Multinationals, technology and regional linkages in Myanmar's clothing industry

Abstract

Myanmar's clothing industry has played a pivotal role in generating employment and exports. This article makes a contribution to the explication of the role of supporting institutions in the development of clothing manufacturing in Myanmar. The statistical analysis show that technological intensity is not correlated with labour productivity and export intensity, which may be a consequence of the infancy of the industry and the use of old technologies in Myanmar. Also, the Probit estimations show that regional linkages matter in labour productivity and export intensities but not with technological intensities in the clothing industry in Myanmar.

Keywords::

• clothing
• Myanmar
• productivity
• regional linkages
• technology

Acknowledgements

The authors thank ERIA for financing the fieldwork that provided the empirical data for the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tin Htoo Naing

Tin Htoo Naing is a visiting Lecturer at the Yangon Institute of Economics, a Director of Center for Economy, Environment and Society, Yangon, Myanmar and an International Research Associate at the Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He has also served as a consultant for the international and local cooperate community in the areas of foreign direct investment, institutional capacity building, industrial relation, environmental and social impact assessment, market research and business development services.

Su-Fei Yap

Su-Fei Yap is with the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya.