Myanmar’s garment industry is set for revival, including
creation of new jobs, as the European Union has announced lifting of the
sanctions that it imposed on Myanmar since late 1990s, owing to recent political
reforms carried out in Myanmar.

Following the imposition of the
sanctions, Myanmar lost its General System of Preferences (GSP) status with the
EU, which allowed garment producers of Myanmar to export their goods to the EU
market duty free. This resulted in a rise in cost of doing business in Myanmar,
which ultimately led to reduction in trade.

The removal of sanctions by
the EU is expected to bring back some of the 80,000 garment industry jobs that
were lost over the past decade in Myanmar, as it would pave way for several new
contracts and orders.

This would lead to generation of around 25,000
jobs in the Myanmarese garment industry this year itself, according to Myanmar
Garment Manufacturers association.

Although the sanctions or trade
embargoes were imposed by the EU to punish the Southeast Asian nation’s former
military rulers for their misrule and human right abuses for years together, it
proved to be far more detrimental for the poor unskilled workers than for the
rulers, as a lot many of these workers lost their jobs.