By   Eduard Fernández   On   Friday, 15 December 2017 As the number of tourists arriving in Myanmar grows, the government and non-profit organisations are hoping to promote further engagement with the local community to spread its economic benefits, this was explained during today’s launch of a new booklet for foreigners visiting the country. Among several suggestions, the list of ‘do’s and don’ts’ teaches travellers polite manners to mingle with Burmese locals, warns them against the trade of protected wildlife items and encourages them to try alternative means of transport, from boats to ox-carts. “Tourism will play an important role in the socioeconomic development of the country as it can easily reach most places. Next to agriculture, is one of the industries that can really help rural areas,” said Achim Munz, representative of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, a political non-profit organisation that helped draft the booklet. “It’s really important to go...

As part of government’s effort to enhance entrepreneurship in Myanmar, this morning State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi opened the Entrepreneurs Summit 2017, organised by the Myanmar Young Entrepreneurs Association. The Summit, with its theme “Leading Entrepreneurs, Building Economy” brings together approximately one thousand young entrepreneurs from across the country to discuss policies and initiatives that will support the success of young entrepreneurs in Myanmar, according to a government press release. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Summit, the State Counsellor affirmed the government’s belief that Myanmar’s young entrepreneurs are the engines of economic growth. She also highlighted “3 M’s” – money, market and mentorship – that would propel Myanmar’s young entrepreneurs to compete at the regional and international level.  A number of Entrepreneurship Awards were presented at the Summit to outstanding young entrepreneurs from across the nation. http://www.mi...

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla with their baby girl called Max Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan say they will give away 99% of their shares in the company to good causes as they announce the birth of their daughter Max. Mr Zuckerberg made the announcement in a letter to Max  on his Facebook page . He said they are donating their fortune to the  Chan Zuckerberg Initiative  because they want to make the world a better place for Max to grow up in. Mr Zuckerberg said the donation currently amounts to $45bn (£30bn). Max was born last week, but the couple only made the news of her birth public on Tuesday. In his letter Mr Zuckerberg said the aim of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is "to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation". Its initial areas of focus will be personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities...

Unchecked smuggling and endemic fraud gives the lie to modest official valuations of Burma’s multi-billion dollar annual jade trade, a new report by Global Witness claims. Through information gathered over the course of a one-year investigation, the London-based resource economics watchdog has estimated 2014 trade in Burma’s most profitable natural resource to be worth US$31 billion. That would be three times higher than the official figure of $12.3 billion in jade sold to China, the destiny for almost all of Burma’s unearthed jade. To put these astronomical figures into context, natural gas generated export revenues of $4.2 billion for Burma in 2014. Unlike the gas industry, which is afforded a degree of explicitness by the international gaze affixed to multinational corporations such as Shell and Total, Burma’s jade industry is unique in its opacity. And that is just how shadowy former junta profiteers, including former army chief Than Shwe, like it, Global Witness says....

Than Wai Aung, a Myanmar migrant worker in Thailand, turned himself from a construction worker into a mushroom entrepreneur with the help of the ILO's C-BED business skills training. BANGKOK (ILO News) – Than Wai Aung, 44, was a construction site worker until 18 months ago, when he attended a training course that transformed his life. Than Wai left Myanmar 16 years ago and moved to neighbouring Thailand, spending most of those years working on construction sites, building housing estates in northern Thailand and the capital, Bangkok. A small mushroom farm in the suburbs of Bangkok nurtures a big dream for Than Wai Aung, a Burmese migrant worker who aspires to be an millionaire entrepreneur in three years. With the help from the ILO C-BED training, he is on the road to entrepreneurship.   Three years ago Than Wai visited relatives in Ratchaburi province, along the border with Myanmar. There he saw local people growing mushrooms for a living. He decided to move ...

