Web.
City University of New York journalism professor Jeff Jarvis said the
Facebook move is a watershed event
for news.
This is good news for news, Mr
Jarvis said. If news and technology
can come to terms, we can begin to
reinvent journalism in a distributed
world with new business models.
Mr Jarvis said Facebooks move
along with Googles efforts to partner with news organisations show a
path for the future of the industry.
We are no longer monopolies
in control of content and distribution from top to bottom, he said in
a blog post. We now live in ecosystems where we must work with others. Get used to it. Find the opportunity in it. AFP

Slumping Brazil looks

for China investment
Brazil signalled it will look to China
for major investments in its infrastructure as it prepares to host next
years Olympics amid an economic
slump.
Investments and trade will be
at the top of the agenda next week
when Chinese Prime Minister Li
Keqiang meets there with Brazilian
President Dilma Rousseff.
In an interview with China Business News, Ms Rousseff said she
is hoping for Chinese investments
to upgrade Brazils dilapidated railroads, highways, ports and airports.
I hope there can also be greater
cooperation on trade flows between
Brazil and China, Ms Rousseff said.
The issue of free trade between
Brazil and China is very important
and must be on the agenda, Ms
Rousseff added.
Mr Li arrives next week in
Brasilia on an official visit.
China has been Brazils chief
trading partner since 2009 and
one of its main sources of foreign
investment.
Bilateral trade jumped by a
factor of 13 between 2001 and
2013 when it reached US$83.3
billion. Brazilian exports moreover
outstripped imports from China by
$8.72 billion in 2013 as the South
American giant benefited from high
Chinese demand for commodities.
That demand has since dipped,
putting a brake on Brazilian growth.
Mr Li will visit Colombia, Peru
and Chile as well as Brazil in a
South American swing aimed at
building Beijings influence in the
region. AFP

Job Watch
LOCALS ONLY POSITION
Pact, a U.S based INGO with operations throughout Myanmar,
is currently seeking an experienced and dedicated candidate
for the position below.
Position Title: Communications Manager
Position Summary: The Communications Manager is responsible for
providing leadership in the communications department, including supervising
communications officer(s), managing the implementation of Pacts
communication strategy, overseeing publicity and media relations, and the
production of key publications and materials.
Requirements:
Degree-level qualification or equivalent, Masters degree preferable
Minimum 5 years experience working in the development/humanitarian
field (preferably in communications section) or in media industry
Excellent verbal and written proficiency in English and Myanmar language
Demonstrable experience in working with a wide range of media, preparing
press releases, editing and producing publications, and managing social
media platforms
Computer literate in both Microsoft and Apple operating systems, with
strong technical skills including experience with video editing, photography,
and production of layouts and graphics in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and
Illustrator
NB: This position is for Myanmar nationals only.
Detailed job description including requirements for the position is available
at the Pact office or www.themimu.info/jobs/index.php. Only short-listed
candidates will be contacted.Interested and qualified candidates can send their
application letter, CV, one passport-sized photo and references to:
HR Officer, Pact #608 Penthouse, Bo Son Pat Condominium, Pabedan
Tel: 09-8553198; 373221, 378931 & 245447 (Ext: 78, 73)
E-mail: myanmarhr@pactworld.org

LOCALS ONLY POSITION

Pact, a U.S based INGO with operations throughout Myanmar,
is currently seeking an experienced and dedicated candidate
for the position below.
Position Title:
Department:

Senior Regional and Operations Coordinator

ShaeThot Program

Position Summary: The Senior Regional and Operations Coordinator (SROC)

is a key member of the leadership team of a dynamic and growing country
program and responsible for providing leadership for operations, highlevel program implementation, and effective program compliance to ensure
programming is efficient and responsive to community needs; plays a key
role in coordinating partnerships with international and national organizations,
managing relations with government, and in the overall management of the
Operations Unit and Regional Offices for Pacts Shae Thot program.
Requirements:
University degree in a related field
At least 5 years of management experience in international development or
similar organizations
Excellent written and verbal communication in English and Burmese.
Detailed job description including requirements for the position is available at
the Pact office or www.themimu.info/jobs/index.php
Interested and qualified candidates can send their application letter, CV, one
passport-sized photo and references to:
HR Officer, Pact #608 Penthouse, Bo Son Pat Condominium, Pabedan
Township
Tel: 09-8553198; 373221, 378931 & 245447 (Ext: 78, 73)
E-mail: myanmarhr@pactworld.org
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

VPower is an independent power producer, one of the leading solution providers in the short to mid-term power supply
market including temporary power rental. VPower provides both highly efficient and cost effective conventional power
with feedstock of gas, diesel and heavy fuel oil as well as eco power generated from biogas and renewable hybrid
model. VPowers power solutions and power plants have global presence, with more particular focus in Asia, Africa,
Latin America and Middle East. At present, VPower has extensive expansion in these markets, and is now offer various
different opportunities for those qualified candidates who wish to pursue their career development with VPower. We have
the following vacancies in our Myanmar project :
Project Manager
Responsibilities:
Define the scope of the project in collaboration with senior management, create a detailed work plan which identifies
and sequences the activities needed to successfully complete the project, determine the resources (time, money,
equipment, etc) required to complete the project.
Consulting with the appropriate manager, recruit, interview and select staff with appropriate skills for the project
activities, manage project staff volunteers according to the established policies and practices of the organization.
Execute the project according to the project plan, monitor the progress of the project and make adjustments as
necessary to ensure the successful completion of the project.
Write reports on the project for management, monitor and approve all budgeted project expenditures, monitor cash
flow projections and report actual cash flow and variance to senior management on a regular basis, manage all
project funds according to established accounting policies and procedures, ensure that all financial records for the
project are up to date.
Ensure that the project deliverables are on time, within budget and at the required level of quality, evaluate the
outcomes of the project as established during the planning phase.
Requirements:
Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering
Fluent in English communication is a must, Chinese language will be preferred
Minimum 5 years project management experience
Practical knowledge and skills in repairing and installing electrical system at a work site
Strong leadership skills and able to work under minimum supervision
Good communication skills to train and interact with staff at all levels
Project Electrical / Mechanical Engineer (Coordinator)
Responsibilities:
Visit remote locations to resolve any project issues.
Involve in designing, developing and maintaining electrical and mechanical system
Coordinating with technicians
Testing installations and system and analyzing data
Ensure project meets electrical and construction safety regulation required
Cooperate with different engineers and other personnel to implement operating procedures, resolving system
malfunction and providing technical information.
Investigate failures and difficulties to diagnose faulty operation, providing recommendations for maintenance crew.
Requirements:
Bachelors degree or above in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering
Fluent in English communication is a must, Chinese language will be preferred
3 years relevant working experience
Practical knowledge and skills in repairing and installingelectrical or mechanical system at a work site
Strong leadership skills andable to work under minimum supervision
Good communication skills to train and interact with staff at all levels
Less experience will be considered as Project Coordinator position
We provide an attractive remuneration package to the right candidates. Please send application with full details stating
CURRENT and EXPECTED SALARYto vpower2013@ymail.com.
The Company may also refer suitable applicants to other vacancies within the Group.All personal datawill be used for
recruitment purposes only and information will be destroyed after the selection process.

16 THE MYANMAR TIMES MAY 15, 2015

17

World

WORLD EDITOR: Kayleigh Long

US mulls action
plan for South
China Sea

Instability and
clashes in Burundi
after coup

WORLD 22

WORLD 18

MANILA

KABUL

SANAA

Five killed in guesthouse attack

AN American and two Indian nationals were among the five killed when
gunmen stormed a downtown Kabul
guesthouse, trapping several foreigners and triggering an hours-long overnight standoff with Afghan security
forces, officials said yesterday.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the siege on the Park
Palace guesthouse, but it comes as
the Taliban who have previously attacked such properties frequented by
foreigners press their annual spring
offensive.
The attack, which lasted around
seven hours and triggered explosions
and sporadic bursts of gunfire, comes
as Afghan forces face their first fighting season against the insurgents
without the full support of US-led foreign combat troops.
Five people were killed including
foreigners and Afghans in the attack
on Park Palace guesthouse, Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi told
reporters, adding that at least five others were wounded.
He did not offer a breakdown of
the nationalities of those killed but
the US embassy in Kabul confirmed
one American fatality and the Indian
ambassador tweeted that there were
a few Indian casualties without
specifying if they were wounded or
had been killed.

Our thoughts are with the families

of the victims at this time. Out of respect for the families of those killed,
we have no further information at this
time, embassy spokesperson Monica
Cummings told AFP.
Kabul deputy police chief Sayed
Gul Agha Rohani said the siege ended
when Afghan security forces killed
three assailants but Mr Rahimi gave a
conflicting number on the number of
attackers.
So far we have identified one attacker, but we are looking to see if
there were more. We are trying to
find out the circumstances in which
the attack took place. We need more
investigation, Mr Rahimi said, adding
that 54 people were rescued by security forces.
The Park Palace was due to host a
concert by well-known Afghan classical singer Altaf Hussain, with several
VIPs invited, when the gunfire started,
a guesthouse employee told AFP.
The employee, who did not wish
to be named, said he barricaded himself in a room in the building when
the shootout began and heard several
people screaming in the corridors as
gunshots rang out.
The employee later managed to
flee the Park Palace and said he saw
at least five blood-covered bodies lying
near the entrance.

Afghan guests who were stuck inside a Kabul guesthouse walk out after being
rescued by security forces on May 13. Photo: AFP

Roads leading up to the Park Palace, frequented by foreigners and international aid agency workers, were
blocked by a large number of security
personnel who arrived after the attack, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
Kabul police chief Mr Rahimi, who
was at the scene of the ongoing attack,
had earlier said security forces faced
heavy gunfire from the assailants.
The attack comes a day after a visit
to Kabul by Pakistan Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif, who assured Afghanistan of Islamabads full support in its
battle against the Taliban, saying the
enemies of Afghanistan cannot be the
friends of Pakistan.
His unusually strong remarks are
the latest sign of a thaw in the oncefrosty relationship between the two
countries. Afghan officials have frequently accused longtime nemesis
Pakistan of harbouring and nurturing
Taliban insurgents.
But Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has actively courted Pakistan since
coming to power in what observers
say is a calculated gambit to pressure
the insurgents to the negotiating table.
The Taliban has been behind previous attacks on compounds and guesthouses occupied or frequented by
foreigners, including at least two separate assaults in Kabul last November.
Militants also launched a major
attack on a compound of the International Organisation for Migration in
2013.
Along with guesthouses and compounds, the range of targets hit last
year in Kabul included the Afghan
capitals most prestigious hotel and
a restaurant popular with Western
diplomats.
Taliban insurgents, who have
waged a 13-year war to topple the USbacked Afghan government, launched
their spring offensive across Afghanistan late last month, stepping up
attacks on government and foreign
targets.
This year marks the first fighting
season in which Afghan forces are
battling the insurgents without the
full support of US-led foreign combat
troops.
AFP

JUBA

South Sudan passes NGO law

AID-DEPENDENT South Sudan has
passed a law forcing aid agencies to
ensure no more than one-fifth of their
staff are foreigners, the presidents
spokesperson announced on May 13.
After 17 months of war, over half of
the countrys 12 million people are in
need of aid, with 2.5 million people facing severe food insecurity, according to
the UN.
The Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Bill was passed by parliament but must still be signed by President Salva Kiir.
The NGO bill was passed and it is
with the committee, and after that it
will come to the president, Ateny Wek
Ateny, spokesperson in the presidents
office, told AFP on May 13.
The NGO bill is to regulate the
NGOs, international and local.
South Sudan suffers from a major
shortage of skilled workers, with only
around a quarter of the population being able to read and write.
South Sudans NGO Forum, an

umbrella body of aid agencies, warned

the bill could hinder their ability to
serve South Sudanese people at a time
when needs are escalating due to the
ongoing conflict.
The past month has seen one of
the heaviest offensives in the war,
with gunmen raping women, torching
towns and looting aid supplies.
UN aid chief in South Sudan Toby
Lanzer said the number of civilians left
without life-saving aid in the northern battleground state of Unity had
risen to 500,000, after the UN and aid
agencies pulled out due to a surge in
fighting.
The NGO Forum said aid workers
were already facing increasing incidents of harassment and violence
against them.
The NGO Bill had enormous implications for the ongoing humanitarian
response, the forum added, warning
it could have potentially catastrophic
effects for the large amounts of the
South Sudanese population that rely

on NGOs to provide basic services and

life saving aid.
Last September, a government
statement ordered all foreign workers, including aid agency staff, to be
replaced by South Sudanese citizens.
The government reversed the policy
announcement a day later.
The violence, which began in December 2013, has escalated into an ethnic conflict involving multiple armed
groups and has killed tens of thousands of people in the worlds youngest nation, which gained independence
from Sudan in 2011.
Government forces are now pushing toward the opposition-held town of
Leer. The area, which the troops have
surrounded, is home to some of the
countrys once-lucrative oil fields.
African Union Commission chief
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma warned late
on May 13 the nation was facing a catastrophic humanitarian situation with
the loss of countless human lives and
untold suffering. AFP

Aid agencies rush in as Saudi-led

coalition alleges ceasefire violations

A police forensics team unloads a body bag containing the remains of a victim killed in the fire that gutted a footwear factory in Valenzuela city in suburban
Manila on May 14. Photo: AFP

Outrage after footwear factory

blaze claims at least 72 lives
SEVENTY-TWO people died in a
huge blaze at a footwear factory in
the Philippine capital, authorities
said yesterday, as angry relatives
and workers described sweatshop
conditions including dismal fire
safety standards.
Firefighters and police pulled
dozens of corpses out of the ruins
of the two-storey building yesterday, a day after the blaze trapped
the terrified workers with apparently few exits and no fire safety
training.
Many of those retrieved were
reduced to skulls and bones, national police chief Leonardo Espina said during an emotional press
conference, as local authorities
confirmed 72 people had died.
Someone will definitely be
charged because of the deaths. It
doesnt matter if its an accident,
people died. Right now, we are investigating to clearly define what
happened. For sure, someone will
be charged.
Sparks from welding equipment used to repair a broken gate
are believed to have caused the
fire when they ignited flammable
chemicals stored nearby.
By early yesterday afternoon,
72 bodies had been pulled from
the gutted building, Valenzuela
mayor Rex Gatchalian told AFP.
He said he believed this would

be close to the final death toll, as

the figure matched the number of
people missing.
The building, among a long
row of factories in the rundown
district of Valenzuela on the northern edge of the Philippine capital,
made cheap slippers and sandals
for the local market.
The footwear had names such
as Havana that sound like wellknown global brands, company
employees said.
The factory workers toiled for
below minimum wage while surrounded by foul-smelling chemicals and were not aware of fire
safety standards, survivors and
relatives said.
The families cant help but be
angry about what happened. We
will never forget this, Rodrigo Nabor, whose two sisters were inside
the factory and remain unaccounted for, told AFP.
Mr Nabor was among relatives
of factory workers waiting for
body bags at a village hall that had
been converted into a makeshift
morgue.
Ive lost hope that they survived, said Mr Nabor, 31, who
works at a nearby plywood factory.
I cant explain how Im feeling. I didnt sleep at all last night.
I just kept walking around the factory hoping for news.

They said they

[kept] an electric
fan on to drive
some of the
[chemical] smell
away.
Rodrigo Nabor
Brother of two women
unaccounted for after factory fire

Mr Nabor said his sisters, Bernardita Logronio, 32, and Jennylyn Nabor, 26, often complained
of foul-smelling chemicals in
their workplace.
They said they keep an
electric fan on to drive some of
the smell away, he said.
Mr Nabor said their pay depended on how many sandals
they finished, which could be as
little as 300 pesos (US$6.70) a
day. Mr Nabors sisters each had
a young child.
One
survivor,
23-year-old
Lisandro Mendoza, said he
escaped by running out the back
door, but that the company had

not conducted any fire safety

education or drills during his five
months working there.
We
were
running
not
knowing exactly where to go,
said Mr Mendoza.
I was having lunch when I
saw smoke coming from the front,
then I just ran and kept running.
Mr Mendoza said he worked
12-hour days, seven days a week,
for 3500 pesos ($79), mixing
chemicals.
Its a very foul smell. I can still
smell it even if I have one face
mask on top of the another, he
said.
Another
survivor,
Janet
Victoriano, also described lax fire
safety standards.
I had never been involved in a
fire drill ever, Ms Victoriano, who
had worked at the factory for five
years, told DZMM radio.
Ms Victoriano said she was
able to escape because she was
near the front door when the
blaze started.
Deadly fires regularly rip
through the poor areas of the
Philippine capital, but mostly
in shanty homes where there are
virtually no fire safety standards.
In the deadliest fire in Manila
in recent times, 162 people were
killed in a huge blaze that gutted a
Manila disco in 1996. AFP

AID agencies began delivering help to

desperate civilians in Yemen as a fiveday ceasefire took hold after nearly
seven weeks of Saudi-led air strikes
against Iran-backed rebels.
The Saudi-led coalition yesterday
alleged that Huthi militias had violated the truce 12 times, including with
artillery and rocket fire in several
towns in the south, in a statement
carried by the official Saudi Press
Agency.
But it said the coalition confirms
its full commitment to the humanitarian truce and restraint.
The humanitarian pause which
began at 11:00 pm (8pm GMT) on
May 12 is the first break in the air
war in support of exiled President
Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi since its
launch on March 26 and has strong
backing from Washington.
The coalition accused the rebels
and their allies of truce violations,
including rocket and tank fire, and
troop movements in the south of the
country.
On May 13 the Saudi defence ministry had already said rockets fired
from the rebel-held north of Yemen
had hit the border areas of Jazan and
Najran inside the kingdom but Saudi
forces had practised self-restraint
as part of their commitment to the
truce.
The alleged violations came despite a promise by the Shiite Huthi
rebels and their allies to abide by the
ceasefire. Riyadh has warned it will
punish any attempt to exploit the
truce.
A US State Department spokesperson said that while the truce was
broadly holding, it had received
some reports of clashes after the

IN PICTURES
Photo: AFP

ceasefire began.
We urge all parties to continue
to ... honour the commitment to restraint, spokesperson Jeff Rathke
said.
As aid agencies said they were
starting to deliver assistance, residents of the rebel-held capital Sanaa told AFP the ceasefire came as a
much-needed relief.
We hope this truce becomes permanent. We finally managed to sleep
peacefully last night, said 25-yearold Mohammed al-Saadi.
More than 1500 people have been
killed since mid-March in the air
campaign and fighting between rebel
forces and Hadi loyalists, according
to the United Nations.
The Huthi rebels, allied with army
units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have taken control of large
parts of Yemen including Sanaa and
were advancing on Hadis southern
stronghold of Aden when Riyadh
launched the air campaign.
The weeks since the start of the air
war have seen repeated warnings of a
dire humanitarian crisis, with shortages of food, water, fuel and medical aid.
The UNs food agency said on May
13 that the situation in Yemen had become catastrophic.
Dominique Burgeon, emergencies
director at the Rome-based Food and
Agriculture Organization, told AFP
the problems civilians faced were
very serious and at the moment the
country lacks everything.
UN agencies and private aid
groups had been preparing to boost
their efforts since the ceasefire was
announced last week and on May 13
began taking steps.
A ship chartered by the United

Nations World Food Program, which

arrived in Yemen last week, began
distributing its shipment of muchneeded fuel to areas across the country, an industry official in the port
city of Hodeida told AFP.
The country has been suffering
from severe fuel shortages grinding
humanitarian operations to a halt
and news of the deliveries prompted
motorists to start queueing at petrol
stations in Sanaa.
The head of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Yemen, Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, told AFP that her group
was hoping to take advantage of the
truce that seems to be holding.
Iran has also announced it is
sending an aid ship to Yemen,
prompting a fresh war of words with
Washington.
Iranian Brigadier General Masoud
Jazayeri warned the US against stopping the ship, after Washington said
it was tracking its movements.
Brig Gen Jazayeri said that if Saudi Arabia or the United States continue to create obstacles on Irans aid
delivery, a fire might start that would
definitely be out of their control.
It took several hours for the ceasefire to take hold inside Yemen, with
residents and loyalists reporting continued skirmishes in the southern
provinces of Daleh and Shabwa, as
well as in third city Taez and the eastern oil province of Marib.
But by the morning of May 13
residents said the fighting had largely
stopped.
The newly appointed UN envoy to
Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed,
arrived in Sanaa on May 12 for talks
on restarting a collapsed political
dialogue. AFP

Pakistani civil society activists shout slogans during a rally

against the killing of the Shiite Ismaili minority, by gunmen
in Karachi on May 13.

18 World

THE MYANMAR TIMES May 15, 2015

BUJUMBURA

Fighting erupts following Burundi coup

HEAVY fighting between rival Burundian troops erupted in the capital
yesterday, the day after a top general
launched a coup to oust the central
African nations President Pierre
Nkurunziza.
Military sources and witnesses
said troops loyal to the president, who
was outside the country when the
coup was launched and who has been
blocked from returning, were fighting
off an attack against the state television and radio complex.
AFP reporters said the crackle
of automatic weapons fire and the
thump of explosions could be heard
throughout the night and intensifying
before dawn.
The streets were largely deserted
by civilians as sporadic clashes could
be heard in other parts of the city,
while plumes of smoke were seen on
the city skyline.
According to a pro-coup military
source, the state media complex was
attacked in the early hours of the
morning after Burundis armed forces
chief used national radio to declare
that the coup, launched by former intelligence chief Godefroid Niyombare,
had failed.
The national defence force calls
on the mutineers to give themselves
up, armed forces chief General Prime
Niyongabo, a supporter of the president, said in an address on state radio.
However a spokesperson for the
anti-Nkurunziza camp, Burundis police commissioner Venon Ndabaneze,
told AFP the claim was false and that
Gen Niyombares supporters were in
control of many facilities including
Bujumburas international airport.

People burn mattresses looted from the local police post on 13 May in Musaga neighborhood in Bujumbura, during a
protest against incumbent president Pierre Nkurunzizas bid for a 3rd term. Photo: AFP

A journalist inside the RTNB

building said the complex came under
attack after the loyalist broadcast, and
that heavy weapons including cannon
and rockets were being used.
The attempted coup capped weeks
of deadly civil unrest sparked by the
presidents controversial bid to stand
for a third term.
The crisis has raised fears of a return to widespread violence in the
impoverished country, which is still

recovering from a 13-year civil war

that ended in 2006 and which left
hundreds of thousands dead.
Opposition and rights groups insist that it is unconstitutional for Mr
Nkurunziza, who has been in office
since 2005, to run for more than two
terms. The president, however, argues
his first term did not count as he was
elected by parliament, not directly by
the people.
Mr Nkurunziza, a former rebel

leader from the Hutu majority and

born-again Christian, also believes he
ascended to the presidency with divine backing.
More than 22 people have been
killed and scores wounded since late
April, when Burundis ruling CNDDFDD party which has been accused
of intimidating the opposition and
arming its own militia nominated
Mr Nkurunziza to stand for re-election in June 26 polls.

More than 50,000 Burundians

have fled the violence to neighbouring nations in recent weeks, with the
UN preparing for thousands more
refugees.
There was uncertainty over the
whereabouts of Mr Nkurunziza, whose
attempt to return home from Tanzania after the coup was announced was
blocked by his opponents who seized
the airport and ordered the borders to
be shut.
An AFP correspondent confirmed
the airport in the Burundian capital
had been shut and appeared to be in
the hands of pro-coup forces.
Reports suggested Mr Nkurunziza
had returned to Tanzania after his
plane had been forced to turn back.
UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon also made an urgent appeal for
calm, while the Security Council said
it would hold an emergency meeting
on the situation yesterday.
In his message announcing the
coup, Mr Niyombare signalled he
did not want to take power himself,
vowing to form a committee for the
restoration of national harmony and
work for the resumption of the electoral process in a peaceful and fair
environment.
Mr Niyombare is a highly respected figure who was sacked from his
intelligence post in February after he
opposed Mr Nkurunzizas attempt to
prolong his 10-year rule.
Asked to rule on the issue of a
third term, Burundis constitutional
court found in the presidents favour
but not before one of the judges fled
the country, claiming its members
were subject to death threats.
AFP

KATHMANDU

SyDNey

Search resumes for rescue chopper

Australias terrier threat

A MAJOR search operation resumed

yesterday for a US military helicopter
that disappeared with eight people on
board while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nepal, where a second
major tremor has killed dozens and
brought fresh misery.
For a third straight day, US and
Nepalese military helicopters and hundreds of ground troops scoured the
remote mountainous area of eastern
Nepal where the chopper went missing, underscoring the huge challenge
of operating in the Himalayan country.
The search operation has diverted
resources urgently needed to help victims of the 7.3-magnitude quake that
hit on May 12, triggering major landslides and bringing down buildings
weakened in the first disaster on April
25.
That quake killed more than 8000
people and destroyed nearly 300,000
homes across the impoverished country.
We began searching early today
with two army helicopters. About 400
troops have been deployed for this, Rajan Dahal of the Nepal Army told AFP
by telephone from eastern Dolakha district where the chopper is thought to
have disappeared.
With many of the worst-affected
areas inaccessible by road, more than
1400 people have been airlifted from
quake-hit areas, most of them by Nepalese troops.
Home ministry spokesperson Laxmi Prasad Dhakal said the death toll
from the May 12 quake, which was
centred 76 kilometres (47 miles) east of
Kathmandu, had risen to 96 overnight
with more than 2500 wounded.
Many of the victims were in the
mountainous district of Dolakha and
in neighbouring Sindhupalchowk,
and the quake also killed 17 people in
northern India and one in Tibet.

The tremor came just weeks after

the biggest quake to hit Nepal in 80
years and has added to the alreadyhuge challenge of getting relief to victims in far-flung areas.
The United Nations said there was
an urgent need for tents, generators
and fuel supply to ensure that radio
stations continue broadcasting and
collecting information from affected
communities.
There were reports of landslides
blocking roads in the worst-hit areas,
making the task of getting relief to remote communities even more difficult.
The Nepalese government has acknowledged that it was overwhelmed
by the scale of the April 25 disaster.
Many ministries and government
departments are having to coordinate
disaster relief efforts from makeshift
shelters after the latest quake left
buildings in the main Singha Durbar
government complex in Kathmandu
so badly damaged they can no longer
be used.

The already weakened structure

sustained severe damages in Tuesdays earthquake, Kamal Bhattari who
works in the prime ministers office
told the Republica daily.
Everybody feared to work in the
building and the offices had to be shifted to open spaces.
In Kathmandu, where 11 people
died on May 12, many traumatised survivors spent another night outdoors,
afraid to return to their houses.
Scientists said the quake was part
of a chain reaction set off by the larger
one that struck on April 25 in Lamjung
district west of Kathmandu.
Large earthquakes are often followed by other quakes, sometimes as
large as the initial one, said Carmen
Solana, a volcanologist at Britains University of Portsmouth.
This is because the movement
produced by the first quake adds extra
stress on other faults and destabilises
them, she told the London-based Science Media Centre. AFP

A Nepalese rescue personnel (R) hands belongings found inside an apartment

building which collapsed under its own weight after an earthquake to a resident
in Kathmandu on May 14. Photo: AFP

JOHNNY Depps pet dogs Pistol and

Boo face being put down unless they
bugger off back to Hollywood after he brought them into Australia
illegally on his private jet.
The actor was given the grim
warning by Agriculture Minister
Barnaby Joyce yesterday.
Just because hes Johnny Depp
does not mean hes exempt from Australian law, Mr Joyce told reporters.
Australia has strict animal quarantine laws.
There is a process if you want to

bring animals you get the permits,

they go into quarantine and then
you can have them, said Joyce, with
customs authorities expected to seize
the dogs imminently.
He said he became aware that Mr
Depp had the dogs with him after
they were spotted being taken to a
groomer.
Its time that Pistol and Boo
buggered off back to the United
States, added the minister. He can
send them back or we will have to euthanise them. AFP

WASHINGTON

NSA bill headed to Senate

THE US House of Representatives
has voted to end the NSAs dragnet
collection of telephone data from
millions of Americans, a controversial program revealed in 2013 by
former security contractor Edward
Snowden.
The USA Freedom Act is seen as
a big win for privacy and civil rights
advocates. The White House backs
the reforms, saying the bill protects
privacy while preserving essential
national security authorities.
The measure now heads for a
vote in the Senate, where the clash
between reformists and supporters
of the intelligence community, coming within the context of warnings
on the increasing digital reach of
the Islamic State terror group, transcends party lines.
And far-left liberals and staunch
conservatives, often at odds on most
major legislation, have united in opposition against the domestic NSA
spying.
The bill, which focuses on peo-

ple in the United States and not

overseas, would amend controversial sections of the USA Patriot Act
which passed in the wake of the 2001
September 11 attacks and which expire on June 1.
The reforms would explicitly
prohibit the mass collection of telephone metadata numbers, time
and duration of calls by the National Security Agency, as well as
electronic data such as emails and
web addresses.
The reforms scrap the bulk collection detailed in Section 215 of the
Patriot Act, replacing it with a targeted program that allows intelligence
agencies to collect data from specific
individuals or groups, but only with
prior approval of the secret national
security FISA court.
The data dragnet was operating
in complete secrecy after 2001 and
under the supervision of the FISA
court since 2006. It was consistently
renewed by the Bush and Obama
administrations. AFP

World 19

www.mmtimes.com
WASHINGTON

Obama seeks to mend

ties with Gulf allies
BARACK Obama was set to whisk
six Gulf leaders away to his Camp
David presidential retreat yesterday,
hoping to salvage a fence-mending
summit already bedeviled by disagreements and royal no-shows.
The Catoctin Mountain getaway, synonymous with Middle East
peacemaking during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, will again be a venue for attempts at reconciliation.
President Obama faces a tough
task of convincing assorted emirs,
princes and sheikhs that his willingness to negotiate with Iran does not
represent a pivot away from longstanding allies.
As a precursor to the meeting, Mr
Obama on May 13 wooed two powerful Saudi princes to the Oval Office,
where he lauded an extraordinary
friendship and relationship that
dates back to Franklin Roosevelt
and King Faisal, in the 1940s.
We are continuing to build that
relationship during a very challeng-

ing time, Mr Obama said, a nod to

conflagrations in Yemen, Syria and
Iraq that have reverberated across
the Middle East.
Mr Obama praised guests Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and
Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman for their work on counterterrorism, which the US president described as absolutely critical to the United States.
But conspicuous in his absence
at the White House was Saudi leader
King Salman, who refused to attend,
in what was widely seen as a diplomatic snub despite Riyadhs insistence it was not.
Five other Gulf leaders but only
two heads of state, from Qatar and
Kuwait later arrived at the White
House for a closed-door dinner and
will also travel to Camp David.
Mr Obamas warm words belied
deep malaise over Iran, in a relationship already strained by his
perceived quickness to welcome
democratic Arab Spring revolts and

a reduced dependence on Gulf oil.

The Arab and largely Sunni Muslim states suspect Mr Obamas nuclear deal with Tehran is a harbinger
of a bigger role for their Persian and
Shiite arch-foe.
They will also want assurances
the nuclear deal does not represent
a broader grand bargain with Iran.
The Gulf states are now asking
for the Carter Doctrine to be more
than a gentlemens agreement.
With one eye on the US$100
billion-plus windfall that Iran could
receive when sanctions end and accounts are unfrozen, they would
like to see a binding mutual defense
treaty like that agreed between
NATO members.
Such a pact would be difficult to
pass through a pro-Israeli Congress,
but in any case it is a non-starter for
the White House, which sees asymmetric threats and internal unease
at closed political systems as a greater security priority.
AFP

SAN FRANCISCO

Skype rolls out realtime

translation function
SKYPE, the Microsoft-owned platform,
has cleared the way for anyone to use a
new feature that translates video chats
or instant messages in real time.
People no longer need to sign up
to use a preview version of Skype
Translator, which handles spoken English, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin.
The
number
of
languages
translated jumps to 50 for written instant messages, with missives written
in one language arriving converted
into a preferred language, according to
Skype.
Skype Translator debuted late last
year, but was invitation-only to al-

low time and testing for refining the

service.
Our goal for Skype Translator
is to translate as many languages as
possible on relevant platforms, and
to deliver the best speech translation
experience to our more than 300 million connected Skype customers, the
company announced.
Google earlier this year debuted a
feature for its Translate app that allows
people to pair any two of 38 language
options for translation, and also automatically translates when pointed
at text items or signs.
AFP

TOKYO

Major recall over airbag

explosion fears
HONDA announced yesterday it is
recalling 4.89 million vehicles over
fears about airbag inflators that could
explode, widening a global auto parts
crisis linked to several deaths.
Japans number-three automaker
announced the recall just a day after Toyota and Nissan said they were
calling back a combined 6.5 million
vehicles over fears about airbags
made by embattled supplier Takata.
The latest moves bring the number of vehicles recalled just by Japans
biggest automakers to 30 million,
with their overseas rivals including
General Motors also affected by the
snowballing scandal.
Honda, which is Takatas biggest
airbag customer, has seen its bottom line take a hit owing to soaring
recall-related costs with the Civic sedan maker now having recalled more
than 19 million vehicles globally.
As many as six deaths have been
linked to Takatas airbag defect, but
Honda said there were no accidents
stemming from its latest recall.
There were no injuries or deaths
in relation to the recalls this time
theyre meant to prevent accidents
before they happen, a Tokyo-based

Honda spokesperson said.

