Myanmar's textile and garment industry is set to benefit from the country’s new export strategy. This is a five-year roadmap aimed at strengthening smaller companies and fuelling exports and trade diversification.

The country’s first-ever National Export Strategy (NES), designed to fuel Myanmar's sustainable development through export promotion was launched on March 25. Mynmar’s export structure has changed dramatically in recent decades. Exports have become concentrated on a handful of products, mostly unprocessed natural resources, and export destinations remain limited.

The NES seeks to shift Myanmar’s trade patterns and translate gains from trade into greater prosperity for the people of Myanmar. To extend trade to new products and markets, the NES will serve as a roadmap to increase production and value addition in priority sectors that include textiles and garments.

The NES also recommends targeted investments for each export sector, in addition to tackling constraints in the business environment such as access to finance, trade information and promotion, trade facilitation and logistics, as well as quality management. It also seeks to enhance innovation capabilities by businesses and trade support institutions.

Action points in the strategy include interventions to boost the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises to longer-term policy and legislative changes.