By Jonathan Head   BBC News, Bangkok   Than Wai Aung adjusts the nozzle on his hose to a fine spray, and walks slowly up and down a long row made up of hundreds of clear, plastic bags filled with wood. This is a daily ritual for the Burmese migrant, who left Yangon (also known as Rangoon) for Thailand nearly 20 years ago. The moistened wood contains the spores of oyster mushrooms, and every two or three days Than is able to collect several kilos of fungi to sell, either to market traders or often directly to Burmese labourers working on nearby building sites. "I never wanted to be someone else's employee," says the 45-year-old father of three. "Even when I was living back in Yangon, working for a pharmacy, I dreamed of being my own boss. And then when I came to Thailand, I knew I would never get rich by working for someone else." Than Wai Aung harvests his mushroom crop every two or three days Tha...

Suchat Sritama The Nation May 24, 2014 1:00 am The tourism sector has called for the urgent formation of a new government to lure back tourists so the industry can continue to grow. "We need to have a new government as soon as we possible. If not, there would be nobody to deal with and we eventually would suffer a greater negative impact," said Pornthip Hirunkate, vice president of Tourism Council of Thailand (TCT). The military on Thursday declared a coup and curfew that rocked the inbound tourism industry. Tourists around the world have been advised to consider their security before visiting the Kingdom. "More than 50 nations have already issued travel warnings to avoid visiting the country. Among these, Hong Kong raised the warning to the top level," Pornthip said. "Furthermore, tourists, even from long-haul markets like the US, Canada, the United Kingdom and some other Europe countries, have postponed their trips." A lot o...

Coca-Cola to remove controversial drinks ingredient   Powerade's fruit punch and strawberry lemonade flavours no longer contain BVO Continue reading the main story Related Stories Can big food firms get us to eat more healthily? Campaigners vow to cut sugar in food The world's largest beverage-maker, Coca-Cola, plans to remove a controversial ingredient from some of its drinks brands by the end of this year, following an online petition. Brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, is found in Coca-Cola fruit and sports drinks such as Fanta and Powerade. It will be replaced after concerns an element of the additive is also found in flame retardants. Rival Pepsi removed the chemical from its Gatorade sports drink last year. A Pepsi spokesman said it also had wider plans to stop using BVO and had "been actively working to remove it from the rest of our product portfolio". Continue reading the mai...

Samsung ordered to pay Apple $119.6m   The "slide to unlock" feature was one of those under scrutiny Continue reading the main story Related Stories Alerts over Apple and Samsung phones Google and Samsung sign patent deal Samsung has been ordered to pay $119.6m (£71m) to Apple by a US court for infringing two of its patents. A jury in California delivered its verdict in a federal court in San Jose on Friday in the latest lawsuit involving the two tech giants. During the month-long trial, Apple accused Samsung of violating patents on smartphone features. The court also ruled that Apple infringed Samsung's patents and awarded $158,000 in damages. Apple had sought $2.2bn after accusing Samsung of infringing five of its patents covering functions such as the "slide to unlock" from its devices. 'No victory' Samsung denied any wrongdoing and sought $6m after arguing ...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) The jobs recovery is still chugging along, although at this pace it will still take years to get back to a pre-recession labor market. The U.S. economy added 288,000 jobs in April, the Department of Labor said Friday. While that's an encouraging sign that the economy is continuing to improve, the unemployment rate told a different story. That number, which comes from a survey of households, shows fewer Americans are joining the labor force and fewer people report they're employed. These trends led to the unemployment rate falling to 6.3%, its lowest level since September 2008. Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erica Groshen noted that the data suggest the decline in the labor force was primarily "due mostly to fewer people entering the labor force than usual, rather than to more people exiting the labor force." Given the millions of jobs lost in the financial crisis, even modest hiring is still not enoug...

Twitter was valued at $18bn when it floated on the New York Stock Exchange in November Continue reading the main story Related Stories Tweeters react to Twitter redesign Shares in Twitter dropped to their lowest levels since the company's stock market flotation, as it reported slower than expected user growth. The number of active users on the social network reached 255 million in the first three months of 2014, up 5.8% on the previous quarter but below analysts' expectations. Twitter also reported a net loss of $132m (£78m) for the latest quarter. But it posted revenue of $250m , $226m of which came through advertising. Despite higher user growth than the previous quarter, when Twitter saw just a 3.8% rise, Twitter's stocks fell by more than 11% in after-hours trading, sending the price below its initial public offering of $38.80 per share. The rise in Twitter active users comes after four consecutive quarters of declining grow...

