“In Myanmar we greet each other with ‘Sa pi bi la?’ – Have you eaten? – but here we greet each other with news of who has just been arrested,” says Ma Haymer, who runs the nearby Japan-Myanmar Cultural Centre and helps Myanmar illegals when they end up in detention centres.

“Every country in the region is expected to make an effort – not just for its own benefit, but to focus on region-wide development,” said U Maung Maung Swe, chairman of SM Tours and Transport Company in Yangon.

A UNITED Nations report issued late last month advised developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region to focus on strengthening their agricultural sectors to make international trade more beneficial to poor people in the region.

“At previous auctions, we sold only high-quality jade, but this time we sold all sorts of jade, so the volume went up,” said U Zaw Win Naing, deputy director (jade) of MGE.

The port will allow cargo vessels from India’s landlocked northeastern Mizoram state to navigate the Kitsapanadi River, formerly known as the Kaladan River, all the way to Sittwe, where it spills into the Bay of Bengal.

THE new, faster cargo service between Laputta in Ayeyarwaddy Division and Yangon launched by Inland Water Transport last month has been welcomed by traders in Laputta, but many say business would be boosted further if additional services were provided.

THE Foreign Minister, U Nyan Win, last week joined his counterparts from countries in the Ayeyarwady - Chao Phraya - Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) grouping at a meeting in Laos to discuss the progress of a variety of cooperative programs.

MANDALAY’S first testing centre to offer internationally recognised IT certification exams will open this month as a collaborative effort between the Yangon-based Myanmar Inspirations testing centre and Mandalay Computer Professionals Association.

He may be madly in love with you but he has one foot out the door ready to run if you so much as mention the word “wedding”. Trust me on this; the perfect wedding you’ve been planning with your girlfriends since you were 16, complete with the Htama Thein (court bridal costume), ......

“If we can’t adjust to today’s trends, I daresay we old people are wrong,” says U Aung Than Oo, an associate professor of psychology at Yangon University.