The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) last week announced a new initiative aimed at creating jobs and investment opportunities in Myanmar’s growing IT sector.
Speaking during the Second Myanmar Development Cooperation Forum in Nay Pyi Taw, the initiative was announced by Noeleen Heyzer, Under-Secretary General, ESCAP.
“ESCAP has worked closely with the Myanmar government to strengthen the capacity of small and medium enterprises to help meet these challenges, especially through the empowerment of women and youth. I am very pleased, therefore, to announce this joint $1 million programme for Myanmar’s young entrepreneurs, which will help the country and its people leapfrog into the global knowledge economy, building cutting-edge skills and competitive in these areas,” Heyzer said at the event.
The first phase of the programme, entitled the Information Technology Capacity Development (ITCD) Programme, involves a collaboration between ESCAP, Indian consultancy firm Indosys, as well as the Indian and Myanmar governments and will see 25 IT engineers and entrepreneurs travel to India for 12 weeks of intensive training in software development, in the hope that this will help provide jobs in the IT sector in Myanmar.
ESCAP and its partners are developing specialized training modules, which are in high demand in the global IT industry, for more than 100 young engineers and entrepreneurs who will be up-skilled at the Infosys training centre. Phase I of the initiative will be launched next week in Mysore, India.
“This presidential initiative is an important step towards further integrating Myanmar into the global knowledge economy,” said Dr. Heyzer.
“Initiatives such as these will assist Myanmar to more fully integrate with the ASEAN Economic Community and to move towards graduation from the least developed category by 2020,” she added.
