News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Israel is helping Myanmar rebuild its cyclone-hit areas, building a school and providing healthcare services, the local weekly 7-Day News reported Wednesday. A cyclone hit Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta on May 2 and 3 last year killing 140,000 people, severely affected 2.4 million people, and leaving 800,000 displaced. The Israeli embassy confirmed that Israel was building a school in the Ayeyawaddy division, Israeli eye specialists were on hand, and that cooperation in the economic sector and private business sector were being sought.

Myanmar and Israel have a history of cooperation. The South East Asian country has been sending more than 100 agricultural workers to Israel annually since 2003 to undergo agricultural diploma training as part of a program funded by Israel. The Myanmar workers train at Israel's International Center for Agriculture Training and Granot-International Center for Agriculture Interns. To date, more than 1,000 of them have been awarded diplomas in the fields since then.