MANILA, Feb 20 (Reuters) – It is getting busy in
Cristino Naguiat’s spacious 5th-floor office overlooking Manila
Bay.

The chairman of gambling regulator Philippine Amusement &
Gaming Corp is fielding calls and booking appointments to meet
possible investors in a sprawling gambling and entertainment
project his government hopes will rival Las Vegas in five years.

DAWEI, Myanmar (Reuters) – Dusty roads and makeshift offices are the only hints of the ambitious $50 billion project slated for the thick jungles near Myanmar’s southern city of Dawei, billed by its developers as the “new global gateway of Indo-China”.

Big questions surround the far-reaching plans by Thailand’s largest construction firm, Italian-Thai Development Pcl ITD.BK, to transform 250 sq kms (97 sq miles) of scrubland in southern Myanmar into Southeast Asia’s largest industrial complex.

DAWEI, Myanmar (Reuters) – Dusty roads and makeshift offices are the only hints of the ambitious $50 billion project slated for the thick jungles near Myanmar’s southern city of Dawei, billed by its developers as the “new global gateway of Indo-China.”

Big questions surround the far-reaching plans by Thailand’s largest construction firm, Italian-Thai Development Pcl ITD.BK, to transform 250 sq kms (97 sq miles) of scrubland in southern Myanmar into Southeast Asia’s largest industrial complex.

DAWEI, Myanmar (Reuters) – Shortly after her aging aircraft rattled its way off the runway and into the skies of southern Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi crossed the aisle to where three orange-robed Buddhist monks were seated in the first row.

She knelt down and bowed her head, as passengers watched aboard a suddenly hushed plane. Media were not alerted. There were no clicking cameras.

DAWEI, Myanmar (Reuters) – Shortly after her aging aircraft rattled its way off the runway and into the skies of southern Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi crossed the aisle to where three orange-robed Buddhist monks were seated in the first row.

She knelt down and bowed her head, as passengers watched aboard a suddenly hushed plane. Media were not alerted. There were no clicking cameras.

DAWEI, Myanmar (Reuters) – Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi called on Sunday for changes to the military-drafted constitution in her first political trip since ending a boycott of the country’s political system last year and announcing plans to run for parliament.

Thousands of people lined the roads shouting “Long live mother Suu” as her motorcade moved through the rural coastal region of Dawei about 615 km (380 miles) south of her home city,

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (Reuters) – Myanmar will keep natural gas from new projects beyond 2013 for domestic consumption, a shift of policy aimed at powering its development, the country’s energy minister said on Friday.

Myanmar has opened up to the outside world with astonishing speed since a civilian government took office last March after five decades of army rule. The prospect of the end of Western sanctions has prompted a surge of interest from investors.

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (Reuters) – In Myanmar’s sprawling parliamentary complex, lawmakers flexed their newly democratic muscles on Thursday. Some drafted anti-graft legislation for one of the world’s most corrupt nations or clamored for transparency on a typically secret national budget.

Others wanted answers from the government: why are train lines across the country woefully inefficient? Will the government move faster to revamp clearer foreign-exchange rate laws and hold companies to task for shabby infrastructure on state contracts?

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) – Myanmar vowed on Saturday to address concerns raised by President Barack Obama, outlining far-reaching plans to make peace with ethnic rebels, gradually release all political prisoners and relax controls on freedom of expression.

But its government, fearing an Arab Spring-style revolution if it moves too quickly, stressed reforms must be gradual after nearly a half century of isolation and authoritarian rule that ended when the army handed power in March to a civilian parliament stacked with former generals.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) – Myanmar’s government vowed on Saturday to address concerns raised by President Barack Obama, outlining far-reaching plans to make peace with ethnic rebels, gradually release more political prisoners and relax controls on freedom of expression.

But its government also expressed caution, stressing that reforms must be gradual to ensure a stable transition to democracy after nearly a half century of isolation and iron-fisted rule that ended when the army handed power in March to a civilian parliament stacked with former generals.