Please invest in knowledge. – Aberdeen Thu

The other day browsing on social media, I read an interesting piece of inquiry from a Burmese student that moved
me to my core. A young lady graduated from high school and passed the university entrance exam with distinctions
was requesting public for a sponsorship as her family could not effort sending her to medical school. This inspired
me to grab a pen and write an article that may help transform opportunities amongst future generation in Myanmar.

When I did my undergraduate study at one of the universities in the UK, majority of my colleagues were sponsored
by global oil and gas companies that are operating in their home countries. For instance, Yemen, Malaysia, Qatar,
Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Nigeria, Botswana, and many other countries. Every year, a certain number of top
students from such countries, who are academically qualify to study for oil and gas engineering courses at UK
universities, are sent abroad as scholars receiving multiple fundings. Their tuition fee and living expenses are funded
by international oil and gas companies e.g. Total, Shell, Sabic, Exxonmobil, Conocophilips, BP which are operating in
their home countries. However, it is sad to say that this has not been seen among Burmese oil and gas students in
none of UK universities at least according to my own research.

I am wondering why Burmese people do not have an equal opportunity like other nationalities. Despite the fact that
some of these companies are currently operating in Burma profiting from Burma’s natural resources, the equal
opportunity has not been put out for Burmese students. As always said, “If you don’t ask you won’t get ” so, as a
writer, I would like to put this matter publically forward, raise general awareness amongst Burmese people and
guide authorities such as MOGE to challenge this convention and negotiate right terms and condition when dealing
with oil and gas contracts with multinational companies in a way that investment in knowledge transfer is being
made and support to Burma future generation given.
– Aberdeen Thu

As everybody knows Burma is one of the oil rich countries in Southeast Asia and first barrel of crude oil was exported
in 1853.

မှတ်ချက်။   ။ မြန်မာ့ဂဇက် ဩဂုတ်လ ၂၀၁၆တွင်ပုံနှိပ်ဖေါ်ပြပြီးဖြစ်သည်။