Cisco shares rose in after-hours trading Continue reading the main story Related Stories Cisco chops its revenue forecasts Cisco to shut down Flip cameras Tech City's silicon dreams Technology giant Cisco, saw a 43.5% rise in net profits to $2.2bn (£1.3bn) for the three months to 28 January 2012, compared with the same period in 2011. Cisco's results come after a prolonged period of cost-cutting, which saw the firm shed more than 6,000 jobs in 2011. Cisco increased its dividend by two cents to eight cents per share. Shares in the firm rose 2.4% in after-hours trading to $20.93, as the results beat analyst expectations. "Broadly speaking, people expected a good quarter. This is probably a little better than expected and the dividend is an added surprise," said Joanna Makris at Mizuho Securities. "We are executing well on our three-year plan to drive earnings faster than revenue," said Cisco chief executive John Chambers. "O...

BBC   Most HTC phones are based on Google's Android operating system Continue reading the main story Related Stories BT sues Google over six patents German HTC retailers face lawsuit Motorola wins Apple patent fight The Taiwanese mobile-phone maker HTC has lost a US patent battle with Apple. The International Trade Commission found that HTC infringed one patent held by the US technology giant. Any HTC phones that uses the technology covered by the patent will be banned from sale in the US from 19 April, 2012. Apple is currently fighting a number of global legal battles over technology rights, and had initially claimed that HTC was ignoring 10 patents. According to the Reuters news agency, HTC called the ruling "a win" for the firm as it impacted only one patent, rather than the 10 as initially claimed. "We are very pleased with the determination and we respect it," HTC said in a statement. Minimal disruption   HTC s...

CNN Anchor , Nina dos Santos London (CNN) – Just like the credit crunch three years ago, the current eurozone crisis will no doubt spawn endless books and provide many an interesting case study for the world’s future economists. Whether the lessons will be learned and future crises avoided depends largely on whether you believe history repeats itself. And that’s another topic that divides opinion as much as the eurozone itself. Already academics at Oxford University’s Centre for International Studies have identified 10 key failures of Europe’s leaders in how they have handled the issue, even though the saga is far from over. Associate Fellow Kirsty Hughes says that the errors are largely political, democratic and economic in nature. Here’s a list of where Hughes says EU leaders got things so wrong: 1) Lack of European political vision and strategy Aside from the talk about balancing budgets together and pooling Europe’s giant debt pile, Hughes says what the region ne...

The Nation November 9, 2011 11:15 am The government will take prompt action in preventing a repeat of the catastrophic flooding, Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said on Wednesday. "The only way to restore investors' confidence is to act instead of talking," he said. Kittiratt said the two strategic committees tasked with preventing future flooding would convene in the next few days. The two - the Strategic Committee for Reconstruction and Future Development (SCRF) and the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management (SCWRM) - will closely work together to overcome the flooding, he said. The SCRF is headed by Virabongsa Ramangkura, he said, adding that the SCWRM is led by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who will delegate him to chair the meeting on her behalf. In order to improve water management, the SCWRM will involve foreign consultants, particularly those from Japan and the Netherlands, he said. The government is expected to finance the...

Bangkok Post The city's economy is suffering after entertainment venues are hit by declining numbers of patrons and face booze supplies that are quickly drying up Across the clubs, pubs and tourist areas of the city the message is the same _ as beer supplies begin to dwindle, so too does the number of revellers that help keep the financial lifeblood of Bangkok pumping. WHERE HAVE ALL THE PUNTERS GONE?: Patpong Road has far fewer visitors than usual. An empty Irish pub around Silom Road, below left. A jazz concert at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit goes ahead, but fewer people are in attendance than usual, below right. "There's definitely a drop in revenues," said Denis Hemakom, manager of the popular Q Bar nightclub on Sukhumvit Soi 11. "Almost all the local population are gone; we're living off tourists now. I'd say [sales are] maybe 30% [of normal] overall. Our...