Most of the investors in garment sector are exporting their products to European Union market despite concerns about the review of GSP by European Union

Most of the investors in garment sector are exporting their products to European Union (EU) market and despite concerns about the review of Generalised scheme of preferences (GSP) granted by the EU, investments are not lowering, said Director General Aung Naing Oo of the Directorate of Investment and Companies Administration (DICA).

“Investors from some countries came to make investments in the garment sector of Myanmar as Myanmar has been granted GSP privilege by EU. Over half of garment products are exported to the EU market. They were intended to make investments in Myanmar to export their products to the EU market. Some foreign investors are concerned about the review of GSP privilege. They are worried that their products will not be exported to the EU market if the GSP privilege is withdrawn,” said the Director General.

If the EU withdraws GSP, it will have ill-impact on around 500 thousand employees working in the garment sector.

“The investment will have negative consequences and the workers will suffer from it at first. About 500,000 workers are working in the garment sector. The garment export products are about €2 or 3 billion annually,” he said.

He also went on to say that those that are only now preparing to invest in Myanmar will now hesitate to do so but investments are still coming in.

“The investors participated in weekly meetings and the investments are still flowing,” he said.

Myanmar exported €535 million worth of garment products to the EU market in 2015 and it was increased to €1.3 billion in 2017. About 72.2 per cent of products exported to the EU market are from garment sector in 2017 and the EU is third largest export market for Myanmar and 8.8 per cent of overall products are exported to the EU market in 2017.

(Eleven Media Group: https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/most-investors-in-garment-sector-export-to-eu-market )

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