Hondas recall affects more than
20 models manufactured between
2002 and 2008, including 1.72 million
sold in Japan.
Global automakers have been
scrambling to fix vehicles equipped
with Takata-made airbags that could
improperly inflate and rupture, potentially firing deadly shrapnel at the
occupants.
The death of one victim in the United States was initially investigated as a
murder due to her grisly injuries.
Takata has said the defect surfaces
mainly in humid, hotter regions and
resisted US authorities call for a national recall of cars with its airbags.
Tokyo-based Takata, one of the
worlds biggest air-bag companies, is
a key supplier to major automakers
with dozens of plants and offices in
20 countries.
Facing lawsuits and regulatory
probes, Takata recently acknowledged
that the crisis has taken a toll on its
earnings, but added that it expects to
eke out a small profit this year.
Despite the global crisis, Takatas
executives have remained tightlipped.
AFP

UNITED NATIONS

Calls for UN abuse probe

NELSON Mandelas widow, Graca
Machel, joined prominent activists
on May 13 to call for a full inquiry on
sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers and
personnel following the furor over alleged child sexual assaults by French
troops in the Central African Republic.
The campaign, dubbed Code Blue,
is to demand change in the United
Nations handling of sexual abuse allegations and hopes to enlist countries in
a push for action.
Ms Machel, who headed a UN study
19 years ago on the sexual abuse of children in conflict, lamented that things
have not changed, not improved.
They have gotten worse, she told a
news conference alongside former UN
force commander Romeo Dallaire and
other humanitarians.
Spearheaded by the non-governmental organisation AIDS Free World,
the group is demanding as a first step
that there be an end to immunity afforded to UN personnel.
It was this immunity that allowed
the UN to block French investigators
from questioning UN rights officials
who filed a report after interviewing children in the Central African
Republic.
The children, among the tens of
thousands of displaced people shelter-

ing at a camp near the Bangui airport,

told UN rights officials that they were
sexually abused in late 2013 by French
soldiers in exchange for food.
French investigators were allowed
to submit questions in writing to the
UN authors of the report and received
written replies, prompting Paris to
open a formal investigation.
The UN has been under fire since
the report on the sexual abuse of children by French, Chadian and Equatorial Guinean troops surfaced in the
media last month.
Save the Children was among 21 organisations that wrote an open letter
to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
describing his response to the report
as deeply unsatisfactory and calling
for action.
A former UN force commander in
Rwanda, Mr Dallaire said the bureaucracy surrounding sexual abuse cases
was such that, more often than not,
instead of an investigation you see
a plane arrive and a whole bunch of
people being sent back.
The
lieutenant-general
spoke
of a culture of silence within UN
peacekeeping missions and said
force commanders should be given
more authority to deal directly with
allegations of misconduct. AFP

20 World

THE MYANMAR TIMES May 15, 2015

PHILADELPHIA

Amtrak train was

speeding before crash
THE engineer of a US passenger train
traveling at more than 100 miles (161
kilometres) per hour slammed on the
emergency brakes just before it derailed in Philadelphia, leaving at least
seven people dead, investigators said
on May 13.
The speed was more than twice
the approved limit, and the brakes
barely slowed the train before the cars
tumbled off the track late on May 12,
leaving more than 200 people injured,
some with broken ribs and collapsed
lungs.
The National Transportation Safety
Board cautioned that its first assessment of the data was preliminary, and
that it would need more time to piece
together what happened to Amtrak
Train 188, headed from Washington to
New York.
Experts were at the scene searching for evidence, and the locomotive
and train cars were being moved to
a secure location for analysis. The
initial information came in part
from the trains black box data
recorders.
Our mission is to find out not only
what happened, but why it happened,
so that we can prevent it from happening again, the NTSBs Robert Sumwalt
told reporters, saying his team would
be on the ground for a week.
The engineers full emergency
brake application only slowed the
train speed from 106 miles (170km)

per hour to 102 mph, Mr Sumwalt

said, noting, It takes a long time and
distance to decelerate a train.
The speed limit entering the curve
was just 50mph.
He said a speed control system
used along Amtraks well-traveled
Northeast Corridor between Washington and New York was not yet in place
in the area of the crash.
We feel that had such a system
been installed in this section of track,
this accident would not have occurred,
he said.
Officials warned some of the 243
passengers and crew listed on the
trains manifest many of whom
limped away from the wreck bloodied
and dazed had not yet been accounted for, meaning the death toll could
still rise.
Sam Phillips, the citys director of
emergency management, said area hospitals had treated over 200 patients
last night and this morning.
Herbert Cushing, the chief medical officer at Temple University Hospital, said some suffered rib fractures
or collapsed lungs. Some of the victims
hailed from Spain, Belgium, Germany
and India.
Witnesses described scenes of panic
and chaos, as train cars tumbled over,
sending passengers banging into one
another and luggage flying.
One car was completely flattened
in the crash, which took place at about

9:30pm May 12 (1:30am GMT May 13).

Wheels lay scattered by the tracks.
Philadelphia resident Scott Lauman
described a horrendous scene at the
crash site, telling AFP It looks like a
bomb went off.
I really dont understand how there
are only seven people dead. From what
I saw, the first three cars were done.
I dont know how only seven people
were killed. Praise the Lord, he said.
Max Helfman, 19, said he was with
his mother in the last car of the train,
which did not have seatbelts, when
they suddenly felt it shake. It then
flipped over.
People were thrown to the ground,
Mr Helfman told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Chairs inside the train became unscrewed and suitcases were falling on
people. My mother flew into me and I
literally had to catch her. People were
bleeding from their head. It was awful.
Hydraulic tools had to be used to
remove passengers from some of the
most badly damaged train cars.
Other passengers had to kick out
windows to escape, according to former Pennsylvania congressman Patrick Murphy, who was aboard the
train.
Philadelphia
mayor
Michael
Nutter said rail service between his
city and New York would likely be
suspended for the rest of the week.
AFP

LONDON

Miliband replacement
coming in September
BRITAINS opposition Labour will
name its new leader on September 12 after Ed Miliband resigned
in the wake of last weeks bruising
election defeat, the partys executive committee said on May 13.
Nominations to replace Mr
Miliband will close on June 15, the
centre-left party said.
Liz Kendall, Labours spokesperson for care and the elderly,
and Chuka Umunna, spokesperson on business, had earlier
declared they would run for the
party leadership.
Health spokesperson Andy
Burnham and former work and
pensions minister Yvette Cooper
joined them by announcing their
candidacies.
Education spokesperson Tristram Hunt is also seen as a potential contender.
Bookmakers favourite Mr
Umunna, 36, would be the first
leader of a major British political
party from an ethnic minority but
is seen by critics as too inexperienced, having been elected to parliament only in 2010.
Divisions have emerged within
the party over whether its general
election campaign was too leftwing or not left-wing enough.
Former prime minister Tony
Blair and supporters of his centrist New Labour approach were
critical of Mr Milibands pitch.
In announcing his candidacy,
Mr Burnham said, Our challenge

is not to go left or right, to focus

on one part of the country above
another, but to rediscover the
beating heart of Labour.
Ms Cooper vowed to improve
life for families, while saying it
would be wrong to go back to the
remedies of the past that helped
Mr Blair win three elections.
Prime Minister David Camerons Conservatives won the May 7
election with 331 out of the 650
seats in the House of Commons,
against 232 for Labour.
Leadership contenders need
the support of 15 percent of Labour
lawmakers, which works out at 34.
The new leader will be in place
for the partys annual conference
on September 27.
Meanwhile, the media appeared to be closing in on the
much-mocked
EdStone,
a
2.6-metre-high monument with
vague-sounding Labour election
pledges carved in stone.
Unveiled by Mr Miliband in a
car park on May 3, the monolith
was destined for the garden of 10
Downing Street if Labour won
but mysteriously vanished without trace when it didnt.
The Guardian newspaper said
it understood the policy tablet was
languishing in a south London
garage where it is kept under
lock and key, to avoid any discovery which might cause further
embarrassment.
AFP

22 World

THE MYANMAR TIMES May 15, 2015

WASHINGTON

US mulls South
China Sea
action plan
THE US military might deploy warships and surveillance aircraft near artificial islands being built by China to
challenge Beijings territorial claims in
the South China Sea, officials said on
May 13.
But the US officials acknowledge
such a move may fail to halt Beijings
massive land reclamation effort, recently dubbed Chinas great wall of sand
by an American naval commander.
The Pentagon is weighing a range
of options, including sailing destroyers
or other naval ships within 12 nautical miles of the man-made islands, as
well as flying P-3 and P-8 surveillance
planes overhead, two defence officials
told AFP.
The maritime and air patrols would
be designed to demonstrate support
for freedom of navigation and to reassure our allies, said one official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
We have never recognised these artificial islands as legitimate claims, the
official said.
The Wall Street Journal first
reported the options under consideration.
US officials admitted that China has
been building at a rapid pace in recent
years and that concerns expressed by
the United States and regional governments so far have had little effect.
Last week, Pentagon officials revealed that China has been building

artificial islands on top of coral reefs

at an unprecedented pace. The rapid
construction comes to 2000 acres (800
hectares), with 75 percent of the total
just in the last five months.
Washington is concerned Chinas
increasingly assertive stance carries a
military dimension that could undermine the sovereignty of neighbouring
nations and undercut Americas naval
and economic power in the Pacific.
However, China on May 13 denounced any possible expansion in the
US militarys presence in the area.
Freedom of navigation does not
mean that the military vessels or aircraft of a foreign country can wilfully
enter the territorial waters or airspace
of another country, Chinese foreign
ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying
told a regular briefing in Beijing.
China claims nearly all of the South
China Sea, even waters approaching
the coasts of its Asian neighbors.
The disputed waters are home to
vital global shipping lanes and are believed to be rich in oil and gas.
Washington has flexed its military
muscle previously to try to counter
what it considers Beijings aggressive
moves.
Last November, two long-range
B-52 bombers flew over Chinas newly
declared Air Defense Identification
Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea.
AFP

TRADEMARK CAUTION
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, a
company incorporated in Japan and having its registered
office at 6-1, Marunouchi 2-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
100-8071 Japan is the owner and proprietor of the
following Trademark:

SUMITOMO

Reg. No. 4/1559/2009 (27 February 2009)

In respect of Alloys of common metal; Anchor plates;
Angle irons; Anti-friction metal; Armour plate; Armour
plating; Bands of metal for tying-up purposes; Bars for
metal railings; Bindings of metal; Bins of metal; Blooms
[metallurgy]; Bolts of metal; Bottles [metal containers]
for compressed gas or liquid air; Boxes of common metal;
Branching pipes of metal; Building boards of metal;
Building materials of metal; Building panels of metal;
Buildings of metal; Buildings, transportable, of metal;
Casings of metal for oilwells; Cast iron, unwrought or
semi-wrought; Cast steel; Ceilings of metal; Chromium;
Cladding of metal for construction and building; Clips of
metal for cables and pipes; Closures of metal for containers;
Collars of metal for fastening pipes; Common metals,
unwrought or semi-wrought; Containers of metal [storage,
transport]; Containers of metal for compressed gas or
liquid air; Containers of metal for liquid fuel; Containers
of metal for storing acids; Crash barriers of metal for
roads; Drain pipes of metal; Duckboards of metal; Ducts
of metal, for central heating installations; Elbows of metal
for pipes; Fish plates [rails]; Fittings of metal for building;
Flanges of metal [collars]; Flashing of metal, for building;
Foundry molds [moulds] of metal; Frames of metal for
building; Framework of metal for building; Girders of
metal; Gratings of metal; Grilles of metal; Guard rails of
metal; Gutter pipes of metal; Gutters of metal; Hardware
of metal, small; Hoop iron; Hoop steel; Ingots of common
metal; Iron slabs; Iron strip; Iron wire; Iron, unwrought
or semi-wrought; Ironmongery; Joists of metal; Junctions

IN PICTURES
Photo: AFP

Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks on as he

visits The Terracota Warriors Museum in Xian, in this
handout photograph taken and released by The Indian
Press Information Bureau (PIB) on May 14.
Mr Modi is taking his global investment push to China
this week, as Asias rival superpowers look to put aside a
festering border dispute and identify areas of economic
cooperation.

of metal for pipes; Machine belt fasteners of metal;

Manhole covers of metal; Manifolds of metal for pipelines;
Materials of metal for funicular railway permanent ways;
Molybdenum; Nickel; Nozzles of metal; Nuts of metal;
Packaging containers of metal; Penstock pipes of metal;
Pilings of metal; Pillars of metal for buildings; Pipe muffs
of metal; Pipes of metal; Pipes of metal, for central heating
installations; Pipework of metal; Plugs of metal; Poles
of metal; Posts of metal; Props of metal; Railroad ties of
metal; Rails of metal; Railway material of metal; Railway
points; Railway sleepers of metal; Railway switches;
Refractory construction materials of metal; Reinforcing
materials of metal for building; Reinforcing materials of
metal for machine belts; Reinforcing materials of metal for
pipes; Reinforcing materials, of metal, for concrete; Roof
coverings of metal; Roof flashing of metal; Roofing of
metal; Screws of metal; Sealing caps of metal; Sheets and
plates of metal; Shuttering of metal for concrete; Sleeves
[metal hardware]; Springs [metal hardware]; Steel alloys;
Steel buildings; Steel pipes; Steel sheets; Steel strip; Steel
tubes; Steel wire; Steel, unwrought or semi-wrought; Tanks
of metal; Thread of metal for tying-up purposes; Titanium;
Titanium iron; Trellis of metal; Tubes of metal; Valves of
metal, other than parts of machines; Wall claddings of metal
[building]; Wall linings of metal [building]; Wall plugs of
metal; Water-pipes of metal; Wire of common metal; Wire
of common metal alloys, except fuse wire; Wrapping or
binding bands of metal in Class 6;
Axles for machines; Bearings for transmission shafts;
Belts for conveyors; Belts for machines; Belts for motors
and engines; Boiler tubes [parts of machines]; Centrifuges
[machines]; Condensers [steam] [parts of machines];
Control mechanisms for machines, engines or motors;
Converters for steel works; Couplings other than for
land vehicles; Crank shafts; Cranks [parts of machines];
Die-cutting and tapping machines; Diggers [machines];
Drilling rigs, floating or non-floating; Exhausts for motors
and engines; Feeding apparatus for engine boilers; Heat

exchangers [parts of machines]; Manifold (Exhaust-)

for engines; Metal drawing machines; Metalworking
machines; Molds [parts of machines]; Mufflers for motors
and engines; Oil refining machines; Pump diaphragms;
Radiators [cooling] for motors and engines; Reduction
gears other than for land vehicles; Rolling mills; Separators;
Shuttles [parts of machines]; Silencers for motors and
engines; Springs [parts of machines]; Steam engine boilers;
Superchargers; Threading machines; Transmission shafts,
other than for land vehicles; Transmissions for machines;
Transmissions, other than for land vehicles; Water heaters
[parts of machines]; Anti-pollution devices for motors and
engines; Drums [parts of machines] in Class 7; and
Aeronautical apparatus, machines and appliances; Air
bags [safety devices for automobiles]; Axle journals;
Axles for vehicles; Bogies for railway cars; Brake linings
for vehicles; Brake segments for vehicles; Brake shoes
for vehicles; Brakes for vehicles; Buffers for railway
rolling stock; Connecting rods for land vehicles, other than
parts of motors and engines; Couplings for land vehicles;
Flanges for railway wheel tires [tyres]; Gear boxes for land
vehicles; Gearing for land vehicles; Hydraulic circuits for
vehicles; Railway couplings; Reduction gears for land
vehicles; Shock absorbing springs for vehicles; Suspension
shock absorbers for vehicles; Transmission shafts for land
vehicles; Undercarriages for vehicles; Vehicle suspension
springs; Vehicle wheels in Class 12.
Fraudulent or unauthorised use, or actual or colourable
imitation of the mark shall be dealt with according to law.
Daw Khin Phu Ngone Win, LL.B, LL.M, H.G.P
For Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation,
C/o Kelvin Chia Yangon Ltd
Level 8A, Union Financial Centre (UFC),
Corner of Mahabandoola Road and Thein Phyu Road,
Botahtaung Township, Yangon,
The Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
Dated 15 May, 2015
kpnw@kcyangon.com

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consultation (i.e, joint
venture and investment
opportunities). Monthly
& yearly closing of the
Company's books and
records in international
Standards)
(IFRS
compliance). Accounting
training for companies
& individuals. Financial
planning and forecasting
for the setup companies
and already established
companies.
Prepare
consolidated financial
statements for the group
of companies to see
bigger picture of their
companies
financial
status as a whole. Ph:099749-0064.
Tin Tin LATT, Certified
Public
Accountant

Finance Profectional
40 years' expserience
in Government, NGO
& company accountin,
audition & finance,
Audition
(external/
internal),
Financial
management,
NGO
Financial Management
training and on the job
accounting training. Ph:
09-2506-49443, Email :
dorothytintinlatt@gmail.
com. Bldg 221, Rm 2,
Yanshin Rd, Yankin.
We do SerVe interpret
English-ChineseMyanmar for movies,
project datas & files.
Serving translate English
- C h i n e s e - M y a n m a r.
Teacher Mr. William Lin
(Taiwan) YUNAN DIP,
IDCS, BM, TW CIVIL &
IT Top one (Interpreting,
Translating & Teaching
Language
Class)
Yangon. Ph: 09-421147821, 09-79580-7548
ToUr gUide Service,
If any prospective
tour operator needs
a licensed guide in
English. Please contact
Mr David, 44 st, 3 Flr,
Natchanug , Tamwe. Ph:
09-30199028.
Union
MiSSion,
Computer Troubleshoot
ing & Repair, Windows
Os Installation, Anti Virus
& Software Installation,
Office & Internet Cafe
Network
Contracts,
Wireless Networking
Setup,
Router
&
CPE
Configuration,
Server Installation &
Configuration, CCTV
System solutions &
Installation service. Ph:
09- 2527-06 016
WeLCoMe to contact us
for serving & translating
your business cases.
(1)Seminar, (2)Training
(3)Projects. Contact ~
Teacher Mr. William Lin
(Taiwan) 09-4211-47821
zCL(Y.U.f.L), Translation
Service : Translate from
English to Myanmar,
Myanmar to English. Ph:
09-2506-66325. email
atar1990@gmail.com

For Rent
CArS,
(Expert use
only). Mid size wagon.
Now only350.000kyats
per month with deposit
for long term. company
ID required. Call 09 730
33776.

For Sale
eMBASSY of Pakistan,
Yangon intends to sell
out 1 x unit car toyota
corolla, 1500 cc, model
year 2005, black colour
to local citizens and
diplomat / non-diplomat
community in Yangon.
Sealed bids are invited
from all the interested
parties by 15 May
2015 in the name of
Embassy of Pakistan,
A4, Diplomatic Quarters
Pyay Road, Dagon
Township Yangon. Car
can be visited between

Property

1000 - 1300 hrs at the

Embassy location from
6-10 May 2015."
Air CoMpreSSor,
Product type: GA 907.5,
Serial number: ARP
881188, Max. final
pressure (e) .. bar 7.5
Interstage pressure (s)
(e) .. bar, Motor power:
kW....... 90 Max. speed:
..... r/min.... 1500, Year of
manufacture: .... 19 90,
Made by Atalas Copco
Airpower n.v. Wilrijk
Belgium. Ph:09-4217
-44300

General
g L o M e d
Pharmaceutical Co., Inc.
www.glomedvn.vn

Language
TeAChing Myanmar
language for adults
Yangon area Tel: 094200-30782
TeAChing English for
adults (for foreigners and
for locals) Yangon area
09 4200 30 782
U MYA hAn, French,
English & Myanmar
classes. Ph: 09 731
74940
ATTend & feel the
difference, FLAMINGO
American
English
Speaking Class (IELTS
Intensive
Speaking
class, Interview course,
Special Package for
Hotel , Showroom, Bank
& Trading Company) Ph:
09-510-4826, 01 383811
Email:johnflamingo7@
gmail.com
MYAnMAr Language,
Who want to learn
Myanmar
Language
4 skills are teaching
by Mr. William Lin
(Taiwan, Yunan, UK)
Ph:09421147821
engLiSh (home tuition)
speaking, grammar,
issue. letter, academic
writing. SAT. TOEFL.
IELT. GCE, IGCSE.
GMAT
four
skills.
local and international
school. English for
Japaneses children &
adult - home tuition:
courses are avail e
now. you Can contact
to Saya U Kyi Sin
(MUMYIT THAR) Ph:
09-4210-67-375, www.
kyisinplb.blogspot.com
engLiSh
for
professional purpose
is the need of principle
of written English.
Writing ought to be
easiest of the four skill
for students of English
as a Second language,
unlike
listening
&
reading, the student is
control with the words.
However writing class
often the opportunity
to see growth. to share
important ideas and
to develop sense of
community. . If you had
tried as much as you
can to follow the lesson
and you will get good
experiences and skill.
Middle school students
can study in a small
class. Spanish is also
inquired. U Thant Zin,

28-3B, Thati Pahtan

St, Tamwe. Ph: 09-5035350, 31021314,.
An
experienCed
Chinese
(Mandarin)
teacher here in Yangon,
Myanmar. I have over
6 years teaching in
Singapore. Please do
not hesitate to contact
me for an evaluation.
Im a professional
teacher who will help you
improve your speaking,
reading and writing
skills. I use Singaporean
text books and Chinese
speaking/conversation
books for teaching
speaking, reading and
writing in Mandarin.
Im available MondaySunday with a flexible
schedule. I also teaching
Myanmar language to
all Foreigner. Elizabeth
Bao Shi :09-516-2988,
also SMS.
A TWo MonTh English
specking
classes,
Parents desiring to hire a
tutor or send their children
to teacher's classes
(Tamwe/Downtown) are
requested to contact
soon. Limited learners
only. Ph: 09-301-99028.
LeArn
frenCh,
Myanmar, English and
Tamil in a month. Limited
seats. Ph: 09-30199028.

Travel
SMiLe
pAnorAMA
Travels & Tours Co., Ltd,
Car rental services. Ph:
09-505-3004, 09-250605665.
JpM Journeys Princess
Myanmar Travel &
Tours : Domestic &
Int'l ticketion, Hotel
accommodation
bookings,
Package
tours, Visa on arrival,
Publics
buses,
trains, river boats,
Off the beaten track,
Individually
tailored
incentive tours, Special
event tours, Expert
guides for all journeys
princess
Myanmar
tours. Ph: 09-73145835, 09-252-030997.
Email : jpm.sales3@
gmail.com, jpm.rsvn@
gmail.com

Training
MAndALAY Computer:
Computer for Kids,
Basic Accounting for
Job I-Office , Advanced
Excel Course, DTP
Course MYOB Software,
Peach Tree Software,
Window
Shortcut
Course, Email & Internet
Course Mp3, Mp4, Video
Editing,
Multimedia
Course. Ph:09-444011279(MDY)
ArT BASiC, Perspective,
Interior Design, Exterior
Design & Colour Theory.
Learn Art 5 months to be
a professional architect.
Only 2 months for
Special classes. Home
tuition also available.
New Vision Art Gallery
and Center,No 132
lift no: 4 Bagaya Rd,
Sanchaung,
Shann
Lann Bus top, Ph: 092542-57911

Public Notics
phYSiCS
TUTor
needed for Year 12
International
School
student. Ph: 09- 5022834
CoMMUniTY Partners
International, Yangon
office relocated to the
following address- No.
(12/B), Hnin Si Lane,
Parami Road, Chaw dwin
gone, Yankin Township,
Yangon, Myanmar. Ph: +
95 1 657909

Sell / Rent
KAMAYUT, Pyay Rd,
Diamond condo, 1650
sqft, unfurn or f f, nice
& newly apt. US$ 2500
pr IS$ 3000. Sale 4200
Lakhs. Call Maureen :
09-518-8320.
ThingAngYUn,
Thuwunna. 60'x80' land.
2 storey house, corner
garden. 3 rooms with
bathroom attached. 4
aircons. 20 Lakhs per
month for rent/13.000
Lakh for sale. Negotiable.
Ph:09-2603-321212
KAMAYUT,
Diamond
Condo, Pyay Rd, 1600
sqft, 1MBR, 2BR, 3A/C,
f.f, 4300 Lakhs & 35 lakhs,
Call owner: 09-518-8320

Housing for Rent

BAhAn, New University

Avenue Rd, walk up apt,
2 F, 1200 sqft, furn or
unfurn, US$ 1500. Call
Maureen : 09-518-8320.
CLASSiC Strand Condo
suitable for office, 2280
sqft (2,500 sqft with
mezzanine), 3rd floor,
wide open space, 14 ft
ceilings, face river. New
building with gym, car
park, cafe, facilities. Prime
downtown location, close
to strand hotel/union bar.
5,800 USD per month.
porntipawong@gmail.
com. 09420004585
CLASSiC
STRAND
Condominium,
1,500
sqft, 8th floor, 3 bedroom
corner unit with excellent
view of river. New building
with gym, car park,
cafe, facilities. Prime
downtown location, close
to strand hotel/union bar.
3,600 USD per month.
porntipawong@gmail.
com. Tel: 09-4200-04585
VerY niCe Condo,
Thiri Avenue,Taw Win
St, 9 mile. Mayangone.
1350-sqft, 2MBR, 1BR,
Living room, shrine,
dinning room, kitchen,
Varandah 4th Floor,
Lift,own car park, security
and waste management.
Fully Furnished. only for
Foreigners. one year
basic contract. Ph:095000621, 01-200581.
(1)Bo YAr nYUnT
St, 2500 Sqft, 1MBR,
2SR, fully furniture USD
3000. (2)Near UNDP
office,1500 Sqft, 1MBR,
2SR, USD 1500 (3)Near
Sedona Hotel, Shwe Ohn
Pin apartment, 1500 sqft,
1MBR, 2SR, USD 1500.
(4)8 Mile, Prom condo,
2500 Sqft, 1MBR, 2SR,
fully furniture, USD 4000.
(5)Near China Embassy,
Golden rose condo, 2500
Sqft, 2MBR, 1SR, fully
furniture USD 4000.(6)
Chanthargone Young
condo, 2500 Sqft, 1MBR,
2 SR, USD 2500. (7)
University Avenue Rd,
Thakatho Yeikmon condo,
1250 Sqft, 1MBR, 2 SR,
fully furniture, 2500 USD.
Ph : 09-2527-0 3331
(1) 7 MiLe, single house,
2 RC, 2MBR, 1SR, fully
furniture, USD 4500. (2)
8 Mile, single house, 2
RC, 2MBR, 1SR, fully
furniture USD 7000.(3)
Near Russian Embassy,
2 RC, 2MBR, 1SR , fully
furniture USD 15000. Ph:
09-2527-0 3331
BLAzon apt - (corner
unit), 3 bed room, 1900 +
sq.ft, Contact owner: 09520-3220, 557453.
BAhAn, Near Holiday
hotel, Po Sein Rd, 2 RC,
3 Room with toilet, 3 AC,
car parking, 2000US$
per month. Ph: 09-250026350, 09-31287827
dAgon Tsp, Condo,
near park royal hotel,

1250 sqft, window side,

1MBR, 1SR,with balcony,
3AC, Lift, car parking,
T200USD per month.
Ph: 09-2500-26350, 09312-87827
(1)TAMWe, East Race
Course St, 48'x73'.
Condo Pent house. 1
MBR, 2SR, wooden
floor. aircons. USD 3500
per month. (2)Bahan,
Golden Valley, 80'x60' , 2
storey building. 3 MBR,4
aircons. USD 2500 per
month. (3)Mayangone,
Maykha Rd, Parami.
0.5 acre land. European
Single storey, 4MBR, Big
lawn, Swimming pool.
Negotiable. Ph:09-260332121.
CondoMiniUM
for
Rent, Chan Thar Gone
Yaung Condo at Upper
Pazuntaung
Street,
Tamwe Township. 2
nd floor, Gym, 24-hour
Lift, Security, Car Park,
Generator, Swimming
Pool, 1 Master and 2
Single Bed Rooms, 4
Aircons, 1650 Sq.Feet,
23 Lakhs (negotiable).
Contact : 09-9751-25218
KAMAYUT, (1)Thanlwin
Rd. 80'x80'. 2 storey
new house. 6 MBR, 10
Aircons. Lawn. modern
nice house USD 8000 per
month. (2)Inya Rd. 0.25
acre land. Single storey.
3 MBR. aircons. Semi
furnished. USD 6000
per month. Negotiable.
Ph:09-2603-32121
SAnChAUng, Bagayar
Rd, Newly decorated
apartment
(Airconditioned, big build in
wardrobe with dressing
table, standard bath room
with water heater, and
exhaust fan in Kitchen)
with good lighting and
ventilation high floor,
clear view to Shwe Dagon
Pagoda at quiet location,
between Bagayar and U
Wisara Rd is available to
rent. Walking distance to
Myay Ni Gone City Mart,
Dagon Centre, $800/
month - Negotiable for
fully furnish : Ph: 09-43067111
(1)3 Bedroom Brand New
Condo, Furnished. Pay
TV, Internet provided, 5
min walk to Kandawgyi
lake and downtown.
USD 2500 per month. No
agent fees. (2)2 Bedroom
Condo. Not furnished. 5
min walk to Sule pagoda
&
Shangrila
Hotel.
USD 1000 per month.
One month agent fees.
Contact: phyuphyu.077@
gmail.com Ph: 09-5032952, 09-730-75900.
AhLone, Strand Condo,
1250 sqft, fully furnished,
1 MBR, 1 common room,
decorated, lift, car park,
3 A/C, river view. Ph :
09-508-1175, Email :
kaungthihaheaven@
gmail.com
VerY niCe Condo,
Thiri Avenue, Taw Win
St, 9 Mile, Mayangone.
1350 sqft, 2 MBR, 1
BR, Living room, shrine,
dinning room,kitchen,
Varandah, 4th Flr, Lift
own car park, security
and waste management.
Fully furnished. Only for
foreigners, one year basic
contract. Please contact :
09-5000621, 01-200581.
MUdiTAr Condo flat,
Fully furnished 2, bed
room, 2.7,lakhs/month.
First to see will lease.
Ph:09 4236 60602.
Email:vtchit@gmail.com
(1)nAWArAT Condo,
1200 Sqft, 1MBR, 1BR,
f.f, $1500. (2)Kan Yeik
Mon Condo, 1500 Sqft,
2MBR, 1BR, f.f, $1500.
(3)University Yeik Mon
Condo,
1500
Sqft,

1MBR, 1BR, lift, $1500.

(4) Yadanar Htun Condo,
1360 Sqft, 2BR, 2AC,
Ph, lift, $850. (5) Classic
standard Condo, 2000
Sqft, 2MBR, 1BR, f.f,
$2500. Ph: 09-421072150, 09-7963-02109.
7 MiLe (Near - Bank /
Market / Shop) Bungalow
Type, One Bed Room,
Two Beds Room, Fully
furnished, Car Parking
/ Laundry Service /
Cleaning Service are
available.
Weekly,
Monthly, Yearly For 1
Month Rental : 900 USD.
Enquiry (Office Hour 9
am to 5 pm) Contact : 094217-43 770.
BAhAn, (1)Shwe gone
daing Rd, new condo,
20'x70', 1MBR, 2SR, ph
line, aircons, good for
both residence & office
USD 1000 per month.
(2)Pent house condo
near Kandawkyi lake.
lake view. 5 bedrooms,
furnished, wooden floor.
aircons. USD7000 Per
month. - 09-9769-05901
offiCe SpACe To LeT
3100 sqm available over
5 floors in a 12-storey
building with car park,
restaurant, multi function
hall and apartments.
Please contact - Ph:
09-2523-59355.
Email : office-mm@
uniteammarine.com,
web: www .facebook.
com/officespaceyangon

Housing for Sale

pWin oo LWin, Land 40'
x 70', 320 Lakhs. Ph: 09518-8320.
CLASSiC Strand Condo
suitable for office, 2280
sqft (2,500 sqft with
mezzanine), 3rd floor,
wide open space, 14 ft
ceilings, face river. New
building with gym, car
park, cafe, facilities. Prime
downtown location, close
to strand hotel/union bar.
porntipawong@gmail.
com. Tel: 09-4200-04585
TAUnggYi Plots (1)
Regularly-shaped plot
of 0.25 acres @ Yay
Aye Kwin Ward for MMK
9,000 Lakhs ; (2) 0.11
acres @ Yay Aye Kwin
Ward with 2-storey house
and good view for MMK
3,000 Lakhs. Interested
buyers or brokers in
Taunggyi, please email to
pdecfinance@gmail.com
or call 09-262702844.
eAST dAgon, VIP 11
quarter, 40' x 60', Gayan,
550 Lakhs. Negotiable,
Ph: 01-500064, 09-448003146.
TAUng gYi, Bayar Phyu
Quarter, 50' x 55', 150
lakhs, Negotiable, Ph: 01500064, 09-4480-03146

Want to Hire
WAnTed
Factory
building
for
rent
Dimension:
Length:
140 meters x Width: 45
meters x Height: 8 9
meters Use: Immediate
/ Heavy Industry With
Electricity Power of 500
Kva (11Kv) minimum
& water supply Area:
Yangon / Bago area
Preferable from direct
owner. Please contact :
mtrajahkl@gmail.com,
tinhlaing2167@gmail.
com, chohlaingnyein@
gmail.com Tel: 09 -421135261, 09-507-8834, 094250-15876
expAT
working
in
Yangon looking for
accommodation to share
with other Expats. If you
want to rent a bedroom in
your house or flat please
contact me through my
email at biscay.world@
gmail.com

FREE

THE MYANMAR TIMES MAY 15, 2015

Employment
UN Positins
The UniTed Nations
World Food Programme,
is seeking (1)Logistics
Officer NO-B, Yangon
(COB 21 May 2015) (2)
Logistics Officer NOA, Maungdaw (COB 22
May 2015) For more
information, please visit
to http://www.themimu.
info/jobs-for-myanmarnationals. Please Email
the applications with UN
P-11 to wfpmyanmar.
vacancy@wfp.org.
The UniTed Nations
World Food Programme,
is seeking (1)Nutrition
Officer NO-B, Yangon
(Re-advertise) For more
information, please visit
to http://www.themimu.
info/jobs-for-myanmarnationals. Please email
the applications with UN
P-11 to wfpmyanmar.
vacancy@wfp.org COB
19 May 2015.
The UniTed Nations
World Food Programme,
is seeking (1)Field
Monitor Assistant SC4, Mawlamyine. For more
information, please visit
to http://www.themimu.
info/jobs-for-myanmarnationals. Please Email
the applications with UN
P-11 to wfpmyanmar.
vacancy@wfp.org COB
18 May 2015.

Embassy
EMbAssy of Egypt is
seeking an experienced
staff to work as bearer
at the Ambassador's
Residence. Must be able
to speak English well and
have experience in the
same field. Qualified and
Interested candidates
should submit CV and
copies of testimonials
as soon as possible
to Embassy of Egypt,
No.81
Pyidaungsu
Yeiktha Rd, Dagon
Township or to email:
egyptembassy86@
gmail.com.

