Singapore – Regional broadcaster, Channel NewsAsia, celebrates the official opening of its news bureau in Yangon, Myanmar, making it the channel’s 13thbureau in Southeast and East Asia.
The channel’s correspondent, May Wong, based in Yangon, will report from the ground to capture the developments in Myanmar as it opens up after half a century of isolation. This is also a significant year as the country assumes the ASEAN Chair for the first time.
A broadcast journalist with 17 years of experience, May Wong has been filing stories from Myanmar since a year ago. In the more recent events, the channel was able to give regional viewers a close up on the Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar and the just-concluded ASEAN Ministerial Meeting. On the business front, she provided insights on plans to set up the country’s first stock exchange, and its strategies to grow the aviation sector and to build a new airport to meet rising air passenger traffic.
Supporting these reports, the channel has, over the past few years, had several exclusive interviews about Myanmar. This included President Thein Sein’s first international television interview in July 2012, and when Speaker of Parliament, Thura U Shwe Mann, was in Singapore in September 2012. It produced a six-part series called The New Myanmar last year, and several other documentaries on the developments in the country.
Debra Soon, Managing Director of Channel NewsAsia, comments, “We have stepped up not only our news coverage, but our documentaries and programmes on Myanmar in the past few years. Today, we are adding another thrust to our engagement with Myanmar with a regional business seminar. This provides a platform for political and business leaders to understand more about the changing face of Myanmar. It’s a formula which we are replicating across Asia, improving our coverage within the region through news and current affairs, and making connections to the movers and shakers across Asia.”
