INTRODUCTION 1 Having spent the past half a century under military rule and engaged in civil wars at the same time, Myanmar remains one of the poorest countries in the world.1 However, this once selfimposed isolated country is now undergoing a series of political, social and economic reforms. To the best interest of this research two most important reforms were: 1) With rolling-out of the two new telecom networks (Ooredoo and Telenors in August, 2014), most people will own a mobile phone in the coming days and will have some level of digital and information literacy to use the internet effectively. 2) The development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which have been less focused upon until now and is crucial for the country’s development by creating job opportunities for the local population. To support these enterprises, Myanmar’s government has removed many restrictions on businesses, abolished a range of monopolies, reduced some taxes, eased import-export restrictions and passed new Foreign Investment Laws on November, 2012.2 BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID MICRO ENTREPRENEURS This report presents the findings of a study conducted for LIRNEasia on the information and communication needs of urban poor micro-entrepreneurs (MEs) in Myanmar. Qualitiative research methods were used to study 124 urban and peri-urban MEs. More on methodology can be found in section 1.3. The reason for focusing on MEs was two-fold; firstly, MEs are most likely to have higher livelihood gains through Information and Communication technologies (ICTs). This can be supported with an excerpt from the 2002 Guide to ICTs for Development by Sood3 which says that “ICTs represent an unprecedented opportunity to make new knowledge, services, and opportunities available in underserved areas. Both urban and rural citizen consumers may benefit from ICTs by receiving enhanced access to information and communication across large distances, improved access to governmental and quasi-governmental resources and services, 1 Deloitte. (2014). Myanmar: The next Asian telecommunications greenfield? Retreived from the website http://www. deloitte.com/assets/Dcom Guam/Local%20Assets/Documents/Technology,%20Media%20and%20Telecommunications/ TMT%20Myanmar.pdf. 2 Watson, Farley and Williams (2013). Natural Resources Breifing. Retreived from the website http://www.wfw.com/ Fruit sellers on the streets of Yangon Publications/Publication1183/$File/WFW-MyanmarFDILaw.pdf 3 Sood, Aditya Dev. (2002). ICTs for Development. Retreived from the website available on http://cks.in/wpcontent/uploads/2013/01/ict4development.pdf