Ingo Position
inT'L Rescue Committee
is seeking (1)senior
Health
Officer
in
Paletwa, Chin State :
Degree on Development
Studies, Social Science
or
other
related
professional of health
developmental science.
2 years experience. Good
skill on Microsoft office
package & command
of English & Myanmar.
(2)senior Field Health
Officer 1 post in
Kanpetlet, Chin State
M.B., B.S, B.CommH,
BNSc,
Diploma
in
Midwifery or other health
related disciplines. 2
years experience. Good
Myanmar & ability to
communicate in English.
(3)Reproductive Health
Project
Manager:
Medical degree with
public health background/
Master of public health or
post graduate diploma in
poublic health is an asset.
5 years of professional
experience. Able to work
and travel to very remote
areas. Operational skilled
on Microsoft Office
Package. Fluency in
English/ Chin (Khumee).
Please submit a Cover
letter & CV to the HR
Department by email at:
WaiMar.Naing@rescue.
org or by delivery to the
IRC office 33/ A, Natmauk
Lane Thwe (1), Bocho (2)
Quarter, Bahan, Yangon.
Closing date : 22 May,
2015.
FONdAziONE Terre des
hommes Italia (Tdh- It)
is seeking Agriculture
Technician
(Based
Myingyan,
Mandalay
Region) : Bachelor
degree in Agriculture or
Diploma in Agriculture.
Effective English skill.
Good computer skill.
Sharing the values and
mission of Tdh-It and the
Convention on the Rights
of the Child. Please
submit application with
completed information
about current job and
expected salary incl.
CV, photo, references
by email or by postal

service to Terre des

Hommes Italia Country
Office: Tdh-It Country
Office: 48, Shwe Hinn
Thar St, Hlaing, Yangon.
Tel: 01-654604, E-mail:
hr.tdhit.mya@gmail.com,
Closing date : 22-5-2015.
(1) FiELd suPERvisOR
1 Post : Demoso (Kayah
State) Please send
application letter, CV
and related documents
to
Myanmar
Red
Cross Society (Head
Office)
Yazatingaha
Rd,
Dekkhinathiri,
NayPyi
Taw.
Ormrcshrrecruitment@
gmail.com
www.
myanmar
redcross
society.org.
The
inT'L Rescue
Committee (IRC) is
seeking senior Officer
1 post in Kayin State:
Bachelor of Arts or
Science in Social, Public
Health, Humanities or
other related field. 3
years of professional
experience in manage
ment in NGOs. 2
years of GBV, social
work, counseling, or
psychosocial experience
in. Computer literate,
including Microsoft Word
& Excel. Fluency in
English. Please submit
a Cover letter & CV to
the HR Department by
email at: WaiMar.Naing@
rescue.org or by delivery
to IRC office Int'l Rescue
Committee (IRC) 33/A,
Natmauk Lane Thwe
(1), Bocho (2) Quarter,
Bahan, Yangon.
THE subsTANcE Abuse
Research Association
(SARA), is looking for
Finance Manager (Full
Time) 1 Post (800US$
to 900US$) based in
Yangon. Masters degree
in Accounting, Business
Administration,
or
related field. Experience
in successful financial
management of NGO.
Understanding of rules
and regulations related
to Global Fund & 3MDG
project funding & reporting
requirements. Strong
working know ledge of
computer programs &
accounting softwares:
Microsoft Word, Excel,
ACCPAC, Peachtree,
MYOB etc. Demonstrated
skills in financial oversight
of Humanitarian Projects
in Myanmar. Fluency
in
English.
Please
submitted by email to Ms.
Khin Thida Lwin sara.hro.
ygn@gmail.com, and cc
to sara.sao.ygn@gmail.
com. The application
must contain a phone
number, email address,
recent passport photo,
2 referees & a statement
of expected salary by the
applicant. Closing date :
18th, May, 2015.
( 1 ) A c c O u N TA N T
(Press) - 1 Post (2)store
Assistant - 1 Post (3)
supporting
Officer
- 1 Post. Please send
application letter, CV
& related documents
to
Myanmar
Red
Cross Society (Head
Office)
Yazatingaha
Rd,
Dekkhinathiri,
Nay
Pyi
Taw.
Ormrcshrrecruitment@
gmail.com
www.
myanmarredcross
society.org

Local Positions
A NEw established
boutique public relation
company is seeking a
young and energetic
staff to join the team. (1)
Translator-M/F 1 Post.
(2)Media Monitoring
Assistant - F 2 Posts.
(3)Office Assistant - F
1 Post. For all positions :
Any graduate, Computer
literate (Able to use
Words, Excel, Power
Point, Internet & Email),
Able to work with team,
multitasking and work
under pressure with
minimum supervision,
Excellent interpersonal
skills. Office hour - 9 am
to 5 pm (Only week days)
If you are interested in
growing your experience
with us please send an
application including CV
with expected salary
to pandpmedia.com@

gmail.comor No.(17),
S h w e T h a P y a y Ye i k
Mon(2), Nawarat St,
Tharketa,
Yangon.
Closing date : 25 May
2015.
busy
REAdyMix
operation near Thanlyin
require - concrete
supervisors, concrete
Mixer
drivers,
concrete batch Plant
operators, concrete
Q.s
supervisors,
Loading
shovel
Operators, cleaners,
General workers /
Helpers, Batch plant
Electricians, Batch plant
Mechanics, Secretary,
Good rates of pay 8 Hour
shifts, Accommodation if
required. Please sent c.v
or letter stating which
you are applying for
and expected salary
to Human Resources
Lafarge /Star Cement
No.16A, Thukhawadi St,
Yangkin, Yangon, Email :
mary.han@lafarge.com
sTudy
AbROAd
counsellor 4 post:
Selection
Criteria,
Any graduate, UpperIntermediate English,
Has initiative, Well
organised and able to
manager time effectively.
Excellent interpersonal
&
communication
skills. Able to use Ms
Work,Excel and Internet.
Able to use Gmail and
Google Calendar (or to
learn to use them). If
you believe that you are
suitably qualified for this
position please apply
using this link: http://goo.
gl/EHstKS
cusTOMER sERvicE
Officer
4 posts :
University
graduate,
Basic
computer
skills
(MS
office,
Gmail),
Intermediate
English, Professional
presentation. To apply for
the position please click
here: http://goo.gl/725l3h
cOOL ciTy Zone Co.,
Ltd is seeking (1)sales
& Marketing Manager M/F 1 Post (2)sales and
Marketing Assistant
Manager -M/F 1 Post, For
1 & 2: Any graduate/Civil
Engineering, Additional
qualifications in Marketing
or Business Management
would be advantageous.
5 years experience.
(3) sales supervisor
- M/F 1 Post (4)sales
Promoter - M/F 1 Post.
For 3 & 4: Any graduate/
AGTI- Civil. 2 years of
relevant experience. (5)
Auto cat 2D, 3D - M/F 1
Post : Any graduate prefer
with Civil/Mechanical
Engineering (6)Junior
Accountant - M/F 1 Post
: Degree or Diploma in
Accounting and Finance
or equivalent. For 5 &
6: one year of relevant
experience.
Please
submit CV (with attached
a recent photo), with
relevant documents to
552, Lower Kyeemyin
Daing Rd, Kyeemyin
Daing, Yangon, Ph:
01-215033, Email: ccz.
myanmar@gmail.com
within 2 weeks.
vPOwER
is
an
independent
power
producer, one of the
leading solution providers
in the short to mid-term
power supply market
including
temporary
power rental is seeking
(1)Project Manager :
Bachelors degree in
Electrical Engineering,
Fluent
in
English,
Chinese language will
be preferred, 5 years
project
management
experience,
Strong
leadership skills, Good
communication skills to
train and interact with staff
at all levels (2)Project
Electrical / Mechanical
Engineer (Coordinator)
: Bachelors degree or
above in Electrical or
Mechanical Engineering,
Fluent
in
English,
Chinese language will
be preferred, 3 years
relevant
experience,
Practical
knowledge
& skills in repairing &
installingelectrical
or
mechanical
system
at a work site, Less
experience
will
be
considered as Project

Coordinator position.
We provide an attractive
remuneration package
to the right candidates.
Please send application
with full details stating
Current & Expected
Salary to vpower2013@
ymail.com. The Company
may also refer suitable
applicants to other
vacancies within the
Group. All personal
datawill be used for
recruitment purposes
only and information will
be destroyed after the
selection process.
cENTuRiON Auto Group
Transportation services
is seeking driver : Must
have valid license. May
have to expert high way
in Myanmar and down
town area in Yangon.
Can drive all type of cars
(automic and manual). No
tobacco, acohol and betel
nut. Basic Command
in Spoken English. At
least three or five year
experience in driving cars.
Knowledge of mechanical
skills is preferable. If you
interest this position
please contact to 157/41,
Yeik Thar 2nd St, Thin
Gyan Gyun. Email :
sawthuunandar@gmail.
com. Ph: 09-2501-88232.

Comfortable
working
with young learners,
2 years experience,
Able to devote oneself
to teaching, Friendly,
enthusiastic and patient.
All candidates should be
good in communication
and interpersonal skills.
Attractive
Salary.
Lunch is provided. An
opportunity to work for
an institution where
students have lots of
outstanding international
achievements. Enhance
ment training. Interested
candidates can come
for between the office
hours. Please bring
CV along with a copy
of credentials to 235,
ShukintharMyoPatt
Rd, Taketa, Yangon.
Ph: 450396, 450397,
9410010,
9410020.
Closingdate : May15th,
2015.
cHATRiuM
HOTEL
Royal Lake Yangon
Leading Five Star Hotel
in Yangon, Myanmar
with its headquarter in
Bangkok, is now seeking
highly energetic and
motivated candidates for
the following positions:
(1).duty Manager M/F 1 Post. Interested
candidates should apply

wE
ARE
currently
seeking two new dynamic
teachers to work at
"Kings
International
School". We follow the
Early years foundation
Stage Curriculum of
England, but are happy
to offer training for a good
candidate. We teach both
Myanmar and Chinese
language alongside our
curriculum with specialist
teachers. Candidates
should show : Graduate
level qualifications and
teaching certificate. A
sound knowledge of
good practice, curriculum
and philosophy. Have
a fun, inspiring manner
with the children. Have
high expectations for
their children in relation
to achievement and
behavior. Be keen to
work hard and become
part of strong team. The
candidate must submit
his/her application or CV
(with attached photo) in
person to The Manager,
Kings Int'l School : 695,
Mahabandoola Rd, Bet:
19th St & Sint Oh Dan St,
Latha. Ph : 01-382213,
395816, or by email to:
zawmyogreenboy@
gmail.com
dvb Multimedia Group
is
seeking
senior
Accountant : B.Com
or Certified Accountant,
5 years experience in
a similar position/field,
Prior experience with
international accounting
standards,
Familiar
with
computerized
accounting, Preferably
familiar with QuickBook
accounting
software,
Good Computer skill
(office
application),
Good analytical skill,
Excellent communication
& networking (interper
sonal) skills, Preferably
familiar with QuickBook
accounting
software,
Preferably
good
command of spoken &
written English. Rm 4,
Bldg 18, Hninn Si Rd,
Tamwe.
www.dvb.no
ClDeadline Application:
Until Candidate Identified
HORizON International
Schoolis looking for (1).
Assistant Teacher :
Age 20 ~ 35, University
graduate, Must be
proficient in English,

with full CV/Resume

indicating position of
interest, qualifications,
educational background,
employment records and
recent photo not later
than 15.5.2015. Only
short-listed candidates
will be notified by phone
for interview. Email:
h r. c h r y @ c h a t r i u m .
com Ph : 01-544500,
01-544500 HR Dept.
Chatrium Hotel Royal
Lake Yangon No.40,
Natmauk Rd, Tamwe.
Yangon.
yANGON International
School is looking for (1).
iT network Engineer :
Must have a degree in IT
and be able to manage
the local area network,
server functions and
organizations,
user
systems the installation
of all front-end (user) and
back-end (infrastructure)
school-wide technology
systems, peripherals,
apparatus & software. 3
years experiences. (2).
Admissions' Assistant
: Customer service
experience.
Good
command English and
Myanmar. Familiarity
with international schools
will be an advantage.
Qualified and interested
candidates may send
their CV forms to Mr.
James
at
james@
yismyanmar.com
or
117, Thumingalar Rd,
Thumingalar housing,
Thingangyun, Yangon,
Myanmar. Ph: 01 578171,
09420163769.
The
position is open until filled.
G sTAR HOTEL is seeking
(1)driver - M 2 Posts (2)
waiter - M 10 Posts (3)
Room Attantant - M/F
3 Posts (4)bell boy - M
1 Post (5)cashier - F
3 Post (6)Public Area
cleaner - M/F 2 Posts (7)
Receptionist - F 3 Post
(8)M&e (Maintainess) - M
1 Post. For new branch
at Thaketa G Star II is
seeking (1)waiter - M
10 Posts (2)cashier - F
3 Posts. Please submit
CV with necessary
documents to 20/b, c,
Thukhawati St, West
Yankin, Yankin. Ph:
09-32109590, 09-32109591. Closing Date : 15
.5 .2015.
wE
ARE
seeking

Translator : 3 year
experience,
Strong
knowledge of legal
terminology,
Positive
working
attitude,
interpersonal
&
communication skills,
Good awareness of
current affairs, cultures
and politics, It is an
advantage to have a
knowledge of and/or
interest in specialist
areas such as law,
politics/government/
public administration,
economics, marketing
and financial affairs.
Interested
candidate
please send CV to ppo@
kcyangon.com with Last
drawn, expected salary &
availability period.
GREAT GOLdEN Glory
Co., Ltd, A Leading
Chemical distribution
company is seeking
for self - motivated and
dedicated staff for the
following positions. (1)
sales coordinator - M/F
1 post : Any graduate,
Chemistry or Business
related subjects more
preferred, Age 25 ~ 35
years. (2)Accouontant
- F 1 post : Graduate in
B.Com, CPA or related
subjects, Age 25 ~ 40
years, (3)Logistics - M 1
post : Any graduate, Age
2- ~ 35 years, Good driving
skill. (4)driver - 1 post:
Good communication
& driving skill. All above
positions, except for the
driver, must possess the
following qualifications:
Fluent in written &
spoken English, Good
computer skill, 3 years
experience in related
field. Please submit CV,
photo with necessary
documents to 85 ~ 87, 3
Flr, 32 St, Pabedan. Ph:
387366, 387431. Email
3g@ggglory.com.mm,
3gmyanmar@gmail.
com. Colsing date : 15
May 2015.
KELviN cHiA Yangon
Ltd is a foreign legal
consultancy firm. We
invite motivated and
committed individuals to
join us as (1) Lawyers
who will work on a variety
of corporate & commercial
matters & transactions
in Myanmar. If you are
a
Myanmar-qualified
lawyer with strong English
language skills, you are
invited to apply to join our
Myanmar practice group.
Myanmar
nationals
admitted to intl bars are
also welcome to apply.
Training will be provided.
(2) corporate Affairs
Executive As a corporate
affairs executive, you
will be involved with
business development,
networking,
market
research and liaison
work.
Applicants
should be proficient
in English, energetic
& self-motivated. All
nationalities are welcome
(Myanmar, Japanese,
Korean,
Chinese,
Taiwanese, etc). Please
email application and
curriculum vitae to ppo@
kcyangon.com
GLOMEd PHARMAcEu
TicAL Co., INC is seeking
(1)sales Manager M 1 post in Yangon:
Excellent in English.
Determines
sales
plans by implementing
marketing strategies;
analyzing trends &
results. Establishes sales
objectives by forecasting
and developing annual
sales quotas for regions
and territories; projecting
expected sales volume
for existing & new
products. Willing to go on
business trip in the whole
Myanmar. (2)Medical
sales Representative
(MSR) : M/F 4 posts
in Yangon, 2 posts in
Mandalay, 1 in each
other State in Myanmar:
Approaching and making
good relationship with
customers. (3)Office
Admin - F1 post in
Yangon
:
English
speaking. Coordinates
administrative activities
& supports the offices
daily operations to
ensure efficiently office
admin function. Contacts
with the vendor to carry

out indirect purchasing

process such as car
rental, the apartment
lease, HOTELBOOKING,
air tickets. Coordinates
logistics for the expatriate
such as visa/working
permit/residence
permit/ apartment lease
agree ment. Arranges
travel and logistics for
internal parties. Checks
all expenses relate to
travel report and creates
weekly/travel report in
SAP system. Arranges
appointment/meeting
when necessary. Other
miscellaneous duties as
assigned by Superior.
CVs should be sent
by email to : giang.
glomedvn@gmail.com;
C/c to: Congkhanh.
nguyen@glomedvn.
com H/P: +95 92 5200
2759 Mr. Giang (English
speaking) +959 261 779
889 Mr. Khanh (English
speaking) Add.: 35th
str., 1st floor, middle,
Kyauktada,
Yangon.
www.glomedvn.vn
wE ARE seeking (1)
Production Manager
- M 1 post : A.G.T.I
(Mechanical), 3 years
experience, Age 30 ~ 55,
Well knowledge in modern
furniture & furniture
installation & production.
(2)Marketing Manager
- M/F 1 post : Have
to understand project
sales, retail marketing
& other marketing tools
and technique. 4 years
experience in Decorative
Materials & Construction
materials industry. (3)
Project coordinator
(Interior) - M/F 1 post
: Able to set
project
timelines & coordinate
different parties. Well
knowledge in modern
furniture & furniture
installation & production.
3 years experience. (4)
Project Manager- M/F 1
post : A.G.T.I (Civil) or B.E
(Civil). 5 years experience.
Well experience in
high-rise construction.
Well knowledge in
steel structure, precast building & modern
building techniques. (5)
Assistant HR Manager M/F 1 post : Any graduate,
5 year experience, HR
knowledge, Computer
skills & also reporting skill.
Good communication
skills. Please submit CV,
photo with necessary
documents
to
HR
Department
Zware
Group of Companies
(DeArch Co., Ltd, Live
Life Co., Ltd, Builder
Group Co., Ltd, MBIG)
440, Waizayantar Rd (at
the corner of Waizayantar
Rd & Thit Sar Rd), South
Okkala, Yangon. Tel: 951565911, +951-8551294,
www.zwaregroup.com
Email:
recruitment@
zwaregroup.com
AsiA PLAzA HOTEL
is seeking (1)sale &
Marketing Manager M/F 1 Post. (2) Assistant
FO manager - M/F 1 Post.
(3)sales & Marketing
Executive - M/F 2 Posts.
(4) FO supervisor M/F 2 Posts. (5) F&B
Manager M/F 1 Post. (6)
chief Accountant - M/F
1 Post. (7) G.s.O (Guest
Service Officer) - M/F 1
Post. (8) HR Assistant
- F 1 Post. Must be
interesting, strive and
in the long term for this
position. Please apply
with CV form, Photo,
Expect salary, Certificate

& other attachement

copy. Asia Plaza Hotel,
Yangon : 277, Corner of
38th & Bogyoke Aung San
Rd, Kyauktada, Yangon.
Ph:391070, 391071.
ENGLisH
TEAcHER
in Language School :
Responsible & reliable,
Efficient and resultoriented,At least 3 years in
teaching, Willingness and
capacity to accommodate
when faced with difficult
and frustrating working
conditions, Able and
willing to travel in Yangon.
Interested applicants are
to send their current C.V
with recent photo and
fixed a day for interview.
Send to jatojamie@
gmail.com or call 094500-50725.
ExO TRAvEL is seeking
(1)Admin
Assistant
(Logistics) : Any degree
holder or equivalent
qualifications, Able to
use Microsoft office
programs comfortably.
Able to commit overtime
when necessary. (2)
Travel consultant :
2 years experience in
tourism related field,
Pro-active & Team spirit,
good organizational &
problem solving skill,
Strong sales & customer
service focus, Computer
proficiency : Microsoft
word, Excel, & Outlook,
Good communication in
English/French (Written
& Spoken ). (Only those
with a genuine interest
in joining a professional
travel company for longterm commitment need
apply.) Plesase send
a detailed resume HR
Manager at memecho@
exotravel.com or mail to
147. Shwegonedaing St,
West Shwegonedaing,
Bahan, Yangon, Tel: +
95 (0) 1 8604933
zwARE GROuP is
seeking (1)Marketing
Manager - M/F 1 post
(2)Project coordinator
(Interior) - M/F 1 post (3)
Project coordinator
(Civil Structure) - M/F
2 posts (4)Admin
Assistant - M/F 2 posts
(5)civil Engineer M/F 2 posts (6)Office
secretary M/F 1
post (7)Assistant HR
Manager - M/F 1 post
(8)Marketing Assistant
- M/F 3 posts (9)Office
staff - M/F 2 posts
(10)senior Quantity
surveyor (Head of
QS) - M/F 1 post (11)
Project coordinator
- M/F 1 post (12)sales
Engineer - M/F 1 post
(13)driver - M 1 post
(14)General Helper - M
1 post (15)store Keeper
- M/F 2 posts. Please
submit CV, photo with
necessary documents
to 440, Waizayandar
St, Corner of Thitsar
Traffic point, South
Okkalarpa. Ph : 01565911, 01-8551294.
Email: recruitment@
zwaregroup.com
inT'L Accounting & Law
firm is seeking (1)Junior
Associates, LL. B or
LL. M - F 3 posts. (2)
cPAs - F 2 posts. (3)
Accountants, B Com,
Level II, Level III - F 3
posts. (4) Receptionist
& secretary - F 2 post.
For all posts: Ages 22
~ 35, Fluent in English,
Excellent negotiation &
communication skills,
Computer skills. Please
submit CV to alex.
hwang@polaris.com.mm

26 Sport

THE MYANMAR TIMES May 15, 2015

Football

Asian Football urged

to hold independent
corruption probe

a
IN PICtUREs

Photos: AFP

Colombian soldiers and civilians, all victims

of landmines, play volleyball during the
sitting volleyball national championship in
Bello Municipality, Antioquia department,
Colombia on May 13. A breakthrough
agreement between the government
and the FARC guerrillas to begin clearing
Colombia, one of the most mined
countries in the world, of its anti-personnel
landmines will be implemented in the
coming weeks.

sias football body was

urged to order a full and
independent investigation into lingering corruption fears on May 13 after
its general secretary was suspended
over an alleged cover-up.
Former asian Football Confederation general secretary Peter Velappan
told aFP he was shocked by revelations about his friend and successor,
alex soosay.
He said the Kuala Lumpur-based
body needed a thorough investigation
by independent experts following various allegations of cover-ups, embezzlement and theft.
There should be an independent
professional investigation into this ...
its in the interests of everybody to do
that, Velappan said by telephone from
the Malaysian capital.
i personally feel very concerned
with this situation and i think the aFC
is obliged to really order an independent investigation and take all those
to task if they have done anything
wrong, he added.
soosay was suspended on May 12
pending an internal aFC probe after
allegations surfaced last month that
he tried to hide documents from financial investigators in 2012.
The allegations came from the
aFCs financial director, who gave
videotaped testimony in July 2012 that
soosay asked him to tamper [with] or
hide potentially incriminating documents.
at the time, the aFC was being

investigated for financial wrongdoing under its disgraced former president Mohamed bin Hammam, who
is banned from football worldwide.
The results of the audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers were never published but leaked details raised concerns over payments worth millions
of dollars.
Days after the taped interview,
the aFC filed a report with police
alleging the theft of financial documents from its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

We have got to
protect integrity, we
have got to protect
good governance.
Peter Velappan
Former aFC general secretary

and according to the Malay Mail,

which published contents of the taped
interview last month, soosay later
claimed in a police report that Hammam had embezzled nearly Us$10
million.
While there is no evidence that
soosay committed any crime, he is
believed to have been fearful about being blamed for authorising payments
ordered by bin Hammam.
Velappan said it was time for the

aFC, now led by Bahrains shaikh salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa, to fully
investigate the situation and not simply use soosay as a scapegoat.
i hope the aFC will conduct a really good, professional investigation
into all this and if theres anything
[against] any of these top officials that
appropriate action will be taken, he
said.
We have got to protect integrity,.
We have got to protect good governance.
However, he said soosay, the humble and simple former coach and Malaysia midfielder who became general
secretary in 2009, had some explaining to do.
He has to explain ... if youre not
guilty you dont go to a guy [the aFC
financial director] and tell him all
these things, Velappan said.
soosay became general secretary
in 2009, two years before Qatari businessman bin Hammams nine-year
stint as president collapsed under
claims of bribery and financial misconduct.
Bin Hammam was accused of
handing out bribes for votes while
campaigning for the FiFa presidency
in 2011, as well as during his native
Qatars successful bid to host the 2022
World Cup.
asias football authority holds significant power in the sport because
of the voting power it wields at world
body FiFa, where its 46 members
make it the second-biggest region.
AFP

Football

Fans accuse Glazers of draining 1bn

a sUPPORTERs group has accused
the Glazers of taking 1 billion (Us$1.5
billion) out of Manchester United in
the decade since the american family
took over the English Premier League
giants.
The Manchester United supporters Trust launched its latest attack on
the Glazers stewardship of the club on
May 12, the 10th anniversary of their
controversial 790 million leveraged
buyout of the side.
Now 10 years on, many fans are
still unhappy with the way the Glazers borrowed against the club to fi-

nance the takeover.

Not investing a single penny
might be considered an ownership
crime by fans at most clubs but far
worse than that they [the Glazers]
have actually extracted colossal sums
from Manchester United, MUsT said
in a press release.
When all interest and charges on
their leveraged buyout is added up,
plus money theyve paid themselves,
plus related debt still on the club,
theyve taken more than 1 billion and
its still rising.
No owner in the history of

football in any country, ever, has taken

so much money from a club.
Yet for all the controversy, United
have been successful under the Glazers, winning the Premier League
five timess and the 2008 Champions
League the third time the club had
been crowned champions of Europe.
But MUsT added that had it not
been for mismanagement by the Glazers, United would have eclipsed Liverpools British record of five European
Cups.
United refused to comment on
MUsTs statement. AFP

Football

FIFA bans ex-vice president for eight years

FiFa banned former vice president
Reynald Temarii for eight years
on May 12 for accepting almost
Us$350,000 from disgraced Qatari
official Mohamed bin Hammam to
pay legal fees in a corruption case.
Hammam paid Temarii 305,640
euros ($347,000) in January 2011,
weeks after FiFa voted to award
the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, said a
FiFa statement.
Temarii was at the time head of
the Oceania Football Confederation
as well as the Tahiti Football association chief.
Hammam helped Temariis appeal against a one-year suspension
imposed in November 2010 by FiFa
which prevented him from voting in
the contests for the 2018 and 2022
World Cups one month later.

The OFC had agreed to back australias bid for 2022 but Temariis appeal meant it cast no vote.
FiFa said Hammam, then a member of the FiFa executive committee
and the asian Football Confederation president, covered the costs of
Temariis legal expenses.
Mr Temarii received the money
in January 2011 following a meeting
with Mr Bin Hammam in November
2010 in Kuala Lumpur, FiFa said in
a statement after the ruling by the
adjudicatory chamber of the independent FiFa Ethics Committee,
chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert.
Temarii was banned from taking
part in any kind of football-related
activity at national and international level for a period of eight years,
FiFa said.

in November 2010, FiFas ethics committee banned Temarii from

FiFas decision-making executive
committee for one year and fined
him for ethics violations, following a
Sunday Times undercover report on
vote-buying during the race to host
the World Cups.
Russia and Qatar won the right to
stage the 2018 and 2022 World Cups
in a secret ballot by the remaining
members of FiFas executive committee in December.
The process and outcome met
with severe criticism from several
quarters. Qatar has denied any
wrongdoing in the World Cup vote.
Hammam was banned for life from
football activities in December
2012 over conflicts of interest.
AFP

Sport
28 THE MYANMAR TIMES May 15, 2015

SPORT EDITOR: Matt Roebuck | matt.d.roebuck@gmail.com

Corruption in
world football
SPORT 26

Its an AFC
knockout
AFC CUP

Ayeyawady confirm Malaysian Round trip

MATT ROebUCk
matt.d.roebuck@gmail.com

yeyAwADy United will

face Johor Darul Tazim
of Malaysia in the
Round of 16 on May 27
after a 3-3 draw in a difficult away tie to Persib Bandung of
Indonesia on May 13 was not enough
to secure them home advantage.
while the quarter-finals of the
competition are played over two
legs, the preceding round is contested over 90 minutes with winners of
the competitions eight groups securing a start at home to the knockout
campaign.
Finishing first was very important because we will get to play at
home and have our fans behind us,
and it is also how I want it to be,
said Johor coach Mario Gomez, a
newcomer to the club whose name
was fixed to the coaches door only
two weeks ago.
His side scored three goals in the
final 15 minutes of their Group F
game with Balestier Khalsa of Singapore to secure top spot over Kitchee
of Hong Kong, who will now travel
to Persib.
In the last four years of competition only three Round of 16 games in
the east Asian Zone have gone the
way of the visitors.
But Ayeyawady coach Marjan
Sekulovski will take heart from the
way his team have travelled this year

having won one and drawn two on

the road.
Starting as underdogs his team
will hopefully be able to play without fear the way they did in their
final group game, and this time the
game cannot end in a draw.
we got this result because they
wanted to show their best form.
were a crazy team because we never
give up. Its our strength, said Sekulovski after the Persib game.
Persib is a better team and they
played better in the match. But they
[Ayeyawady] didnt give up until the
end and came from behind three
times. we gave a good performance
today.
The Indonesian side led from a
28th minute Supardi Nasir goal until
Ayeyawady punctured the home defence by curling the ball into the net
from distance with only one minute
left in the first half.
Out of the tunnel for the second
half, the teams immediately traded
blows with success for Persib coming in the 52nd minute when Firman
Utina pierced the heart of the Delta
Boys defence and played in Muhammad Ridwan to round Ayeyawady
keeper Vanlal Hruaia and score.
when Ayeyawadys Colombian
striker edison Fonseca was upended
in the penalty box by Vladimir Vujovic, Naumov stepped up to finish his
eighth goal of the group stages, extending the Macedonians lead as the
competitions most prolific scorer.

The scores remained level until two

minutes before time when another
moment of madness that Ayeyawady
often allow to occur happened. A rash
tackle gave away a penalty that Makan Konate slotted past the keeper for
what seemed likely to be the winner.
But again Ayeyawadys fighting spirit saw them pull the scores
through a stoppage-time equaliser
from Nay Lin Aung. The goal may
not have brought them a home tie
in a fortnight but it did protect their
seasons unbeaten record.
Before the match, Ayeyawady
captain Min Min Thu spoke of his
teams short preparation time for
this match.
Some of our players have just
come back to the team two days ago.
we had only a short preparation
time before heading here, said the
skipper.
while the senior international
players returned, the U23 and U20
squad remained absent. while the
U20s have left for a training camp
in Australia in preparation for the
countrys debut in the FIFA U20
world Cup, the U23 squad preparing
for Junes Southeast Asian Games
remain in-country.
Ayeyawady will be hoping that
those U23 players will be allowed to
join the squad for their game held in
Malaysias border town with Singapore on May 27. The U23s will begin
their Singapore SeA Games campaign on June 2 against Indonesia.

Understrength Royals
end continental woes
MyANMARS other entrants into this
seasons AFC Cup continued their
run of poor results in the competition when an understrength yadanarbon FC lost 3-0 to Hong Kongs
South China who qualified for the
knockout stages with a perfect run
of six wins out of six.
Australian striker Daniel McBreen hit two past the second string
defence of the already-eliminated
yadanarbon at Mandalays Mandalar
Thiri Stadium on May 14.
yadanarbons coaching staff were
visibly embarrassed by only being able
to field three outfield substitutes for
an continental competition because
in addition to injuries 10 players were
away on international duty with the
age-group national sides and two had
only just returned on May 12 from a
senior squad training camp.
The fact that Myanmar U23
squad members were held back although they are in country and their
tournament will not begin until June
2 was of particular aggrievance. Unfortunately for the winners of the
2010 AFC Presidents Cup Asias
third tier continental competition
this club versus country battle has
been detrimental to the strength of
squad and preparation throughout
their AFC Cup campaign.
In the first half we looked to play
on the counter-attack but our team
today struggled to play that way,
so in the second half we gave them
more freedom and it showed, said
yadanarbon coach Kyi Naing.
yadanarbon goalkeeper Nyi Nyi
Lwin had already stood up well to
McBreen twice in the games opening
minutes but when the veteran forward
found himself surrounded by blue

shirts but with not one of them marking him, he could not fail to score.
yadanarbon were not without
chances and Leung Hing Kit in the
South China net was tested on occasion but as he passed that examination yadanarbon was found lacking
on the counter-attack.
The second goal saw Lam HokHei
running free of the yadanarbon defence and onto a through ball before
rounding the keeper at the top of the
box. Nyi Nyi Lwins efforts bought
enough time for several yadanarbon
players to scrabble back to the goal
line but Lam Hok Hei steadied himself and slotted the ball home.
with both teams assured of their
fate, the second half showed little urgency until Leung Chun Pong found his
way to the left-hand byline and crossed
for McBreen to finish from close range
in a crowded box for his second.
The remainder of the game might
have been purely about whether McBreen would complete his hat-trick
as the yadanarbon team contented
themselves with long-range efforts
had it not been for the introduction
of Thet Shine Naung.
His 70th minute long range effort
was the only attempt to test the keeper when he caught Leung Hing Kit
napping and won his team a corner.
The substitute then became provider for yadanarbons only close
range opportunity of the half. Attacking down the right he crossed for yan
Paing whose shot deflected off Jack
Sealy and onto the crossbar.
Now our focus must turn to our
domestic competitions and retaining our title of champions so we
can come back to AFC competitions
stronger next year, said Kyi Naing.

East Asia Zone

Persipura Jayapura

26 May

Pahang

South China

26 May

Bengaluru FC

Johor Darul Tazim

27 May

Ayeyawady United

Persib Bandung

27 May

Kitchee

wEEKEND
THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15-21, 2015

Sea inside

Troubled times for Myeiks

ocean-faring gypsies
Everything youve always wanted to know
about seamen but were afraid to ask

contents

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

FEATURE

ot
h
ps
To
A pig sniffs an actresss
shoe during a staged
pig wedding for a movie
shoot at a pig-themed
park in Zhonggong
in Chinas Shandong
province on May 12. The
park, owned by a pork
firm, hopes to attract
tourists by holding pig
performances including
diving, swimming and
running races.
Photo: AFP/Greg Baker

12-13

Sea gypsies struggle

for survival
Myeik Archipelagos
Salon are losing their
traditional lifestyle under
pressure from outside
influences
FEATURE

14-15

The loneliness of the

long-distance seaman
Sailors answer the call
of the deep blue sea
despite the danger,
isolation and hard
work
TRAVEL

16-17

Myanmar beaches: the

coast less travelled
Alternate seaside
destinations beckon
the adventurous

4
6
8
9
10
11
18
20
21
25
26

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Visions of our future underwater
FOOD & DRINK
Seaweed: the sexy new superfood

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THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15 - 21, 2015

wEEKEND | ARTS&entertainment

American Idol: How a

mediocre show changed
television forever
BY JUSTIN MOYER

HE mediocre show that would

change television forever
slunk onto the airwaves on
June 11, 2002.
There was nothing really new
about American Idol. Reality
television was as old as MTVs
The Real World, if not older; game
shows were as old as Truth or
Consequences, if not older; talent
competitions were as old as Star
Search, if not older; pop music
showcases were as old as American
Bandstand, if not older. Heck,
viewers could even vote for their
favourite videos on MTVs Total
Request Live, which first aired in
1998.
Moreover, the shows pedigree
did not scream ratings bonanza.
It was a reworking of a British
show. It went to production only
after Rupert Murdochs daughter
took a shine to it. It debuted in
the summer, a season that often
buries new TV offerings. And it
aired on Fox, not exactly a Nielsen
powerhouse at the time.
But somehow, like other
mediocrities President Ulysses
S Grant, the 2004 Boston Red Sox,
Hermans Hermits American Idol
made history. When it takes a bow
next year, it will have aired for 15
seasons, helped sell tens of millions
of records, launched the careers
of Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer
Hudson (among others), and
revived the careers of Paula Abdul
and Jennifer Lopez (among others).
Now that American Idol has been
cancelled by Fox, it seems like weve
really lost something even though
that something was, more or less, a
retread of other somethings we lost
long ago.
American Idol has been a big

part of my life for so long, its

frankly hard to imagine it without
it, host Ryan Seacrest told the
Associated Press. Its been a
remarkable journey, and I feel very
fortunate to have been part of a
show that made television history
in countless ways. Its a show about
chasing and fulfilling dreams and,
truth be told, it helped some of my
own dreams come true, too.
Well put, Seacrest. So how did
American Idol pull it off? By simply
raising its hand as the internet
exploded and network television
collapsed alongside the music
business. This singing competition
transcended its genre because,

this updated version of the star

search felt less like the kiss of a
fairy godmother (or cranky Simon
Cowell-esque godfather) and more
like the reward for contestants
entrepreneurship.
Indeed, an ordinary person
transcending their ordinariness
perhaps most evident in girlnext-door Clarkson became a key
plot point in many an Idol season.
As has been observed before, more
people voted for American idols
than voted in some US presidential
elections, many by text message, a
technology that didnt exist in the
age of Bandstand.
Despite whatever critiques

For all its bloated, synthetic, product-shilling,

money-making trappings, Idol provides a oncea-year chance for the average American to
combat the evils of todays music business.
Michael Slezak
New York Times

thanks to technology, it became

the singing competition everyone
judged and anyone could win.
On the surface, Idol and its
imitators hearken back to an older
tradition: the amateur hour that
lifts exceptional ordinary people
into the glamorous life, NPR music
critic Ann Powers wrote in 2012.
Yet because it was structured as
a journey for contestants whose
interactions with the judges and
others stylists, celebrity mentors,
the band helped them focus a
gift and turn it into a product,

the judges delivered, the final

decision of who lived and who died
on American Idol was left to the
viewers, Melinda Newman wrote
in Forbes. Never before had the
gatekeeper role been extinguished
in such grand fashion With no
filter between contestant and fan,
the voting public felt complete and
proud ownership of the artists they
selected.
While the pop stars thrust to
fame in singing competitions of
yore think Tiffany, who appeared
on Star Search sometimes

Left to right: Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez, Ryan Seacrest and Harry Connick Jr pose at the American
Idol season 13 premiere screening in Los Angeles on January 14, 2014. Photo: Shutterstock

struggled to build a legacy, this

wasnt as much of a problem for
those fostered by American Idol and
chosen by the American public.
Thanks to a handy new technology
popularised by the folks over at
Apple, one didnt even need a record
or original material to rule the
charts and record executives could
figure out who would rule the charts
without signing artists first.
When iTunes began selling
single versions of the contestants
performances, it wasnt uncommon
to see these nubile singers charting
on the Billboard Hot 100 before
theyd even landed a record
contract, Kevin Fallon wrote on the
Daily Beast website. Never before
had there been such a market for
cover songs.
Idol was even a cause.
For all its bloated, synthetic,
product-shilling, money-making
trappings, Idol provides a oncea-year chance for the average
American to combat the evils of
todays music business, Michael
Slezak wrote in the New York Times
in 2010.
The great democratic polis of
TV viewership Idol convened one
person, one vote may even have
been its downfall. Even as Idol
soared, network television was
sinking into the great internet tar
pit in which it is stranded today,
undone by the choices offered by ondemand viewing, YouTube, Netflix
and Hulu. Once given the chance to
watch whatever it wanted whenever

it wanted, the shows audience

began to defect though, for the
record, Idol still had 10 million
viewers for its Season 13 finale, a
downright astounding number, as
the Daily Beast pointed out.
In the last few years, viewers
have begun devoting far more
attention to dramas such as The
Walking Dead, making the weekly
handwringing over who might
get voted off a reality show seem
passe, Scott Collins wrote at
the Los Angeles Times. Viewers
increasingly prefer the ability to
tune into shows when they want,
on demand, rather than being
beholden to a network schedule.
If American Idol was killed,
it was by its children. This show
didnt have a different spirit
than, say, The Partridge Family
or Lets Make a Deal or Showtime
at the Apollo, but helped build the
interactive television culture of the
21st century in ways those shows
never could have. Even as it fades,
its the celestial body, if you will, at
the centre of our new universe of
entertainment.
Pop now still may have oldfashioned stars but they arent
taking us into the future, Powers
presciently wrote three years ago.
Neither is Idol, with its focus on
that fixed astral pattern. What
feels new is the universe of rogue
satellites orbiting that old home
planet, gathering information,
sending their own signals back.

