The Ministry of Information can encourage cinema owners to show movies in cinemas, but cannot help to build new cinemas in Sittwe city, said U Aung Hla Tun, deputy minister for Information, in response to the question from a law maker in Pyithu Hluttaw session on 31 July.

The Ministry of Information should help to build a cinema in Arakan State’s capital Sittwe, Pyithu Hluttaw representative for Mruak-U constituency U Oo Hla Saw said in a parliament session.

“A city should have cinema which is an entertaining form of fine art. The lack of fine arts is not good for society,” U Oo Hla Saw said in the parliament session.

“If investors want to build cinema in Sittwe, the ministry can help them under the assistance of the regional government,” the deputy minister said.

The regional government, however, needs to support the cinema owner to operate the Myoma cinema again, he added.

There were four public owned cinemas in Sittwe under the Revolutionary Council, eventually they were sold to private owners, which decreased the number of public cinemas in Arakan State.

The investor who bought Myoma cinema offered services up to 2013 and then closed it.

There is no cinema to entertain local residents in Arakan State now, even in its capital Sittwe. People want authorities to help building cinema in their region.

“We feel cheated when our city lacks a cinema. We do not have a place to be entertained on holidays. Our younger generation do not know what is a cinema,” said Ko Chit Nyein, a local resident from Sittwe city.