MK Gems managing director U Nay Min Han said sales at his shop in Hlaing township were 10pc higher than the previous tourist high season. The company’s other shop, in Yankin township, which caters to local buyers rather than foreign visitors, had seen steady sales, he added.

“Yesterday, I bought chickens for K3250 apiece and sold them for K3350, but today the price went down to K2500 for a bird,” Ko Ye Win Tun, a merchant at the Thingangyun township poultry market, told The Myanmar Times last Thursday.

THE 2006 report of the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), released last Thursday at a press conference organised by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime at Dusit Inya Lake Hotel, has highlighted Myanmar’s success in reducing opium poppy cultivation in the past year.

At the ASEAN summit in the Philippines in January, Myanmar and its nine partners in the regional grouping, along with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea signed the Cebu declaration on energy security which provides for increased efforts to promote the use of alternate energy.

“Most of the models here enter the industry with the hopes of one day becoming movie stars,” said Mr Jeremiah. “They're using modelling as a stepping stone, which means they don’t concentrate on getting any better. I think this holds them back from becoming professional models. Lack of confidence and language barriers are also issues.”

Stars & Models International organised the contest held over two days, which saw 55 babies from around Yangon battle it out over who could look the cutest.
Egga won the six months to one year category while two-year-old Seint Sandi Maung took out the one to two years category.