The Washington Post

The death of culture: Visions of our future underwater

BY JONATHAN JONES

HE future has a long history

in art. Romantic painters
loved to picture what the
great buildings of their time would
look like as ruins. The architect
Sir John Soane commissioned the
artist Joseph Gandy to paint Soanes
masterpiece Bank of England not as

it looked when spanking new, but as

the grand vision of decay it would
one day become. Soanes apocalyptic
fantasy of his own building was
probably influenced by the French
painter Hubert Robert, who in 1796
pictured the Louvre as a roofless
ruin overgrown with weeds.
The art of Pablo Genovs
resurrects and restages such visions
of architectural catastrophe.

In his series Precipitados,

this contemporary Spanish
photographer creates grand
European interiors opera houses,
libraries, baroque palaces in
which floods of water or seas of sand
push against bookcases, inundate
staircases and crash into wroughtiron gates.
In one picture, Genovs imagines
the sea surging into the Louvres
Grande Galerie a direct quotation
of Hubert Roberts sublime dreams.
It is his passion for European
architecture that makes this horror
picture show so distinctive. The
power of these photomontages is
in the collision of timeless cultural
grandeur with overwhelming
natural destruction. The imagery is
haunting: Books and art, memory
and history are all about to be lost.
There is, of course, one great
difference between earlier artistic
impressions of the end of civilisation
and these contemporary cataclysms.
Today, the end of the world as we
know is not a romantic fantasy, but
a potential reality. Overwhelming
scientific evidence minutely charts
human-caused climate change.
Sombre analyses carefully map
the likely consequences of melting
ice caps and rising sea levels on a
precise timeline. We cant look at
these surreal images as playful acts
of imagination; they are reasonable
predictions.

We cant look
at these surreal
images as playful
acts of imagination;
they are reasonable
predictions

These nightmares have already

been seen, not as art but as news.
Hurricane Katrina caused scenes
as strange and monstrous as
those by Genovs. When part of
New Orleans lay underwater a

decade ago, photographers did not

need any special effects to find
apocalyptic images of inundation.
Hurricane Sandy afforded similarly
stupendous images of devastation
on the east coast of the US. The west
of England also became a diluvial
waterscape in February 2014.
Genovs creates haunting
visions of apocalypse with the
enthusiasm of a consummate
catastrophist. But every day the
flood becomes less mythic; every
day, the evidence grows to make
these monstrous images more
prosaic. The elemental death of
civilisation was once a dark theme
for imaginative artists. Today, it is a
pressing and all-too-real emergency
that our imaginations struggle to
comprehend.

The Guardian

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

wEEKEND | ARTS&entertainment

BOOK REVIEW

The Narrow Road to the Deep North:

Beauty, bathos and brilliance in equal measure

Richard Flanagans energetic, episodic novel about a hero of
the Burma Railway must be read in spite of its flaws
BY JUSTIN CARTWRIGHT

AST years Booker prize-winner,

The Narrow Road to the Deep North
is extraordinarily ambitious. It is
perhaps too ambitious, although ambition
is not a sin in my book. There are moments
of great beauty but also moments of great
bathos. The opening line, Why at the
beginning of things is there always light?,
is one of the latter. What does this mean?
Is it to do with creation? Is it to do with an
Australian upbringing? Is like entering
the sea and returning to the beach an
Aussie idea of epiphany, taking place on a
beach and bearing some deep significance?
In another passage, the narrator asks,
Why at the end of things is there always a
flower? Unanswerable, even risible.
Starting with his old age, five stages in
the life and loves of the main character,
Dorrigo Evans, are interwoven. He is
married to Ella, but when his regiment
is shipped out he is deep in adultery
with Amy, the wife of a hotel keeper.
Even describing this clapped-out hotel,
Flanagan is reluctant to take his foot off
the pedal: Dying air dozed in the King
of Cornwalls corridors. There was a
weariness to the dim light. There is a lot of
this kind of thing.
The central event of the novel is an

extended atrocity on the Burma death

railway as it is being constructed by
hundreds of thousands of slaves, including
13,000 Australians. Dorrigo Evans, as a
colonel and a surgeon, is the acknowledged
leader of the Australian prisoners after the
fall of Singapore.
Richard Flanagans father was a
prisoner in Burma, and his son is on record
saying that his book is a tribute to him. The
cast of Australian good blokes Rooster
MacNiece, Darky Gardiner, Squizzy Taylor,
Gyppo Nolan, Jackie Mororski and others
also suggests an everyman theme. The
Aussies are forced to work no matter how
close to starvation they are and no matter
how sick they are. As the whole project
becomes less and less viable, the slaves are
beaten for hours on end. It is the emperors
will that this railway be built, and it is
the fault of the wretched slaves that the
railway can never be built. They have few
tools for the job and wear nothing but filthy
cock rags and suffer from cholera and
any number of parasites. The prisoners
have to walk 11 kilometres (7 miles) each
way through the jungle before they start
work, often day and night.
Throughout, Dorrigo Evans is relatively
privileged as senior officer. He carries out
medical procedures without anaesthetic
or surgical implements; in one horrifying
episode he attempts an amputation

with a kitchen saw. At every opportunity

he tries to reason with the Japanese,
but they live by entirely different rules
involving honour and duty, which the
wretched prisoners are far too decadent
to understand. Flanagan even ventures
into the minds of the Japanese officers:
One takes drugs, another has a taste for
beheading. All have an intense loathing of
other races. Flanagan wants nobody to be
under any illusions about what went on,
and in this he succeeds brilliantly.
Evans is a flawed hero, very attractive
to women, conflicted by the guilt of his
adultery but also a man who lives through
this experience in Burma to become a hero.
As he nears the end of his life, revered
in Australia, he felt shame and he felt
loss and he felt his life had only ever been
shame and loss, it was as though the light
was now going, his mother was calling out
Boy! Boy! But he could not find her, he
was returning to hell and it was a hell he
could never escape.
This is a heroic book marred by its
determination to demonstrate high
seriousness, which often collapses into
pop philosophy. But for all its overstriving, this is a book you should read. It
is unquestionably a work of astonishing
energy and Richard Flanagan is
unquestionably highly talented.
The Observer

THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15 - 21, 2015

wEEKEND | FOOD&DRINK

Seaweed:

RESTAURANT REVIEW

the
sexy
new

Minn Lan

Seafood Restaurant
BY CHIT SU

HERE may have been an

explosion in the number of new
restaurants opening in Yangon
in recent months, but when it comes
to seafood the oldies are still the best.
With several branches around
the city, Minn Lan has long been
a favourite with locals and visitors
alike thanks to its fresher-than-fresh
Rakhine seafood specialities, which
are among the best in Yangon.
There is a large range of seafood
dishes on offer, from whole steamed
fish to fish curries and salads, as
well as fresh juices and beer. Prices
range from K500 for salads to
around K12,000 for seafood (based
on weight), but most of the seafood
is sold at market prices so you will
need to ask for a rough estimate if you
want to avoid a shock at the end of the
night.
My guest and I ordered the
crab curry (K7500), farmers curry
(K7000) and a seaweed salad (K1300)
to share. Be prepared for a long wait
at busy times, which at Minn Lan
means all the time. After a 25-minute
wait our food finally arrived, though it
was every bit worth the wait theres
a reason this place is always heaving.
Though simply presented, all of the
dishes are colourful and attractive.
The crab curry, an aromatic broth
with carrots, tomatoes coriander, is
spicy and delicious, with a sweetness
that comes only from the freshest
crab meat. The farmers curry, one
of Minn Lans signature dishes, is a
must-try: Served over a coal burner
to keep it hot, the mildly spicy
sweet-and-sour soup is brimming
with fish, crab, prawns and lobster.

Those whose tickers have become

a little less ticky in this oil-loving
country will be relieved to find that
Rakhine food, though often spicy, is
generally low in oil and fat so you
can enjoy your seafood safe in the
knowledge that youll still be alive in
the morning.
The seaweed salad was small,
though adequate as a side dish, and
delicate in taste. Those looking
for some healthy greens would be
best advised to order a side of fried
vegetables or watercress.
To soothe our mouths after the
spicy fish feast we ordered steamed
banana (K600) for dessert. The
sweet, coconut-milk-covered bananas
melted in the mouth the perfect end
to the meal.
Theres nothing fancy about this
place. A traditional restaurant, the
dcor is simple if not more than a
little rough around the edges the airconditioning offers little respite from
heat of hundreds of table-top coal
burners, and the service is hectic. The
atmosphere is lively, however, and
if youre prepared to wait a while for
your food, a visit to Minn Lan makes
for a fun evening out. Youll certainly
be hard-pressed to find fresher,
tastier seafood in Yangon.

superfood
ID you like your sushi? Did
you enjoy that generous
helping of pond scum
you had with it? Because if your
maguro and your ebi were served
with nori, or other varieties of
seaweed so tastefully presented in
the average Japanese restaurant,
thats exactly what you were eating.
Seaweed is more algae than
plant, and some varieties are
classified as bacteria. When we eat
seaweed, we are eating something
closer to pond scum than arugula.
That doesnt stop it from
being tasty and nutritious, as
our ancestors have known for

In Wales,
porphyra,
a red algae
related to nori,
goes by the common
name laver and is
added to oats to make
laverbread.
If you really want
to know the origin of
seaweed, things get
complicated very quickly.
According to northern Californiabased biologist Dr Jennifer
Palladini, Seaweed has no real
scientific meaning, but loosely
refers to large marine algae, which
are mostly red and brown. Green
algae are more like plants, but still
not plants.

thousands of years. Its now

definitely back, if it was ever really
away, as snacks, condiments and
supplements. Seaweed is hot.
I remember my first Japanese
meal, which featured a plate of
o-nigiri and wakame miso soup.
That first bite of the briny, salty
nori parcels stuffed with rice and
pickled ume or plums is still with
me. Because nori was described as
seaweed, I assumed I was eating
an alimental aquatic plant, not
some dank maritime coleslaw.
The o-nigiri and succulent
wakame tasted like the sea and the
earth coming together to form a
perfect culinary partnershipa
primordial delicacy that has
nourished mankind since the
beginning of time.
Japan, where seaweed
comprises more than 10 percent of
the nations diet, consumes more
than 21 types of seaweed, eight of
them since the 8th century. Coastal
communities around the world
harvest seaweed, adding it to their
salads, stir-fries, soups and drinks.

Approximately 11,000 species

of seaweed exist, and they belong
to three kingdoms: Plantae,
Chromista and Bacteria. More
generically, they are classified as
red, brown and green algae, with
red and brown algae comprising
the majority of edible varieties.
The evolutionary relationships
are not well-understood, but
generally reds are closer to greens
(and thus plants), while browns
are less closely related to reds and
are more like diatoms, belonging to
a whole other kingdom, explains
Dr Palladini.
As scientists began to delve into
the ecology and pharmacology of
seaweed, they made some startling
discoveries. Seaweed is high in
protein and vitamins A, B, D and C.
Seaweed is also a natural source of
iodine, which is integral to thyroid
health. Iodine is hard to come
by, particularly in modern diets,
or in inland and mountainous
areas where seafood is not readily
available. Iodine deficiencies can
lead to goitre, or swelling of the

BY RACHNA SACHASINH

Minn Lan Seafood Restaurant

45, Corner of Baho and Khittar Street,
Sanchaung (near Asia Royal Hospital)
Restaurant Rating:
Food
Beverage
Atmosphere
Service
Value

8
7
7
5
7

thyroid gland in the neck.

Natural intake of iodine via
seaweed has other benefits. It
has also been linked to reduced
rates of breast cancer among
Japanese women, most of whom
eat substantial amounts of seaweed
and absorb iodine effectively.
There is substantial scientific
evidence that seaweed contains
one of natures first antioxidants.
Antioxidants diffuse free radicals,
molecules that can interfere with
cellular function in the human
body. Algae are also known to
chelate, or bond, with heavy
metals and prevent them from
disrupting cellular function and
contaminating the environment.
Once word got out that seaweed
was beneficial to our health, people
around the world demanded more.
Since the 1970s, there has been an
8pc increase in demand per year
for seaweed, not just in Asia but
throughout the world. To satisfy
demand, it became apparent that
foraging was not enough. Seaweed
must be farmed. Scientists were
tasked with unlocking the secrets of
seaweeds reproductive cycle. This
proved to be more difficult than first
thought. Apparently, for being simple
invertebrates, algae have remarkably
complex sex lives, and fostering
reproduction can be challenging.
Red algae may have one of
the most complicated sex lives on
earth. Sexual reproduction can
involve three distinct free-living
phases, including two different
spore-producing phases and a
third phase that produces egg and
sperm cells, explains Dr Palladini.
Ultimately, science prevailed,
and in subsequent decades
innovative methodologies have
been employed to farm seaweed
around the world. Currently, 90pc
of seaweed consumed by humans is
harvested from aquaculture farms.
The majority of these are nori, or
porphyra, which are easier to seed
and manage from reproduction to
cultivation.
On April 30, 2015, NASAs
Goddard Space Center released
satellite images of South Korea
which reveal faint grid-like
patterns along the countrys
coastline. These are large tracts
of ropes and nets holding several
thousand tonnes of seaweed.
Is seaweed pond scum, lettuce,
algae, bacteria or diatoms? It
doesnt really matter as long as you
enjoy the flavour, and relish the
benefits of this seaworthy fare.

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

wEEKEND | FOOD&DRINK

RECIPE

Mango and caramel tart

T

HIS week, Weekend welcomes

Novotel Yangon Max pastry
and bakery chef Benjamin
Rambaud as our guest chef. Born
in France, Rambaud has had a
fascination with the art of chocolates
and desserts since high school, and
started studying patisserie at the
age of 16. He has over 16 years of
professional experience as a French
pastry chef, and his pastry, glace and
chocolate creations have taken him
all over the world, including to Oman,
Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia,
Bali and Cyprus, and now Myanmar,
where he has spread his sweet
specialities.
Mango and caramel tart
To make the spiced caramel base
500g sugar
2 vanilla pods
2 cinnamon sticks
3 star anise
450g cream (35% fat)
75g salted butter
Heat the sugar over a high heat.
Try not to stir the sugar - just tilt the
pan carefully to move it around. Allow
the mixture to dissolve completely
and turn to a deep caramel, swirling
the pan as you go. Add the vanilla,
cinnamon and star anise to the sugar
and stir until the caramel gets foamy.
Deglaze by adding the cream.
Stir the mixture until smooth
and cool down to 45 Celsius (113
Fahrenheit). Strain the mixture and
add the butter, stirring to combine.
Keep the mixture in the fridge.

To make the sable Breton (also

known as a French Butter Cookie)
320g sugar
320g butter
1 piece lemon zest
1 vanilla pod
160g egg yolks
440g flour
20g baking powder
Cream together the butter and sugar
until pale. Add the lemon zest and
egg yolks and beat at slow speed.
When combined, add the flour and
baking powder. Be careful not to
overbeat the mixture.
Leave the mixture aside to rest
for 2 hours minimum. Bake at 165C
(330F) until golden. To check it is
cooked through, insert a sharp knife
into the sable Breton the knife
should come out clean.

To make the mango filling

140g mango puree
60g passion fruit puree
120g sugar
112g egg yolks
128g eggs
4g gelatin mixture
120g butter
Beat together the eggs, egg yolks
and sugar until foamy. Add the
mango and fruit purees and cook the
mixture over a medium heat, stirring
constantly with your spoon so the
bottom doesnt scorch. It will quickly
start to thicken to the consistency of
pudding. Remove from the stove and
add the gelatin. Cool down to 45C
(113F).
Add the butter in small pieces and
blend with a powerful blender. Set
aside in a piping bag in the fridge.

To make the spiced caramel mousse

100g egg yolks
50g sugar
20g water
70g melted gelatin
325g spiced caramel base
(prepared earlier)
325g cream (35% fat)
Make the pte bombe (the French
term for a mixture used as a base
for mousse desserts) by heating the
sugar and water to 121C (250F) to
form a syrup. Pour the syrup over egg
yolks and whip the mixture until it is
completely cold and has transformed
into a uniform, airy mass.
Next, warm a little of the caramel
base and pour the melted gelatin into
it. Combine with the pte bombe
before stirring in the cream.
To make the caramel glaze
430g sugar
2 vanilla pods
140g passion fruit puree
220g mango puree

360g water
20g cornstarch
10g melted gelatin
5g five spice
Heat the sugar over a high heat. Try
not to stir the sugar just tilt the pan
carefully to move it around. Allow the
mixture to dissolve completely and
turn to a deep caramel, swirling the
pan as you go. Add the vanilla.
Combine the water and
cornstarch. Deglaze the caramel by
adding the purees and add the water
and cornstarch mixture. Cook the
mixture until it boils and add the
gelatin.
ASSEMBLY
Arrange the sable Breton in a ring.
Pipe the caramel mousse on top of the
sable Breton. Freeze for 30 minutes.
Next, pipe the mango mousse on top
of caramel mousse, then freeze again
for a further 30 minutes. Glaze with
the caramel glaze and garnish the tart
with fruits or chocolates.

THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15 - 21, 2015

wEEKEND | HEALTH&beauty

Surfs up
BY CHARLOTTE ROSE

O one forgets their first wave.

As the ocean crashes over you,
propelling you toward the
shore, you finally make it up onto
your feet for the first time, and all of a
sudden ... youre flying.
Out there, somewhere, yours
awaits. Youre never too old to learn
how to surf, and not only does it make
for a fun holiday, its good for you
too: Engaging in a challenging ocean
sport like surfing encourages overall
health, happiness and well-being and
promotes cardiovascular fitness, as
well as strength in the core, back and
shoulders. Research is being done
around the world testing surfings
therapeutic effects for all kinds of
other maladies, including depression.
Even if surfing is not for you, you

big names like Rip Curl, but a much

cheaper option is to take lessons with
one of the hundreds of instructors
who will accost you as you walk along
the beach.
If you go to surf school its very
expensive but you get the same
instructors most of the local
teachers on the beach used to work at
one of the big surf schools, said local
surf instructor Nengah.
A one-to-one lesson costs only
around US$7 per hour, and theyre
great with kids too, though women
should keep their wits about them I
teach pretty ladies free! and One
stand up, one kiss! are among the
generous packages on offer.
Watching the pros duck in and out
of 5-foot waves may be intimidating,
but Nengah says learning to surf isnt
as hard as it looks.
If my customer cant stand up in

Photos: Charlotte Rose

can still relieve some stress on holiday

by sending the kids for surf lessons
while you enjoy some time out they
will love it, and its a great way to get
them outdoors enjoying the natural
environment.
With many of the worlds best
surfing destinations just a short
flight away from Yangon most of
them offering beginner-friendly
surf schools and board hire riding
the waves couldnt be easier. These
popular surf spots offer perfect
holiday potential as well as great
waves. So what are you waiting for?
Grab a board and get out there.

five minutes, I give them their money

back, he said.
Make it happen
A lesson with one of the instructors on
Kuta beach costs 200,000 Indonesian
rupiah ($15) for a two-hour lesson,
including board rental. The best way
to find a teacher is to just show up
at the beach, but you can pre-book a
lesson with Nengah by emailing him
at nengah1012@gmail.com.
If you prefer to learn through
a surf school, group lessons with
Odyssey Surf School start from
$35 for a 2.5-hour lesson. www.
odysseysurfschool.com

Kuta Beach, Bali

It may have become known for

its rowdy nightclubs and 24-hour
parties, but tourist mecca Kuta Beach
is also the best place on the island to
learn to surf. There are numerous
surf schools based here, including the

Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka

There arent many places in

the world where you can watch
elephants strolling along the beach
while you ride the waves, but at

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

wEEKEND | STYLE

Summers not-so-itsy-bitsy
bikini trend
THIS week, Japanese apparel
giant Wacoals swimsuit brand
San-ai launched its latest swimsuit
collection in Tokyo. The models may
have been tiny, but it looks like last
years vintage big bikini trend is
here to stay for 2015, with 50s-style
halter tops and bold tropical prints
all featuring in the collection.
Whether you want to bare your navel

Elephant Rock near Sri Lankas

Arugam Bay you can do just that.
In Sri Lanka, surfing is possible all
year round, with several surf spots
around the island, but Arugam
Bay is the most popular, drawing
surfers from all over the world.
Whether you are an expert or a
beginner looking to the ride the
white water for the first time there
is something here for everyone. The
small fishing village has a range of
cosy accommodation options, many
offering yoga and cooking classes,
and makes for a relaxing, laid-back
holiday destination in its own right
though dont expect a relaxing
swim in the ocean.
Although it is possible to surf in
the bay itself, the best breaks are
all a tuk-tuk drive away from the
main beach. The most popular spots
include Whisky Point, known for
its all-night parties, and Elephant
Rock, where youre likely to spot one
of the giant creatures (although they
dont usually partake in the surfing).
There are several surf
schools located along the main
beach. Mambos Surf Camp is a
popular choice as it also offers
accommodation in the form of
charming beach bungalows. You
will also be approached by locals on
the beach offering private lessons,
though many of them are somewhat
lacking in charm one assured
me he could teach anyone to surf,
even very fat girls and have been
known to be over-friendly with their
female students.
Make it happen
A two-hour surf lesson with one of
the surf schools based in Arugam
Bay costs around LKR2500 ($19)
including board hire, although prices
are negotiable in low season. The tuktuk ride to the main breaks costs an
additional $7.50.

Siargao Island, Philippines

Despite boasting pristine beaches

and landscapes that rival those
found anywhere else in the region,
the Philippines is often by-passed
by visitors to Southeast Asia. This
is especially baffling given that it is
also home to some of the best surf
breaks in the world.
Siargao Island, the surfing capital
of the Philippines, is one of Asias best
kept secrets. The surfing season starts
in August and continues through to
November, though you can find a
good wave any time of the year. Its
variety of breaks caters to everyone
from the absolute beginner to the
surfing pro, and for the former there
are plenty of surf schools that will get
you up on your board in no time.
Buddhas Surf Resort offers 7-, 10-,
and 14-day surf packages that include
accommodation, breakfast, daily surf

Make it happen
Surf schools on the island charge
around $7 per hour for surf lessons.
A seven-day surf package with
Buddhas Surf Resort, including
accommodation, breakfast, surf
lessons, transport and day trips, costs
PHP35,000 ($780) per person.

Photos:
AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno

This week, Weekends beauty

expert Soe San Da Yi Myint gets to
the bottom of the Dead Sea.

LEOPATRA knew about the

healing properties of the
Dead Sea thousands of years
ago. Today, the same results are
still sought by people looking for
long-lasting relief from a host of
ailments such as psoriasis, asthma
and arthritis. But even for those who
cant bathe in the Dead Sea itself, it
is the legendary source of materials
used in the modern cosmetics
and skincare industry as it offers
millions of salts rich in minerals,
and numerous beauty products are
extracted from this ancient mystical
bed of sea salts, which is known for
its healing properties.
Why do these minerals play
such an important role in beauty?
Though they constitute only 4
percent of body weight, their
importance is immeasurably
greater. Your skin needs minerals
to function properly and to
maintain its natural moisture
balance. Every day, the skins
minerals are depleting as we go
through various environmental
changes from hot summer
heatwaves to dry, cold, airconditioned rooms. A deficiency

Charlotte Rose

lessons and board hire. If youve never

surfed before, youre probably going
to spend a lot more time under the
water than on top of it, so when youre
done with swallowing salt water, the
packages also include island-hopping
day trips. On Siargao, catching waves
is only the beginning: Theres also
mountain biking, snorkelling, fishing
and kayaking to keep you busy. And
you thought island life would be
relaxing.

The natural beauty miracle

BY SOE SAN DA YI MYINT

with pride or prefer a suit with a

little more coverage, this throwback
trend offers something for everyone,
so theres no excuse for not hitting
the beach in style. And if you need
some inspiration, celebs Rihanna,
Beyonce and queen of retro chic
Taylor Swift have all been spotted
rocking 50s-style two-pieces.

in one of the minerals is likely to

disrupt skin cell activity causing
dry flaky skin, overly oily acneprone skin and early aging.
Studies carried out on the
mineral mud from the Dead
Sea have proved its benefits in
maintaining a healthy skin.
The mud has a strong cleansing
capacity which absorbs pollution,
fat and secretions.
The unique thing about Dead
Sea salt is that it contains minerals
in very high concentration which
are not found in any other ocean
water. These rare minerals have
countless beneficial effects on the
skin, as well as unique therapeutic
and beautifying powers. The
magnesium found in the minerals is
known to promote
regeneration
of skin

SEACRET Dead Sea mineral-rich

clarifying mud mask (US$94.95)

tissue and cells. Bromine is

also important in soothing
the skin and promoting the
feeling of relaxation for the
muscles. Potassium is essential
for preserving the moisture
and neutralising the skin
environment. Sodium fights
against skin metabolic disorders
and relieves muscle cramps.
Like vitamins, these unique
compounds are not produced by
our body. Hence, the body depends
on external supply of minerals.
If you want to try it for
yourself, SEACRETS collection
of skincare and spa products,
available in several outlets in
Bangkok, are extracted from the
Dead Sea itself. The mineral-rich
clarifying mud mask is based on
an advanced formula composed of
Dead Sea mineral mud that gently
purifies and cleans clogged pores.
If spas are more your kind of
thing, Bangkoks Dead Sea Spa
(1-3 Sukhumvit Soi 19, Sukhamvit
Road, Bangkok) offers a Dead
Sea water treatment in their pool
filled with 100pc Dead Sea water.
They also offer a wide variety of
spa treatments including body
scrubs and full- body Dead Sea
mud masks.

10

THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15 - 21, 2015

wEEKEND | MANdalay

Why swimming
like a mermaid
is the new
extreme sport
Ariel makes it look easy, but on a
course in Cornwall a landlubber finds
it takes training in free-diving and
underwater breathing to make a
splash as a mermaid
BY SUSAN GREENWOOD

TS not often I find myself

woefully underprepared for a
story, but watching Disneys
The Little Mermaid and cantering
giddily through Newquay seaspray
after a six-hour train journey do
not, as it happens, prepare one
adequately for a session of training
to be a mermaid.
Apparently, being a mermaid
has now become a profession.
Ariel-esque women are employed
in aquariums across the globe and
as entertainment for guests at posh
hotels.
I assumed I knew what the new
activity class would involve: Don
a tail fin, find a pet crab, sit on a
rock looking all sexy and pretend
feminism never happened. Simple.
Im always trying to not have
people dying, said instructor Ian
Donald when we met up the night
before his mermaid course kicked
off.
The warning bell in my head
began to ring loudly. Being
a mermaid is apparently a
cross between free-diving and
synchronised swimming with
your feet strapped together.
Free-diving, in which Ian is
a master instructor, involves
descending on a single breath,
without apparatus, to depths of up
to 253 metres (835 feet), which is
where the current world record
stands.
Inadequate training and
knowledge of ones physical limits
can lead to unconsciousness and

MOVIE REVIEW

death. So, on Ians one-, twoor three-day courses, intense

breathing techniques are taught, as
well as how to swim through hoops
and pick seashells up off the floor
without goggles on. Trust me, thats
harder than it sounds.
I want to steer people away
from thinking free-diving is
solely this extreme activity thats
really dangerous and show it can
be fun. Free-diving shouldnt be
intimidating. If being a mermaid
gets more people into the sport,
thats great.
Most of Ians free-diving clients
are professionals in their mid-30s
and 40s looking for a challenge and
testing their physical limits. My
fellow mermaid-in-training, Polly,
was curious to see just how jealous
her seven-year-old daughter would
be when she saw the photos.
Mist wrapped the shoreline and
hugged the headland as we gathered
on the cliff-top above Porth beach
in the warm morning sun to get to
grips with the theoretical basics
of breath-holding to depth. If Ian
and his fellow instructors, Lissie
and Rich, had planned the setting
to inspire romantic notions of
diving with dolphins along rugged
coastlines, it worked. Theres
a strong naturalist element to
free-diving because, without all
the paraphernalia associated with
scuba, its possible to experience
an unencumbered closeness with
marine mammals.
The theory became practical
when we headed to the warm pool of
the Glendorgal Hotel, which hosts
the course. The key to being happy

Im always trying to
not have people dying
Ian Donald, mermaid instructor

most of us surface. But resisting

this urge means entering the third
phase the spleen will release more
red blood cells and the diaphragm
will stop juddering; this is followed
by the discovery that the body has
more oxygen than imagined.
But how can natural instincts be
overridden? Meditation techniques
do this by focusing on the breath as
a way of stilling the mind. Close the
eyes, hum a song, repeat a mantra,
listen to the heartbeat, make a

shopping list and learn to get to a

point where its possible to be alone
and enjoy it.
When we took this to the pool,
encased in wetsuits and masks,
a feeling of claustrophobia crept
in and it took a lot of willpower
to believe I wasnt going to die. I
always surfaced before I meant to,
caving to my craving to expel carbon
dioxide. And yet I kept going back
under, keen each time to push it a
bit further. Time slowed down 2
minutes 20 seconds felt like an age
and I found a sense of liberation,
almost transcendence: a brief
suspension between vitality and
inanimacy.
Its definitely important to
be confident in the water, and a
confident swimmer, but I treasured
the potential for solitude rather
than the sporting aspect. Speaking
frankly, I value being pushed out of
my comfort zone, and free-diving
leads you into a whole new realm.
And not just underwater. Ian
mentioned hed just got back from
a free-diving trip in Thailand and
was off to Malta in a few months,
and I was hooked when I saw where
holding my breath could take me.
Ah, but on a flat day the clarity
of the water here in Cornwall is
amazing, he said. If Britain had
better weather, Id free-dive here
forever. Thats as may be. But I was
there to pretend to be a mythical
creature, and water at 8 Celsius

wasnt gonna cut it.

Just as things were getting
serious, Lissie lined up the
mermaids tails, handed me a
seashell necklace and informed
me my name was now Sue-Sea.
And this is when things got
gnarly. Professional mermaids
wear tails that can weigh up to 40
kilograms (88 pounds). Have you
tried swimming with a small child
holding onto your legs and making
it look effortless?
The undulation starts in your
outstretched hands and works
its way down to the tip of your
monofin, without a great bend in
your knees. We lapped the pool, first
with goggles, then without, dived
through hoops, swam upside down
and practised holding an exhaled
breath so we could lie comfortably
on the bottom for long enough to
pose and preen for photographer Al.
(Note: You are a more convincing
mermaid if you can look like youre
having fun.)
Our instructors worked tirelessly
to impart knowledge of how to swim
with grace, and to see the water
as an environment that liberates
movement rather than hinders
it. Will I go on to star alongside
Free Willy in a Floridian resort?
Unlikely. Have I discovered a
spectacularly fun way of bemusing
the bejesus out of unsuspecting
scuba divers? Oh yes.

The Guardian

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

BY PETER BRADSHAW

underwater for long periods is, I

discovered after panicking to
not panic, to keep the heart rate low
by breathing up or belly breathing
for two minutes before submersion,
and to know that humans take a
breath long before we need to. Its
the rule of thirds: For the first third
of the time underwater, people are
happy; the second brings the urge
to breathe and its at this point

N Tina Feys masterpiece sitcom

30 Rock, innocent country boy
Kenneth is introduced to cable TV

and has just one thing to ask: Is SpongeBob

SquarePants supposed to be terrifying?
His boss, played by Alec Baldwin, whispers,
Youre darn right he is.
In the new SpongeBob film (a sequel
to the first in 2004), there has been no

advance, evolutionary development or

creative progress since then. Its just bizarre
and surreal. This last term is one often
inaccurately applied, but SpongeBob really
does deserve it.
The film tells the story of a bearded
pirate, played by Antonio Banderas, who
steals a magical book that tells a story that
unfolds on screen: that of Bikini Bottom,
an undersea world where SpongeBob, an
employee of the popular Krusty Krab fastfood joint, guards the secret recipe for its
delicious burgers.
A rival called Plankton, owner of
the grisly restaurant the Chum Bucket,
wants to steal the recipe, a scroll kept in
a bottle, but it vanishes in some weird
hole in the space-time continuum, a
catastrophe seemingly triggered by the
pirates unauthorised reading of the magic
book. Cant the owners just remember the
recipe? Who knows? Almost every line is a
zinger, which can be appreciated in a state
of total sobriety: Its a non-stoner stoner
film and very funny.

