The Union of Myanmar Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) and the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA) hosted the visit of two (2) Myanmar project partners from United Kingdom’s (UK) Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) in June 2013. The aim of the visit was to make final consultations with representatives of both organisations to develop a detailed programme of capacity building for their operational staff.
A representative from SCCI, and an International expert from the public/private sector partnership Creative Sheffield (a city region development agency) carried out a workshop with staff of UMFCCI and members of MGMA, and also met with a number key organisations in Yangon to find out about the current business services offered to Myanmar businesses. The workshop allowed operational staff to have an input into what they thought were key issues for the on going development of their own teams, and targeted areas in which they felt improvements could be made to service delivery. To do this the workshop attendees participated in a number of exercises aimed at helping them develop their individual visions for their own departments, and for their overall organisations as well.
As a result of the workshop, an action plan for capacity building for UMFCCI has been drafted. Topics identified for capacity building are client management, staff appraisals, green touch awards and peer to peer mentoring. The main areas for further action of SMART Myanmar 2013 together with UMFCCI and MGMA are Client Relationship Management systems for both UMFCCI and MGMA. Exploring and possibly coaching UMFCCI in the introduction of a new business services called mentoring is another area to be followed up by Sheffield chamber.
Commenting on the workshop Kevin Bennett of Creative Sheffield said, “it was a great experience to work with a such a positive group of people who clearly had a vision to develop a world class support network, and were absolutely focused on improving services for their members. With the right tools and guidance UMFCCI and MGMA have the capacity to become two of the leading development organisations in Myanmar, and the SMART Project will be an ideal programme of actions to assist with this development”.
Paul Tinsley of Sheffield Chamber of Commerce said, “ SMART focuses amoung other sectors currently on the Garment and Textile manufacturing sector, so it was a pleasure to see a group of textile businesses at the workshop. It is essential for the success of SMART that we work closely with MGMA to implement actions to improve the export opportunities for their members. This is why we also met with the Energy and Environmental Group to get their “buy in” as this will enable us to cross reference companies in the textile and garment sector who are already developing awareness of environmental issues.”
The Sheffield team also participated in a number of interviews with potential Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) consultants helping to identify candidates for this essential part of the project. A large number of very talented, well qualified, candidates were interviewed who clearly had a vision for the development of a cleaner, greener, manufacturing sector in Myanmar. Those selected will be put through a training course to develop their knowledge of sustainable consumption and production, as well as focusing on a number of topics to develop their business acumen. This team of key operatives will then be able to visit companies and make recommendations to improve their SCP activities, based on potential increases in profitability that can be achieved by developing sustainable production methods.
The visit coincided with the opening of the SMART Myanmar office in Yangon.
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Capacity Building Report and Action Plan
SMART Myanmar focuses on education in, and implementation of, Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) techniques, with a particular emphasis on the Garment and Textile manufacturing sector.
