MORE educational programs and advocacy activities are needed to raise awareness of the effects of HIV/AIDS in the business environment in Myanmar, Mr Martin Pun, the chairman of the Myanmar Business Coalition on AIDS (MBCA), told a meeting of the Tuesday Club on August 10 at Traders Hotel.

“Together the business community can take the leading role in the battle against HIV/AIDS to protect its most important asset – human resources,” he said.

According to statistics released by Ministry of Health in 2006, the HIV infection rate in Myanmar was 1.3 percent of the population of nearly 60 million people in 2005.

MCBA was founded in 2002 with support from members of the Tuesday Club, a com-munity of foreign businesses that have invested in Myanmar.

Since then the coalition has drafted workplace policies, provided workplace educational programs and conducted advocacy activities concerning HIV/AIDS for more than 200 businesses and 100,000 employees, said Dr Daw Khin Aye Aye, the executive director of the coalition.

In an effort to anticipate the needs of the business community as the disease has spread, the organisation has also offered counselling workshops and training programs to managers, medical officers and other employees, she said.

MCBA has also set out to form township business coalitions in HIV/AIDS hotspots to identify the needs and provide support to local business communities, the first of which was established in Pyay in October 2004.

A similar coalition was set up in Mandalay last month, with two more slated for establishment in Pakokku in October and Monywa in December, all with support from the Three Diseases Fund, Dr Daw Khin Aye Aye said.