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

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

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

According to the report, the Myanmar info-Tech Corporation stands the first organization in launching Myanmar unicode font installer software on the Internet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Xinhua