In Myanmar’s Mandalay, a doctor turned politician is using tech to plot the end of bureaucracy
- Residents contact the mayor on Facebook while authorities track garbage disposal with GPS and control traffic flows with remote sensors
- There has been some backlash, particularly against proposed deal with Chinese tech giant Huawei to provide CCTV cameras
In a country where officials still largely labour with pen and ink, surrounded by stacks of mouldering papers, authorities in Mandalay are tapping social media and new technologies such as artificial intelligence software and drones to revamp a lethargic bureaucracy.
Under the secretive military junta that ruled Myanmar until 2011, people in the country’s second-largest city rarely had any contact with those who governed them. Now, they talk to the mayor on Facebook and pay for services with QR codes, something not available in Myanmar’s commercial capital, Yangon. Authorities track garbage disposal with GPS and control traffic flows with remote sensors.
“It is very good that we can communicate with the mayor like this,” said 55-year-old taxi driver Kyi Thein. “Before, we could only see their motorcades.”
Formerly dominated by military-linked men and regarded as a hotbed of corruption and mismanagement, the city’s first municipal government with an overwhelmingly civilian background has driven the plan, which is part of a regional initiative.
The pace of change has won plaudits in regional media and from overseas Myanmar nationals – the mayor was given the Citizen of Burma award by a US diaspora organisation in May – underscoring opportunities for Myanmar as the country emerges from half a century of isolation into a world dominated by rapidly evolving technology.
