STAT/EGM/RCD/8
27 November 1995
ENGLISH ONLY

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Expert Group Meeting to Review Computerization Development in the Public Sector
12-15 December 1995
Bangkok

I. COUNTRY INFORMATION

Myanmar is the name which has long been used by its people to describe their home land. Also known as the Golden Land not only for its golden pagodas but for its rich land and the wealth of its agriculture and precious minerals. Geographically, Myanmar is the largest country in South-East Asian Peninsula sharing borders with Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand, with a total area of 676, 577 sq.km.

Since late 1988, Myanmar has replaced the centrally planned economy to a more liberalized economic policy based on Market-oriented system. In moving towards a more market oriented economy, Myanmar has liberalized domestic and external trade. Myanmar is richly endowed with renewable and non-renewable energy resources which are being exploited by the state sectors with participation of local and foreign investors.

In Myanmar, there are 147 government departments and enterprises under 28 ministries implementing the socio-economic activities covering the socio-economic such as Agriculture, Livestock and Fishery, Forestry, Mining, Processing and Manufacturing, Power, Construction, Transportation and Communications, Trade, Social, Financial, Border Areas and National Races Development works (Annex I). As far as the computer technology is concerned, there were only about 20 microcomputers in the government departments and an ICL 1902s computer in the Universities Computer Centre (UCC) in 1980. Introduction of computer facilities and development of computer manpower in Myanmar has started since 1971 at UCC. The ICL 1902s was used in training of computer professionals and data processing of 1973 population census.

Then, around in 1980, the government prepared to establish a computerized system in the government organizations. Therefore, the "Computing Development Project" (1983-1991) was funded and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme and by the Government of the Union of Myanmar. The project aimed to develop an Information System in the Ministry of Planning and Finance as the first priority and other ministries on request. Since then, under that Ministry, the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) has been totally responsible for the project and the government computerization.

In 1988, UCC founded in 1971 was upgraded as the Institute of Computer Science and Technology (ICST), which now serves to produce computer professionals in Myanmar. Due to the efforts of the Government, Information Technology now permeates not only the industrial sector but also all the areas of society: - its economy, education and culture. It is obvious that the information industry is playing a very important role in determining the development of the country as technology-dependent. In the developing process of the information-oriented society, the computer industry is playing a leading role, of which people have more and more expectations.

II. GOVERNMENT COMPUTERIZATION STATUS

There is only one IBM 4381 Mainframe computer, which is installed at CSO, and a few mini computers and many micro computers in other government organizations (Annex II). Most of the computers in the departments are stand-alone used for their departmental purposes. In short, all of the government computerization are not integrated, but the network communication systems installed at the mainframe of CSO can make it possible (Annex III).

All the government departments are using the computers for their own targeted applications. It can be regarded as a decentralized system.

The computerization projects planned are independently determined and implemented by the respective departments concerned to meet the functions of their ministries. But in some cases, the departments are planning to implement a computerized system needed for the combined efforts of the departments concerned. For instance, an integrated information system should be implemented to integrate the information such as operational data of import/export permits of Trade Ministry, loading/unloading data of the Port Authority, customs duty collection of the Customs Department, authorization of foreign currency by the Central Bank of Myanmar, the foreign currency transmission of the Myanma Foreign Trade Bank and Myanmar Economic Bank, etc. Those and similar combined applications can be the future development of the computerization of the government departments.

Approaches in computerization is varied according to the government departments. Most of the government departments develop their own customized software in accordance with their own needs. Turnkey projects are rarely used due to the differences between the software product output and Myanmar's procedural requirements. But some of the Turnkey project are slightly modified to accomplish the current functions of the department under the approval and assistance of the owner of the package.

As far as the computerization is concerned, most of the departments still lack the required computer expertise. The computer technology has been introduced to Myanmar, only two decades ago as opposed to more than three decades of the developed countries. There is still a need to introduce well-organized computer divisions. So far, with exception of CSO and other highly computing specialized departments with powerful computing facilities, most of the departments have computer units (some have none) manned by the low level of government staff for the computerization.

Local IT industry (Major hardware, software, and consultancy firms)

The computer hardware and generalized software are imported from abroad by the government agencies, private companies and international organizations. All spare parts and supplies are also imported. The microcomputers are locally maintained but the mainframe maintenance must be done only by the vendor abroad. All of the customized application software are developed by the government departments to meet their own needs by using their own computer staff and/or inviting government and private consultancy firms. The followings are some of the examples.

The Office of the Auditor General, a government agency, recently introduces an Accounting software to be used in the standardized government accounting procedure for all government departments.

The Myanma Foreign Trade Bank is implementing the integrated banking software with the assistance of the Myanmar-Singapore private company.

The Customs Department is also implementing a software to collect import/export duties using the LAN in the department to which the CSO and a private company are providing technical assistance.