The Guardian

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

11

wEEKEND | HOME&GARDEN

The Floyd Leg:

A good fit for the hip
BY REBECCA POWERS

AKE two young guys

with college degrees in
architecture and public
policy. Mix in frequent moving
from apartment to apartment,
and you have design inspiration.
Such were the ingredients that led
to the Floyd Leg, a surprisingly
stylish metal clamp that solves a
furnishing dilemma for urbanites
and millennials around the world.
After Kyle Hoff, 27, received his
masters degree in architecture
from the University of Michigan
in the United States and became
professionally transient, he
quickly realised that tables resist
relocation. Travelling light means
unwieldy furniture ends up on
Craigslist. That observation became
Hoffs necessity-is-the-mother-ofinvention moment, and he began
toying with creating table legs to-go.
It was born of thinking, There
has to be a better way, Hoff says.
It wasnt so much like there was a
moment and the clamp was it. It was
the broader idea of furniture and
how people live right now.
When Hoff left a large Chicago
architectural firm for work in
Detroit, he brought his prototype
leg along for the ride. His job change
and move were about a desire to
work on ideas of a small focus that
could, as he says, come to fruition
of my own power.
Enter Detroit coworker Alex
ODell, 24, a Michigan native with
a degree in public policy who had
been working on films about people
living in cities. ODell thought the
clamps were practical and there
was a good story behind them.
The legs are a lot about
expressing your creativity, ODell
says. They had a lot of potential in
terms of how we live in cities.
Hoff and ODell launched a
Kickstarter campaign in January
2014 to fund production and quickly
learned their idea had legs, so to
speak.
They met their goal within two
days, which, instead of being a
champagne moment, was more like,
better brew up the coffee, ODell
says. There was excitement and then
the reality.
The reality being that they had to
figure out how to produce 2000 sets
and deliver them around the world.
While they waited for their
funding, they tapped their personal
credit cards and devised a made-inAmerica manufacturing plan.
We got in the car and drove 15
miles to meet face to face with our

manufacturers in metro Detroit,

Hoff says.
The resulting product, named
for Hoffs father, grandfather and
great-grandfather all named Floyd
and all steel-mill workers in his
native Youngstown, Ohio is gaining
traction.
Floyd Leg will soon have seven
staffers based in a collaborative space
in a former Detroit warehouse, where
a rolling dry-erase board papered
with brainstorm sticky notes divides
their office from the next. Local
manufacturers laser-cut, form-bend,
weld and sandblast the cold-rolled
sheet-steel clamps before theyre
powder-coated in one of five colours:
red, yellow, blue, black or white.
The legs, brackets and utility sets
are shipped worldwide, often to 20and 30-somethings in London, New
York, San Francisco and Tokyo.
Floyd Leg has grown beyond the
novelty of its initial blue-collar chic, a
reverse-snob appeal that comes with
a Rust Belt address and a regular-guy
name. Hoff and ODell have managed
to tap into a desire for furniture thats
adaptable to various lifestyle needs.
Small-space dwellers can combine
Floyd Legs with a surface thats
custom-cut or selected to fit a small
niche or corner. Satisfied buyers send
Hoff and ODell snapshots of their
Floyd Legs paired with a variety of
surfaces.
You see everything: wheels,
drawers, old hatches that have
floated up out of the water from
ships that sank hundreds of years
ago, old floor vents, typesetter
cases even Legos, ODell says.
The photo feedback offers a
glimpse into their customers
lives.
You see the collection as a
whole, ODell says. It becomes
almost a survey of how people are
really living.
That inside story should help
them as they create more pieces
for small living spaces an
expanded line they intend to roll
out this summer. New items for
the kitchen, bath, bedroom and
living room will reflect the Floyd
aesthetic: simple, minimal design
thats easy to ship and adaptable to
high-density living spaces.
Inspiration also continues to
come from the founders own
domestic experience. ODell, for
example, is still young enough to
share a century-old Detroit house
with four roommates. His attic
quarters, he says, help him relate to
Floyd customers.
My room, he says, has become
a place of experimentation.

The Washington Post

The standard Floyd legs come in two heights: 16 inches (41

centimetres) and 29 inches (75cm). Photo: Floyd Design

The Floyd Leg, which attaches to any flat object to create a table, is designed for mobile millennials. Photo: Floyd Design

The legs are a lot about expressing your creativity. They had a lot of
potential in terms of how we live in cities
Alex ODell
Floyd Leg promoter

12

wEEKEND | FEATURE

THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15 - 21, 2015

Sea gypsies
struggle for
survival

Under pressure from government restrictions,

overfishing and other outside influences, Myeik
Archipelagos Salon are losing their traditional lifestyle

Photos: Douglas Long and Thandar Khine

wEEKEND | FEATURE

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

BY ZON PANN PWINT

HEY are the oceans children, never happier than when

they are swimming, diving, catching fish, or carving or
sailing their unique wooden boats. But now, confined by
government edict to dry land, the Salon are dying.
Home is the sailor, home from the sea, and the hunter
home from the hill, 19th-century Scottish author Robert Louis
Stevenson once wrote. But for the Salon, the sea was their
home. They would bathe their newborns, delivered aboard a
boat, in the waters of the Andaman Sea. Their lives were spent
on the waves, except during the rainy season. They would
leave a dog on an island for a year to discover whether food and
water were sufficient to sustain them if they had to take shelter
from the storm.
Known as sea gypsies, their world was turned upside down
when the government decided to force them ashore. Now they
live on the islands, cheek-by-jowl with other nationalities,
forbidden to make their distinctive craft but forced to take
to the sea in modern boats, which they dislike, and sell their
catch cheap.
The kabang, their boat-houses, are rare now, said
conservationist U Aung Myo Chit, who returned home last
month after living with the Salon for 14 months in the Myeik
Archipelago.
The Salon arent allowed to cut down trees to make them,
and anyway there are few left who could carve one. They have
to use ordinary boats, and theyre very unhappy about that.
They are adept at fishing, diving and swimming, and are
able to hold their breath underwater for minutes at a time to
pursue fish, squid, clams, sea cucumbers, oysters and shells.
The Myanmar people who buy their catch unfairly manipulate
them to their own advantage and pay about K1500 for a
kilogram of squid, U Aung Myo Chit said, far below its value.
Salon families with their dogs and cats would spend
months at a time aboard the kabang, eating half-cooked fish
they had caught themselves. Today, nobody living in Nyaung
Wee village owns a kabang boat. When U Aung Myo Chit
visited, the Salone there told him they wanted to return to
normal life.
I often heard that they wanted to leave the islands and
roam widely around the sea as they used to. But they cant. Its
as if theyre living in captivity. They have to return home after
fishing at sea every day because they are using the boats the
squid buyers give them, he said.
He estimates that there are not more than 15 kabang
boats in the Myeik Archipelago, a collection of more than
800 islands where the number of pure-blooded Salon has

decreased to just over 1000. Many others have intermarried

with ethnic Bamar living in the region.
This beautiful minority has been spoiled, U Aung Myo
Chit said.
Apart from Zar Det Kyee and Ma Kyone Galet, none of the
villages boast a clinic or a school. U Aung Myo Chit said they
dont even know how to preserve their islands. Their shores
are covered with a litter of broken bottles and needles, the
latter a sign of widespread methamphetamine injection by
men who use the drug to fight fatigue.
There are a few non-government organisations visiting
the archipelago but none of them is much concerned about
their welfare, he said.
U Thawtar Nyunt, managing director of Elegant Myanmar
Travels and Tours, said he hasnt seen a kabang for years.
Elegant Myanmar offers a luxury cruise around the islands
of the Myeik Archipelago; his company makes trips to the
islands more than 20 times a year. His last visit took place in
late April.

This beautiful minority has

been spoiled
U Aung Myo Chit
Conservationist

The Salon, known in Thailand as the Moken, now live

permanently in towns such as Kawthoung Nyaung Wee,
Aung Bar, Zar Det Gyi, Jalun and Kawt Nyat, among others. U
Thawtar Nyunt said only children living in Zar Det Gyi can use
the school and the clinic.
There is a school in Jalun built by Myanmar people,
though it is difficult to know how many well-educated Salon
there are. Many complete primary education at least. Their
philosophy of life is changing, he said.
In bygone days, a newborn baby would be traditionally
dipped clean in the sea and they would use herbal remedies for
wounds caused by sea urchins or sharp objects.
If they died of such injuries, they would attribute the
death to possession by spirits. Now some villages have some

13

access to modern medicine and they visit the clinic when they
get sick. But many children living on the other islands are
educationally underprivileged and they dont have a chance
of getting to schools. Sick Salon hardly ever receive proper
healthcare, said U Thawtar Nyunt.
He said the schools school in Jalun and Ma Kyone Galet
were funded by the generosity of visitors and international
tourists who witnessed the poor condition of the group. But
medical supplies are irregular, and healthcare provision
erratic.
Conservationist U Aung Myo Chit said about 350 Salon live
in Ma Kyone Galet. The village once had a clinic but it closed
because there were no doctors or medicines to keep it running.
When they mix with other nationalities, the women marry
Myanmar men and speak Bamar. Only the old Salon still speak
their own language, go about half-naked and keep the old way
of living, said U Thawtar Nyunt.
Bamar come to run small businesses in the villages, and
racial integration in the villages weakens the Salons embrace
of cultural practices. Buddhist shrines can be seen side-byside with spirit shrines in their houses, he said, adding that
the Salon live free in nature.
They are content with what they fish and dive for. When
they live closely with Myanmar people who collect what they
dive for and sell it at the Thai border, the Salon are driven by
greed. They behave like Myanmar people, U Thawtar Nyunt
said.
U Aung Myo Chit said one of the ways to maintain their
cultural identity is to let them carve their own kabang and let
them lead their entire life out at sea.
If they continue to live on the islands, the other communities
will keep taking advantage of them. The tribe is diminishing.
They must return to the sea, he said.
American photographer David Heath was in the archipelago
in February 2014 and stayed for four days. He has recently
published the photography book Burma: An Enchanted Spirit.
He said the Salon have very different cultural values than
those in a modern society. They have a beautiful lifestyle and live
in harmony with mother ocean. They truly are sons of the sea,
he said.
Among the issues facing them is overfishing by
professional fishing fleets, modernity and tourism, he said.
International tourists and divers have discovered these
islands. We can only hope that the Salon will retain their
traditional lifestyle and ancient customs, Heath said.
You can now see signs of the modern world such as plastic
goggles and buckets and modern clothes. If their nomadic
and reclusive ways are restricted, their traditions and unique
customs could be lost forever.

16

wEEKEND | TRAVEL

THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15 - 21, 2015

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

wEEKEND | TRAVEL

17

Myanmar beaches: thecoastlesstravelled

BY THOMAS KEAN

OR more than a decade three beaches have reigned supreme in Myanmar, but there are plenty more places to
catch some sun and sand than just Ngapali, Ngwe Saung and Chaungtha. Myanmars southeastern coastline
boasts a wealth of beach options, while lesser-visited locales can also be found in southern Rakhine State and
even right on the edge of Yangon. Some of these appear poised to become tourism hotspots, while others are likely
to remain sedate backwaters for years to come.
Gwa, Rakhine State
At the southern end of Rakhine State, Gwa township is dominated by mangrove and mountain forests that cover
around three-quarters of its 2072 square kilometres (800 square miles). About 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of
the town is the beach of Kantharyar, which the military once tried, and failed, to turn into a tourist spot. The land
confiscated for this ill-fated project the hotel was badly damaged in a 2006 cyclone has since been given back to its
original owners, and tourism has been left to small local entrepreneurs. Working together with NGOs and community
groups, they see a potentially bright future for tourism in the township, which boasts mile after mile of undeveloped
coastline, lined only by mangroves including some very rare and unique species and fishing villages.
There are no air links with Gwa, but recent upgrades to the road from Yangon have cut the travel time to about
seven hours. Dont expect luxury while youre there the accommodation options are cheap and cheerful, and many
areas still lack electricity. Gwa is definitely one for the adventurer, those travellers who are happy to make their own
way exploring the countryside.
Getting there: Gwa is a seven-hour car or bus ride from Yangon.
Where to stay: There are few licensed hotels in the Gwa area. In Gwa town, there is More Guest House (09-73148509), while at Thar Yar Chine, a village near Kantharyar, theres Sakawar Guest House and Restaurant (09-49666029).

Letkokkhon, Yangon Region

Once upon a time, Lonely Planet guides to Myanmar used to feature
Letkokkhon, which is just 60km from Yangons downtown area. Those
who were brave or foolhardy enough to visit inevitably came back
disappointed at the decrepit accommodation, extortionate pricing and
bone-jarring, five-hour trip along what must surely rank as one of the
deltas worst roads. Wisely, the authors of the popular guidebook eventually
dropped the beach from their travel maps. And that might have been the
end of the story if a local company, Orchid Hotels Group, had not taken over
the lease for the site several years ago.
The hotel remains modest, with about a dozen basic double and twin
rooms. Its also not beachfront the nearest stretch of white sand is on an
island about five minutes away by boat but some will find its isolation and
ambience enjoyable. Despite its proximity to Yangon, when the sun goes
down the Milky Way lights up the sky and theres barely a sound to be heard.
Visitors can expect to find more beaches farther down the coastline,
which is dotted with fishing villages that can be explored by motorbike or
boat. Fishing is also possible from the hotels dinghy, although this scribe
got nary a nibble when he dropped a line in the water. The best beach in
the area is probably at Seh Eain Dan, the next village south of Letkokkhon.
During a recent trip to the area, Seh Eain Dan residents said land
speculators had been kicking the tyres, prowling up and down the beach
weighing the possibility of a new hotel. No doubt they will be encouraged by
repairs to the Dala-Letkokkhon road due for completion early next year that
will cut travel time from Yangon to just an hour.
.....................................................................................................................................
Getting there: Letkokkhon is currently a two-hour drive from Dala, which
can be reached by taking the ferry (US$1) across the Yangon River from
Pansodan Jetty. Taxis cost about K35,000 one way.
Where to stay: The only accommodation at Letkokkhon is Orchid
Adventure Shore Resort. Call the Yangon office on (01) 901-0061~64 for
enquiries.

Maungmagan, Tanintharyi Region

This little-visited beach has been thrust onto
the map by plans for a huge special economic
zone and deep-sea port planned just up the
coast near Dawei. While the future of the zone
is unclear no one seems particularly keen on
putting up the US$8 billion needed for phase one
Maungmagan is attracting more visitors every
month thanks to improved air connections with
Yangon, a small but growing number of hotels
and the opening of the overland crossing on the
Thai border. Just five hours to the east of Dawei,
the Htee Khee crossing makes it possible to reach
Bangkok overland in less than 10 hours, and
Myanmar nationals can even travel into Thailand
without a passport or visa as far as Kanchanaburi.
While Maungmagan is not exactly pictureperfect, its still a pleasant swimming and
lounging spot and serves as a great base for
exploring the region. Beaches stretch to the
north and south and can be visited by boat
or motorbike. There are also nearby islands
that are virtually deserted and make great
day trips some guides have even been
known to take clients out to sleep on the sand
overnight, despite this being frowned upon
by the authorities. The coastline is also dotted
with pagodas and fishing villages. There is
little information available either online or in
guidebooks about the beaches around Dawei, so
this is definitely one place when it can really pay
off to hire a guide who knows the area.
....................................................................................
Getting there: Maungmagan is about 30
minutes drive west of Dawei, the capital of
Tanintharyi Region. Dawei can be reached by
plane, bus or train from Yangon.
Where to stay: Coconut Guesthouse was the
first licensed hotel to open at Maungmagan,
and remains the best value for money. Another
option is Maungmagan Resort.

Kabyar Wa, Mon State

Just months ago, few people had heard of this beach south of
Ye. But then news of a deal between the regional government
and a local company, Aurun, to develop a US$12 million resort
prompted a rush of speculators desperate to buy into the next big
thing. This has reportedly pushed land prices up so much that
Aurun is unable to proceed with the project.

This means that the 13 kilometres (8 miles) of beachfront

slated for development remains untouched. The rebuilding of
a wooden bridge leading to the beach last year opened it up to
travellers, and in the past few months some restaurants have
opened to cater to the nascent tourist trade. The beach features
plenty of white sand and a vegetated, untouched foredune. Tidal
areas feature darker sand, but overall its in a nicely natural state.

Getting there: Kabyar Wa is about 15 kilometres (9 miles)

south of Ye in southern Mon State. Ye is reachable by bus from
Yangon, a trip of about 10 hours.
Where to stay: Theres no licensed accommodation yet at
Kabyar Wa. While Ye is hardly blessed with options, Starlight
Guesthouse is by far the best choice. Book ahead as it has just a
handful of rooms that are often full.

14

wEEKEND | FEATURE

THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15 - 21, 2015

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

BY NYEIN EI EI HTWE

ET me go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and

the sky ... This is the sailors life, one of huge distances,
strange shores, close confinement, the long tedium of
the calm, and sometimes the terror of the storm.
After the student uprising of 1988 and the subsequent
military crackdown, schools and universities closed. Jobs
were hard to come by. Many people left to work in Japan and
Taiwan. Others went to sea.
At that time, any man who had passed eighth standard
could apply for a licence, registering with the Transport
Ministrys Department of Maritime Administration. Thats
what U Maung Maung did.
Last year, seaman U Maung Maung, now 45, decided
enough was enough, took his savings and stayed ashore. But
the sea has left a deep impression on him. He called it the
worst job in the world exhausting, lonely, a plaything of the
weather, discouraging. But it paid.
Back then, I couldnt pursue my education so I applied for
a seamans licence. But I didnt get a shipboard job until 1993,
he said. At that time, a seaman could come home and buy a
new car. Looking forward to coming home was the one thing
that kept us going.
Nonetheless, he said, when it came to wages, Myanmar
seamen faced discrimination from employers, being paid less
even than other Asians like Filipinos and North Koreans.
All decisions on wage rises depended on the
administration of the Maritime Department, U Maung
Maung said. Any request for more money was met with
punishment.
Ordinary seamen were paid US$200 to $500 a month, and
more experienced men got $800. Officers were paid $1000 to
$4000.
Though U Maung Maung was promoted to quartermaster
before he left the sea, the low pay was the main reason he quit.
Plus, he said, experienced seamen had to work a lot harder

The loneliness of
the long-distance

seaman

Sailors answer the call

of the deep blue sea
despite the danger,
isolation and hard work

Photo: Shutterstock

Photos: Staff

wEEKEND | FEATURE
than newly qualified officers.
It was we who had to put all the new rules and regulations
into practice, he said.
The average stint could last up to a year, working cheek-byjowl with men from all over the world.
Ko Yee Moe, who landed back in Myanmar last week, said,
We would look out for our own countrymen, but there was
actually very little discrimination among ordinary seamen.
We lived like brothers.

Out at sea you really do come to

understood that youre born alone and
you die alone
Ko Myint Mo Aung
Chief officer

For Ko Yee Moe, becoming a seaman was the fulfilment of

a childhood dream. Starting in 2009, he worked aboard local
ships for a year before transferring to ocean-going vessels. His
first was out of Singapore.
The ability to speak English is the most important skill for a
seaman. We couldnt really work together without it, he said.
Another useful ability was picking the right company to work
for, one that paid reasonable money and operated seaworthy
vessels.
Now that Im back home, I can ask my company to find me

15

another berth. If I felt I could do better, I could go out and find a

new ship, he said.
Almost all seamen said their dream was to cash out and
settle down, starting a small business back home.
We were homesick when we were at sea, but missed the
sea when we were on the beach, he said. If we wanted to get
paid we had no leisure. But if we had time on our hands, we
wouldnt get paid.
Tired of the low pay, Ko Yee Moe has decided to take the
officer exam. It costs money, but you make more money,
which is an incentive to keep working longer, he said.
He does not suffer from loneliness at sea. I love my job
and Im happy in my work. I get along well with my brother
seamen, so I dont get depressed.
But Ko Myint Mo Aung, chief officer of a blue-water ship,
said his first experience of shipping out from Singapore as a
seaman was very lonely.
Out at sea you really do come to understood that youre
born alone and you die alone, he said. There was no one to
help.
He went to sea in 2003 because some universities had been
closed following a 2000 student protest. The University of
Maritime Administration was still open, so he took courses
that provided him with both the theoretical and practical
knowledge he needed to do the job.
His goal, too, was to save up as much money as possible
while at sea to pursue his dream on land.
Sometimes it got really depressing, but luckily my best
friends encouraged me and kept me on the right track, he
said.
Now a chief officer, Ko Myint Mo Aung is planning to take a
masters exam for his next promotion.
Seamen think there is discrimination against Myanmar,
but actually salaries for each rank are set by country codes.
For example, though we earn less than European or Filipino
officers, we earn much more than officers from Vietnam,
Indonesia and China, Ko Myint Mo Aung said.

the pulse travel

4
wEEKEND | travel schedules
18

THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15 - 21, 2015

DOMESTIC FLIGHT SCHEDULES

YANGON TO MANDALAY
Flight
Y5 775
W9 515
YH 917
YJ 891
7Y 131
K7 222
6T 805
YJ 201
YJ 201
W9 201
W9201
8M 6603
YJ 601
YJ 761
YJ 211
YH 729
YH 737
YH 727
YH 737
W9 251
YJ 151/W9 7151
7Y 241
K7 224
Y5 234
W9 211

Days
Daily
1
Daily
5
2,4,6,7
1,3,5
2,4,6
1,2,4
3
Daily
1
4
6
1,2,4
5,7
2,4,6
3,5
1
7
2,5
1
1,3,5
2,4,6,7
Daily
4

Dep
6:00
6:00
6:10
7:00
6:30
6:30
6:30
7:00
7:00
7:00
7:00
9:00
11:00
11:00
11:00
11:00
11:00
11:30
11:30
11:30
13:00
14:30
14:30
15:20
15:30

Arr
7:10
7:25
8:30
8:25
8:35
8:40
7:40
8:55
8:25
8:25
8:25
10:10
12:25
12:55
12:25
14:00
13:10
13:40
13:40
12:55
16:45
16:25
16:35
16:30
16:55

MANDALAY TO YANGON
Flight
Y5 233
W9 201
YJ 761
7Y 132
K7 223
YH 918
6T 806
YJ 202
YJ 202
YJ 761
YJ 212
YJ 212
YJ 602
7Y 242
YJ 234
K7 225
YH 728
W9 152/W97152
Y5 776
W9 211
YH 738
8M 6604
8M 903
YH 738
YH 730
W9 252

Days
Daily
Daily
5
2,4,6,7
1,3,5
Daily
2,4,6
3
1,2,4
1,2,4
5
7
6
1,3,5
6
2,4,6,7
1
1
Daily
4
3,5
4
1,2,4,5,7
7
2,4,6
2,5

Dep
7:50
8:40
8:40
8:50
8:55
9:15
10:30
11:30
12:00
13:10
15:00
15:00
15:40
16:40
16:50
16:50
17:00
17:05
17:10
17:10
17:10
17:20
17:20
17:40
17:45
18:15

Arr
9:00
10:35
10:35
10:45
11:00
10:25
11:40
12:55
13:25
17:00
16:55
16:25
17:35
18:45
18:15
19:00
18:25
18:30
18:20
19:15
18:35
18:30
18:30
19:05
19:10
19:40

YANGON TO NAY PYI TAW

NAY PYI TAW TO YANGON

Flight
YJ 201
YJ 201
6T 211
ND 910
ND 105
ND 107
ND 109
ND 9109
ND 111
SO 102
6T 211

Flight
SO 101
YJ 201
6T 212
ND 9102
ND 104
ND 106
YJ 202
ND 108
YJ 212
ND 110
ND 9110
6T 212

Days
1,2
4
1,3
1,2,3,4,5
1,2,3,4,5
6
1,2,3,4,5
1,2,3,4,5
7
Daily
5

Dep
7:00
7:00
7:10
7:15
10:45
11:25
14:55
17:00
18:25
18:00
18:30

Arr
7:55
10:20
8:00
8:15
11:40
12:20
15:40
18:00
19:20
19:00
19:20

YANGON TO NYAUNG U
Flight
YH 917
YJ 891
6T 451
K7 222
7Y 131
K7 224
7Y 241
W9 129
W9 211
W9 129

Days
Daily
3
Daily
1,3,5
2,4,6,7
2,4,6,7
1,3,5
1,3,6
4
1

Dep
6:10
6:20
6:30
6:30
6:30
14:30
14:30
15:30
15:30
15:30

Days
2,4,6
1,3.5
3
1,2,4
6
2,5

Dep
6:30
7:00
7:00
7:00
11:00
11:30

Dep
7:00
8:10
8:15
8:35
9:20
10:00
10:35
13:30
16:00
17:00
18:20
19:35

Arr
8:00
13:25
9:05
9:35
10:15
10:55
13:25
14:25
16:55
17:55
19:20
20:25

NYAUNG U TO YANGON
Arr
7:45
7:40
7:35
7:50
7:50
17:25
17:10
17:35
17:40
17:35

YANGON TO MYITKYINA
Flight
6T 805
YH 826
YJ 201
YJ 201
YJ 233
W9 251

Days
Daily
1,2
1,3
1,2,3,4,5
1,2,3,4,5
6
4
1,2,3,4,5
5
7
1,2,3,4,5
5

Arr
8:55
9:40
9:50
10:20
15:10
14:25

Flight
YH 918
YJ 891
7Y 132
K7 223
6T 451
K7 225
W9 129
7Y 242

Days
Daily
3
2,4,6,7
1,3,5
Daily
2,4,6,7
1,3,6
1,3,5

Dep
7:45
7:55
8:05
8:05
8:05
17:40
17:50
17:25

Arr
10:25
10:35
10:45
11:00
10:15
19:00
19:10
18:45

MYITKYINA TO YANGON
Flight
6T 806
YJ 202
YJ 202
YH 827
YJ 234
W9 252

Days
2,4,6
3
1,2,4
1,3,5
6
2,5

Dep
9:10
10:05
10:35
11:30
15:25
16:45

Arr
11:40
12:55
13:25
13:55
18:15
19:40

YANGON TO HEHO
Flight
YH 917
YJ 891
6T 451
7Y 131
K7 222
7Y 131
YJ 891
Y5 649
YJ 751
YJ 761
YJ 233
K7 224
7Y 241
W9 129

Days
Daily
3
Daily
2,4,6,7
1,3,5
Daily
5
Daily
3,5,7
1,2,4
6
2,4,6,7
1,3,5
1,3,6

Dep
6:10
6:20
6:30
6:30
6:30
7:15
7:00
10:30
11:00
11:00
11:00
14:30
14:30
15:30

HEHO TO YANGON
Arr
9:15
10:35
8:45
9:20
9:30
10:05
9:10
12:45
12:10
12:10
12:10
15:45
15:40
16:40

Flight
YJ 891
6T 452
YH 918
W9 201
7Y 132
K7 223
YJ 762
7Y 242
K7 225
YJ 602
W9 129

Days

Dep

Arr

Flight

Days

Dep
9:25
9:15
9:15
9:25
9:35
9:45
15:50
15:55
16:00
16:25
16:55

Arr
10:35
10:15
10:25
10:35
10:45
11:00
17:00
18:45
19:00
17:35
19:10

MYEIK TO YANGON
Arr

1,5

6:45

8:15

6T 706

1,3,5

8:25

9:35

1,3,5,7

7:00

9:05

Y5 326

1,5

8:35

10:05

6T 705

1,3,5

7:00

8:10

7Y 532

2,4,6

15:35

17:40

7Y 531

2,4,6

11:15

13:20

K7 320

1,3,5,7

11:30

13:35

Y5 325

15:30

17:00

Y5 326

17:15

18:45

SO 201

Daily

8:20

10:40

SO 202

Daily

13:20

15:40

YANGON TO SITTWE
Dep

Air KBZ (K7)

Tel: 372977~80, 533030~39 (airport), 373766
(hotline). Fax: 372983

Asian Wings (YJ)

Tel: 515261~264, 512140, 512473, 512640
Fax: 532333, 516654

Arr

Flight

Days

Tel: 656969
Fax: 656998, 651020

Yangon Airways (YH)

Tel: 383100, 383107, 700264
Fax: 652 533

FMI Air Charter

Tel: 240363, 240373, 09421146545

APEX Airlines (SO)

SITTWE TO YANGON
Dep

Arr

K7 422

2,4,6

8:00

9:55

K7 423

2,4,6

10:10

11:30

7Y 413

1,3,5,7

10:30

12:20

7Y 414

1,3,5,7

12:35

13:55

W9 309

1,3,6

11:30

12:55

W9 309

1,3,6

13:10

14:55

6T 611

Daily

11:45

12:55

6T 612

Daily

13:15

14:20

YANGON TO THANDWE

Tel: 513322, 513422, 504888. Fax: 515102

Mann Yadanarpon Airlines (7Y)

Dep

Y5 325

Days

Air Bagan (W9)

Tel: 09400446999, 09400447999

Fax: 8604051

K7 319

Flight

Domestic Airlines

Golden Myanmar Airlines (Y5)

YANGON TO MYEIK
Flight

Days
3,5
Daily
Daily
Daily
2,4,6,7
1,3,5
1,2,4
1,3,5
2,4,6,7
6
1,3,6

THANDWE TO YANGON

Tel:95(1) 533300 ~ 311

Fax : 95 (1) 533312

Air Mandalay (6T)

Tel: (+95-1) 501520, 525488,
Fax: (+95-1) 532275

Airline Codes

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

K7 422

2,4,6

8:00

8:55

K7 422

2,4,6

9:10

11:30

7Y 413

1,3,5

10:30

11:20

7Y 413

1,3,5

11:35

13:55

W9 309

1,3,6

11:30

13:50

7Y 413

12:05

14:20

K7 = Air KBZ

7Y 413

11:00

11:50

W9 309

1,3,6

14:05

14:55

W9 = Air Bagan

Y5 421

1,3,4,6

15:45

16:40

Y5 422

1,3,4,6

16:55

17:50

Y5 = Golden Myanmar Airlines

YANGON TO DAWEI

DAWEI TO YANGON

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

1,3,5,7

7:00

8:10

YH 634

2,4,6

12:15

13:25

YH 633

2,4,6

7:00

8:25

K7 320

1,3,5,7

12:25

13:35

SO 201

Daily

8:20

9:40

6T 708

3,5,7

14:15

15:15

6T 707

3,5,7

10:30

11:30

SO 202

Daily

14:20

15:40

7Y 531

2,4,6

11:15

12:20

7Y 532

2,4,6

16:35

17:40

Flight

LASHIO TO YANGON

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

Dep

Arr

YH 729

2,4,6

11:00

13:00

YJ 752

3,5,7

16:10

17:55

YJ 751

3,5,7

11:00

13:15

YH 730

2,4,6

16:45

19:10

YANGON TO PUTAO

Days

PUTAO TO YANGON

Flight

Days

Dep

Arr

YH 826

1,3,5

7:00

10:35

Flight
YH 634

Days
7

7Y = Mann Yadanarpon Airlines

YH = Yangon Airways

K7 319

YANGON TO LASHIO

SO = APEX Airlines

Dep

Arr

10:35

13:55

YH 633

7:00

10:35

YH 827

1,3,5

10:35

13:55

W9 251

2,5

11:30

15:25

W9 252

2,5

15:45

19:40

YJ = Asian Wings
6T = AirMandalay
FMI = FMI Air Charter

Subject to change
without notice
Day
1 = Monday
2 = Tuesday
3 = Wednesday
4 = Thursday
5 = Friday
6 = Saturday
7 = Sunday

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

wEEKEND | TRAVEL

19

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT SCHEDULES

YANGON TO BANGKOK
Flights
Days
Dep
PG 706
Daily
6:15
8M 335
Daily
7:40
TG 304
Daily
9:50
PG 702
Daily
10:30
TG 302
Daily
15:00
PG 708
Daily
15:15
8M 331
Daily
16:30
PG 704
Daily
18:20
Y5 237
Daily
19:00
TG 306
Daily
19:45
YANGON TO DON MUEANG
Flights
Days
Dep
DD 4231
Daily
8:00
FD 252
Daily
8:30
FD 254
Daily
17:30
DD 4239
Daily
21:00
YANGON TO SINGAPORE
Flights
Days
Dep
8M 231
Daily
8:25
Y5 2233
Daily
9:45
TR 2823
Daily
9:45
SQ 997
Daily
10:35
3K 582
Daily
11:15
MI 533
2,4,6
13:45
MI 519
Daily
17:30
3K 584
2,3,5
19:15
YANGON TO KUALA LUMPUR
Flights
Days
Dep
8M 501
1,2,3,5,6
7:50
AK 505
Daily
8:30
MH 741
Daily
12:15
8M 9506
Daily
12:15
8M 9508
Daily
15:45
MH 743
Daily
15:45
AK 503
Daily
19:30

YANGON TO BEIJING
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
CA 906
3,5,7
23:50 05:50+1
YANGON TO GUANGZHOU
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
8M 711
2,4,7
8:40
13:15
CZ 3056
3,6
11:25
16:15
CZ 3056
1,5
17:30
22:15
YANGON TO TAIPEI
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
CI 7916
1,2,3,5,6
10:50
16:15
YANGON TO KUNMING
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
CA 416
Daily
12:15
15:55
MU 2012
3
12:40
18:45
MU 2032
1,2,4,5,6,7 15:20
18:40
YANGON TO HANOI
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
VN 956
1,3,5,6,7
19:10
21:30
YANGON TO HO CHI MINH CITY
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
VN 942
2,4,7
14:25
17:15
YANGON TO DOHA
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
AI 701
1,5
14:05
19:50
QR 919
1,4,6
8:00
11:10
YANGON TO SEOUL
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
0Z 770
4,7
0:35
9:10
KE 472
Daily
23:30 07:50+1
YANGON TO HONG KONG
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
KA 251
5
1:30
5:55
KA 251
1,2,3,4,6,7
1:10
5:45

