POST EVENT NEWSLETTER - Capacity Conferences

His Excellency Myat Hein, Union Minister, opened Myanmar Connect 2013
CO-HOSTED BY:
POST EVENT NEWSLETTER
Capacity Conferences would like to thank all of the 379 attendees (plus 78 members of the press), 180 organisations,
10 sponsors, 8 exhibitors and 4 meeting room holders for helping us make the inaugural Myanmar Connect such an
effective event.
We would also like to extend a special thank you to our co-host, the Ministry of Communications of Information and
Technology, alongside personal thanks to His Excellency Myat Hein, Union Minister for opening the conference and to
His Excellency Thaung Tin, Deputy Minister for rewarding delegates in his closing remarks with his announcement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_niaBZDVm8
WELCOME RECEPTION
AND DINNER
few words about the conference before inviting
His Excellency Myat Hein, Union Minister,
MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND
The inaugural Myanmar Connect 2013
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY to officially open
began with a lively welcome reception and
Myanmar Connect 2013 during a traditional
dinner. Hosted by Capacity Conferences in the
ribbon cutting ceremony (pictured above).
MICC more than 200 delegates dined together
The Union Minister spoke about his vision for
in an informal setting before the conference was
the development of the telecoms in Myanmar
formally opened the following day.
and as co-host of the conference welcomed
and thanked delegates for their support of the
DAY ONE: MEETING AND
conference and of the industry.
MAPPING THE MARKET
This important address was followed by
interviews with the two long-standing telecom
All Myanmar Connect 2013 delegates were
players active in Myanmar. Chris Chit Tun,
invited to join our sister event’s plenary session.
Director of DELOITTE MYANMAR skilfully
They were lucky enough to witness the official
opening of The Myanmar Global Investment directed questions at U Aung Maw, Managing
Director of MPT and U Tin Win, CEO of
Forum by Thein Sein, President of the
YATARNAPON TELEPORT CO. U Aung
Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
Maw confirmed that MPT was actively looking
At 11.15am Myanmar Connect 2013 began
for private investment and partnerships with
in earnest.
international companies in order to maintain
Capacity Media’s CEO, Ros Irving began with a
MPT’s competitive edge in the market.
Meanwhile both esteemed speakers cited
that the lack of local skilled engineers and
talent would be one of the biggest hurdles for
operators to overcome in the coming years (a
sentiment echoed across the 2 days).
U Khin Maung Thet, Director General of PTD
(the regulator) then delivered an unprecedented
insight into the future of the newly-competitive
telco environment.
U Khin Maung Thet addresses delegates
MYANMAR
CONNECT
data centre infrastructure to be put in place to
enable efficient connectivity and storage for 60
million people.
There was a general consensus that Myanmar
was unique in that it could learn from its
neighbouring countries’ experiences. Theodoric
Chan, COO, NTT SINGAPORE mentioned that
the rising economic trajectory represented a
huge opportunity to telcos as IT outsourcing and
communications are key governmental priorities
for growth of the economy.
Julian Rawle, Managing Partner, PIONEER
Petter Furberg repeated Telenor’s viewpoint
CONSULTING
that full infrastructure sharing models would
avoid overbuild and that success, as ever, was a
balancing act between SLE and ROI.
U Khin Maung Thet also gave delegates some
Andrew Kwok, President & International
important hints into what should be expected
Business, HUTCHISON GLOBAL
from the draft telecoms law currently awaiting
COMMUNICATIONS raised the question of OTT
final Presidential approval.
treatment in Myanmar and whether net neutrality
should be a cause for concern to the nascent
MEET THE LICENCE WINNERS
mobile industry.
