SINGAPORE – Sipping microbrews at a riverside restaurant on trendy
Clark’s Quay in downtown Singapore, U Tun Thura Thet ponders the brain drain.

Thousands of Myanmar students have studied in Singapore in the past decade. Afterward, many choose to settle here instead of returning home to help their own country develop.

But the 35-year-old from Yangon said ultimately, Myanmar stands to gain from the trend.

“They can go abroad and learn a lot, and ... they can go back and work [in Myanmar]”, he said. “I believe they do want to go back one day.”

A successful entrepreneur with one foot in Yangon and the other in Singapore, U Tun Thura Thet is in a prime position to know. After attending school in Singapore for three years, he finished his degree in information systems in Australia. He could easily have stayed abroad to earn big money as a software designer.

Instead he returned to Yangon in 1996 to start his company, Myanmar Information Technology. With 120 employees, it’s now Myanmar’s biggest software-developing firm.

He said for him, it was important to give something back to his country despite the difficulties that keep other students in Singapore.

“I’m different,” he said. “For me, my heart is [in Myanmar].”

Last year he began spending more time in Singapore, where he has a branch office to help shop his products to western countries.

He uses Singapore as a training ground, taking his Yangon employees there to work on special projects. From his own experience, he said, Myanmar people have much to learn from the city.

“It’s not only about money. You learn a lot here. You learn the system,” he said. “If you don’t know the market, you can’t design products that will sell.”
But compared to Yangon, he said, the city has a cutthroat side as well.

“If you want to prove yourself, this is a good place,” he said. “Here only the best people survive. It’s not a place for losers.”

He works long hours, both in Singapore and Yangon – typically seven days a week. At night he studies or teaches university courses. He also plans to begin his PhD studies in knowledge management at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

“I believe in continuous self-development,” he said. “In Singapore, you can do that.”