centers.40 The second one is the Mandalay ICT Park which opened in August 2003 and provides an ‘international level’ environment for ICT development with broadband Internet access, reliable power source, and other facilities. For ICT human resource development, two computer universities and 24 government computer colleges have been established.41 Internet Myanmar’s tight control over the media extends to Internet for international access. Myanmar set up its first international data communications link in 1997, a 64 Mbps link between SingTel and Myanmar PTT, but to curb the flow of information the government blocks popular free international e-mail services such as Hotmail and Yahoo!, requiring people instead to buy accounts from tightly controlled government providers. While the regime produces its own colorful website, www.myanmar.com, access is restricted to the privileged few and emails are subject to content software filters. Even the business centers at five-star hotels do not provide unfettered Internet access, only allowing guests to send and receive email through hotel accounts. The staff prints out all e-mails received, handing paper copies of private messages to guests, ostensibly as a service, but making visitors feel monitored. All e-mails are read by military intelligence and one foreign visitor was presented a bill for US$2,000 after transmitting one photograph via a major hotel's e-mail system.42 Price is also an effective way to restrict access. In 2001 Internet users could access the local ‘Myanmar Intranet services’ operated by Bagan Cybertech at a cost of US$3 per hour. 43 But Internet cafes have sprung up, the first was allowed to open in the capital city of Yangon in November 2002, and by 2005 there were around 20 in the country. 40 Government officials like to stress that the cost of developing software in the United States is about 10 times more expensive. (BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific, 9 February 2002) 41 The country was aiming to have about 30,000 IT technicians by 2010. 42 U.S. State Department Issues Burma Consular Information Sheet, 2005. 43 The price of an hour at Cyberworld or Surf 'N Surf is US$1.50, an amount many in Myanmar can't earn in a full day. (Dow Jones, July 2003) Cyber cafe owners or operators pay a one-off 200,000 Kyat registration fee and a monthly charge of 50,000 Kyat to the Myanmar Information and Communication Technology Development Corporation (MICTDC).