The morning’s excitement didn’t stop there
Ross Cormack pointed out that if users began
as Ross Cormack, CEO of OOREDOO
with OTT’s then they may actually come to value
MYANMAR and Petter Furberg, CEO of
their data packages. He also admitted that his
TELENOR MYANMAR took to the stage.
biggest challenge right now revolved around
These distinguished gentlemen were the official
handset compatibility on the network.
representatives from the two winners of the hotly The afternoon of day one of Myanmar
contested international mobile licences and were Connect 2013 featured four very different
seen together for the first time at Myanmar
presentations.
Connect 2013.
Johan Adler, President of Country Manager of
Ross Cormack reiterated the need to foster
ERICCSON MYANMAR examined the role that
Myanmar talent as he outlined Ooredoo’s goal
access to broadband will have on the socioto have 99% of their staff be Myanmar nationals
economic development of Myanmar. He stated
within the next 5 years (this is in contrast to their
that analysts projected a 7.38% rise in GDP
usual 95% local staff rate in other regions).
directly attributable to the telco and IT sectors.
He then went onto outline another ambitious
This rise would be due in part to the extra $530m
target: to achieve 97% 3G coverage in the same the government will receive in taxes per annum
timeframe.
from the industry.
Ross Cormack was optimistic about the
Daniel Pang, Research Manager Client
leapfrogging opportunities presented by the
Devices from IDC analysed the current status of
greenfield nature of Myanmar’s telco environment the device market in Myanmar and gave IDC’s
and emphasised a CAPEX-conserving
projections on who the device winners would be.
infrastructure sharing strategy going forwards.
Romain Caillaud, Managing Director,
Petter Furberg’s turn came next as he
VRIENS & PARTNERS MYANMAR then gave
unveiled Telenor Myanmar’s plans in a rare public a detailed breakdown of the political risks
appearance.
that an international business faces when
He agreed with an infrastructure sharing policy,
entering Myanmar. The message was that the
saying: “in order to ensure that Myanmar has an government was truly dedicated to fostering
extensive telecommunication network, operators competition in a fair environment. However it is a
need to cooperate with one another... In my
steep learning curve and this can bring its own
experience, if operators use communication
set of challenges.
towers as much as they need and cooperate
He warned that the two biggest threats to telcos
with each other, customers will get services at
are uncertain regulation and the difficulty of
low prices.”
actually building infrastructure in unstable areas
of Myanmar.
CREATING VALUE AND DRIVING
Katsumi Nakata, SVP, NTT COMMUNICATIONS
DEVELOPMENT
gave the closing speech of the day with an
account of NTT Communication’s involvement in
the SEA games preparation.
In the plenary panel session five influential
international executives mapped how Myanmar
DINING IN STYLE AND
would change over the next 5 years with
everyone agreeing that it would be nothing short CELEBRATING CHANGE
of explosive.
The inaugural Gala Dinner, hosted by
Ross Cormack said, “the next 5 years will go
ERICSSON, gave delegates the chance
from everyone demanding access to everyone
to unwind and consolidate their contacts
having access to too much information”. Whilst
accompanied by traditional Myanmar cuisine,
Alexandre Pébereau, EVP International
dance troupe and orchestra.
Carriers, ORANGE, underscored the need for
“Myanmar Connect 2013 was the
best inaugural country-specific telecom
conference I have ever attended. Produced
to an extremely high professional standard
by Capacity Media and attended by
delegates with a genuine and common
interest in the telecom opportunities offered
by Myanmar, this is an event not to be
missed.”
2013
INVESTING WISELY
The opening keynote interviews on day two
of the conference united three key investors
in Myanmar’s ICT sector: Carlos Katsuya,
Head - Asia Telecom, Media and Technology,
IFC; Kenneth Stevens, Managing Partner,
LEOPARD CAPITAL and Alisher Ali,
Chairman, SILK ROAD FINANCE.
History in the making: Petter Furberg and
Ross Cormack are pictured together for
the first time
The keynote panel was immediately followed
by Raj Dhamodharan, Regional Head of
Mobile and e-Commerce, Asia-Pacific, Africa
& Middle East, MASTERCARD WORLDWIDE
who gave a presentation on one of the hottest
opportunities in the market: mobile banking.