BANGKOK TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
TG 303
Daily
7:55
8:50
PG 701
Daily
8:50
9:40
Y5 238
Daily
21:30
22:20
8M 336
Daily
10:40
11:25
TG 301
Daily
13:05
14:00
PG 707
Daily
13:40
14:30
PG 703
Daily
16:45
17:35
TG 305
Daily
17:50
18:45
8M 332
Daily
19:15
20:00
PG 705
Daily
20:15
21:30
DON MUEANG TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
DD 4230
Daily
6:20
7:05
FD 251
Daily
7:15
8:00
FD 253
Daily
16:20
17:00
DD 4238
Daily
19:30
20:15
SINGAPORE TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
TR 2822
Daily
7:20
8:45
Y5 2234
Daily
7:20
8:50
SQ 998
Daily
7:55
9:20
3K 581
Daily
8:55
10:25
MI 533
2,4,6
11:35
15:00
8M 232
Daily
13:50
15:15
MI 518
Daily
15:15
16:40
3K 583
2,3,5
17:05
18:35
KUALA LUMPUR TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
AK 504
Daily
6:55
8:00
8M 9505
Daily
10:05
11:15
MH 740
Daily
10:05
11:15
8M 502
1,2,3,5,6
12:50
13:50
8M 9507
Daily
13:40
14:50
MH 742
Daily
13:40
14:50
AK 502
Daily
17:50
19:00
AI 227
1
10:35
13:20
BEIJING TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
CA 905
3,5,7
19:30
22:50
GUANGZHOU TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
CZ 3055
3,6
8:40
10:25
CZ 3055
1,5
14:40
16:30
8M 712
2,4,7
14:15
15:50
TAIPEI TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
CI 7915
1,2,3,5,6
7:00
9:55
KUNMING TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
MU 2011
3
8:25
11:50
CA 415
Daily
10:45
11:15
MU 2031
1,2,4,5,6,7 13:55
14:30
HANOI TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
VN 957
1,3,5,6,7
16:50
18:10
HO CHI MINH CITY TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
VN 943
2,4,7
11:50
13:25
DOHA TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
AI 401
1,5
7:00
13:20
QR 918
3,5,7
20:40 06:25+1
SEOUL TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
KE 471
Daily
18:45
22:25
0Z 769
3,6
19:50
23:25
HONG KONG TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
KA 252
4
22:50 00:30+1
KA 250
1,2,3,5,6,7 21:45
23:30

YANGON TO TOKYO
Flights
Days
Dep
NH 814
Daily
21:45

TOKYO TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
NH 813
Daily
11:00

Arr
15:40

DHAKA TO YANGON
Days
Dep
1,6
12:30
4
10:40

Arr
14:55
13:05

INCHEON TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
KE 471
Daily
18:45
8M 7701
Daily
18:45
8M 7501
3,6
19:50
W9 608
4,7
17:20
PG 723
1,3,5,6
11:05

Arr
22:25
22:25
23:25
18:10
12:00

CHIANG MAI TO YANGON

Flights
Days
Dep
Y5 252
2,4,6
9:25
7Y 306
1,5
13:45

Arr
10:15
14:35

Flights
BG 061
BG 061

YANGON TO DHAKA
Days
Dep
1,6
15:35
4
13:45

Arr
8:30
9:25
11:45
12:25
16:55
17:10
18:15
20:15
20:50
21:40
Arr
9:50
10:15
19:05
22:45
Arr
12:50
14:15
14:25
15:10
15:45
20:50
22:05
23:45
Arr
11:50
12:50
16:30
16:30
20:05
20:05
23:45

Arr
06:50+1
Arr
17:00
15:10

YANGON TO INCHEON
Days
Dep
Arr
Daily
23:30 07:50+1
Daily
23:30 07:50+1
4,7
00:35
09:10
4,7
14:20
16:10
1,3,5,6
13:10
15:05
YANGON TO CHIANG MAI
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
Y5 251
2,4,6
6:15
8:05
7Y 305
1,5
11:00
12:50

Flights
KE 472
8M 7702
8M 7502
W9 607
PG 724

Flights
8M 601
AI 236

YANGON TO GAYA
Days
Dep
3,5,6
7:00
2
13:10
YANGON TO DELHI
Days
Dep
2
13:10
1,5
14:05

Flights
BG 060
BG 060

Arr
8:20
15:05

Flights
AI 235
8M 602

Arr
16:30
19:50

Flights
AI 235
AI 401

YANGON TO KOLKATA
Flights
Days
Dep
AI 228
1,5
14:05
YANGON TO MUMBAI
Days
Dep
1,5
14:05

Flights
AI 236
AI 701

Flights
AI 773

MANDALAY TO BANGKOK
Flights
Days
Dep
PG 710
Daily
14:05

GAYA TO YANGON
Days
Dep
2
9:20
3,5,6
9:20
DELHI TO YANGON
Days
Dep
2
9:20
1,5
7:00

All Nippon Airways (NH)

Tel: 255412, 413

Air Asia (FD)

Tel: 09254049991~3

Air Bagan Ltd.(W9)

Tel: 513322, 513422, 504888. Fax: 515102

Air China (CA)

Tel: 666112, 655882

Air India

Tel: 253597~98, 254758, 253601. Fax 248175

Bangkok Airways (PG)

Tel: 255122, 255265. Fax: 255119

Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BG)

Tel: 371867~68. Fax: 371869

Condor (DE)

Arr
12:0
12:30

Myanmar Airways International (8M)

Nok Airline (DD)

BY HIROAKI ONO

Dragonair (KA)

Tel: 255323 (ext: 107), 09-401539206

Golden Myanmar Airlines (Y5)

Tel: 09400446999, 09400447999
Fax: 8604051

Malaysia Airlines (MH)

Tel: 387648, 241007 (ext: 120, 121, 122)

Fax: 241124
Tel: 255260. Fax: 255305

Tel: 255050, 255021. Fax: 255051

Qatar Airways (QR)

Tel: 379845, 379843, 379831. Fax: 379730

Singapore Airlines (SQ) / Silk Air (MI)

Tel: 255287~9. Fax: 255290

Thai Airways (TG)

Tel: 255491~6. Fax: 255223

Tiger Airline (TR)

Tel: 371383, 370836~39 (ext: 303)

Vietnam Airlines (VN)

Tel: 255066, 255088, 255068. Fax: 255086

Airline Codes
3K = Jet Star
8M = Myanmar Airways International

BG = Biman Bangladesh Airlines

CA = Air China
CI = China Airlines
CZ = China Southern
DD = Nok Airline
FD = Air Asia
KA = Dragonair
KE = Korea Airlines
MH = Malaysia Airlines
MI = Silk Air

Arr
12:20
13:20

MU = China Eastern Airlines

Arr
15:05

KOLKATA TO YANGON
Flights
Days
Dep
AI 227
1,5
10:35

Arr
13:20

PG = Bangkok Airways

Arr
22:35

Flights
AI 675

MUMBAI TO YANGON
Days
Dep
1,5
6:10

Arr
13:20

Arr
16:30

BANGKOK TO MANDALAY
Flights
Days
Dep
PG 709
Daily
12:00

Arr
13:20

MANDALAY TO DON MUEANG

Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
FD 245
Daily
12:45
15:00

DON MUEANG TO MANDALAY

Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
FD 244
Daily
10:50
12:15

Arr
16:40

NAY PYI TAW TO BANGKOK

Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
PG 722
3
20:15
23:15
PG 722
1,2,3,4,5
19:30
22:30
PG 722
1,2,3,4,5
20:15
23:15

NH = All Nippon Airways

ROM time to time, the calls

of deer can be heard under
the starry sky. The only
other sound on this remote island
is the echoing of the waves against
the shore.
Nozaki Island is located north
of the Goto Islands in Nagasaki
prefecture. Made of brick, the
former Nokubi Church stands on a
slope where wild deer congregate
and evokes a time long ago when
there was once a Christian
settlement here.
With the governments decision
this January to recommend it
for World Heritage status, the
group known as the Churches
and Christian Sites in Nagasaki
is aiming to be registered on the
UNESCO list next year. The group
has 14 components, including
the former Nokubi Church, Oura
Cathedral in the city of Nagasaki
and the remains of Hara Castle in
Minami-shimabara, which was the
scene of the Shimabara Rebellion
(1637-1638).
By March, the recommendation
from the government had
been received by UNESCO.
Hereafter, a full-scale survey by
the International Council on
Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS),
an advisory body, will begin.
We want to use the power
of the residents to push for
registration, said an official from
the Foundation for the Promotion
of Culture and Sports in Omura,
Nagasaki Prefecture.

At the foundation, the

community musical Akai hana
no kioku, tenshu-do monogatari
(A remembrance of a red
flower, the story of a cathedral)
which depicts the history of
the introduction, suppression
and revival of Christianity
was performed by community
members aged six to 75, who were
chosen through an audition. Their
performances have been fostering
momentum for the registration.
Alongside the expectations,
some problems have also arisen.
As the number of tourists visiting
the churches has increased, some
breaches of etiquette, such as
chatting or taking photos during
Mass, have also occurred. Some
tourists even used the basin for
holy water as an ashtray.
A church is a place to bow ones
head and pray in silence, said
Takayoshi Watanabe, 66, priest of
the Sakitsu Church in Amakusa. It
is lamentable that we must post a
sign asking people to respect that.
Another problem has surfaced
regarding how the narrow roads
and parking areas should be
improved to promote tourism.
These historic churches were
born out of a crystallisation
of faith. As they head toward
UNESCO registration, the
search continues for a solution
on how to protect them and their
surrounding areas which even
now are living spaces as well as
places of worship while also
making the most of them for
tourists to enjoy.

Yomiuri Shimbun

QR = Qatar Airways

SINGAPORE TO MANDALAY
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
Y5 2234
Daily
7:20
16:30
MI 533
2,6
11:35
15:00

KUNMING TO MANDALAY
Flights
Days
Dep
MU 2029
Daily
13:00

The Sakitsu Church and the surrounding village are shrouded in rain in Amakusa,
Japan. Photo: Yomiuri Shimbun/Hiroaki Ono

Religious sites in
Japan considered
for World Heritage

Tel: 370836~39 (ext: 303)

AK = Air Asia

MANDALAY TO SINGAPORE
Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
MI 533
2,6
15:55
20:50
Y5 2233
1,2,4,5,6
7:50
14:15

MANDALAY TO KUNMING
Flights
Days
Dep
MU 2030
Daily
13:50

International Airlines

Arr
12:50

BANGKOK TO NAY PYI TAW

Flights
Days
Dep
Arr
PG 721
1,2,3,4,5
17:00
19:00
PG 721
3
18:25
19:35
PG 721
1,2,3,4,5
17:45
19:45

SQ = Singapore Airways
TG = Thai Airways
TR = Tiger Airline
VN = Vietnam Airline
AI = Air India
Y5 = Golden Myanmar Airlines

Subject to change
without notice
Day
1 = Monday
2 = Tuesday
3 = Wednesday

4
5
6
7

=
=
=
=

Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

Performers sing in a community musical in Amakusa, Japan, depicting the history of the
suppression and revival of Christianity. Photo: Yomiuri Shimbun/Hiroaki Ono

20

THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15 - 21, 2015

wEEKEND | PUZZLERS

SUDOKU PACIFIC

Universal Crossword
Edited by Timothy E. Parker

LOST KEY By Jill Pepper

ACROSS
1 Oral hygiene tool
6 Cut the turkey
11 USNA student,
briefly
14 Result of labor?
15 Once more!
16 Words of protest
from Yoko?
17 Not offensive
19 Cartographers
construction
20 Comstock find
21 Kilties headwear
22 Dir. opposite
of WSW
23 Takes place
27 Estranged (Var.)
29 Dont mind if ___
30 Jazz quintets
home?
32 Denomination
33 Fie homophone
34 Place to lounge
36 Pretenses
39 Opera singer Lily
41 Key place?
43 Two-tone cookie
44 Santas reindeer,
sans Rudolph
46 Sounds angry
48 Down with the flu
49 Sharing word
51 Change totally
52 Hawaiian
necklace
53 Alter in tone
56 Rotted
58 Pit-stop place,
briefly
59 Word before so!
and not!
60 Park ones
carcass
61 Clock face
number
62 Proverbially
newsworthy
headline
68 Hail, to Ovid
69 Underdogs dream
70 A sad thing to be in
71 Natural moisture
72 Hammer parts
73 1945 Allied
conference site

3 Grp.
4 Display a posture
problem
5 Support, as with
props
6 Common house pet
7 Khans title
8 Bob Marley
was one
9 Blood pressure,
heart rate, etc.
10 Foes
11 For an instant
12 Absurd
13 Drugged, as a
racehorse
18 Word with
1-Across

23 Tutu wearer in
Fantasia
24 Kind of
committee
25 Angle
26 Grilled Thai dish
28 Cave phenomenon
31 Hatchet mans
counterpart
35 Cast an amorous
eye toward
37 Wild fight
38 Nonliquid state
40 Fellow named
Bellow
42 Firstborn
45 Concoct
47 The S in SPCA

50 Minor knee
injury
53 Trojan War epic
54 Not street-savvy
55 Like a close game,
usually
57 Where to find
whales
63 Uncle of rice
fame
64 Belonging to
a thing
65 ___ segno (from
the repeat sign,
in music)
66 Plate crumb
67 Government
procurement org.

DOWN
1 G-mans org.
2 Artist Maya

DILBERT

BY SCOTT ADAMS

PEANUTS

BY CHARLES SCHULZ

CALVIN AND HOBBES

BY BILL WATTERSON

PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

wEEKEND | puzzlers

WEEKLY PREDICTIONS

MAY 15 - 21, 2015

AUNG MYIN KYAW

4th Floor, 113, Thamain Bayan Road, Tarmwe township, Yangon.
Tel: 09-731-35632, Email: williameaste@gmail.com

Saffron

CHRONICLES OF BEI KA STREET

A Study in

CHAPTER 7: The last episode

EDITED BY KO NAN DOI

AQUARIUS
Jan 20 Feb 18
In a world of unique human beings, is
it ever really possible for one person
to truly understand another? When we
think we are exchanging ideas, are we
just exchanging mere words puffs of
air freighted with lexical signals? Only
you know yourself and understand
your life and your deepest motivations.
But that is no barrier to the exercise of
compassion.

PISCES
Feb 19 March 20
Try to withstand emotional ups and
downs by maintaining your levelheadedness. Tackle thorny issues
without alienating friends, family and
co-workers. Sometimes things look
more complicated than they are. Be
prepared to cut through the clutter
and seize the core issue. Isolate the
facts, weigh the issues and make your
decision.

ARIES
Mar 21 Apr 19
You know you must decide soon. The
matter you have been turning over
and over in your mind cannot be put
off much longer. Procrastination will
only make things worse. So grasp
that nettle and carpe that diem. Apply
Occams razor and cut that Gordian
knot. Maybe your decision will be
right, maybe it will be wrong. But do it
this week.

TAURUS
Apr 20 May 20
Good luck will be with you most days.
Know that one cool judgement is worth
more than a thousand hasty councils.
You should cultivate a wide vocabulary
at every opportunity. Well begun is half
done, as Aristotle rightly said. Psych
yourself up for social negotiation. Have
faith in your intellectual capacity to
balance your emotional budget.

GEMINI
May 21 June 20
We know youve been through the mill
lately. Frankly, it shows. Its time for
some mohinga of the soul. If you dont
cosset yourself, who will? But dont
take too long over it, because that way
self-indulgence lies. After all, some of
your critics have a point. The question
is, which ones? You dont need an
answer to that question this week.
Monday will do.

CANCER
June 21 July 22
Success in business, in politics or in
love is simply a matter of right action,
honesty and good luck. But if you
want spiritual enlightenment, it will
take more than just having a happy
knack. You cannot stumble into it.
Advancement along the true path is
hard because the path is narrow, and
always uphill; it is easy because the
path is straight.

LEO
July 23 Aug 22
Enhancing your ability to serve
others should start with mastering
yourself. Do not neglect tomorrows
opportunities even as you scramble
to solve todays problems. Continue
to consult others by asking the right
questions, but this time try harder to
listen to the answers. Learn from the
past, act in the present, look to the
future.

VIRGO
Aug 23 Sept 22
In the end, the drip-drip-drip of water,
endlessly repeated, wears a hole in
the stone. Dogged persistence is one
of your most successful, if perhaps
least winning, qualities. You will
stumble across something of crucial
significance to you this week, as if
by coincidence (if you still believe in
coincidence), in the social media. You
will know what it is when you see it.

LIBRA
Sept 23 Oct 22
Ask yourself this: Is it better to know
some of the questions than all of the
answers? And is the answer to that
question one of the answers you really
need? Always be willing to laugh at
yourself whenever you start to feel just
a little too pompous. It always works
for the rest of us. As far as money is
concerned, you are absolutely fine
until Wednesday.

SCORPIO
Oct 23 Nov 21
Something will occur that will favour
your business or working life, money
matters and your material welfare
in general. But once again, social
contacts need special care and
attention. So keep an eye open for any
straws that will show which way the
wind is blowing. The important skill to
acquire now is learning how to learn.

SAGITTARIUS
Nov 22 Dec 21
The earth doesnt belong to man,
but man belongs to the earth. Think
carefully before setting pen to paper.
You are likely to need all your patience
and common sense this week. The
more you are able to get out and
about, the more available you will be
for serious opportunities without too
much risk of a sticky end.

CAPRICORN
Dec 22 Jan 19
Success may depend on how you use
your intellectual capacity. Money may
come from an unexpected source,
but balance income and expenditure
cautiously. Keep in touch with people
who have advised you wisely in the
past. You will have to work hand in
hand with them to fulfil your dreams.
You may meet a kind lover through
work.

21

OW that Id got my quarry exactly where I wanted

him, I knew just what to do, said our prisoner,
Daniel Kyaw Maung. Id spied out the city for
empty houses, and I knew the place at Ba Thoun Street
was vacant, if I could only get him there. But evil as he
was, I could not bring myself to murder him in cold
blood. Besides, revenge has no spice unless the victim
understands his fate. I wanted him to die with the
knowledge that he was paying for what hed done to Kate
and me. So using my knowledge of chemistry, I made up
two identical tablets one harmless, the other containing
a deadly poison. I decided to offer him a choice. But when
would I get my chance to use them?
Just two nights ago, amid torrential rain, I was
hanging about in front of his hotel when I saw him
emerge. I turned my sidecar to pass him and, as Id hoped,
he hailed me and climbed in. He had a scrap of paper with
him and he peered at it under the glow of the street lights
as if the place was strange to him. Then he thrust it under
my nose, for he could not read the address in our language.
After that, nothing could be simpler. I took him direct to
the empty house at 3 Ba Thoun Street, making him believe
that that was his destination.
When we got there he looked a bit uncertain, as if hed
been expecting something else. But he passed under the
entrance archway readily enough with me on his heels. When
he climbed the stairs and entered the room that was to be his
death chamber, I confronted him. Jasper Monk! I cried in a
loud voice. Well, he started like a deer faced with a tiger in the
forest. Who are you? he asks. Do you not know me, Myitta?
I taunted him. You knew me well enough when you set the
police on to me in Oakland back in 71. It is Dahmyaun who
speaks! Yes, it is a dagger which you see before you, with the
point aimed at your heart!
He recoiled as I spoke the names we had taken in that
long-ago happy time. As he stood motionless, I strode to
the corner of the room where Id set a candle-end on the
windowsill, and lit it. Recognition seemed to dawn slowly on
him, for perhaps he was addled by drink or drugs, but when
he understood who I was, I swear the blood drained from his
face in an instant. What are you going to do? he demanded
roughly. There was a quaver in his voice that helped me steel
my heart.
Im going to give you a chance to live, Jasper, I told him.
Thats more of a chance than you ever gave my poor Parami.
That was none of my doing, he said, though he flinched
to hear the name we had given to Kate. Yes, I admit I told the
police about the job we were on. There was a police spy, and I
had to tell them something. But I never meant for her to die
or for you to go to jail.
Its too late for excuses, I told him. This is what you
must do. I laid out the choice before him pick one or other of
these two white tablets, which I kept in a little case of saffron
that I carried about with me. To look at, they are identical,
but one carries life, the other death. Choose one, and I will
take the other. You choose first. We both take the pills at the
same time, I said.
It seemed a kind of fatalism came over him, for he made
no demur. Perhaps he thought I was not serious, or he was
playing for time. At any rate, he reached out his hand and
picked out one of the pills. I held the other between my thumb

and forefinger, and replaced the saffron box in the folds of my

longyi.
Now, I said, and each of us swallowed his pill. For long
moments we stood there, our eyes fixed unblinking upon
one another, and Im sure his heart was beating as fast as my
own. Such was my state of excitement I could not be sure that
my pill was the harmless one. But then I saw a horrid light
gleam in his eyes as the venom in his pill took hold. He sank
to his knees with a horrid rattling in his throat that I pray I
may never hear again. His eyes goggled and flecks of spittle
spurted from his lips. His hands flew to his throat and he
thrashed about in agony on the floor. And then, after what
seemed an age, he lay dead. My vengeance was complete.
I had one last task to perform. I had not planned for it,
but the occasion seemed to demand it. It seemed only right
now that I should offer up my deadly handiwork to the dear
woman I had done it for, using the name that she would have
known had she lived to see it. Having no pen, I dipped my
finger in the little box of saffron that had held the pills, and
daubed it on the wall by the candle that still flickered there in
honour of my beloved and long-dead Kate: yg&rD Parami.
He fell silent, lost in thought. After a moment, U Lek Trey
took him by the arm and led him off to his cell.
By the time U Sha Lok and I stepped into the street, now
gently steaming as the sun sucked up the remains of the latest
downpour, I felt thoroughly exhausted. But that did not still
my curiosity.
I say, U Sha Lok, I do think you owe us a little
explanation. You said in that terrible room in Anawrahta
Street that our man was bald, English-speaking and ate a lot
of nuts. It seems you were correct, although we never did get
around to asking him about the nuts. But however did you
know all that?
U Sha Lok already seemed bored, as if in reaction
to the excitement of the successful chase. It really is
quite straightforward, my dear Wa Zone, he said. You
touched on the answer yourself over breakfast yesterday
when you drew my attention to the number of men falsely
masquerading as monks. It struck me then that the
clerical garb would be the perfect way of moving around
town without attracting attention. But to do so, a man
would have to shave his head. Hence the baldness.
But our man lured him to his fate by masquerading as
a sidecar driver, not a monk.
Indeed. That is the other perfect disguise. Clearly
he deftly alternated between one and the other as he
pursued his prey. That is why I instructed the Bei Ka Street
irregulars to ask at every cabstand in the six townships of
downtown if anyone had remarked on a driver new to the
area, possibly with an unusual accent, and unfamiliar with
our streets. It was not long before they ran him to earth.
On my instructions, Maung Oo then engaged him to come
to this address supposedly to help me move some cases.
The rest you know.
But the nuts?
U Sha Lok sighed. To enter into his character of a
monk, Daniel Maung could not risk being seen to eat meat.
And yet he had to keep up his strength in order to keep
pedalling his sidecar throughout the day. Evidently then,
he needed a suitable source of protein. Hence, nuts.
And now, U Wa Zone, said my friend U Sha Lok, Iron
Cross is playing a selection of classical harp arrangements
at the Thuwunna Stadium tonight. I am off there now, and
you are most welcome to accompany me

22

THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15 - 21, 2015

wEEKEND | QUICK GUIDE

General Listing

The Essentials
EMBASSIES
Australia 88, Strand Road,
Yangon. Tel : 251810,
251797, 251798.
Bangladesh 11-B, Than
Lwin Road, Yangon.
Tel: 515275, 526144, email:
bdootygn@mptmail.net.mm
Brazil 56, Pyay Road,
6th mile, Hlaing Tsp,
Yangon. Tel: 507225,
507251. email: Administ.
yangon@itamaraty.gov.br.
Brunei 17, Kanbawza
Avenue, Golden Velly (1),
Bahan Tsp, Yangon. Tel:
566985, 503978.
email: bruneiemb@
bruneiemb.com.mm
Cambodia 25 (3B/4B),
New University Avenue
Road, Bahan Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: 549609, 540964.
email: RECYANGON @
mptmail.net.mm
Canada
9th Floor, Centerpoint
Towers, 65 Sule Pagoda
Road, Yangon, Tel :
01-384805 , Fax :01
384806, Email : yngon@
international.gc.ca
China 1, Pyidaungsu
Yeiktha Road, Yangon. Tel:
221280, 221281.
Denmark, No.7, Pyi Thu
St, Pyay Rd, 7 Miles,
Mayangone Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: 01 9669520 - 17.
Egypt 81, Pyidaungsu
Yeiktha Road, Yangon. Tel:
222886, 222887,
Egyptembassy86@gmail.
com
France 102, Pyidaungsu
Yeiktha Road, Yangon. Tel:
212178, 212520, email:
ambaf rance. rangoun@
diplomatie.fr
Germany 9, Bogyoke Aung
San Museum Road, Bahan
Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: 548951, 548952, email:
info@rangun. diplo.de
India 545-547, Merchant
St, Yangon. Tel: 391219,
388412,
email:indiaembassy
@mptmail.net.mm

Indonesia 100, Pyidaungsu

Yeiktha Rd, Yangon. Tel:
254465, 254469, email:
kukygn @indonesia.com.
mm
Israel 15, Khabaung
Street, Hlaing Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: 515115, fax: 515116,
email: info@yangon.mfa.
gov.il
Italy 3, Inya Myaing Road,
Golden Valley, Yangon.
Tel: 527100, 527101, fax:
514565, email: ambyang.
mail@ esteri.it
Japan 100, Natmauk Rd,
Yangon. Tel: 549644-8,
540399, 540400, 540411,
545988, fax: 549643
Kuwait
62-B, Shwe Taung Kyar St,
Bahan Tsp.
Tel : 01-230-9542, 2309543. Fax : 01-230-5836.
Laos A-1, Diplomatic
Quarters, Tawwin Road,
Dagon Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: 222482, Fax: 227446,
email: Laoembcab@
mptmail. net.mm
Malaysia 82, Pyidaungsu
Yeiktha Road, Yangon. Tel:
220248, 220249,
email: mwkyangon@
mptmail.net.mm
Nepal 16, Natmauk
Yeiktha, Yangon. Tel:
545880, 557168, fax:
549803, email: nepemb @
mptmail.net.mm
Norway, No.7, Pyi Thu
St, Pyay Rd, 7 Miles,
Mayangone Tsp,Yangon.
Tel: 01 9669520 - 17 Fax
01- 9669516
New Zealand No. 43/C,
Inya Myaing Rd, Bahan Tsp,
Yangon.
Tel : 01-2306046-9
Fax : 01-2305805
Netherlands No. 43/C, Inya
Myaing Rd, Bahan Tsp,
Yangon. Tel : 01-2305805
North Korea 77C, Shin
Saw Pu Rd, Sanchaung
Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: 512642, 510205

Pakistan A-4, diplomatic

Quarters, Pyay Rd, Yangon.
Tel: 222881 (Chancery
Exchange)
Philippines 7, Gandamar
St, Yankin Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: 558149-151, Email:
p.e. yangon@gmail.com
Saudi Arabia No.6/S,
Inya Yeiktha St, 10th Qtr,
Mayangone Tsp, Yangon,
Tel: (951) 652-344, 652-344,
Fax: (951) 657-983
Russia 38, Sagawa Rd,
Yangon.
Tel: 241955, 254161,
Serbia No. 114-A, Inya
Rd, P.O.Box No. 943,
Yangon. Tel: 515282,
515283, email: serbemb @
yangon.net.mm
Singapore 238, Dhamazedi
Road, Bahan Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: 559001, email:
singemb_ ygn@_sgmfa.
gov.sg
South Korea 97 University
Avenue, Bahan Tsp,
Yangon. Tel: 527142-4,
515190, fax: 513286, email:
myanmar@mofat.go.kr
Sri Lanka 34 Taw Win Rd,
Yangon. Tel: 222812,
Switzerland
No 11, Kabaung Lane, 5
mile, Pyay Rd, Hlaing Tsp,
Yangon.
Tel: 534754, 507089.
Thailand 94 Pyay Rd,
Dagon Tsp, Yangon. Tel:
226721, 226728, 226824
Turkey
19AB, Kan Yeik Thar St,
Mayangone Tsp,Yangon.
Tel : 662992, Fax : 661365
United Kingdom 80 Strand
Rd, Yangon.
Tel: 370867, 380322,
371852, 371853, 256438,
United States of America
110, University Avenue,
Kamayut Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: 536509, 535756, Fax:
650306
Vietnam Bldg-72, Thanlwin
Rd, Bahan Tsp, Yangon. Tel:
511305

UNITED NATIONS
ILO Liaison 1-A, Kanbae
(Thitsar Rd), Yankin Tsp,
Tel : 01-566538, 566539
IOM 318 (A) Ahlone Rd, Dagon
Tsp, Yangon.Tel 01-210588,
09 73236679, 0973236680,
Email- iomyangon@iom.int
UNAIDS 137/1, Thaw Wun Rd,
Kamayut Tsp.
Tel : 534498, 504832
UNDCP 11-A, Malikha St,
Mayangone tsp.
Tel: 666903, 664539.
UNDP 6, Natmauk Rd, Bahan
tel: 542910-19. fax: 292739.
UNFPA 6, Natmauk Rd,
Bahan tsp. tel: 546029.
UNHCR 287, Pyay Rd,
Sanchaung tsp.
Tel: 524022, 524024.
UNIAP Rm: 1202, 12 Fl,
Traders Hotel.
Tel: 254852, 254853.
UNIC 6, Natmauk St., Bahan,
tel: 52910~19
UNICEF 14~15 Flr, Traders
Hotel. P.O. Box 1435,
Kyauktada. Tel: 375527~32,
unicef.yangon@unicef. org,
UNODC 11-A, Malikha Rd., Ward
7, Mayangone. tel: 01-9666903,
9660556, 9660538, 9660398.
email: fo.myanmar@unodc.org
UNOPS 120/0, Pyi Thu Lane,
7 Miles, Mayangone Tsp.
Tel: 951-657281~7.
Fax: 657279.
UNRC 6, Natmauk Rd, P.O.
Box 650, TMWE Tel: 542911~19,
292637 (Resident Coordinator),
WFP 5 Kan Baw Za St, Shwe
Taung Kyar, (Golden Valley),
Bahan Tsp. Tel : 2305971~6
WHO No. 2, Pyay Rd, 7 Mile,
Mayangone Tsp, Tel : 6504056, 650416, 654386-90.
ASEAN Coordinating Of. for
the ASEAN Humanitarian
Task Force, 79, Taw Win st,
Dagon Tsp. Tel: 225258.
FAO Myanma Agriculture
Service Insein Rd, Insein. tel:
641672, 641673.

For more information about these listings, Please Contact - classified.mcm@gmail.com

Emergency Numbers
Ambulance tel: 295133.
Fire tel: 191, 252011, 252022.
Police emergency tel: 199.
Police headquarters tel: 282541, 284764.
Red Cross tel:682600, 682368
Traffic Control Branch tel:298651
Department of Post & Telecommunication tel: 591384,
591387.
Immigration tel: 286434.
Ministry of Education tel:545500m 562390
Ministry of Sports tel: 370604, 370605
Ministry of Communications tel: 067-407037.
Myanma Post & Telecommunication (MPT) tel: 067407007.
Myanma Post & Tele-communication (Accountant Dept)
tel: 254563, 370768.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs tel: 067-412009, 067-412344.
Ministry of Health tel: 067-411358-9.
Yangon City Development Committee tel: 248112.
HOSPITALS
Central Womens Hospital tel: 221013, 222811.
Children Hospital tel: 221421, 222807
Ear, Nose & Throat Hospital tel: 543888.
Naypyitaw Hospital (emergency) tel: 420096.
Workers Hospital tel: 554444, 554455, 554811.

Yangon Children Hospital tel: 222807, 222808, 222809.

Yangon General Hospital (East) tel: 292835, 292836, 292837.
Yangon General Hospital (New) tel: 384493, 384494,
384495, 379109.
Yangon General Hospital (West) tel: 222860, 222861,
220416.
Yangon General Hospital (YGH) tel: 256112, 256123,
281443, 256131.
ELECTRICITY
Power Station tel:414235
POST OFFICE
General Post Office
39, Bo Aung Kyaw St. (near British Council Library). tel:
285499.
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Yangon International Airport tel: 662811.
YANGON PORT
Shipping (Coastal vessels) tel: 382722
RAILWAYS
Railways information
tel: 274027, 202175-8.

ACCOMMODATIONHOTELS

Excel Treasure Hotel

Yangon

AsiA PlAzA Hotel

YANGON
No. 277, Bogyoke Aung
San Road, Corner of
38th Street, Kyauktada
Township, Yangon,
Myanmar.
Tel : (951) 391070, 391071.
Reservation@391070
(Ext) 1910, 106.
Fax : (951) 391375. Email :
hotelasiaplaza@gmail.com
Avenue 64 Hotel
No. 64 (G), Kyitewine
Pagoda Rd, Mayangone Tsp,
Yangon. Tel : 09-8631392,
01 656913-9

No.520, Kaba Aye Pagoda

Road, Bahan Township,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel: 01-559150 to 7
Fax: 01-559150

Excel River View

Hotel

No.(3) Block (1 to 4), Near

Thanlyin Bridge, Thanlyin
Township, Yangon Myanmar.
Tel: 056-22550, 09-8601892,
Fax: 056-22546,

Excel Palace Hotel

No.(25, D1), New University

Avenue Road, Bahan Township, Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel: 01-544491, 01-556601
Fax: 525028, 01-544604
excel@myanmar.com.mm
autospeed123@gmail.com
www.exceltreasurehotel.com

Novotel Yangon Max

459, Pyay Rd, Kamayut
Tsp, Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel.: +95(1) 2305858
Email: bqsales1
novotelyangon@gmail.com
Parkroyal Yangon,
Myanmar
33, Alan Pya Pagoda Rd,
Dagon tsp.
tel: 250388. fax: 252478.
Savoy Hotel
129, Damazedi Rd,
Kamayut tsp.
tel: 526289, 526298,
Sedona Hotel
Kabar Aye Pagoda Rd,
Yankin. tel: 666900.
Strand Hotel
92 Strand Rd. tel: 243377.
fax: 289880.
Summit Parkview Hotel
350, Ahlone Rd, Dagon
Tsp. tel: 211888, 211966.

No. 12, Pho Sein Road,

Tamwe Township, Yangon
Tel : (95-1) 209299, 209300,
209343 Fax : (95-1) 209344
bestwestern.com/
greenhillhotelyangon.com
Chatrium Hotel
40 Natmauk Rd, Tarmwe.
tel: 544500. fax: 544400.
Confort Inn
4, Shweli Rd, Bet: Inya Rd
& U Wisara Rd, Kamaryut,
tel: 525781, 526872
Clover Hotel
No.7A, Wingabar Road,
Bahan Tsp, Yangon.
Tel : (951) 546313, 430245.
09-731-77781~4. Fax : (01)
546313.
www.cloverhotel.asia.
info@cloverhotel.asia
Clover Hotel City Center
No. 217, 32nd Street
(Upper Block), Pabedan Tsp,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel : 377720, Fax : 377722
www.clovercitycenter.asia
Clover Hotel City Center Plus
No. 229, 32nd Street
(Upper Block), Pabedan Tsp,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel : 377975, Fax : 377974
www.clovercitycenterplus.asia

No. (356/366), Kyaikkasan

Rd, Tamwe Township,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Ph: 542826, Fax: 545650
Email: reservation@
edenpalacehotel.com

M-22, Shwe Htee Housing,

Thamine Station St., Near
the Bayint Naung Point,
Mayangone Tsp., Yangon
Tel : 522763, 522744,
667557. Fax : (95-1) 652174
E-mail : grandpalace@
myanmar.com.mm

153/159,Bogyoke Ag San Rd,

Botataung Tsp.Yangon,
Tel: 951-298986,296209,
www.grandlaurelhotel.com
Hotel Grand United
(Chinatown)
621, Maharbandoola Rd,
Latha Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: (95-1) 372256-58
(21st Downtown)
66-70, 21st Street (Enter
from Strand Rd), Latha
Tsp, Yangon. Tel: (95-1)
378201
(Ahlone Branch)
35, Min Ye Kyaw Swar
Rd, Ahlone Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: (95-1) 218061-64;
Email: grandunited.
head@gmail.com, www.
hotelgrandunited.com

Winner Inn
42, Than Lwin Rd, Bahan
Tsp. Tel: 503734, 524387.
email: reservation@winner
innmyanmar.com

No.183, 35th St; Bet; 77th

&78th Street, Mahar Aung
Myae Tsp, Mandalay. Ph: 02
67 404, 67 405, 67 406, 67
407, 67 408, website:www.
yuanshenghotel.com,
Email: sale.yuanshenghotel
@gmail.com
Yuzana Garden Hotel
Alanpya Pagoda Rd, Dagon
Tsp. Tel: 503734, 524387.

