Myanmar top leader to visit India

Myanmar top leader Senior-General Than Shwe will pay a goodwill visit to India in the near future, according to an official announcement from Nay Pyi Taw Thursday.

Without mentioning the date of the visit, Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, will make the trip at the invitation of Indian President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, the announcement said.

According to diplomatic sources, Than Shwe's visit, which is scheduled for July 25 to 29, will top the agenda on economic cooperation between the two countries and border security.

Than Shwe is expected to meet Pratibha and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi for bilateral talks.

In February 2009, Indian Vice-President Shri M. Hamid Ansari visited Nay Pyi Taw, during which Myanmar and India reached three memorandums of understanding (MoU) on economic cooperation -- instrument of ratification on bilateral investment promotion and protection, establishment of an English language training center in Yangon with Indian assistance and setting up of an industrial training center in Myanmar's Pakkoku.

Ansari also inaugurated the first cross-border optical fiber telephone link between the two countries set up in Myanmar's second largest city of Mandalay.

The 7-million-U.S.-dollar high-speed broadband link for voice and data transmission connects Mandalay and India's border town of Moreh in Manipur which are separated by a distance of 500 kilometers.

Moreover, Ansari inaugurated the Myanmar-India Entrepreneurship Development Center set up at the Institute of Economics at the Hlaing University in Yangon.

Source: Xinhua