• Centre for ASEAN Regionalism Universiti Malaya (CARUM)
  • carum@um.edu.my
  • +6 03 7967 6921
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Principal Investigator

Dr Ling Teck Chaw
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, UM
 tchaw(at)um.edu.my
 +603-7967 6362

Executive Summary

The team following the accomplishment of previous projects in Cambodia and Laos has pledged to broaden its ICT human resource capacity building research programmes to Myanmar through CARUM. Under the British administration, Myanmar was the second wealthiest country in the South-East Asia. However, during World War II, British destroyed the major oil wells and landmines to keep these wealth from the Japanese. Myanmar’s admittance to Least Developed Country (LDC) status by the United Nation in 1987 highlighted its economic bankruptcy.

In 2015, ASEAN will become a single community where its peoples, cultures and individual economies are integrated. ASEAN ICT Master plan 2015 reviewed that bridging digital divide, ICT human capital and infrastructure development are three main concerns for ASEAN in the coming decade. ICT will be the key enabler for ASEAN’s sustainable development. LDC such as Myanmar has yet to attain measurable socio-economic benefits out of ICT. The development of ICT has often been hindered by a combination of outdated infrastructure, high telecommunication costs, inappropriate policies, absence of skilled professionals and the intricate culture of information exchange. LDC nations could not be the forerunner in the global market.

However sustainable development may accommodate the human resource development, infrastructure up-gradation, private sector ICT entrepreneurship enhancement, and e-governance, focusing on the utilization of ICT for the advancement of marginal communities. Sustainable development depends on the actions of individuals from every sector of the society and on our ability to learn from one another’s efforts and experiences.  This research project aims to gauge the ICT community relative advancement in the areas that are most critical for ICT adoption, as well as adapt and appropriate the most important applications of ICT through knowledge and technology transfer activities. This will benefit the entire economic and technical ecosystem in Myanmar, especially in the context of social sustainability which demands continuous social progress in emphasizing active ICT participation of the stakeholders.

The objectives of this project are:

  1. To gauge the ICT community relative advancement in the areas that are most critical for ICT adoption and the most important applications of ICT.
  2. To identify the ICT inclusion of ICT components in professional training of information service sectors and ecosystem gaps through knowledge and technology transfer activities.
  3. To convene and empower the formation of human virtual network for information distribution and acquisition systems.
  4. To foster collaboration in multi-level ICT skill capacity building between Myanmar and Centre for ASEAN Regionalism.
  5. To promote sustainable mechanisms for ICT in the form of ICT human capital movement within ASEAN academically and professionally.

Last Update: 30/12/2021