Myanmar roundtable on sustainable garment production

The sustainable development of the garment and textile industry in Asia will be the focus of a two-day roundtable and networking event taking place in Myanmar at the end of this month. The event is the first SWITCH-Asia roundtable, hosted by the European Unions (EU) SWITCH-Asia programme, which promotes sustainable production and consumption in Asia. It is being held in association with the International Labour Organization (ILO) Myanmar liaison office.

Discussions will centre on sustainable supply chains; opportunities and challenges for a sustainable garment and textile sector in Asia; industry best practices with a potential for replication in Asia; the role of consumers; sustainable competitiveness strategies at the regional level; and the relation between the garment sector and sustainability, CSR and social development.

Keynotes include a presentation on Regional strategies and changing dynamics to sustainably develop garment production, by global garment industry expert David Birnbaum.

There will also be a look at the EUs plans related to sustainable textile and garments by Alina Neacsu, EU DevCo officer; and an overview of the Market pull and push mechanisms between Europe and Asia by Dr Christina Raab from ethical consultancy Made-By.

Sessions will also cover Sustainability, productivity and factory issues in garment manufacturing targeting Asian and European markets,; Supply chain management for sustainability,; Sustainable consumption and production in the garment and textile industry,; and Sustainability of textile and garment industry beyond SCP and maintaining competitiveness within and across regions.

Since 2008, the SWITCH-Asia Programme has been supporting 16 grant projects in Asias textile and garment sectors, ranging from CSR to cleaner production, product labelling and certification.

The roundtable event is aimed at Asian policy-makers, as well as garment industry associations, manufacturers, and importers, and takes place from 30-31 March at the Best Western Green Hill Hotel in Tamwe Township, Yangon.