Mandalay gets high-tech makeover

Embracing change: Staff members working in the technology control centre at the Mandalay City Development Committee headquarters in Mandalay. — Reuters

YANGON: Once a seat of kings, the city of Mandalay in northern Myanmar has seen turbulent chapters in its 162-year history – the fall of Burma’s last royal dynasty and decades of colonial rule. Now, officials are attempting to transform the former royal capital into Myanmar’s first “smart city”.

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.