Myanmar needs more coordination between local authorities, business and communities, and increased local participation in tourism-related decisions and the tourist economy in a bid to achieve sustainable tourism growth, experts told a workshop.
The workshop, organised by Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business and Hanns Seidel Foundation, was attended by over 100 participants from government, Myanmar tourism companies and business associations, and civil society groups.
It focused on issues such as land rights and culture and environment protection, as well as international NGOs and tourism specialists.
The sun sets behind Shittaung Temple in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township, May 2013. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)
RANGOON — A Buddhist monk found dead in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township on Monday is believed to have committed suicide, local police said, although an investigation is ongoing.
Ba San, a police officer in Mrauk-U, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the 67-year-old monk, who reportedly lived alone in a small monastery, had what appeared to be knife wounds to the neck.
Students at the Yangon Technological University (YTU) in Myanmar is to get access to the library of economic reports on emerging markets produced by the UK-based publishing, research and consultancy firm Oxford Business Group (OBG).
Under the agreement, which forms part of OBG’s worldwide Academic Programme, students at the university will be provided with read-only access to OBG’s country reports, alongside over 25,000 searchable articles.
Sherpa Hossainy, Fishermen at Inle Lake, one of Myanmar’s top tourist destinations.
LuxDev, the aid and development agency of the government of Luxembourg, has planned a budget of €5 million to build capacity and develop human resources in Myanmar’s tourism and hospitality sector, according to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism.
“The budget will be handled by LuxDev. Trainings on technical knowhow for tourism sector will be delivered. It has recently been planned for tourism and hospitality sector,” Dr Tin Shwe, deputy minister for hotels and tourism, told Myanmar Business Today.
After years of campaigning, a park in central Yangon once again bears the name of U Ottama, a leading nationalist monk from Rakhine State who was repeatedly jailed under British colonial rule.
Nationalist ralliers in Sittwe celebrate on September 9 the renaming of a Yangon park in honour of the monk U Ottama, who died following hunger strikes in 1939. Photo: EPA
Ceremonies were held to officially rename the former Kan Taw Min park in Yangon on September 9, the 76th anniversary of U Ottama’s death, while commemorations were also held in his home town of Sittwe in Rakhine State. Parliament agreed to the name change in January.
Born in 1879, U Ottama was prominent among Buddhist monks agitating against British rule and was jailed for the first time in 1921 for sedition. His death in 1939 was hastened by hunger strikes he staged during later periods of incarceration.
Archaeological artefacts have reportedly been found in the construction project areas in the Bagan hotel zone, according to U Htay Aung, minister for hotels and tourism.
The artefacts were found while inspecting the project site of Sandar Hotel Company, which received the permission to construct a hotel in the Bagan Hotel Zone 2.
U Htay Aung said that reporting by construction firms is mandatory if archaeological artefacts were found in the areas of hotel construction projects in the Hotel zones in Bagan.
All I’ve ever known about Myanmar has been from the news: democracy advocates silenced with bullets; opposition politicians imprisoned by the government; soldiers opening a new campaign to oppress ethnic minorities. But in June, eating noodles with lemongrass broth at a rented high-school cafeteria in Queens, I finally got to see Myanmar as something else: a homeland, a people. Myo Moe, a photographer who grew up in Yangon, when its name was Rangoon,
OBG
Nationalist ralliers in Sittwe celebrate on September 9 the renaming of a Yangon park in honour of the monk U Ottama, who died following hunger strikes in 1939. Photo: EPA
Jessica Mudditt