"Access to research in Myanmar will increase thanks to a new collaboration agreement between national and international partners, signed in Yangon today, and paving the way for a new national open access portal. The Myanmar Education, Research and Learning (MERAL) portal, to be launched in March, represents the first such national portal in the ASEAN Region that will collect, disseminate and preserve journal articles, theses and dissertations, conference proceedings and other research output from Myanmar universities, bringing greater accountability, transparency and participation to research, teaching and learning processes. Today's agreement was signed by The Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Director General, Professor Dr. Thein Win; Rectors' Committee of the National Education Policy Commission, Ministry of Education, Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Chair, Professor Dr Zaw Wai Soe; EIFL, Director, Rima Kupryte; and National Institute of Informatics of Japan, Director General, Dr. Masaru Kitsuregawa, Tokyo, Japan. "The Rectors' Committee was formed under the National Education Policy Commission by the National Education Law Amendment 2015 on 4th April, 2018 with 164 rectors from 164 universities. The Rectors' committee coordinates, cooperates and negotiates to help to develop the higher education institute without infringing on their independent administration and autonomy. One of the missions of Rectors' Committee is to develop a world-class higher education system, with a strong focus on research and innovation, to meet the country's social and economic development needs. Open Access is inevitable in research and MERAL serves as a means for the dissemination of the intellectual output of the universities and institutions in Myanmar. MERAL aims to provide online access to increase the impact of its research and foster a rich research culture..."