[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Information Sheet N0.A-0669(I)



                       MYANMAR INFORMATION COMMITTEE
                                          YANGON

                                     Information Sheet 

                              N0.A-0669(I)       28th  October 1998 	

(1)		Traditional Medicine Practitioner Trainees Will Win More Public
Confidence, Promote Role Of Traditional Medicine

		Chairman of the National Health Committee Secretary-1 of the State Peace and
Development Council Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt addressed the opening of Traditional
Medicine Practitioners Training Course No 1/98 at the Institute of Traditional
Medicine in Mandalay on 27 October. Secretary-1 said at present the government
is trying to provide health, fitness and health care services fully for the
entire nation. At the same time, it is promoting, encouraging and propagating
Myanmar traditional medicine. Conduting of the present training course aimed
at enhancing the skills of the traditional medicine practitioners who are
already taking care of public health would be immensely beneficial to the
nation, traditional medicine world and the people of the nation. Traditional
medicine is effective and thus wins public confidence in providing public
health care services and as a result, it is widely used in the entire nation
covering both urban and rural areas including border regions. The government
has included traditional medicine development project in the National Health
Plans and implementing the following programmes:

	-	to enhance the skills of traditional medicine practitioners  and make
arrangements for conducting successive training programmes,

	-	to open more traditional medicine hospitals and treatment centres to
provide health care services,

	- 	to conduct researches on traditional medicine and provide necessary
assistance for manufacturing standard traditional medicines. 

		This training course was being conducted in accordance with the first
programme. In addition to conducing training course to enhance the skills of
traditional medicine practitioners, arrangements are under way to upgrade the
Institute of Traditional Medicine to university level. In addition to
traditional medicine hospitals in Yangon and Mandalay, 16-bed traditional
medicine hospitals have already been opened in Pathein, Myeik and Taungyi. The
Ministry of Health has been taking measures to manufacture genuine and
effective traditional medicines of international standard and providing
systematic supervision for manufacturing traditional medicines. Moreover,
herbal gardens are being extended to have access to regular and sufficient
supply of medicinal herbs. Efforts are being made for revitalizing effective
medicines that are virtually extinct, treatises and rare herbal plants and for
conducting researches for the purpose. Myanmar traditional medicine is truly a
heritage that has flourished for years countable by the thousand contributing
towards health, fitness and intellectual advancement of Myanmar people.
Myanmar people relied on traditional medicine when the Western medicine was
not yet widely used. The traditional medicine practitioners had been
practising traditional medicine applying what they had studied in their own
ways in effective branches of medicine and effective cures but, the course
would be beneficial to them since they would have access to different
treatises of medicine that emerged in different periods and different cures
and treatments for enhancing their skills to be able to provide effective
health care services. A total of 128 traditional medicine practitioners form
different parts of the country are attending the 10-month course. After the
opening ceremony, the Secretary-1 and party inspected construction of the
50-bed Traditional Medicine Hospital in Mandalay. 

(2)		About 3m Stimulant Tablets Seized 

		A combined team including members of regional intelligence unit, Myanmar
Police Force and Customs Department, acting on information, searched a car,
driven by Han Thein, and spareman Wai Lwin Oo, at Sint-in Checkpoint near
Lashio Township, Shan State (North), on 19 September. The authorities seized
WY and 99 brands of stimulant tablets totalling 2,890,000 weighing 260.1 kilos
being carried in secret drawers of the car, in the roof and in the bottom of
sound box. Action has been taken against Han Thein, Mandalay, and Wai Lwin Oo,
Mandalay, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotrophic Substances Law.

(3)		Private Entrepreneurs Urged To Cooperate With The Government In Striving
For Development Of  Nation

		A coordination meeting on granting permits to private entrepreneurs who wish
to make investments in reclamation of wetlands in Yangon and Ayeyawady
Division and carrying out farming there was held in the meeting hall of the
Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation on 27 October. The Government, spending
a large amount of money, is making arrangements for reclamation of wetlands,
and in some wetlands, the important basic works have been already done,
entrepreneurs have observed the situation there, and about 40,000 acres of
wetlands can be reclaimed in Yangon, and over 300,000 acres in Ayeyawady.
Private national entrepreneurs are being invited to participate not only in
cultivation and production of paddy and but in cultivation of cotton, coffee
and long-term crops such as rubber and oil palm. Not only the Ministry of
Agriculture and Irrigation but also other related ministries will provide
assistance to national entrepreneurs who will invest in the agricultural
sector. Then, entrepreneurs reported on their arrangements to carry out
agricultural work at fallow and virgin lands and wetlands and requirements for
fuel and technical know-how. Next, ministers and deputy ministers explained
arrangements made by respective ministries to provide assistance and to fulfil
requirements of entrepreneurs who will carry out agricultural work at fallow
and virgin lands and wetlands by thousand of acres.

(4)		Decoders Donated to Hospital, Schools and OSS

		A ceremony to donate decoders for use in Office of  Strategic Studies,
Ministry of Defence, Defence Services Orthopaedic Hospital and Youth Training
Schools under the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement by
Regional Director Mr Sangay Khanna of Discovery Channel, Discovery
Communication, India, was held at the Tatmadaw Guest House on Innya Road in
Kamayut Township, Yangon on 27 October. First, Mr Sangay Khanna explained to
those present the purpose of the donation. He then presented one decoder each
to Col Than Myint for DSOH, Principal U Win Zaw for Youth Training School, Daw
Hla Yi for Women's Home (Yangon) and Col Thein Swe for (OSS). Col Than Myint
thanked the donor for all.

(5)		Deputy Prime Minister Meets UNESCO Special Goodwill Ambassador
		Deputy Prime Minister Chairman of Myanmar Investment Commission met vocalist
and video star and UNESCO Special Goodwill Ambassador Mr Ryotaro Sugi of Japan
who called at his office at 10.30 am on 27 October.

Government of Myanmar Regrets Passing Away of NLD Member

		The Government of Myanmar regrets to report that U Aung Min, a member of the
National League for Democracy passed away in Defence Services Hospital  in
Mandalay on October 21, with cancer of the lymph glands (Malignant Lymphoma)
spreading all  over the body. 

		U Aung Min, 52, had been exercising daily and appeared to be in excellent
health until October 10, when he came down with a mild fever while staying in
a Government guest house together with other members. He received immediate
attention from a physician, and by October 21 his temperature had returned to
normal and he appeared to be almost fully recovered. On the afternoon of
October 21 he complained of chest pains, and was immediately taken to the
hospital, where he died 20 minutes after arrival.

		The Government regrets this sad and unexpected event, and has expressed its
sincere condolences to the family. The Government has been contributing toward
the family's welfare.

		The Government has been meeting with NLD members since September, in an
effort to work together toward national peace and stability  in Myanmar. The
meetings are being held in a cordial atmosphere in Government guest houses.
Many of those invited  for  the  talks  have  returned  home  in recent weeks.
On October 28th ,U Maung Aye, U Kyaw Kyaw, U Shwe Htun, U Saw Myint, Daw San
San May, Daw Tin Mya,  U Kyaw Nyunt,  U Ant Ku, U Tin Soe,  U Kan Htun, U Saw
Khine,   U  Ye  Chit, U Yu Shein, U Myint Oo and U Ban Chein returned home. A
total of (293) persons  returned home while several other members went back
home for the weekend.



***********