Economy, Manufacturing

Rice milling and the processing of agricultural products are the chief manufacturing enterprises. In order to spur the industrial sector of the economy, the government has started a steel reprocessing mill, a jute mill, a brick and tile factory, and other plants. Lumber mills, petroleum refineries, sugar refineries, plants for extracting vegetable oils, flour mills, cotton mills, and textile and tobacco factories are also in operation. Labor costs for export goods are estimated by foreign investors at about one-tenth those of Thailand and one-half those of Vietnam. However, in production for local consumers, Myanmar factories cannot compete in price with Chinese goods streaming across the now open northern border. Private investment under the open market system has gone more into resource extraction rather than local industry.