ACCOMMODATIONHOTELS (NAy PyI TAw)

186, Lu Nge Thitsar
Street, on Thitsar Road,
Yankin Township, Yangon,
Myanmar. Ph: +951-8550
283, +951-8550 284,
+959-2540 63632, E-mail:
enquiry@hotelyankin.com,
www.hotelyankin.com

Excel Capital Hotel

Nay Pyi Taw

No.(23/24), Yarza Thingaha

Rd, Dekhina Thiri Township
Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.
Tel: 067-8106011 to 17,
Fax: 067-8106020,
excel@myanmar.com.mm
autospeed123@gmail.com
www.exceltreasurehotel.com

No.1, Wut Kyaung St,

Yay Kyaw, Pazundaung Tsp,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Ph: 01-8610640, 01-202187,
www.mkhotelyangon.com
Panda Hotel
Min Ye Kyaw Swa Road,
Lanmadaw Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: (95-1) 212850 ~ 3,
229358 ~ 61,
Inya Lake Resort Hotel
37 Kabar Aye Pagoda Rd.
tel: 662866. fax: 665537.

Reservation Office (Yangon)

123, Alanpya Pagoda Rd,
Dagon Township
Tel
: 951- 255 819~838
Hotel Max, (Nay Pyi Taw)
Tel
: 067- 414 177,
067- 4141 88
E-Mail: reservation@
maxhotelsgroup.com

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

wEEKEND | QUICK GUIDE

23

THE MYANMAR TIMES MARCH 20 , 2015

ACCOMMODATION
LONG TERM

ARCHITECTS &
MODULAR BUILDINGS

HAPPY HOMES
REAL ESTATE & PROPERTY
MANAGEMENT

Tel: 09-7349-4483,
09-4200-56994.
E-mail: aahappyhomes@
gmail.com, http://www.
happyhomesyangon.com
Hotel Yangon
91/93, 8th Mile Junction,
Tel : 01-667708, 667688.

BEAUTY & MASSAGE

contactus@greenarc.net.au
Tel : 09-730-22820

AIR CONDITION

Marina Residence
8, Kabar Aye Pagoda Rd,
Mayangone Tsp.
tel: 6506 51~4. fax: 650630.
Sakura Residence
9, Inya Rd, Kamaryut Tsp.
tel: 525001. fax: 525002.
Sule Shangri-La Hotel
223 Sule Pagoda Rd. tel:
242828. fax: 242838.
Yuzana Hotel
130, Shwegondaing Rd,
Bahan Tsp, tel : 01-549600

The First Air conditioning

systems designed to keep
you fresh all day
Zeya & Associates Co., Ltd.
No.437 (A), Pyay Road,
Kamayut. P., O 11041
Yangon, Tel: +(95-1)
502016-18,
Mandalay- Tel: 02-60933.
Nay Pyi Taw- Tel:
067-420778, E-mail :
sales.ac@freshaircon.
com. URL: http://www.
freshaircon.com
General Aircon
83-91, Ground Flr, Bo Aung
Kyaw St, Kyauktada.
Ph: 01-706223, 373462.
Hitachi Aircon
SA 7, Aung Zaya Housing,
Ahlone Strand Rd, Corner
of Ahlone Rd & Strand Rd.
Ahlone tsp.Tel: 01-2301267, 09-431-53423.

BOOK STORES

ADVERTISING & MEDIA

WE STARTED THE ADVERTISING
INDUSTRY IN MYANMAR SINCE 1991

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

A D V E RT I S I N G

SAIL Marketing &

Communications
Suite 403, Danathiha Center
790, Corner of Bogyoke Rd
& Wadan Rd, Lanmadaw
Township, Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel: (951) 211870, 224820,
2301195. Email: admin@
advertising-myanmar.com
www.advertising-myanmar.
com

Beauty 49
49 street (middle),
Botataung Tsp.
Tel:292650
California Skin Spa
NO 32.B, Inya Myaing Road,
Yangon. (Off University
Road) Tel : 01-535097,
01-501295. Open Daily :
(10 AM - 8 PM)

KH Hotel, Yangon
28-A, 7 Miles, Pyay Rd,
Mayangone Tsp, Yangon.
Ph: 95-1-652532, 652533

17, Kabar Aye Pagoda Rd,

Yankin Tsp.
Tel: 650933. Fax: 650960.
Email : micprm@
myanmar.com.mmwww.
myanmar micasahotel.com

MYANMAR BOOK CENTRE

Nandawun Compound,
No. 55, Baho Road,
Corner of Baho Road
and Ahlone Road, (near
Eugenia Restaurant),
Ahlone Township. tel:
212 409, 221 271. 214708
fax: 524580. email: info@
myanmarbook.com

150 Dhamazedi Rd.,

Bahan Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: (01) 536306, 537805.
Email: mbt.marketing.
mgr@gmail.com
15(B), Departure Lounge,
Yangon Intl Airport.
# 87/2, Crn of 26th & 27th
St, 77th St, Chan Aye Thar
Zan Tsp, Mandalay.
Tel: (02) 24880
ELT Showroom:
# 43, 165 St, Tarmwe Tsp,
Yangon.
Tel: (09) 5116687

YANGON
La Source Beauty Spa
12-E, Inya Rd, Kamayut Tsp.
Tel: 512380, 526653
Beauty Bar by La Source
Shop (1004), Sedona Hotel,
Tel : 860 5377 Ext : 7167
MANDALAY
La Source Beauty Spa
13/13, Mya Sandar St,
bet: 26 x 27, bet: 62 x 63,
Chanaye Tharzan Tsp.
Tel : 09-4440-24496.
www.lasourcebeautyspa.com

Marina Residence, Yangon

Ph: 650651~4, Ext: 109
Beauty Plan, Corner of
77th St & 31st St, Mandalay
Ph: 02 72506
Yves Rocher
147, Shwe Gone Taing Rd,
West Yay Tar Shay Ward,
Bahan, Ph: 01-8604930~31

BUSINESS SERVICE

CAR RENTAL

CLEANING SERVICES

CENTURION AUTO GROUP

Corporate Car Rental
Transfer | Daily | Monthly| Fleet

English Speaking Driver

On-board Wi-Fi
$1-million Insurance
Concierge & Refreshment
Defensive Driver Training
Tel: 571586, 09 250188232
www.centurionauto.com

Car Rental Service

No. 56, Bo Ywe St,
Latha Tsp, Yangon.
Tel : 01-246551, 375283,
09-2132778, 09-31119195.
Gmail:nyanmyintthu1983@
gmail.com,
Moe Car Rental
Than Thu Mar Rd,
Thuwunna, Thingangyun.
Tel: 09-2540-07712, 0949570697, 09-799658370.
MYANMAR EXECUTIVE
LIMOUSINE SERVICE

HOT LINE:
09 - 402 510 003
01-646 330
First Class VIP
Limousine Car Rental.
Professional English
Speaking Drivers.
Full Insurance for
your Safety and
comfortable journey
Call us Now for your
best choice
www.mmels.com

Self Drive Daily Rental

Brand New Left Hand
Drive
Comprehensive Insurance
Daily Rental (24 hours)
Unlimited Kilometres
24/7 Roadside Assistance
www.yomafleet.com
soe@yomafleet.com
+95 9 4500 35280

Commercial Cleaning
Services and Products
Carpet, Windows,
Upholsteries, Floor,
Buildings...We Clean It All!
For FREE estimates,
Contact: 09 730 35336,
09 7321 2220 or
ppcscleaning@gmail.com

COFFEE MACHINE

illy, Francis Francis, VBM,

Brasilia, Rossi, De Longhi
Nwe Ta Pin Trading Co., Ltd.
Shop C, Building 459 B
New University Avenue
01- 555-879, 09-4210-81705
nwetapintrading@gmail.com

COLD STORAGE

Express Courier & Cargo

One Stop Logistic Solution
Ygn, Hot Line: 011224270

Balance Fitnesss
University Avenue Rd,
Bahan Tsp. Yangon.
01-656916, 09 8631392
Email - info@
balancefitnessyangon.com

Life Fitness
Bldg A1, Rm No. 001,
Shwekabar Housing,
Mindhamma Rd,
Mayangone Tsp. Yangon.
Ph: 01-656511,
Fax: 01-656522,
Hot line: 0973194684,
natraysports@gmail.com

No. 20, Ground Floor, Pearl

Street, Golden Valley Ward,
Bahan Township, Yangon.
Tel : 09-509 7057, 01220881, 549478 (Ext : 103)
Email : realfitnessmyanmar
@gmail.com

FLORAL SERVICES
Est. 1992 in Myanmar
Cold Storage Specialist,
Solar Hot Water Storage
Solutions.
Tel: 01 663656,
09 73164485, 09 252395198
Email: sales@glovermkm.
com.mm

CONSTRUCTION

Zamil Steel
No-5, Pyay Road,
7 miles,
Mayangone Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: (95-1) 652502~04.
Fax: (95-1) 650306.
Email: zamilsteel@
zamilsteel.com.mm

CO WORKING SPACE

No. (6), Lane 2

Botahtaung Pagoda St,
Yangon.
01-9010003, 291897.
info@venturaoffice.com,
www.venturaoffice.com

CONSULTING

Myanmar Research | Consulting

Capital Markets

Shwe Hinthar B 307, 6 1/2

Miles, Pyay Rd., Yangon.
Tel: +95 (0)1 654 730
info@thuraswiss.com
www.thuraswiss.com

DUTY FREE

Duty Free Shops

Yangon International
Airport, Arrival/Departure
Mandalay International
Airport, Departure
Office: 17, 2nd street,
Hlaing Yadanarmon Housing,
Hlaing Township, Yangon.
Tel: 500143, 500144, 500145.

ELECTRICAL

Est. 1992 in Myanmar

Electrical & Mechanical
Contractors, Designers,
Consultants.
Tel: 01 663656,
09 73164485, 09 252395198
Email: sales@glovermkm.
com.mm

Worlds leader in
Kitchen Hoods & Hobs
Same as Ariston Water
Heater. Tel: 251033,
379671, 256622, 647813

GEMS & JEWELLERIES

www.realfitnessmyanmar.com

DELIVERY SERVICE

News & Business Ideas

facebook box.com.mm
http://box.com.mm

FITNESS CENTRE

Kham Le
22, Thukha Waddy St,
Suneyan Park, Yankin, Ph:
01-8605223, 8605224.

Ruby & Rare Gems

of Myanamar
No. 527, New University
Ave., Bahan Tsp. Yangon.

sales@manawmaya.com.mm
www.manawmayagems.com

Tel: 549612, Fax : 545770.

The Lady Gems

7, Inya Rd, Kamayut Tsp,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel : 01-2305800,
09-8315555

GENERATORS
Floral Service & Gift
Centre 102(A), Dhamazaydi
Rd, Yangon.tel: 500142
Summit Parkview Hotel,
tel: 211888, 211966 ext. 173
fax: 535376.email: sandy@
sandymyanmar.com.mm.

Floral Service & Gift Shop

No. 449, New University
Avenue, Bahan Tsp. YGN.
Tel: 541217, 559011,
09-860-2292.
Market Place By City Mart
Tel: 523840~43,
523845~46, Ext: 205.
Junction Nay Pyi Taw
Tel: 067-421617~18
422012~15, Ext: 235.
Res: 067-414813, 09-49209039. Email : eternal@
mptmail.net.mm

FOAM SPRAY
INSULATION

Your Most Reliable Jeweller

The Natural Gems of

Myanmar & Fine Jewellery.
No. 30(A), Pyay Road,
(7 mile), Mayangone Tsp,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel : 01-660397, 654398
spgems.myanmar@
gmail.com

No. 589-592, Bo Aung

Kyaw St, Yangon-Pathein
highway Road. Hlaing
Tharyar tsp. Tel: 951645178-182, 685199, Fax:
951-645211, 545278.
e-mail: mkt-mti@
winstrategic.com.mm

HEALTH SERVICES

Foam Spray Insulation

No-410, Ground Fl,Lower
Pazuntaung Rd, Pazun
taung Tsp, Yangon.Telefax
: 01-203743, 09-5007681.
Hot Line-09-730-30825.

GLASS

International
Construction
Material Co., Ltd.
No. 60, G-Fl, Sint-Oh-Dan St,
Lower Block, Latha Tsp,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel : 01-245112,
09-730-22820
Email : intconstruction
material@gmail.com

GAS COOKER &

COOKER HOODS

Yangon : A-3, Aung San

Stadium (North East Wing),
Mingalartaungnyunt Tsp.
Tel : 245543, 09-73903736,
09-73037772.
Mandalay : No.(4) 73rd St,
Btw 30th & 31st St, Chan
Aye Thar Zan Tsp. Tel : 096803505, 09-449004631.
Naypyitaw : Level (2),
Capital Hyper Mart,
Yazathingaha Street,
Outarathiri Tsp. Tel : 0933503202, 09-73050337

98(A), Kaba Aye Pagoda

Road, Bahan Township,
Yangon. Tel: 542979,
553783, 09-732-16940.
Fax: 542979
Email: asiapacific.
myanmar@gmail.com.
Dent Myanmar
Condo (C), Room (001),
Tatkatho Yeikmon Housing,
New University Avenue Rd,
Bahan Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: 09 8615162, 09 8615163,
542 375, (Ext 1155)

Japan-Myanmar
Physiotherapy Clinic.
Body Massage - 7000 Ks
Foot Massage - 6000 Ks
Body & Foot Massage 12,000 Ks
No.285, Bo Aung Kyaw Rd,
Kyauktada Tsp, Yangon.
09:00 AM - 09:00 PM
Tel : 09-8615036

24 Hours Laboratory
& X-ray, CT, MRI, USG
Mammogram, Bone DXA
@ Victoria Hospital
No. 68, Tawwin Rd, 9 Mile,
Mayangon Township,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel: (951) 9 666141
Fax: (951) 9 666135

24

THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15 - 21, 2015

wEEKEND | QUICK GUIDE

THE MYANMAR TIMES MARCH 20, 2015

HOUSING
24 Hrs International Clinic
Medical and Security
Assistance Service
@ Victoria Hospital
No.68, Tawwin Rd, 9 Mile,
Mayangon Township,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel: +951 651 238
+959 495 85 955
Fax: +959 651 398
www.leomedicare.com

NO.61, 2nd Floor, 101 Street,

Kandawlay, Mingalar
Taung Nyunt Tsp, Yangon,
Myanmar.
Ph: 01-205102, 09 2603
60932, 09 2603 60933,
09 3334 6666

No.(68), Tawwin Street,

9 Mile, Mayangone Tsp,
Yangon.
Hunt line: +95 1 9666 141,
Booking Ext : 7080, 7084.
Fax: +95 1 9666 135
Email:
info@witoriya hospital.com
www.victoriahospital
myanmar.com,
Facebook :
https://www.facebook.com/
WitoriyaGeneralHospital

HOME FURNITURE

01 9000 712~3, Ext 330/332,

Email: enquiries.HM@
mmrdrs.com, www.
hermanmillerasia.com
Pun Hlaing Golf Estate
Gated Golf Community
HOUSE RENTAL
APARTMENT RENTALS
SERVICED APARTMENTS
Available Immediately
RENTAL OFFICE
OPEN DAILY 9-5
PHGE Sales & Marketing,
Hlaing Tharyar Tsp, Yangon.
Tel : 951-687 778, 684 013
phgemarketing@
spa-mm.com,
www.punhlainggolfestate.com

MARINE
COMMUNICATION &
NAVIGATION

Franzo Living Mall

15(A/5), Pyay Rd,
A1(9miles),Mayangone Tsp,
Yangon.
Tel : 01-664026, 01-656970,
09-43205018

HOTEL SUPPLY

Intl Quality Uniform &

Promo Gifts
for Corporate, Hotel, F&B
Tel: (959) 972 154 990,
Email: suchada@
stgroupholdings.com

Premium Chef Uniform

No. H-8, May Kha Housing,

May Kha St., Thingangyun
Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: 01 855 0105, 09 506
7816, 09 254443366
Email: theworkwear
myanmar@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/
workwearmyanmar

LIGHTING

99 Condo, Ground Floor,

Room (A), Damazedi Rd,
Kamayut Township,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel : 09-2504-28700
info@decorum.mm.com

PAINT

SUPPLIER of Quality Paints

DECORATIVE COATINGS
PROTECTIVE COATINGS
MARINE COATINGS
POWDER COATINGS
Jotun Myanmar (Services)
Co. Ltd.
G-7, May Kha Housing,
Lay Doung Kan Road,
Thingangyun Township,
Yangon-Myanmar
Tel: +95 1 566716, 566843
jotun.com

Relocation Specialist
Rm 504, M.M.G Tower,
#44/56, Kannar Rd,
Botahtaung Tsp.
Tel: 250290, 252313.
Mail : info@asiantigersmyanmar.com

Crown Worldwide
Movers Ltd 790, Rm 702,
7th Flr Danathiha Centre,
Bogyoke Aung San Rd,
Lanmadaw. Tel: 223288,
210 670, 227650. ext: 702.
Fax: 229212. email: crown
worldwide@mptmail.net.mm

Worlds No.1 Paints &

Coatings Company
Top Marine Show Room
No-385, Ground Floor,
Lower Pazundaung Road,
Pazundaung Tsp, Yangon.
Ph: 01-202782, 09-851-5597

OFFICE FURNITURE

Tel : 01-9000712~13 Ext : 330

09-4200-77039.
direct2u@mmrdrs.com

22, Pyay Rd, 9 mile,

Mayangone Tsp.
tel: 660769, 664363.

99 Condo, Ground Floor,

Room (A), Damazedi Rd,
Kamayut Township,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel : 09-2504-28700
info@decorum.mm.com

REMOVALISTS

Bldg-A2, G-Flr, Shwe

Gabar Housing, Mindama
Rd, Mayangone Tsp,
Yangon. email: eko-nr@
myanmar.com.mm
Ph: 652391, 09-73108896

Bld-A2, Gr-Fl, Shwe

Gabar Housing, Mindama
Rd, Mayangone Tsp,
Yangon. email: eko-nr@
myanmar.com.mm
Ph: 652391, 09-73108896

Room No. 1101, 16th Flr,

Tower B, Maw Tin Tower,
Corner of Anawrahta Rd
& Lanthit St, Lanmadaw
Tsp, Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel : (95-1) 218489. 218490
218491
Fax : (95-1) 218492
Email : marketing @
kaytumadi.com, contact@
kaytumadi.com,
kaytumadi@gmail.com.
web : www.rockworth.com

Sole Distributor
For the Union of
Myanmar Since 1995
Myanmar Golden Rock
International Co.,Ltd.
79-D, Bo Chein St, Pyay Rd,
6 Mile, Hlaing Tsp,
Tel: 654810~654819
654844~654848

TOP MARINE PAINT

No-385, Ground Floor,
Lower Pazundaung Road,
Pazundaung Tsp, Yangon.
Ph: 09-851-5202

International
Construction
Material Co., Ltd.
No. 60, G-Fl, Sint-Oh-Dan St,
Lower Block, Latha Tsp,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel : 01-245112,
09-730-22820
Email : intconstruction
material@gmail.com

Legendary Myanmar Intl

Shipping & Logistics Co.,
Ltd.
No-9, Rm (A-4), 3rd Flr,
Kyaung St, Myaynigone,
Sanchaung Tsp, Yangon.
Tel: 516827, 523653,
516795.
Mobile. 09-512-3049.
Email: legandarymyr@
mptmail.net .mm
www.LMSL-shipping.com

REAL ESTATE

World famous Kobe Beef

Near Thuka Kabar
Hospital on Pyay Rd,
Marlar st, Hlaing Tsp.
Tel: +95-1-535072

No. 5, U Tun Nyein

Street, Mayangone T/S,
Yangon.
Tel : 01-660 612, 657928,
01-122 1014, 09 508 9441
Email : lalchimiste.
restaurant@gmail.com

Enchanting and Romantic,

a Bliss on the Lake
62 D, U Tun Nyein Road,
Mayangon Tsp, Yangon
Tel. 01 665 516, 660976
Mob. 09-730-30755
operayangon@gmail.com
www.operayangon.com

22, Kaba Aye Pagoda Rd,

Bahan Tsp. tel 541997.
email: leplanteur@
mptmail.net.mm.
http://leplanteur.net

American best practices

Pabaedan Township.
09 253 559 848
info@PathwayMoving.com
www.PathwayMoving.com
Yangons premier mover

Bo Sun Pat Tower, Bldg

608, Rm 6(B), Cor of
Merchant Rd & Bo Sun
Pat St, PBDN Tsp. Tel:
377263, 250582, 250032,
09-511-7876, 09-862-4563.

G-01, City Mart

(Myay Ni Gone Center).
Tel: 01-508467-70 Ext: 106

Monsoon Restaurant
& Bar 85/87, Thein Byu
Road, Botahtaung Tsp.
Tel: 295224, 09-501 5653.

Delicious Hong Kong Style

Food Restaurant
G-09, City Mart (Myay Ni
Gone Center).
Tel: 01-508467-70 Ext: 114

Quality Chinese Dishes

with Resonable Price
@Marketplace by City Mart.
Tel: 01-523840 Ext.109

European Quality
& Designs Indoor/
Outdoor Furniture, Hotel
Furniture & All kinds of
woodworks
Office Tel: 01-380382,
09-509-1673, Show Room:
No. 123-124, Shwe Yin Aye
(2) Street, Industrial Zone
5 (Extension), Hlaing Thar
Yar Township, Yangon,
Myanmar. E-mail: contact@
smartdesignstrading.com,
www.royalbotania.com,
www.alexander-rose.co.uk,
Please call for any enquiry.

For House-Seekers

with Expert Services

In all kinds of Estate Fields
yomaestatemm@gmail.com
09-332 87270 (Fees Free)
09-2541 26615, 09254392553

Coffee & Snack Bar

Shop: No.150, Dhamazedi
Road, Bahan Township,
Yangon, Myanmar,
09-3621-4523, gustocafe.
yangon@gmail.com

Heaven Pizza
38/40, Bo Yar Nyunt St.
Yaw Min Gyi Quarter,
Dagon Township.
Tel: 09-855-1383

SC STORAGE YANGON
Monthly storage available
Transportation of goods
provided,
Mobile: 09-253 559 848,
Email: YangonStorage@
gmail.com

TRAVEL AGENTS

Yangon International
School (YIS)
Grades, Pre-school Grade 12.
American Curriculum.
117, Thumingalar Housing
Thingangyun Tsp
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel : 95 1 578171, 573149
Fax : 95 1 578604
Website :
www.yismyanmar.com

SERVICE OFFICE

Executive Serviced Offices

Asian Trails Tour Ltd

73 Pyay Rd, Dagon tsp.
tel: 211212, 223262.
fax: 211670. email: res@
asiantrails.com.mm
Shan Yoma Tours Co.,Ltd
Ph: 01-9010378, 9010382,

www.exploremyanmar.com
www.exploreglobaltravel.
com

WATER HEATERS

The Global leader in

Water Heaters
A/1, Aung San Stadium
East Wing, Upper
Pansodan Road.
Tel: 01-256705, 399464,
394409, 647812.

www.hinthabusinesscentres.com

Tel : 01-4413410

Made in Japan
Same as Rinnai Gas Cooker
and Cooker Hood
Showroom Address
Executive Serviced
Office, Registered
and Virtual Office, Hot
Desking, Meeting Rooms
Tel: +(95) 1 387947
www.officehubservices,com

STEEL STRUCTURE

Design, Fabrication,
Supply & Erection of Steel
Structures
Tel : +95 9 252399569
Email : Sales@WECMyanmar.com
www.WEC-Myanmar.com

Reservation Office (Yangon)

123, Alanpya Pagoda Rd,
Dagon Township
Tel
: 951- 255 819~838
Max Resort (Chaung Tha)
Tel
: 042 42346~9
E-Mail: reservation@
maxhotelsgroup.com

Faucets | Showers |
Sanitarywares | Bathroom
Accessories, Ph: 379671,
256622, 399464, 09 9771
09852. Address: Same
as ARISTON
Grohe
Bath Room Accessories,
79-B3/B3, East Shwe Gone
Dine, Near SSC Womens
Center, Bahan.
Tel : 01-401083,

WATER PROOFING

International
Construction
Material Co., Ltd.
No. 60, G-Fl, Sint-Oh-Dan St,
Lower Block, Latha Tsp,
Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel : 01-245112,
09-730-22820
Email : intconstruction
material@gmail.com

WATER TREATMENT

SPORTS

Premium Trophies
From Malaysia/Italy

RESORT

SANITARY WARE

Real Estate Agent

N o Fe e s fo r C l i e n t s ,
Contact Us : 09 2050107,
robin@prontorealtor.com

Horizon Intl School

235, Shukhinthar Myo Pat
Rd, Thaketa Tsp, Yangon,
Ph: 450396~7, 25, Po Sein
Rd, Bahan Tsp, Yangon,
Ph: 543926, Fax: 543926,
email: contact@
horizonmyanmar.com

Water Heater

RESTAURANTS

Good taste & resonable

price
@Thamada Hotel
Tel: 01-243047, 243639-41
Ext: 32

STORAGE
SC STORAGE YANGON

G-05, Marketplace by
City Mart.
Tel: 01-523840 Ext: 105

PLEASURE CRUISES

Moby Dick Tours Co., Ltd.

Islands Safari in the Mergui
Archipelago
No.89-91, Rm No.2, Gr Fr,
32nd St, Pabedan Tsp, Ygn.
Tel / Fax: 01-380382
E-mail: info@islandsafari
mergui.com. Website: www.
islandsafarimergui.com

SCHOOLS

No. H-8, May Kha Housing,

May Kha St., Thingangyun
Tsp, Yangon. Tel: 01 855
0105, 09 540 8885. Email:
trophystudio@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/
trophystudio.mm

Water & Wastewater

Treatment (Since 1997)
Amd Supply Package
Fiberglass Wastewater
System for Offices,
Condominiums & Hotels
Project. Can Design for
YCDC Permit Application.
39-B, Thazin Lane, Ahlone.
09-5161431, 09-43126571,
01-218437~8

WATER SOLUTION

Aekar

Company Limited

SUPERMARKETS
Capital Hyper Mart
14(E), Min Nandar Road,
Dawbon Tsp. Ph: 553136.
City Mart (Aung San) tel:
253022, 294765.
Junction Square
Pyay Rd, Kamayut,
Ph: 01-527242.
Junction Zawana
Lay Daung Kan St,
Thingangyun, Ph: 573929.
Ocean (North Point)
Pyay Rd, 9 mile,
Ph: 01-652959.
Ocean (East Point)
Mahabandoola Rd,
Ph: 01-397146.
Orange Super Market
103, Thu Damar Rd,
Industrial Zone, North
Okkalar, Ph: 9690246

Water Treatement Solution

Block (A), Room (G-12),
Pearl Condo, Kabar Aye
Pagoda Rd, Bahan Tsp.
Hot Line : 09-4500-59000

WEB SERVICE

Web Services
All the way from Australia
world-class websites/
web apps for desktop,
smartphone & tablets,
online shopping with
real-time transaction,
news/magazine site,
forum, email campaign
and all essential online
services. Domain
registration & cloud
hosting. Talk to us: (01)
430-897, (0) 942-000-4554.
www.medialane.com.au

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

wEEKEND | SOCIALITE

Ko Arker Hein and Katrien Cornelis

Foodies get
a grilling
Yangons food fanatics
descended on the
Windermere Hill Caf
on May 9 for proper
sausages and free-flow
drinks at the Yangon
Foodies first-ever
Backyard Barbeque.

Kaung Htet Zaw and Khaing Cho Win

U Thurein Myint Shwe and Daw Yin Yin Htay

Jelly
fans
wobble
on
Trolli kept
shoppers
happy with
free sweets at
the launch of
their range of
jelly sweets
at Junction
Square on
May 10.
Aye Pyae Sone, Thander Aung and Nyein Nyein Soe

Why
did the
chicken
cross the
road?
To get to
the Brands
essence
of chicken
product
launch of
course,
joining guests
at the Sedona
Hotel on April
28.

Nwe Ni Kaung, Htet Zaw, Kay Myat Khine and Ma Snow

Nay Myo Suthata, Thanissara Saksucharita, and Masayoshi Sone

25

26

THE MYANMAR TIMES ISSUE 09 I MAY 15 - 21, 2015

wEEKEND | WHATSON

EVENTS
FRIDAY 15
MUSIC
Lay Phyu Live. Solo concert by rock artist
Lay Phyu. Event Park, Shin Saw Pu Street,
Sanchaung 8-11:45pm. Tickets (K40,000
and K50,000) are available at the MRTV-4
Showroom on New University Avenue.
Weekly acoustic music show by
Slay Band. Off The Beaten Track Caf,
Kandawgyi Nature Park 7-9:30pm
Live music by the Aaron Gallegos Trio.
Gekko, 535 Merchant Road 7pm
Nightly live music. Kokine Bar and
Restaurant (next to Kokine Swimming
Club) 6-11pm
Live music by The Four Band.
Thiripyitsaya Sky Bistro, 20th floor, Sakura
Tower, 339 Bogyoke Aung San Road,
Kyauktada 7-10pm
Romances Violin Night. The Two
Nightingales Band and classical violin
music. BIIO Bar and Bistro. 98 20th Street,
Latha 811pm

NIGHTLIFE
The Yangon Vibe. Mojo Bar, 135 Inya
Road, Bahan 10pm

ART
The Buddhas Heritage. Solo exhibition
by artist Win Zin. Gallery 65, 65 Yaw
Min Gyi Road, 9:30-5:30pm daily (until
May 24)

MISC
Screening of Dont be afraid, they will
be with you, a documentary film (20
min, with English subtitles) about women

WHATS ON: BANGKOK

survivors of human rights violations

related to armed conflict and/or political
violence. Mary Chapman School for Deaf
Children, 2 Thantaman Street, Dagon
2-5pm

SATURDAY 16
ART
&PROUD LGBT photo exhibition. Entries
from the LGBT photo competition will
be on display, as well as KG Krishnans
Continuum series from Malaysia.
Myanmar Deitta, 49 44th Street (3rd floor),
Botahtaung 106pm (see page 27)

NIGHTLIFE
Union is Two. Celebrate Union Bars 2nd
birthday with the fantastic live Mo-Town
band Soul Union and DJs late into the
night. 42 Strand Road, Botahtaung 8:3011:45pm

LIVE MUSIC
Live jazz with Mr Barsogay and his
crew. Sky Bistro, 20th floor, Sakura Tower,
339 Bogyoke Aung San Road, Kyauktada
7-10pm

MISC
Yangon Hash House Harriers Saturday
run. A mixed, family-style Hash. Runs
usually take about an hour and start
from Yangon University. K4000. University
Avenue, Kamaryut 2:45-8pm
Weekly run. All levels of runner can join.
Balance Fitness, 103 University Avenue
(corner of Thanlwin Street), Bahan
7:15am

SUNDAY 17

TUESDAY 19

THURSDAY 21

ART

MUSIC

MISC

Burmese drawing club. Anyone who

enjoys drawing or painting can join this
group of amateur and professional artists.
Pansodan Scene, 144 Pansodan Street
(middle block), Kyauktada 10-3pm

MISC
Global harmonies singing session.
Experience the thrills of close harmony
singing in a group, learn songs from
different parts of the world and enjoy
some musical vibrational therapy. No
experience needed, songs are taught by
ear. Institut Francais, 340 Pyay Road
3-5pm

MONDAY 18
NIGHTLIFE
The Fat Ox pool tournament. K5000 entry,
winner takes all! The Fat Ox, 50th Street
(middle block), Botahtaung 7-10pm
Unlimited cocktails night. K8000 per
person. B2O Bar and Bistro, 96 20th Street
(upper block), Latha 8-11:45pm
Salsa night. Learn some funky Latin
moves at Club 5, Park Royal Hotel, 33
Alan Pya Paya Road, Dagon 711pm.

MUSIC
Live piano music by Bonny. Thiripyitsaya
Sky Bistro, 20th floor, Sakura Tower, 339
Bogyoke Aung San Road, Kyauktada 7pm
Monday Blues. Mojo Bar, 135 Inya Road,
Bahan 9:30pm

MISC
Trivia Night. Free beer pitcher for round
winners and winning team gets a
K30,000 bar tab. 50th Street Bar, 50th
Street (lower block) 8-11pm

Live music by The Experience Band.

