Exports from Myanmar to the EU rebounded significantly in 2014, more than doubling from 2013 totals. This comes largely because several companies – including H&M and nearly a dozen other major European brands –expanded their sourcing operations to Myanmar. As the local industry has lost its contact networks to Western markets during the sanction period international marketing techniques are needed to build new business relations.
To promote “Made in Myanmar” to EU buyers, SMART Myanmar and the Dutch Center for Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) decided to join forces to offer support to Myanmar garment companies and SMART Myanmar trainers to be able to produce company profiles to increase chances for establishing new business contacts.
These company profiles are needed to establish a specific standard profile which will be used by all companies supported by SMART Myanmar, a EU funded project, lead by sequa g GmbH German. The company profiles will be used during matchmaking meetings (B2B) with European Buyers in Europe and during trade fair visits. Furthemore the profiles will be presented to a EU delegation of EU buyers who will undertake a sourcing mission to Myanmar in March 2015. This mission is also organized by SMART Myanmar. The profiles provide the EU buyers with the information they expect to get about the garment companies. The major features are for example a short overview about the Myanmar garment sector, business information incl. production capacities, export destinations, major clients and information on certifications.
A one – day training for the SMART team has been organized as a joint effort on Thursday, 18 December in Yangon, Myanmar by CBI trainers Rupa Ganguli and Giovanni Beatrice. The objective of this workshop was to train the SMART Myanmar SCP technical assistants on understanding the context of company profiles, learning from good and bad examples of company profiles from other garment factories, working through an interactive group activity of filling in profiles of the selected companies. At the end of the training the group has finalized company profiles that meet the expectations of EU buyers. The Myanmar garment factories will be able to take those company profiles to Europe to present themselves during B2B meetings with potential buyers in Europe on 16 February 2015 which SMART Myanmar has organized together with German Fashion, German association for fashion producers. The company profiles will also be presented to a Delegation of businesses who will come to Myanmar from 22 to 27 March 2015. Further information on this delegation tour is provided under www.switch-asia.eu/events/companies-visit-to-myanmar/
CBI experts Rupa Ganguli and Giovanni Beatrice worked closely with the SMART Myanmar team to guide them in developing these profiles while facilitating group learning exercises and activities through the day. 10 company profiles are ready for publishing now. All company profiles needed for the business delegation visiting Myanmar in March 2015 will be produced by the SMART trainees to ensure an even quality standard for all Myanmar companies taking part in this matchmaking.. CBI has already trained a group of local companies in producing company profiles and websites to empower the industry.
The training hopes to lay the ground work for a much needed focus on marketing and promotion by building capacity at the local level with 20 trained individuals who can further impact marketing and promotional activities of several companies in the garment sector going forward.
The Dutch government agency, CBI (Centre for promotion of imports from developing countries) has been running a series of master classes on topics of importance for garment manufacturers to enable them to have an initial understanding of the EU market access requirements. These classes started since November 2014 and will continue on till April 2015 before potentially embarking on a garment initiative designed by CBI for Myanmar.
SMART Myanmar is a three year project funded by the European Union to increase the competitiveness of the garment sector. Its implementing agency is sequa g GmbH Germany
