Capturing the Advantages of Manufacturing in Myanmar

While China has been considered as the manufacturing center of the world, many operations in China are still struggling to achieve the goals of pricing, quality issues driven by customers, the uncertain economy, and most importantly, the rapidly increasing labor costs due to the latest polices. Consequently, many manufacturing operations are looking for new alternatives to set up their plants in the ASEAN countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh. Recently, Myanmar has attracted a lot of attention from manufacturing owners due to its relatively more relaxing labor law and low labor cost. However, there are still many challenges that have to be overcome when setting up plants in developing countries like Myanmar. This paper intends to provide insights on manufacturing plant establishment in Myanmar through interviewing different stakeholders including manufacturing owners, chamber of commerce, senior government officials, NGOs and top business leaders. The strategies and practices in setting up manufacturing operation are identified and analyzed. It is envisioned that the strategies and practices identified can be adapted in other developing country and can serve as a guideline for other manufacturing operations to benchmark their operation practices.