THE first phase of the multi-billion kyat Yadanabon Cyber City being developed near Pyin Oo Lwin in Mandalay Division will be ready for a soft opening later this month, a senior official said last week.

U Zaw Min Oo, the chief engineer at the Information and Technology Department of Myanma Post and Telecommunications in Nay Pyi Taw, said the soft opening would take place soon after September 25, the deadline for completing construction and infrastructure work.

An MPT report has estimated the cost of the first phase of the cyber city project, involving a three-storey teleport building, three incubation centres and roads, at about K3.8 billion.

The teleport building has nearly 82,000 square feet of floor space, the incubation centres about 23,000 square feet each, and the cyber city has 12 miles of roads, being built to a width of 24 feet.

The soft opening was expected to be attended by national leaders, ambassa-dors from ASEAN countries and countries involved in the development of the project, guests and the media.

“Yadanabon Cyber City will be a new source of national pride,” said U Zaw Min Oo, adding that the grand opening would take place next January to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Independence Day.

U Zaw Min Oo said approval had been given to many international companies to invest in the cyber city.

They included C-BOS, a Russian company that specialises in software development and is establishing a presence at the cyber city in cooperation with Myanmar conglomerate, Htoo Trading, he said.

Another foreign investor is Malaysia’s Maxi Net company, which specialises in network solutions as well as software development, said U Zaw Min Oo.
Many global ICT companies have also shown interest but a list of confirmed investors has yet to be released.

The MPT report says the master plan for developing the cyber city covers 4400 acres, of which half will be allocated to software firms and the other half to hardware companies.

The Yadanabon master plan provides for the site to be expanded to 10,000 acres, the report says.

As well as the teleport building and three incubation centres, the master plan provides for the construction of facilities for international and Myanmar software companies, convention centre, research and development centre, training centre, commercial and services facilities and residential accommodation.

The plan also provides for the development of indoor and outdoor sporting facilities, a cinema, police station, post office, bank, clinic and market.

According to a recent report by the Department of Human Settlement and Land Development under the Ministry of Construction, the city is targeted to house 50,000 people.

Water will be supplied to the site from two dams northeast of the cyber city and the Ministry of Electrical Power (1) will be responsible for providing power, with consumption estimated at 50 megawatts.