As wages in China continue to rise, global brands and retailers are looking for other countries to produce their products cheaply. In the era of fast fashion and a highly competitive marketplace, managing production costs is a key ingredient of success.

Wages in countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Ethiopia are low, and workers are compelled to put in long hours, often in unsafe conditions. Rarely do employees have the right to organize. Despite these and other chronic problems, the globalization of the world’s economy in places like Myanmar typically has had a salutary effect. The hundreds of millions of new jobs that a globalized economy has generated have contributed to a dramatic reduction of global poverty. More than 60 per cent of East Asians were living in extreme poverty in 1990. Today, that number has fallen to less than five per cent.

Women in Myanmar, for instance, get an opportunity at building a livelihood and the movement toward a sustainable garment industry is gaining momentum. To boost infrastructure investment, Myanmar is looking to kickstart a number of projects with China, its largest investor. China is also Myanmar’s largest trading partner, making up one-third of its total trade volume.