Google chief to speak Friday in Yangon | Bangkok Post: tech

Google chairman Eric Schmidt will visit Myanmar this coming week, highlighting increasing internet freedom in the rapidly reforming country just weeks after he visited North Korea.

Schmidt will speak in Yangon on Friday as part of an Asian tour, the company said, aiming to improve web access in the country, which was ruled for five decades by a military junta.

Under the military regime the internet was strictly controlled, with access to anti-government sites and sites such as Google's YouTube blocked.

Eric Schmidt will address a meeting of technology professionals, business executives and young people in Yangon on Friday.

As major economic and political reforms roll back decades of repressive rule, increasing numbers of people are going online to air their views.

But internet penetration remains poor in Myanmar, where few people have reliable fixed-line service and fewer still have mobile phones. Those with web access have to put up with painfully slow connections.

Schmidt's visit aims "to connect with local partners and Googlers who are working to improve the lives of many millions of people across the region by helping them get online and access the world's information for the first time", the company said in a statement.

He will give an hour-long speech at the Myanmar Information and Communication Technology Park, according to Thaung Su Nyein, secretary of the Myanmar Computer Professionals Association, with hundreds expected to attend.

"Computer professionals, businessmen and youth leaders will come. Google is one of the biggest IT companies in the world. ... We are very proud and glad that their executive chairman would come and visit us."

Myanmar is one of Asia's last untapped markets, with technology companies desperate to sell products such as mobile phones and laptops to its people as they attempt catch up with their neighbours.

Schmidt made a private visit to North Korea in January, warning after his trip that the country, which last week threatened a nuclear strike against the United States, would not develop unless it embraces Internet freedom.

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