Outputs
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Research in progress.
Project last updated on: 30 Nov 2018.
Myanmar’s business environment has been improving in recent years, but it still remains slow and inefficient for firms to acquire licenses for importing and exporting. With manufacturing poised to be a key sector for development in Myanmar, top priorities have been to improve the ease of doing business in-country, and also to know more about how competitive firms are internationally.
In this project, IGC researchers have been working together with the Ministry of Commerce and the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA). The researchers developed an online application process for all factories which are members of MGMA, a total of 350 factories across the country.
This system has an impact on two fronts. Firstly, the system creates an automated recommendation for an application to be approved or rejected – making the otherwise inefficient licensing procedure much more time efficient. Secondly, the system automatically generates and stores valuable data on the import and export activities of all garment factories. IGC researchers are now analysing this import and export data to identify production and trade behaviours of garment firms, shedding much needed light on how the government can improve the productivity and export potential of firms in Myanmar.
Throughout the development, testing, and implementation of the system, the IGC research team has been working daily with relevant government staff to build capacity in handling the system and analysing the data that comes out of it.
Project last updated on: 30 Nov 2018.