About five local garment factories have started manufacturing PPE suits to seek global market

About five local garment factories have started making personal protective equipment (PPE) suits, but Myanmar has to struggle for global market because China has taken 70 percent of global market shares, according to Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association.

“As the government encourages DaNa Facility, we are also trying to make PPE at garment factories. We need a market. Chinese PPE has already penetrated 70 percent of global market for many decades. So we find it difficult to seek a global market. If there is a market, there will also be investors. About four or five garment factories have started making PPE. Our PPE manufacturing does not mean hospital use only. There will also be PPE uniform for factories,” said Khaing Khaing Nwe, secretary of the association. 

DaNa Facility is encouraging the garment industry to manufacture new products for private sector development.

“Under this programme, we have investors. But we have no market because China has taken about 70 percent of market shares. Currently, we are not in a position to penetrate the PPE market,” Khaing Khaing Nwe said.

PPE manufacturing factories are in Yangon and Bago regions.

Myanmar earned nearly US$4.8 billion from garment export in 2019-2020 fiscal year falling over US$63 million when compared to the year before, according to the data from the Ministry of Commerce. 

Myanmar runs garment industry under CMP system and orders mainly come from Japan, China, Korea and EU countries.

When the current government took office, garment manufacturing was valued at US$500 million with about 400,000 jobs created.

(Eleven Media Group: https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/about-five-local-garment-factories-start-ppe-manufacturing )

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