2017年CRI Can Myanmar become the next manufacturing center of Asia?

 

Myanmar's manufacturing industries look set for major growth as foreign investment floods in after the lifting of economic sanctions.

The country is hoping to become the region's next manufacturing center, especially in the clothing sector¹.

CRI's Myanmar correspondent Tu Yun has taken a look at how far Myanmar is from achieving that goal.

Latest figures from Myanmar's Commerce Ministry² show that the country's total value of cutting, making and packaging clothing exports have surpassed 1.6 billion US dollars so far this fiscal³ year which ends this month, more than double that of the last fiscal year.

Vicky Bowman, Director of the Yangon-based Myanmar Center for Responsible Business, explains.

"Within the garment sector, what we are seeing is that quite a lot of the production is coming in here, is shifting from China to Myanmar. And I think they both cater⁴ into a similar market, for example, outer wear, is what I've been told. Costs here, from purely⁵ labor⁶ perspective, are significantly lower."

Being the last frontier in Asia, Myanmar has a low-wage workforce⁷ of some 33 million people. The monthly minimum wage here stands at around 90 US dollars, less than one-third of that in China, and the lowest in Southeast Asia.

The authorities are hoping that labor-intensive industries, including garment manufacturing, could become an engine for the country's economic growth after decades of isolation⁸, and that the country, like its ASEAN counterpart Vietnam, could become the next manufacturing center of the region.

Bowman says more requirements need to be met.

"But you still have the questions like productivity and the additional costs of things like poor power supply. So if Myanmar can fix some of those problems particularly in its urban areas, above all Rangoon, then this place will start to be a much more competitive challenger to the garment sector with China."

"I don't think there's going to be much transfer of manufacturing from China into Myanmar just purely because of the huge scale that China has."

Peter Beynon is Myanmar Country Chairman of the business group Jardine Matheson.

He made the comment at a forum⁹ on promoting business in Myanmar sponsored by Bloomberg.

"I'm sure there will be a transition of some business. But skill base is changing, technology is changing. So we're not looking at low cost of labor being a primary mover of manufacturing these days. It's much more technology based. Logistics within Myanmar is currently a nightmare. And it's affecting all types of different business."

Another factor that could hamper¹⁰ the country's efforts to become a regional manufacturing center is the conflicts between trade unions and employers.

Dr. Sai Sam Htun is Chairman of the Yangon-based Loi Hein Group of Companies.

"Especially we see in the garment sector. I think these have to be tackled in order not to lose the confidence of future investors¹¹ as well as the current investors."

Two South Korean garment factories have been forced to shut down because of disputes with local workers.

A Chinese-owned factory in Yangon making clothes for Swedish fashion chain H&M was severely¹² damaged last month by a group of workers demanding a better performance review system. Workers destroyed the production line and attacked managers in one of the most violent labor disputes in the country in years.

"I think we have to be fair enough, strict enough. We should monitor this situation seriously. This can be a serious issue in the future."

Apart from these directly-related factors, another issue seemingly irrelevant¹³ to the manufacturing sector could cause big problems for the country as it hopes to become a regional manufacturing hub.

Vicky Bowman from the Myanmar Center for Responsible Business cites the Financial Action Task Force, an OECD body which oversees¹⁴ the anti-money laundering¹⁵ efforts for global economic community.

"Myanmar was for a long time on the black list of that, then on the gray list, and finally came off the list based on putting on paper of these structures in place to tackle money laundering. But what the OECD is now doing is a much more focused look at implementation¹⁶, not just on Myanmar, but globally. And when this country comes up for review, if it's found that it still isn't reporting any suspicious transactions, which is currently the case, whereas most other jurisdictions¹⁷ are reporting tens of hundreds a day almost, depending on the size of their economies, then there will be some serious questions asked about whether there are actually any controls on money laundering in Myanmar."

And what would happen if the review doesn't come back positive?

"If it doesn't and it goes back on the blacklist, that'll have a significant knock-on effect on banking¹⁸ services and we'll be put back to the sort of situations that we were facing a couple of years ago when we still had US sanctions in place and Myanmar was still on blacklist."

The mission to study Myanmar's anti-money laundering effort is coming in this year. The report and the decision by the OECD will be out at the end of next year.

For CRI, I'm Tu Yun reporting from Yangon.

1 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

2 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

3 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

4 cater   

vi.(for/to)满足，迎合；(for)提供饮食及服务

参考例句：

• I expect he will be able to cater for your particular needs.我预计他能满足你的特殊需要。
• Most schools cater for children of different abilities.大多数学校能够满足具有不同天资的儿童的需要。

5 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

6 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

7 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

8 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

9 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

10 hamper   

vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子

参考例句：

• There are some apples in a picnic hamper.在野餐用的大篮子里有许多苹果。
• The emergence of such problems seriously hamper the development of enterprises.这些问题的出现严重阻碍了企业的发展。

11 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

12 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

13 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

14 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

15 laundering   

n.洗涤（衣等），洗烫（衣等）；洗（钱）v.洗（衣服等），洗烫（衣服等）( launder的现在分词 )；洗（黑钱）（把非法收入改头换面，变为貌似合法的收入）

参考例句：

• Separate the white clothes from the dark clothes before laundering. 洗衣前应当把浅色衣服和深色衣服分开。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He was charged with laundering money. 他被指控洗钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 implementation   

n.实施，贯彻

参考例句：

• Implementation of the program is now well underway.这一项目的实施现在行情看好。

17 jurisdictions   

司法权( jurisdiction的名词复数 )； 裁判权； 管辖区域； 管辖范围

参考例句：

• Butler entreated him to remember the act abolishing the heritable jurisdictions. 巴特勒提醒他注意废除世袭审判权的国会法令。
• James I personally adjudicated between the two jurisdictions. 詹姆士一世亲自裁定双方纠纷。

18 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。