Traders at commodity exchange centres like Yangon’s Bayintnaung (above) currently rely on landlines or hand phones to communicate. Pic: Lwin Maung Maung

THE Union of Myanmar Federation of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) and the Myanmar Computer Association (MCA) are stepping up efforts to build a telecommunications network linking Myanmar’s commodity trading centres, a UMFCCI official said on September 1.

Dr Maung Aung, a UMFCCI economist and researcher, said the union began working to create a telecommunications network between the centres in March this year.

“The main reason for this project is to build a central-ised network for the commod-ity exchange centres scatter-ed across the country. The project was delayed because of Cyclone Nargis but we have now recommenced work,” Dr Maung Aung said. However, he was unable to give a completion date.

Myanmar’s wholesale commodity exchanges are currently only connected by telephone. The new network would link all commodity trading centres through an internet network, which would allow them to achieve consistency in both operations and pricing.

“When we have such a network in place in the commodity exchange centres across the country, the trading process will be much faster and more efficient,” Dr Maung Aung said. “We will be able to provide traders with the market prices of commodities both inside and outside of Myanmar, in a timely manner. Traders will then know that the prices they are trading commodities at are correct and uniform.”

Another UMFCCI execut-ive said the formation of the communications network would help pave the way for the development of a national stock exchange in the future.

“When we have the netw-ork the traders will learn the basic skills to use the techno-logy and we will also be able to access and trade inform-ation easily and quickly, so this is the first step towards having a stock exchange in Myanmar,” the official said.

The UMFCCI is coordinating the project with the encouragement of the government but the technical expertise will be provided by the Myanmar Computer Association (MCA). On August 30, all the chambers under the UMFCCI held a meeting at the union’s Yangon headquarters to discuss the logistics of building the network.

A senior executive of the MCA said the association was not ready to release detailed information about the tech-nology behind the project.

“The project is still in the very first phase of development, even the budget distribution is still not finalised, but it is speeding up,” the MCA executive said.

“But I can confirm the network’s central server will be based at the UMFCCI office in Yangon.”