Bottlenecks In The Development Of Burma'S Textile And Garment Industry

< p > the World Bank recently predicted that the economic growth rate of the 2012-2013 fiscal year < a href= "http://www.91se91.com/news/" > Burma < /a > was 6.3%, compared to the previous year, it grew by only 5.5%.

In theory, the garment industry is currently the only industry linked to the international trade network in Burma, and it has enormous potential for its economic growth to earn foreign exchange and provide huge job opportunities. To fully realize this potential, the industry still needs to overcome a series of difficulties.

A few difficulties are outlined below: < /p >

< p > 1. old infrastructure and power supply unreliable < /p >

< p > Burma garment manufacturing industry will not be able to compete in the global market because of the productivity quality (Productive

Quality) is still lower than those in Vietnam, Kampuchea, Laos and Bangladesh, and the quality of productivity depends largely on roads, ports, airports, water and electricity supply, telecommunications and customs administration, which have a decisive impact on the turnaround time of all operations, while Burma scored very low in the evaluation of these infrastructures.

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< p > for the power consuming textile industry investors, it is a setback that the electricity supply and demand gap fails to see the immediate solution.

Last year (2012), Yangon Electric Power Supply Bureau (Yangon Electricity)

Supply

Board) announced that from January 1, 2013, several industrial districts in Yangon will be blackout from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.

All textile mills and almost all garment factories, at least, have to supply diesel generators to supplement their electricity. According to the survey conducted by Japan Trade Promotion Association (JETRO), the total electricity cost of the Burma garment factory is about 30-40% of the total labor cost. The most serious reason is that the machine's equipment is accelerated to depreciate due to voltage instability.

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< p > 2.. Reliable information is hard to find or does not exist at all. < /p >

< p > even basic data, such as number of garment manufacturers, employment, wages, productivity and export performance, domestic production and consumption of cotton / yarn / cloth / garments, are hard to find.

Official figures are also quite different from those estimated by experts.

The following are some reasonable figures for Burma's clothing industry: < /p >

< p > there are currently more than 200 export garment factories, almost all private enterprises. < /p >

< p > < a href= "http://www.91se91.com/news/index_c.asp" > garment factory < /a > the total number of employees is about 100 thousand, < /p >

< p > clothing export value increased from 490 million US dollars in 2010 to 770 million US dollars in 2011 < /p >

The export value of garment exports in P > 2012 may have exceeded the US $868 million in the past year's exports in 2001, less than /p.

P, Japan, South Korea and the EU are the main export markets. The United States is expected to become the main export market. Before 2003, the largest importer of clothing made in the United States for the United States was < /p >

< p > 2011, the official Import Statistics of knitted fabrics and other textiles in Burma amounted to US $78 million 800 thousand, of which 70 million 500 thousand US dollars (89.5%) came from mainland China, but the cloth in the local market was usually pported from mainland China to Thailand border. < /p >

< p > foreign investment in garment industry mainly comes from South Korea, Taiwan, Hongkong and Mainland China < /p >

< p > clothing industry related statistics and outdated, the output of state-run plants (1995 start to open private) seems to contain mainly cotton yarn (annual output is relatively stable about 140-160 pounds), cotton cloth (2009-2010 years production 19 million 900 thousand yards), towels (2010 production 2 million 800 thousand), coarse linen bags (1 million 600 thousand output in 2010), and production of traditional longyi (s) cloth, but there is no material needed to export garments.

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< p > the Myanmar Textile Industries (MTI) of Burma is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of industry, from spinning to garment making, with 33 factories.

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< p > 3.. The government lacks the vision of the future development of the industry (vision) < /p >

< p > Burma, < a href= "http://www.91se91.com" > vice president of the clothing trade association < /a > (Myanmar Garment Manufacturers) Association; MGMA)

Win said that the most important goal of the guild is to assist the garment industry in its own processing, Cutting-Making-Packaging (CMP) pition to "FOB" delivery (FOB-delivery), but the main obstacle is the lack of practical experience in marketing, business, procurement and operations.

In addition, the industry is not used to seeing the government as an ally. However, the government's role in helping the garment industry shift from the CMP to the FOB level that the industry looks forward to can obviously play a key role.

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< p > Burma is also an important producer of cotton (which is much less than Huang and Huang), but there is an old textile industry that needs to import investment to support the rapidly expanding export garment industry.

The industry needs to develop vision and make strategic choices. For example, in order to facilitate investment in spinning / knitting / weaving and dyeing and finishing industries, industrial washing equipment (currently only two washing plants in Burma) and accessories and packaging materials, specific incentives should be formulated or customs duties should be adjusted.

Recently, the Ministry of Commerce of Burma decided to approve all import / export free import / export licences since April 1, 2013, perhaps the first step.

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< p > 4.. Lack of knowledge of social safety norms < /p >

< p > Burma is still on the observation list of child labour.

In 2003, when the United States launched an import ban on Burma, the American garment enterprises went out of Burma, followed by many European manufacturers (including Triumph, C&A, Arcadia).

Group and British Home

Stores and so on also left. This means that Burma businessmen are ignorant of the global norms of social security.

Therefore, there are still many places to catch up with in education, training and auditing.

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< p > 5. official red tape, corruption and massive tax evasion "/p".

The latest annual corruption index (Transparency International) of P Transparency December 2012 (Corruption Perception)

Index) reports that Burma ranks 172nd among the 176 countries in the world. Bangladesh (144th) and Laos (160th) rank ahead of Burma in the notorious countries.

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< p > allegedly, because of fear of the invasion of the United States, the military government of Burma began in 2004, 320 kilometers north of Yangon, Naypyidaw (Royal City; Royal).

City) building new capital, breaking the function of the old and new cities, making Yangon the center of Commerce and industry (including the textile and garment industry), and Xindu became the government's decision-making center.

Burma's tax revenue accounts for only 3% of GDP, and the government's tax revenue is very low. The export tax imposed by the government sometimes limits the growth of exports.

Burma should increase taxes in other ways.

At present, the biggest problem is that many enterprises in the country have not registered. According to the Eleven news weekly report, only half of the registered companies are paying taxes.

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