As of its mandate, the CSO is providing technical assistance to other government departments for their computerization. The National Archive Department under the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development for their Retrieval Systems of Archived information and the Pension Department under the Ministry of Finance and Revenue for the implementation of a Pension statistics application are some government agencies among others which obtained the technical assistance of CSO. In addition, CSO provided both computing facilities and computer expertise to the international meetings such as Colombo Conference, Mekong Conference, Trade exhibitions, etc., held in Myanmar.

Telecommunication infrastructure and services

Myanma Posts and Telecommunications is a government agency solely responsible for all installation and communication work for mail, cable, telex, fax, telephone and cellular system in Myanmar. The cellular system is at present available in Yangon. The Subscriber Trunk Dialing (STD) Service is available for 24 big cities out of 324 townships and Operator Trunk Dialing (OTD) Service is available for most of the other townships. The International Direct Dialing (IDD) service is also available but mostly use through the overseas Booking Operator.

A microwave transmission systems connects Yangon and Mandalay, as well as other cities that tap into the microwave backbone. The microwave channels has a capacity of 960 voice grade channels, some of which are used to transmit television signals. In Yangon, about 80% of the twisted pair telephone circuitry in downtown is installed in conduits, to which there are openings in various part of the downtown areas. At the moment, all connections between branch offices as well as local loops consist of twisted pair.

It manpower supply and demand

There are two government institutions producing computer professionals, namely the Institute of Computer Science and Technology (ICST) for the academic degree courses and the (CSO) for the in-services training courses.

Institute of Computer Science and Technology

ICST, established in 1988, is one of the higher institutions in the Ministry of Education, offering five-year Bachelor degree courses, as well as post-graduate degree and diploma courses including undergraduate diploma IDCS of NCC courses. It has rich experience of teaching computer courses since 1971 founded as Universities Computer Centre (UCC).

Similar to other institutes of higher learning in Myanmar, ICST is a State University headed by a Rector.

There are at present a total of 197 full time staff in the institute, out of which 47 are engaged in teaching and research. The rest are administrative and support personnel.

ICST has four major teaching departments:

1. Software Technology
2. Hardware Technology
3. Information Science and
4. Computational Mathematics.

Other teaching departments are:

1. Department of Myanmar Language
2. Department of English
3. Department of Physics and
4. Department of Chemistry.

In addition, there are several specialized research and services units;

1. Application (1)
2. Application (2) and
3. Research and Development

ICST provides computing facilities to meet its research and academic requirement. Campus local area network has been installed. There are more than 100 personal computers of IBM compatible and some Mackintosh Apple LCII personal computers. The library facilities are also available with more than ten thousands volumes and some periodicals.

The Institute admits about 90 students each year. Courses in Computer Science and Computer Technology are offered at the under graduate (first year to fifth year) levels.

The degree offered by the Institute are:

• B.C.Sc. (Bachelor of Computer Science)
• B.C.Tech (Bachelor of Computer Technology)

Post-graduate Diplomas and Master degrees conferred by the Institute are:

• M.C.Sc (Master of Computer Science)
• M.C.Tech (Master of Computer Technology)
• M.I.Sc (Master of Information Science)
• D.C.Sc (Diploma of Computer Science)

The student who have finished the following courses with qualifications to pursue a master degree in that subject are eligible to attempt for the M.I.Sc degree.

• B.Sc (with mathematics for 2 year)
• B.E., B.Arch
• B.Ag.
• B.Com, B.Econ.

International Diploma accredited with the NCC Ltd. Manchester, U.K. are:

• IDCS (NCC International Diploma in Computer Studies)
• IHDCS (Higher NCC Diploma)

Central Statistical Organization

In addition to the ICST, the CSO is also producing the computer application professionals by organizing the in-service training courses inviting participants from other government departments. Under the training programme of the "Computing Development Project", there were several computer applications courses coupled with on-the-job training conducted at CSO. They are:

• Computer Orientation Courses
• COBOL programming courses
• FORTRAN programming courses
• System Analysis, design and specification courses
• Computer application courses for the Higher Management
• Users courses

The courses are organized at ad-hoc basis as required by the government departments. The courses already organized and number of participants succeeded are shown in Annex IV.

To attend these courses, the participants must be a degree holder with at least 2 years of study in mathematic and must be a permanent government staff not more than 40 years of age. In addition, the participant must pass the English test and the Computer Aptitude Test to attend the first computer orientation course. Those participants who pass the Orientation Courses with at least Grade 4 can proceed to the computer Programming courses. Then if they pass the programming course with at least Grade 4, they are allowed to attend the Systems Analysis, Design and Specification course which is the highest level of all courses.

All participants are provided with facilities such as micro computers and IBM 4381 mainframe computer and its star type network communication systems. The trainers are experienced computer professionals from the Computer Division of the CSO. Most completed various computer application courses in foreign countries about 10 years ago (Annex V). Under the guidance of the CSO trainers, the participants must successfully develop a computerization project of their own departments. The trainings are designed so as to support the government computerization.

As mentioned above, two government institutions are producing computer professionals but the supply of computer professionals cannot meet the demand of the government organizations. Therefore, several computer training schools in the private sector are also providing micro computer users courses such as Word Processing, Spread Sheet, Database, Accounting packages, etc. The demand is still increasing in both the public and private sectors.

