The New Light of Myanmar reported that, according to statistics from the Myanmar Ministry of Commerce, the garment industry’s exports in the 2019/20 fiscal year reached USD 4.28 billion, a decline of 6.95% from the USD 4.6 billion in the same period last year.

Myanmar’s garment industry enjoys preferential tariffs when exporting to EU countries, so it is the main traditional export item, accounting for about 30% of the total export value. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, the import of garment raw materials was blocked, the international market demand slowed down and other negative factors. As a result, some garment factories were closed, and thousands of employees were unemployed.

 

In order to avoid the shortage of raw materials due to the impact of the pandemic on international traffic, experts suggest that the government and private units cooperate to establish a complete supply chain for the garment industry such as spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing, and sewing manufacturing.