Thiripyitsaya Sky Bistro, 20th floor, Sakura
Tower, 339 Bogyoke Aung San Road,
Kyauktada 7-10pm

MISC
Tuesday Snippets. Gallery Conversation
and drinks. Pansodan Gallery, Pansodan
Street 7-10pm
Tuesday Movies at the Connect Institute.
Free popcorn, chips and soft drinks. Fun
games and quizzes, thought-provoking
discussions and more. Connect Institute,
3A Pansodan Business Tower, corner of
Anawrahta Road and Pansodan Street
2:30pm-4pm

WEDNESDAY 20
NIGHTLIFE
Mojito Night. The Lab, 70A Shwegonedaing Road, Bahan 5:30-10pm
Girls night out. Mojo Bar, 135 Inya Road,
Bahan 8pm
Salsa at Salud. K5000 entry (includes
free Mojito, beer or cocktail of your
choice). Salud Salsa Club (Latin
Restaurant), 7C Wingabar Road (next to
Clover Hotel), Bahan

MUSIC
Jazz music and dinner. Rendez-Vous
restaurant and bar, Institut Francias, 340
Pyay Road 7:30-9:30pm

Connect Public Speaking Club. Join this

club to learn how to speak confidently
without fear. Connect Institute, 3A
Pansodan Business Tower, corner of
Anawrahta Road and Pansodan Street
2:30pm-4pm
BBQ Night. Homemade sausages, chicken,
pork, beef, pasta salad and vegetables,
with free flow beer, wine and soft
drinks. K20,000 The Rendez-Vous, Institut
Francais, 340 Pyay Road 7-10pm

FILM
Start times at Mingalar (1,2), Top Royal,
Shae Saung (1,2) and Nay Pyi Taw
cinemas are 10am, 12:30pm, 3:30pm,
6:30pm and 9:30pm
Start times at Junction Square and
Junction Maw Tin are 9:30am, 12:30pm,
3:30pm and 6:30pm daily and 9:30am,
12:30pm, 3:30pm, 6:30pm and 9:30pm
on Friday and Saturday.
Start times at Mingalar San Pya are
10am, 12:30pm, 3:30pm, 6:30pm and
9:30pm
Nay Pyi Taw Cinema, near Sule Pagoda
Avengers: Age of Ultron (3D). Directed by
Joss Whedon. American superhero film
Make Me Shudder 3.
Directed by Poj Apirut. Horror film.
Shae Saung Cinema,
Sule Pagoda Road, Kyauktada
Fast & Furious 7. Directed by James Wan.
American action film.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (3D). Directed by
Joss Whedon. American superhero film
Mingalar San Pya Cineplex,
Phone Gyi Street
Avengers: Age of Ultron (3D). Directed by
Joss Whedon. American superhero film
Mingalar Cinema 2,
Dagon Center 2, Myaynigone
Avengers: Age of Ultron (3D). Directed by
Joss Whedon. American superhero film

Essential Eames: Icons of 20th-century design

BY RACHNA SACHASINH

HARLES and Ray Eames

thrived on having fun. Take
your pleasure seriously,
advised Charles Eames, and this
ethos defined the couples approach
to making furniture, film, toys and
even to understanding science.
Charles and Ray Eames are
credited with changing the way
we sit by The Washington Post. A
closer look at the Eames philosophy
and work demonstrates they did
much more, leaving an indelible
mark on contemporary lifestyle
and revolutionising furniture
construction and design.
Essential Eames: Icons of
20th Century Design is currently
showing at the Thailand Creative
Design Center (TCDC) in Bangkok,
Thailand. Based on the book An
Eames Primer by Eames Demetrios,
the couples grandson, this
exhibition is not to be missed.
Essential Eames does a
remarkable job charting the
endeavours of an intellectually
adventurous couple who never tired
of exploration and creation. With
over 90 pieces of furniture and
125 original film and photographs
on display, the exhibition covers
architecture, furniture, design,
film, toys and philosophy in various
interactive zones.
One installation dismantles the
iconic Eames Chair and Ottoman to

demonstrate the creative process, and

how mass production does not have
to forsake good design and comfort.
In a large hall, the curators assemble
original pieces of Eames furniture,
including the moulded wood, plastic
and aluminium collections. created
for the office and the home. Perusing
the Eames oeuvre, it becomes clear
how the dynamic couple recast
shapes, colours and materials,
advancing contemporary design in
new directions. Edited selections of
the ground-breaking Mathematica
and Banana Leaf studies, as well
as the Eames toy series, are also
represented.
The exhibition also includes
the Eames collaboration with
the Herman Miller company. The

Eames helped articulate and finesse

Herman Millers portfolio in the
1950 and 1960s, and the couples
legacy continues to underscore the
companys design philosophy.
In this exhibit, it becomes
apparent how Charles and Ray
Eames influenced everything from
Mad Men to Ikea with impeccable
taste, functionality and, of course,
fun.
Essential Eames: Icons of 20th
Century Design runs until June
29 at the Creative Design Center
(TCDC), 622 Sukhumvit Soi 24,
Bangkok. Admission is free.
www.tcdc.or.th

WWW.MMTIMES.COM

wEEKEND | WHATSON

27

WHATS ON PICK OF THE WEEK

Pride against prejudice at LGBT photo exhibition

NANDAR AUNG

N the end, its about respect.

A gay friend of mine, Ko Hla
Myo, a make-up artist who
runs a beauty salon in North Dagon,
said, If you are gay, whatever job
you choose you are still gay. You
cant change how other people think
about you. The truth is, we are all
struggling to get acceptance from
others and to be liked. Im used
to being patient, and helping my
clients understand a bit better.
When it comes to gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender people,
discrimination is alive and well.
Ko Hla Myat Tun, program
manager for the Colour Rainbow
LGBT Network, said, LGBTs
are people. They live and breathe
like any other, and do not deserve
discrimination or neglect. We need
to understand their lives, and with
understanding, respect will come.

Photo: KG Krishnan

This is the idea behind the

second &PROUD 2015 photo
competition, the entries of which
will be on display from May 16
through 24 at Yangons Deitta
Gallery.
Jeewee van Rooij, organiser of
the exhibition, said the exhibition
portrayed LGBTs as individuals and
couples who love and live and work
and struggle just like everybody
else.
Right now, a lot of people
dont know what it means to be
transgender, or about the struggles
that many gays and lesbians face
in their communities. It may be
difficult to come to terms with
your sexuality or gender when you
dont know anyone like you who is
struggling with the same issues,
he said. And if your family and the
people around you dont know or
accept LGBTs then it will be very
difficult to accept yourself.
The exhibition features 44
photos by 11 local photographers
who portray the Myanmar LGBT
community in a positive light.
Winners of the competition,
which was staged from February to
May, will be announced during the
opening event on May 16, and will
take away prizes of up to US$300
in two categories: series and single
shots.
Malaysian photographer
KG Krishnans portrait project
Continuum documents members
of the transgender community
in Kuala Lumpur, who face
persecution under laws that
criminalise all walks of life within
the LGBT community. In Krishnans
artwork, the faces are separated
from the bodies, symbolising the

Photo: Kloei Picol

Taw Win Road, Dagon, from 4pm to

5:30pm. IDAHOT events will also
take place that day at the Sein Lan
So Pyay Garden Restaurant, Inya
Road, from 5 to 8pm.
&PROUD is organised by the
LGBT community in Yangon:
Colours Rainbow, Kings n Queens,
Myanmar LGBT Rights Network,
&PROUD and YG. Last year
the network held the &PROUD
LGBT Film Festival at the Institut
Francais.

Photo: Khin Pearl Yuki Aung

separate nature of body and soul.

As part of the International
day against Homophobia and
Transphobia (IDAHOT), May 17,
when LGBTs across the planet

Photo: KG Krishnan

rally for equal rights and against

discrimination, a few activities have
also been scheduled for Yangon,
including a panel discussion on
May 15 at the American Center, 14

&PROUD LGBT PHOTO

EXHIBITION will run on May
16 (opening event will be at 3pm,
when competition winners will be
announced) at Myanmar Deitta,
the 3rd floor, 49 44th Street (lower
block), Botahtaung township.
Opening hours are 10am to 5pm
every day. For more information:
www.facebook.com/andPROUD.

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of

Korea - Myanmar diplomatic relations

Sponsored by the Embassy of the Repulbic of Korea, Yangon, May 15, 2015

Ambassadors
message
T

HIS year marks

the 40th year of
the establishment
of diplomatic ties
between Korea and
Myanmar. As a
famous Confucian
scholar wisely
stated thousands
of years ago, when
a man reaches
his 40s, his inner
strength is firm
enough to withstand
any external blows. I
strongly believe that
the ties between
HE Mr Lee Baek Soon
Korea and Myanmar
have also reached the level of firmness. The two
sides are rapidly upgrading the relationship and
expanding cooperation in a wide range of areas,
building upon the strong foundation that we have
established for the last 40 years.
Korea and Myanmar are more similar than many
people might think. The similarities would be easily
found, inter alia, in history, culture, and language.
Many Koreans are pleasantly surprised to discover
these similarities. Recognizing these commonalities,
I, as the Korean ambassador to Myanmar, happily
introduce Myanmar to fellow Koreans as a twin
or brother country. Our commonalities have been
and will be the backbone of the ever-strengthening
relationship between Korea and Myanmar.
Korea has never stopped supporting Myanmars
sustainable development, as a genuine friend or
brother is supposed to. At the bilateral summit
meeting in December 2014, President Park Geun-hye
also made it clear that Myanmar was an important
development cooperation partner for Korea, and that
Korea wished to share its economic development
experience so that Myanmar can benefit.
To commemorate the 40th anniversary, a number
of events will take place throughout Yangon in the
coming weeks. The festivities include the Korean
Product Expo, the Korean Traditional Costume
Fashion Show, the Korean Porcelain Exhibition
and the Korea-Myanmar Forum. I hope many of
Myanmars people will come out and take part in
these joyful events to celebrate this special year for
Korea and Myanmar.

Looking ahead and going beyond

O

N 16 May 2015, the Republic

of the Union of Myanmar
and the Republic of Korea will
celebrate the 40th anniversary
of opening bilateral diplomatic
relations. It was often bumpy
in the past, but it promises
ever-deepening friendship and
up-leveled cooperation in the
future.
The past forty years may be
divided into three periods. The
first was until 1988, roughly
overlapping with and heavily
influenced by the Cold War.
Opening of relations itself was
delayed due to the Cold War.
Until 1973, Korea maintained a
doctrine not to have diplomatic
relations with any state
recognizing North Korea, while
Myanmar pursued the policy of
strict neutrality. After Myanmar
opened diplomatic relations with
both Koreas in 1975, however,
it had leaned toward the North
as highlighted by Ne Wins visit
there in 1977, until North Korean
agents bombed the Martyrs
Mausoleum in a failed attempt to
assassinate ROK President Chun
Do-hwan in October 1983. They
instead killed 17 Korean officials
including four cabinet ministers
and 4 Myanmar officials.
Myanmar severed diplomatic
relations with North Korea until
2007.
The second period began in
1989, when Myanmar opened
its embassy in Korea and
economic cooperation started.
As Myanmar tried to open and
reform its economy, Korean
companies invested in Myanmar
including the garment industry
that boomed around 2000. But
international sanctions after
1988 uprisings, particularly
those after 2003, prevented
them from going any further.
In 2007, Myanmar reopened
its diplomatic relations with

Myanmar President U Thein Sein and South Korea President Park Geun-hye

North Korea, which South Korea

did not oppose in the general
atmosphere of inter-Korean
rapprochement.
The third period burgeoned
with the inauguration of the
government of President U
Thein Sein in 2011. In August,
ROK government decided to
resume development loans,
suspended since 2005. In
May 2012, ROK President
Lee Myung-bak paid a state
visit to Myanmar, which was
reciprocated by President U
Thein Seins visit to Korea in
October. Daily direct flights
between Seoul and Yangon
were established and floods of
visitors ensued, including the
Speakers of parliaments of both
countries, Daw Aung San Su
Kyi, and many ministers. The
highest point in this renewed
friendship was reached in 2014,
when a memorial monument in
commemoration of the victims

from the 1983 bombing was

erected near the Mausoleum
in June and President Park
Geun-hye hosted President U
Thein Sein, Chair of ASEAN,
during the ASEAN-ROK
Commemorative Summit in
Korea in December.
With Myanmar fully
integrated into the globalized
world, the future of the bilateral
relationship between the two
countries is very promising.
Korea and Myanmar share a
lot in common geography,
history, and people. With them,
the two countries economic
structure is supplementary
to each other and thus, if two
countries combine their strong
points, they can make good
contribution to the region and
world together. Geo-politically,
the two countries are located
among big powers and share a
common interest to maintain
friendly relations among them.

Furthermore, Myanmar is
located at the westernmost of
the Southeast Asia and Korea at
the easternmost of the East Asia
so that the two countries can
contribute to the region-wide
peace and stability, by playing
the bridging roles within the
region and beyond.
Also, Myanmar and Korea
share historical experiences
of colonization, military
government, and economic
backwardness. From the
shared experiences, Korea
can empathize with Myanmar
for its development concerns
ranging from political
transition process to effective
use of foreign aids. In December
2014, for example, Korea
International Cooperation
Agency (KOICA) launched two
symbolic development projects
Myanmar Development
Institute (MDI) and Saemaeul
(New Community) Movement.
Three years ago on 17 May
2012, I visited Myanmar for the
first time without knowing what
to expect. I still dont know what
led me to launch a KOICAsponsored project of faculty
retraining at University of
Yangon, which is now in its third
year and helped me foster deep
friendship with many Myanmar
colleagues. It could have been
karma, as a friend of mine often
teases, but it goes without saying
that the extraordinary character
and love of Myanmar people
is a big part, just as many of
Myanmar people are attracted to
Korea because of its people and
culture.
The author, Dr. Kim Tae-Hyun,
is Professor of International
Relations at Chung-Ang
University, Seoul, Korea, and
President of Myanmar-Korea
Centre for International Studies
at University of Yangon

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Republic of Korea and Union of Myanmar

Celebration of 40 years friendship

between Korea and Myanmar
T

HIS year marks the 40th anniversary

of the establishment of diplomatic ties
between Korea and Myanmar. To celebrate
this special anniversary, a number of
cultural events will be held throughout
Yangon and all visitors in the events are
welcomed.
An opening gala dinner will kick off the
festivities on May 21 at the newly opened
Novotel Max Hotel. The highlight of the
evening will be a fashion show featuring
the finest examples of Koreas traditional
dress, called hanbok, characterized by
vibrant colors and simple lines, as well as
Myanmars traditional garments, called
longyi. The show, organized jointly by
Master Kim Inja of Korea and the Myanmar
Fashion Designers Association, will be the
first of its kind in Myanmar, whose people
may already be familiar with the hanbok
from Korean movies and TV dramas. More
than two dozen professional models from
Korea and Myanmar are set to walk the
runway.
From May 21 to 24, the Korean Porcelain
Exhibition will take place in Myanmar
Event Park. The Korean Ceramics
Association is organizing this event, which
will showcase some 100 works by dozens
of Korean master craftsmen. Korean
porcelain is internationally renowned
indeed Korea, together with China, wrote
the history of world ceramics. Koreas inlaid
or sanggam celadon, dating back to the
Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392), and its Joseonera (1392-1910) buncheong stoneware
are unique in the world. Sanggam
celadon is revered for its jade-green
colour, its elegant curves, and the artists
sophisticated inlaying techniques, whereas
the buncheong style is admired for its
simplicity. The exhibition is a rare chance
for visitors to enjoy the classical elegance
of Koreas porcelain. Admission is free of
charge.
Last but not least, the National Theater will stage a
Korean folklore dance performance on May 26. Diverse
folk genres will be presented such as mask dancing and
samullori. Samullori is without doubt the most widely
known form of Korean traditional percussion music:
samul means four objects and nori means play.
The name signifies the four traditional Korean musical

Korean Product Expo 2015:

Exploring and tasting Korea

instruments used in a samullori performance: the

kkwaenggwari (a small gong), the jing (a larger gong),
the janggu (an hourglass-shaped drum) and the buk (a
barrel drum). The event is jointly organized by the Korea
National University of Arts and the National University of
Arts and Culture in Yangon, and tickets are not required.
Further information about all of these events is available
on the website of the Korean Embassy in Myanmar.

OREA and Myanmar started

their diplomatic relations 40
years ago. Korea Week 2015 is an
opportunity to reinforce the close
ties between our two countries
which have been steadily and
firmly established for the last 40
years.
Korean Product Expo 2015
is one of the flagship events of
the Korea Week 2015. The Expo
runs from May 21-24 at Myanmar
Event Park on Shin Saw Pu Road in
Yangon. Major Korean companies
such as Samsung Electronics, LG
Electronics, Daewoo International,
POSCO, Hyundai Motors and
Daedong Industrial will greet
visitors with their newest and best
technologies. An additional 81
Korean companies will showcase
their products and technology
in various fields of business such
as construction, interior design,
machinery, tools, beauty and
cosmetics, household products,
food and beverages, car parts, IT
and healthcare. The expo will be
open to the public; however, the
first two days are dedicated to
one-on-one business meetings for
Korean and Myanmar companies.
The Expo also offers a Korean
Food Pavilion to satisfy those
who are interested in Korean
food: how it is cooked, what the
secret ingredients are in the tasty
Korean food, and how and where
residents of Yangon can get Korean
food and its materials. All will be
answered in the Pavilion. Visitors
may have chance to taste samples
of delicious Korean cuisine on the
spot.
Korea-Myanmar Forum,
another event to highlight the
40th anniversary, takes place at
Novotel Hotel on 21st May. The
Forum is organized as a venue to
gather renowned experts both
in academic and public sector
from two countries to share their

visions and ideas to promote

deeper friendship and cooperation
between Korea and Myanmar. The
Forum consists of two parallel
sub-forums, Economic Forum and
Political Forum.
Korea-Myanmar Economic
Forum 2015 is a dedicated event
which focuses on discussion as to
where the two countries stand in
terms of economic cooperation
and how both countries can jointly
make effort to promote trade
and investment between the two
countries. Hosted by the Korean
Ministry of Trade, Industry and
Energy (MOTIE) and co-organized
by the Korean Embassy, the Korea
Trade-Investment Promotion
Agency (KOTRA), Financial News
Korea and UMFCCI, the forum
will provide a platform to discuss
on various topics with the goal
of expanding the two countries
combined growth potential.
In the Political Forum, political
and socio-cultural issues will
be discussed through the two
separate sessions by experts from
Myanmar Institute of Strategic
and International Studies as
well as renowned professors and
government officials from Korea.
The speakers and leading experts
cast light upon the issues based
on the historical and cultural
similarities between two countries
to explore the way of cooperation
and common prosperity. Floors
will also open to audiences to
embrace various opinions and
ideas.

Korea and Myanmar: twin

cultures await discovery
T

HE words nuna and eonni

mean sister in Korean. You
can hear those words spoken at
K-pop concerts. You can also see
families gathered around their
living rooms to watch their favorite
Korean dramas. If you take a taxi
and identify yourself as Korean,
you hear back, Annyeong haseyo,
mingalabar in Korean.
This is not Korea. This is
Myanmar, which is far away from
Korea.
The Koreanness of Myanmar
indeed comes as a shock to many
Koreans. The two countries are
some 3,600 kilometers away
but so similar in so many ways.
While most Koreans who travel
to Myanmar are unaware of these
similarities at first, they soon find
out. Then the list of similarities gets
longer, and their curiosity about the
people of Myanmar gets stronger.
The links between the two
cultures was just as big a secret
to the people of Myanmar until
recently. However, those who visit
Korea come to find out slowly but
surely.
Why do kids on the streets
of Yangon shout out nuna and
eonni? Why are so many of people
of Myanmar absorbed in Korean
dramas? Why can many Myanmar
people, regardless of age or gender,
speak Korean easily?
Another such adventure starts
very soon. The fifth World Ssireum
Championships kick off on July 27
in Yangon. Ssireum and kyin

are the two countries respective

forms of traditional wrestling, but
to ordinary fans they appear almost
identical.
Myanmars kyin takes place
in a circular stadium filled with
sand, two players, and various
techniques involving the hands,
legs and abdomenfeatures that
bring it much closer to Korean
ssireum wrestling than Japanese
sumo wrestling. In December 2014
I covered, as a reporter, a kyin
competition in Sittwe, Rakhine State,
and reported on it to Korean viewers
through the Korean news agency
YTN. Shortly afterward, I learned
that not only the journalists at the
broadcasting company but also many
Korean viewers were surprised by the
news clips. Kyin was just like ssireum!
Indeed, it is not difficult to see
the cultural similarities between
Korea and Myanmar. Our love of
kites and traditional rice wine are
just the beginning. Now it is up to
the two peoples to embark on an
adventure and discover the rest.
A new Korea Center, still under
construction in Yangon, will open
later this year and offer encounters
with the past, present and future of
both cultures. The center was made
possible with the generous support
of a Myanmar businessman and will
serve as a meeting place for Koreans
and Myanmar. A new drama has just
begun.
The author, Shin Sung Hyun,
Editor in Chief, Myanmar Korea
English Magazine

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Republic of Korea and Union of Myanmar

Making a better world together

W

HEN the Korean War ended in 1953,

the Republic of Korea was one of the
poorest countries in the world, with an
annual per capita income at $67. Since then,
within half a century Korea has emerged
as the worlds top 10 economic power. This
remarkable accomplishment is a source of
great pride for South Koreans. And this is why
many developing countries are interested in
benchmarking Koreas development experience
and know-how.

World Friends Korea, KOICA's Volunteer Program

Bilateral development cooperation between

Korea and Myanmar started in 1991 with
technical cooperation programs of the Korea
International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Between 1991 and 2014, the Korean government
provided approximately $307 million to
Myanmar as official development assistance.
Primary development cooperation is delivered
through grant assistance led by the KOICA
and through concessional loan aid under the
Economic Development Cooperation Fund
(EDCF) managed by the Export-Import Bank of
Korea (Korea Eximbank).
KOICA - Winning the hearts and minds of
Myanmar people
KOICA is the primary Korean government
agency of grant aid to developing countries
founded in 1991. Since its foundation, KOICA
has provided assistance to Myanmar, and
in 2001, KOICA opened its Myanmar office
in Yangon. Between 1991 and 2014, KOICAs
assistance to Myanmar is amounted at about
$66 million.

KOICA fully understands that there is

something more important than the quantity
of aid: This is the sincerity of ODA. Thats why
KOICA places great emphasis on winning the
hearts of Myanmar people. KOICA strongly
believes that it is essential to provide assistance
with both hands and with sincere hearts. In all
its work in Myanmar, KOICA aims to be true
friends with the people of Myanmar. KOICA
also implements projects and programs in the
form of public-private partnerships, volunteer
support, capacity-building activities and
emergency relief.
Korea Eximbank: Infrastructure
development to shape the future together
Korea Eximbanks concessional loan
programs in Myanmar support infrastructure
development, the backbone of sustainable
economic growth. In July 2014, Korea and
Myanmar signed a Framework Arrangement
regarding the terms of Koreas EDCF
concessional loans over the next five years. The
funds, worth US$ 500million, are expected to
help Myanmar develop and ICT infrastructure

Dala Bridge Project by Korea Eximbank

and modernize its railway system as well as its

national power grid and transmission lines.
Dala Bridge Project is an ambitious, first
project for constructing the bridge across Yangon
river, connecting between Yangon City and Dala
Region. Implementation of the project as well as
signing to the Loan agreement, amount of 138
million dollars, is projected for the second half
of the year. The project is expected to create jobs
and boost income by balancing development
of Yangon City and facilitating further
development of lagged Dala Region.

Imagine your Korea: Seoul, Jeju Island and Mt. Seoraksan

K

OREA is not a far away distant

country. More than 14 million
people visited Korea in 2014.
Tourists come to Korea to experience
Korean food, fashion, history, and
culture, as well as to explore the
natural heritage of Korea which is
widely known beyond the Korean
peninsula through Korean movies
and dramas. In recent years,
many foreign visitors enjoy both
sightseeing and medical services
as a tour package, since Korea is
internationally renowned for its
high-tech medical techniques and
their low prices.
Indeed, Korea is very close to
Myanmar. Korean Air and Asiana
Airlines, two big airline companies
of Korea, have direct flights between
the two countries; Korean Air has
daily flights while Asiana Airlines
have flights twice a week. As the
Incheon Airport is one of the world
largest and busiest airports, it also
provides convenient connections to
major cities of other countries such
as China and USA. Here are three of
the most visited places: Seoul, Jeju
Island, and Mt. Seoraksan.
Seoul The heart of Korea
Seoul is a great city to visit all around
the year. As the capital city of Korea
with a population of more than 10
million, as well as the most visited
city in Korea by foreigners, Seoul
provides plenty of experience for
not only first-time visitors but also
frequent travelers.
Myung-dong is obviously the
most-loved neighborhood by
foreigners. While every corner of
Seoul can be called downtown,
Myung-dong is the busiest place
packed with shoppers and tourists.
One would probably hear more
Chinese and Japanese on the streets
of Myung-dong than Korean.
Insa-dong is a sharp contrast to C
the busy and modern Myung-dong.
M
Located in the northern part of
Seoul, Insa-dong provides visitors Y
with a traditional taste of Korea.
There are countless galleries and CM
shops which exhibit and sell Korean
MY
traditional paintings, handicrafts,
and ornaments. Hungry tourists CY
will irresistibly stop before Korean
CMY
traditional restaurants and tea
houses in all corners of Insa-dong. K
While Myung-dong and Insa-dong
are two classically recommended
places for tourists, Garosoo-gil,
which literally means a tree-lined
street, is the up and coming hottest
spot in Seoul. Garosoo-gil, which is
in the southern part of Seoul city,
is full of high-end fashion leaders,
artists, and free spirited youngsters.
You may also come across movie
stars and K-pop idols on the street.
Jeju Island The core of Koreas
natural beauty

There is a certain melancholy about

the island. We dont know where it
comes from, but the feeling holds
you. Perhaps its the wind, and the
grayish green tint that impregnates
everything, the rocks, the tree trunks,
the springs and even the sea. You are
at the edge of the world, as they say.
This is how Nobel laureate J.M.G Le
Clezio described Jeju Island.
Jeju, Koreas largest island, is

located off the southernmost coast

of Korea, lying between China and
Japan. Jeju greets visitors with its
unique landscape and a distinctive
ocean scent for each season. Though
the climate is mild throughout the
year, it has four distinct seasons.
With its breathtaking scenery
and perfect weather, Jeju is still a
popular honeymoon destination for
many Korean. Jeju is also renowned

15-OZ-000
Double Exposure(H) RGNSM.pdf
Hallasan, Jeju
Island

1 15. 5. 8. 4:41

for its ecology. Forged by volcanic

activity, the island has a wealth of
natural phenomena and a 5,000year history of human civilization
living in harmony with nature. Jeju
has been awarded UNESCOs triple
crown for the first time : Biosphere
reserve, World Natural Heritage,
and Global Geopark. To Koreans,
Jeju is equally well known for its
three abundances-wind, stone, and
women- and for its three absencesbeggars, thieves, and locks. If you
are planning to visit Korea, Jeju is
definitely a place you must visit.
Mt. Seoraksan- Koreas Spiritual
Touchstone
People have traditionally described
the shape of the Korean Peninsula as
a tiger, and Mt. Seoraksan is located
at its backbone. Nestled in Seoraksan
National Park in Gangwon-do
Province, Mt. Seoraksan is the
third highest mountain in South
Korea. 70% of South Korean land
is mountainous, which is most
probably why many Koreans enjoy
hiking or taking a relaxing stroll
along the mountain trails. Mt.
Seoraksan is arguably the most
distinctive and popular mountain
among all of Koreas mountains.
The entire mountain of Seoraksan,

which means snowy crags mountain,

was designated by UNESCO as a
Biosphere Preservation District in
1982. The vast majority of visitors to
this mountain and its surrounding
areas come for the gorgeous natural
beauty of the park. Autumn in
particular sees many visitors who
come to lay eyes upon the rich autumn
colors of the mountain. There are
excellently organized and wellequipped facilities where visitors can
enjoy winter sports during winter.
Pyungchang lies at the heart of the
mountain, which is the host city of the
next winter Olympic Games in 2018.
Mt. Seoraksan is also a favored
destination for temple stayers,
people who visit Buddhist temples
for the cultural experience to seek
spiritual fulfillment or enjoy a
short break from the fast-paced
life of the city. Particularly
noteworthy is Sinheungsa Temple,
the head temple of the Jogye
Order of Korean Buddhism. The
temple boasts a long history,
having first been built in the year
652 in Silla Dynasty (57 BC-935
AD). Baekdamsa Temple, another
well-known temple, was built by
Buddhist master Jajang, the same
architect who built the Sinheungsa
Temple.

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Republic of Korea and Union of Myanmar

Korean companies in Myanmar:

bringing changes to Myanmar

O

F the approximately 200 Korean

companies currently operating
in Myanmar, about 80 are in the
garment business, and it is these
companies that have contributed to
job creation in Myanmar. Korean
garment manufacturers in Myanmar
employ about 100,000 local people.
Major Korean companies doing
business in Myanmar in cooperation
with local partners include Daewoo
International, POSCO, Lotte and
CJ. Many more are considering
whether to advance into Myanmar
they perceive as the last frontier of
Southeast Asia.
One of the biggest success stories
for Korean companies in Myanmar
is the development of the Shwe gas
field. In 1985, Daewoo International
became the first Korean company
to enter Myanmar. When much of
the Western world was imposing
sanctions against Myanmar and
many foreign companies left,
Daewoo International remained
here and reinforced its foundation.
Since 2000, Daewoo has invested
in the Shwe offshore gas field, the
first gas field found in the northern
ocean of Myanmar and the largest
gas field that a Korean company
has discovered in 30 years. After 13
years of continual exploration and
investment, Daewoo finally started
full-scale commercial production
of the gas in 2013 and is picking
the fruits of its longstanding
investment with Myanmar.
Shwe gas field
Another jumping for Daewoo
International is the opportunity to
build the Daewoo-Amara Hotel in
cooperation with POSCO E&C. The
hotel will be a landmark for Yangon,
the economic capital of Myanmar,
when it is completed in early 2017.
Daewoo-Amara Hotel
Daewoo International gained

Shwe Gas Field by Daewoo International

approval to proceed with this

complex property development
project, worth about $220 million,
on the basis of its track record
with the Shwe gas field. It was the
first such approval the Myanmar
government had ever granted to
a foreign company. With the IGE
group as its local partner, a group
of Korean companies is engaging
in the hotel project: POSCO E&C
is responsible for construction,
Hotel Lotte for management, and
Daewoo Securities for financing.
Construction commenced in
March 2014, and the hotel will
enjoy a beautiful view of Inya
Lake and the Shedagon Pagoda,
as well as a convenient location
and a lotus flower design that
proudly proclaims the influence of
Myanmarese culture.
Lots of people in Myanmar may
also familiar with a number of
other Korean companies, especially
Myanmar POSCO Steel, Lotte-MGS
beverage, Lotteria and Bulgogi
Brothers. Myanmar POSCO Steel

produces high-quality roofing

materials such as corrugated
galvanized iron sheets. Established
in 1997 in a joint venture with
UMEHL, the company now holds
the No. 1 market share thanks to its
quality and its localization policy.
Lotteria, a famous Korean fast-food
franchise, made history in April 2013
as the first global food company in
Myanmar. The chain now has eight
branches in Myanmar. Similarly,
Lotte-MGS Beverage was established
in January 2014 and now produces
a number of beverages including
Pepsi-Cola, 7UP, Mirinda and Sting.
Bulgogi Brothers, launched in
January, is introducing traditional
Korean food to the people of
Yangon. Many Korean consortiums
have undertaken a few projects to
construct various type of power plant
throughout Myanmar. Other Korean
businesses here in Myanmar include
Nature Republic (cosmetics), CJ
CGV (cinema), Hanjin (logistics),
Hana and BS Capital (microfinancing).

Myanmar and Korea: the promise

of bilateral economic cooperation

YANMAR and Korea enjoy

a close bond of friendship,
having established diplomatic ties
in 1975. On the economic front,
bilateral cooperation continues
to expand. Trade volume between
Korea and Myanmar for the
2013-2014 fiscal year stood at
about $1.6 billion and is set to
grow further in the years to come.
Myanmar exported $353 million
worth of textiles and agro-fishery
products to Korea, which in turn
exported more than $1.2 billion
worth of machinery, textiles
and petrochemical products to
Myanmar.
Korea is Myanmars sixth
major investor, with accumulated
investments exceeding $3.3 billion
as of March 2015. This figure shows
signs of increasing. About 200
Korean companies are already
operating in Myanmar, and more
are showing interest in combining
Koreas advanced technology with
Myanmars abundant natural and
human resources. For the longterm and sustainable economic
development of Myanmar, the
promotion of manufacturing
industry is essential, and Korean
will be the best partner with its
know-how and experience.

Likewise, Myanmar is helping

the Korean economy by sending
workers to fill a void in Koreas
labour force. About 14,000
Myanmarese live and work in
Korea under the Employment
Permit System. When the
system began in 2008, only 87
Myanmarese workers received
work permits; however, that
number had increased to 4,482
by 2014. Korean employers prefer
Myanmarese workers because
they are known for their diligence.
Most workers earn about $1,500
per month, and employers
usually provide workers with
accommodations and meals.
This arrangement benefits both
the workers and Korean small
businesses, and by sending its
workers overseas, Myanmar
is following Koreas footsteps:
Koreans worked in German mines
and hospitals in the 1960s, and at
construction sites in the Middle
East in the 1980s. Their foreign
currency earnings helped make
Koreas economic development
possible in the initial stages, when
the country lacked foreign reserves.
People interested in working in
Korea can get information from EPS
Center in Yangon (Tel: 01 657 822).

New community movement

and the MDI in Myanmar
K

OREAN governments support

to the development of Myanmar
focuses on the four core areas:
agricultural and rural development,
governance and public administration
capacity development, infrastructure
development, and human resources
development.
In particular, KOICA offers a
number of programs to improve rural
livelihoods, agricultural productivity
and agro-industrial development.
These include post-harvest technology
and farmland consolidation for
agricultural mechanization and inland
aquatic cultivation. Similar programs
in Korea were the driving force behind
the nations astonishing economic
development, called the miracle on
the Han River. The cornerstone of
this miracle, the New Community
Movement, formed the basis for
KOICAs rural development programs
in Myanmar.
Saemaeul Undong: A new
community movement
Much of the 20th century was a
time of deprivation for Korea, and
that strife persisted well into midcentury. The situation was worst
in rural areas. In 1970, the Korean
government launched a self-help rural
development initiative known as the
Saemaeul Undong or New Community
Movement. It was a determined effort
to eradicate rural poverty in Korea.
The Korean government supplied
33,000 villages with iron rods and 335
bags of cement each. Villagers decided
what to do with the cement and began
to cooperate on projects to modernize
their villages. By the 1980s, Korea had
developed dramatically and came to
be known as one of the Four Asian
Dragons along with Taiwan, Hong
Kong and Singapore).
Like Korea in a few decades
ago, Myanmar depends heavily on
agriculture and 70 percent of the
population lives in rural areas, with
many living in poverty. If Koreas
New Community Movement could
provide any guidance and be rightly
adapted to Myanmars development
context, Myanmar may make drastic
changes in its economy and living
standards just as Korea did in the
1970s and 80s: through diligence,
self-help and collaboration. There
is a saying in Myanmar that goes,
Cooperation is strength. Driven by a

spirit of cooperation and community,

Myanmar can stand stronger in Asia
and in the world.
Myanmar Development Institute: a
sustainable growth think tank
Korean government also started
its support to the establishment of the
Myanmar Development Institute, a
national think tank where independent
researchers will work in cooperation
with the Myanmar government.
The institute is expected to provide a
much-needed software infrastructure
for Myanmar, and to support economic
and social development processes led
by Myanmar. The government will be
its main client and its primary source
of funding, but researchers will be
guaranteed autonomy.
The institute is modeled after
the Korea Development Institute,
established in 1971 when Korea was
still embarking on its economic
development. The KDI played a
crucial role in formulating the nations
four successive five-year economic
development plans, which mapped out
growth strategies for the years from
1972 until 1996. During this period, the
Korean economy achieved remarkable
growth, averaging 7 to 10 percent per
annum. GDP grew from 3.4 trillion
Korean won in 1971 to 49.3 trillion in
1981 and 231.4 trillion in 1991.
Besides the establishment of MDI,
KOICA also administers regional
development projects, vocational
training projects, and other projects to
support infrastructure development
and human resources development in
Myanmar.
Good neighbors from Korea
volunteer in Myanmar
Through World Friends Korea,
well-trained and experienced Korean
nationals travel to partner countries,
including Myanmar, to volunteer for
projects to support socio-economic
development and human resources
development. Their mission is to
be reliable and supportive friends to
neighbors in need in every corner of
the world. KOICA dispatched nearly
250 volunteers and senior advisors
to Myanmar between 1998 and 2014.
At present, about 70 volunteers and
advisors are performing volunteer
work for 33 public entities under 13
different ministries in Yangon, NayPyi-Taw, Bago, Mandalay, Magwe,
Mawlamyaing and Taunggyi.