Royal capital to 'smart city': Myanmar's Mandalay gets high-tech makeover, sparks 'spy' fears

Staff members work at the technology control centre at Mandalay City Development Committee headquarters in Mandalay, Myanmar, March 28, 2019. REUTERS/Ann Wang

YANGON (Reuters) - 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.