In a move that aims to set out responsible and ethical business practices for its burgeoning apparel industry, the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA) published the country’s first ever Code of Conduct. The document is designed as a benchmark for responsible business practices in Myanmar’s rapidly growing garment sector and it comes from extensive workshops with the European Union’s SMART Myanmar project.
A first for Myanmar’s apparel producers, the Code embraces International Labour Organization (ILO) Core Conventions and the strictures of Myanmar’s national laws. Myanmar’s garment sector consists of around 300 companies with some 1.5 lakh workers. Garment exports went past the $1 billion mark in 2013-’14, accounting for about 10 per cent of the country’s overall exports. For Europe in particular, exports to the EU doubled in 2014. Nearly all these orders went to producers able to pass international social compliance audits such as: BSCI, WRAP, SEDEX, SA8000 and the Ethical Trading Initiative, among others.
Factories adhering to the full Code of Conduct will open themselves up to the massive influx of international orders coming from Europe and the US who demand socially responsible manufacturing practices from their producers, the MGMA says.