Internet Services Availability

The Internet Services are not available yet in Myanmar. The Government is still weighing the pros and cons of installing internet services.

The first network communication system has been introduce to CSO in 1987 using the Coaxial cables between the microcomputers and IBM 4381 mainframe computer under the Star Type Topology And with use of IBM 3174 communication controller, the network has been expanded via the public telephone lines as an experiment.

The DEC VAC (located in Yangon) of Myanma Posts and Telecommunication has also linked the microcomputer in Mandalay via the Micro wave telephone systems since 1990.

III. RECOMMENDED GOVERNMENT COMPUTERIZATION APPROACH

The government departments installed the computing facilities in their own departments to computerize the office work in respect of specialized area. Therefore, the computerization systems in government agencies can be regarded as the decentralized one. From the view point of Data Processing, the centralized Data Processing Systems with the combination of the distributed Data Processing Systems are used only in those departments with large volume of data such as surveys and censuses while other departments use the stand alone computer systems, mostly microcomputers.

Based on this, the CSO, as per its mandate providing mainframe computing services, technical assistance and computer application training courses to the government departments, should be a focal point to organize the activities of computerization in the public sector by improving and expending the existing IT capabilities in CSO.

Appropriate IT infrastructure (Mainframe, Mini, Unix, Pc-based Platforms etc.)

As mentioned in Section II, there are only a few government departments using powerful computing facilities while other departments installed mostly micro computers. Almost all of them are IBM-compatible with only a few Unix-based platforms. Therefore, the existing Pc-based applications should be developed as required by the respective departments. It is recommended that the government departments should keep on using mini and microcomputers with respect to the growth of volume of work and computer experience. It is also recommended that the Operating Systems and generalized application software should be also used without depending on a legacy system.

In this connection, the integration of computer applications of the government departments in sharing data for the same purposes of work may not be possible within the next few years. During this time, it is recommended that the CSO be prepared to introduce an "Open Environment" for many different platforms.

To move to the more "Open Environment" which can allow sharing of socio-economic data among end-users which is not yet possible due to the latest technology not introduced yet to Myanmar, technical assistant and funding of the international organization will be needed. In addition, instead of using the IMS DBMS which is Hierarchical model it is recommended that more user friendly RDBMS (Relational Data Base Management System) and Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) should be introduced to the open environment.

Application development methodologies and approaches

CSO has well-experienced professionals for the government computerization. But it is obvious that IT is rapidly developing and the computer professionals of CSO who attended computer courses 10 years ago will catch up with the latest technology only by having opportunity to attend advanced courses. On the other hand, the departments have their own computer application specialists and users who can develop technically simple applications. It is recommended that CSO should keep open a 'Pool Computer Room' with application software specialists, that they can assist those departments with any software development difficulties. CSO should make it more known to all departments.

In the case of complicated computer applications, the thorough investigation and analysis of the systems using the guidelines and manuals of NCC should be used so that the documentation and proposed computerized system will be designed and shared by the computer specialists. It should be a team work headed by the CSO computer professionals. In order to carry out these activities, it is recommended that the head of CSO should regularly organize meetings with those departments which are facing new complicated applications.

IT manpower training strategies

It is recommended that there should be five types of manpower development strategies;

1. Academic programmes on a regular basis offered by the ICST,
2. In-service courses emphasizing On-the-job training types organized by the CSO,
3. Computer software courses available at the private computer training schools,
4. Seminar/workshop organized by the government, private and international organizations,
5. Issuing journals/news letters by the government and NGOs.

In providing technical assistance in computerization to other ministries and departments, CSO personnel themselves need to be trained to upgrade and update their technical knowledge to keep abreast with the fast-moving IT with the technical assistance and financial support of the international agencies.

Annex I: LIST OF MINISTRIES IN THE UNION OF MYANMAR

1. OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
2. MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE
3. MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS, POSTS AND TELEGRAPHS
4. MINISTRY OF CONSTRUCTION
5. MINISTRY OF CO-OPERATIVE
6. MINISTRY OF CULTURE
7. MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
8. MINISTRY OF DEVELOPMENT OF BORDER AREA AND NATIONAL RACES
9. MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
10. MINISTRY OF ENERGY
11. MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND REVENUE
12. MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
13. MINISTRY OF FOREST
14. MINISTRY OF HEALTH
15. MINISTRY OF HOME
16. MINISTRY OF HOTEL AND TOURISM
17. MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY NO. (1)
18. MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY NO. (2)
19. MINISTRY OF INFORMATION
20. MINISTRY OF LABOUR
21. MINISTRY OF LIVESTOCK BREEDINGS AND FISHERIES
22. MINISTRY OF MINE
23. MINISTRY OF NATIONAL PLANNING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
24. MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
25. MINISTRY OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS
26. MINISTRY OF SOCIAL WELFARE, RELIEF AND RESETTLEMENT
27. MINISTRY OF TRADE
28. MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT

Annex II: INSTALLATION OF MINI COMPUTERS