THE BANDWIDTH EXPLOSION IS
COMING...
Day one of the inaugural Myanmar Connnect
examined the changing political and telco
environment in Myanmar. Day two built on
these themes with a deeper focus.
U Khun Oo, President of the MYANMAR
COMPUTER FEDERATION expertly questioned
speakers from BICS, ERICSSON MYANMAR
and FORTUNE INTERNATIONAL and put the
spotlight on technologies and services relevant
to a population of which 75% are farmers and
30% live below the poverty line.
THE COMMERCIAL CHALLENGES
OF OPERATING IN MYANMAR
One of the best received presentations of
Myanmar Connect 2013 was delivered
by Nick White, Director, DELOITTE
SOUTHEAST ASIA and Rob Bratby,
Managing Partner, OLSWANG ASIA.
“Myanmar is now undergoing telecom
reforms and has become the strategic
market of the region. We are very happy to
be part of inaugural Myanmar Connect
2013 which was a very effective forum
to meet and develop further win-win-win
partnerships. We look forward to attending
Myanmar Connect 2014 next year.”
Theodoric Chan, COO, NTT
SINGAPORENAPON TELEPORT CO.
The duo walked delegates through the draft
telecoms law including infrastructure sharing,
licensing, spectrum, tariff control and much
much more.
Their presentation was by the Deloitte
Consultancy Clinic with no less than
five TMT experts, two of whom (Phil
Asmundson, Vice Chairman & U.S. Media
& Telecommunications Sector Leader,
DELOITTE LLP and John Goeres, Partner,
DELOITTE SOUTHEAST ASIA) had flown in
especially for the occasion.
The plenary panellists (from left to right): Petter Furberg, CEO, TELENOR MYANMAR; Ross
Cormack, CEO, OOREDOO MYANMAR; Andrew Kwok, President of International Business,
HUTCHISON GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS; Alexandre Pébereau, EVP – International
Carriers, ORANGE and Theodoric Chan, COO, NTT SINGAPORE
THE GRAND FINALE
The closing remarks of the inaugural
Myanmar Connect was delivered by His
Excellency Thaung Tin, Deputy Minister of
the MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
He said that Myanmar Connect 2013 had
provided an important service by gathering so
many leaders together in an open discussion
forum. He went on to voice his optimism that
Myanmar’s leapfrogging opportunity would
truly benefit its people.
His sign off echoed the huge sense of hope
felt by all in the room (tempered perhaps by
the daunting size of the task ahead of them):
The optimism felt throughout the event made for a fantastic atmosphere both in and out
the conference room
“Don’t switch off and stay tuned for future
opportunities... come back for Myanmar
Connect 2014 and find a completely new
landscape.”
“Myanmar Connect 2013 was a very
successful and informative forum which
covered interesting topics from various
aspects. I believe that Myanmar Connect 2014 will be even more exciting
and will definitely bring a prosperous
future for Myanmar’s telecom sector
development.”
U Tin Win, CEO, YATARNAPON
TELEPORT CO.
His Excellency Myat Hein (middle) flanked by His Excellency Thaung Tin (right) and His
Excellency Win Than (left)
MYANMAR
CONNECT
2013
Traditional dance troupe and orchestra perform at the Gala Dinner
Don’t switch off and stay tuned for future opportunities...
come back for Myanmar Connect 2014 and find a completely new
landscape.”
His Excellency Thaung Tin, Deputy Minister of the MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Exhibitors CAT Telecom, China Telecom Global, Ericsson, Fortune
International, Hutchison Global Communications, Redlink Communications,
True, VMG Telecom and Yatarnapon Teleport Company enjoyed busy
networking breaks in the expo area
The event closes with the Deloitte Consultancy Clinic
Johan Adler, President & Country Manager, ERICSSON MYANMAR
addresses attendees

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