Google chairman Eric Schmidt has some advice for Myanmar's budding web community -- don't let the government control the Internet. With "something extraordinary" set to happen in the long-isolated country as it opens up, the role of the authorities should be to enable the private sector to build the country's telecommunications sector, he said Friday. But "try to keep the government out of regulating the Internet. Every government I know only wants nice things on the Internet," he told local entrepreneurs and students during a visit to the former army-ruled country.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt will visit Myanmar next week, highlighting increasing Internet freedom in the former pariah state just weeks after a controversial trip to communist North Korea. Schmidt will speak in Yangon on March 22 as part of an Asian tour, the Internet giant said, aiming to boost web access in the country, ruled for decades by a repressive military junta. Under the military regime the Internet was strictly controlled, with access to anti-government sites and sites such as YouTube blocked.