Materials for cut-make-pack (CMP) businesses, especially in the garment sector, are down as COVID-19 continues to thrash manufacturing.

The Ministry of Commerce reported USD 264.7 million worth of CMP materials imports since the start of the fiscal year, down more than USD 67 million from the same time last year. Likewise, materials imports from the 2019-2020 fiscal year showed a drop of USD 200 million from the previous year’s total of USD 2.37 billion.

The slump is a symptom of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shuttered factories within Myanmar as well as caused a mass cancellation of orders from abroad, the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association told The Global New Light of Myanmar. “[T]he CMP garment sector, which contributes to 30% of Myanmar’s export sector, is bracing for downward trend,” the New Light said.

With tens of thousands of factory workers out of a job, support for the manufacturing sector is a key component of Myanmar’s COVID-19 Economic Relief Plan. Since the start of Myanmar’s second COVID-19 wave in August, the government has struggled to balance public safety with economic recovery. In October, the Ministry of Health and Sports began allowing factories to re-open, and now public opinion may be shifting towards a dramatic rollback of the lockdowns, which this week Frontier magazine argued are doing more harm than good. The magazine urged the government to employ more nuanced strategies that will better protect the country’s workers and critical industries.