A WEBSITE catering to the local business community this month started a Myanmar-language news service being updated three times a week.

THE otherwise English language site, www.expomyanmar.com, was launched in June this year by Yangon-based Media Express Co., Ltd, which also publishes the weekly Ngwe Pinle newspaper focusing on fisheries issues.

“To increase traffic to our website, our team is now presenting business news in Myanmar language. We update the news every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday,” said the site’s webmaster, Ko Kaung Myat Paing of Info Myanmar Computer Services, the company hired to design the website.

Media Express intends for the site to serve as a stepping stone for Myanmar businesses into foreign markets. Companies can provide contact details in alphabetical listings under a wide range of categories free of charge, or pay a fee to post more detailed information, including photos.

The idea is to create a virtual trade fair, the site explains, allowing visitors to browse what’s on offer at different companies the same way one might travel from booth to booth at exposition.

“This website is specially designed for local businesses to make contacts all over the world,” Ko Kaung Myat Paing said.

Businesses from Myanmar as well as wider Asia are encouraged to provide details, which can be viewed in their entirety by visitors free of charge.

The site has clocked some 5000 hits since it was launched in mid June.
Ko Kaung Myat Paing said there were about 200 visitors to the site each day, with most hits from outside Myanmar coming from Singapore, the United States and Japan.