๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐น๐ฑ ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐บ๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ ๐บ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ณ-๐ฟ๐ฒ๐น๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐๐ฝ๐ฝ๐น๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฒ๐พ๐๐ถ๐ฝ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐?
๐ช๐๐ก ๐ญ๐๐ช ๐๐จ๐ก๐: Myanmar still depends on imports for medical equipment and 99% of medical consumables, including personal protective equipment. As one of Myanmarโs major suppliers of medical equipment and consumables, we were selling these supplies even before the outbreak of Covid-19 and have imported tens of thousands of protective overalls, and millions of face masks, goggles, face shields, air-purifying respirators, surgical gowns and nitrile examination gloves.
However, we do not yet have a manufacturing ecosystem for these supplies in Myanmar. This must be a priority for the future. While it will take some time to develop this, the pandemic is a wake-up call that every country must be self-reliant. In particular, the government needs to devise a national strategy to attract local and international businesses to invest in the manufacturing of medical supplies in Myanmar.
๐ช๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ ๐ฟ๐ผ๐น๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ด๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐๐ฝ๐ฝ๐น๐ ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐บ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐บ๐ฎ๐ฟ?
๐ช๐๐ก ๐ญ๐๐ช ๐๐จ๐ก๐: We have been working closely with the Ministry of Health and Sports in the supply chain management of medical equipment and supplies. Our public health system is vast, and there is a large amount of bureaucracy at every level. As a result, supply chain management has not been efficient enough to deliver essential medical supplies to hospitals and health care facilities on time.
We took pre-emptive measures to counteract this, considering both the level of demand during normal periods and the heightened demand during the pandemic. First, we calculated what would be necessary for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of Covid-19, and then we imported as many medical supplies and equipment into Myanmar as we could โ even before the government decided to buy them.
While it was a challenge to bring these supplies into the country, we did so successfully by using air freight, charter cargo and/or land transportation through the borders, and our logistics team ensured that we could deliver the supplies on time, even during the lockdown period.
Since the health crisis began, the government has realised that essential medical equipment and supplies cannot be bought immediately. This has demonstrated the importance of promoting the local manufacturing of medical supplies, which would not require a large amount of investment, nor would it need very sophisticated technologies or skills.
We have been exploring the possibility of establishing a manufacturing facility in Myanmar, and this is now in the pipeline. We built a distribution solutions centre, which opened in March 2019, and reserved around 50% of the land for future manufacturing. We had originally planned to construct this within the next three to five years but, given the current situation, we now recognise the need to do this sooner โ and we hope that the government will offer incentives for the local production of essential medical supplies.
๐ช๐ต๐ถ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐๐ ๐ฑ๐ผ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ถ๐น๐ถ๐๐?
๐ช๐๐ก ๐ญ๐๐ช ๐๐จ๐ก๐: We are currently looking to determine a line of products for the domestic market and the export market. First, we need to ensure that we have the right technologies and can source the necessary raw materials from within the country or neighbouring countries, and then we can manufacture the finished products to first serve the domestic market and then to export โ particularly outside of Asia.
The primary export markets are likely to be the US, where we have contacts and the majority of our multinational partners are based, and Europe. We may undertake this independently, or we may work with our partners and create a joint venture in Myanmar for the manufacturing arm of the process. With regards to distribution, we are building a different, IT-driven supply chain system.
We have taken advantage of remote working to accelerate the finalisation of our e-commerce platform for medical supplies. The platform is now finished and we hope to launch it by the end of May 2020, having shortened the timeline by around six months. The e-commerce business plan also incorporates our logistics solutions, warehouse management system and enterprise resource planning to create a highly integrated and sophisticated supply chain system.
Link: https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com/views/win-zaw-aung-chairman-and-ceo-sea-lion-group
