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The European Union (EU) has become the largest importer of Myanmar garments, purchasing almost as much from the country in 2016 as the next two largest destinations combined, according to United Nations trade data.

“It’s been quite a swift development, but we had to work hard to earn it,” said Khine Khine Nwe, general secretary of the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association, noting that the EU was the third largest buyer in 2014 and second in 2015.…

A FEDERAL US government review has been ordered into the potential link between talc and ovarian cancer following “the continuing influx of adverse event reports”, as the minerals and cosmetics sector considers implications of a high-profile ruling over the issue. A jury in the Los Angeles Superior Court ordered personal care product manufacturers Johnson & Johnson to pay USD417 million to Eva Echeverria who claimed she developed the disease after using their talc-based products for feminine hygiene purposes.…

THE IMPOVERISHED south-east Asian kingdom of Cambodia shares porous borders with the significantly more dynamic economies of Thailand and Vietnam, is notorious for corruption, has a large casino sector and generates significant earnings from illegal exports.

This precarious mixture of factors has since 2012 consecutively earned Cambodia a spot in the Basel Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Index (from the Basel Institute on Governance) top-10 risk jurisdictions for money laundering.…

THE EAST and south-east Asia HR sector is feeling the heat more than ever to plug the region’s gaping gender pay gap in the wake of a new initiative – launched on the fringes of the UN general assembly in New York last week (September 18).…

VIETNAM is taking a more active role in helping neighbouring Laos raise the quality of its workforce skills. The two countries have close political ties and similar levels of development, with the World Bank saying Laos had USD2,150 gross national income per capita in 2016, and Vietnam – USD2,050.…

THE Thai government will enact new labour laws on January 1, 2018, among the most draconian changes being that business operators using services from unregistered brokers to seek illegal migrant workers can be subject to human trafficking charges punishable by a jail term of between three and 10 years and/or a fine of THB600,000 to THB1 million (USD18,100-USD30,000) per worker.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU)-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA), on which negotiations concluded December 2, 2015, will open up “huge business opportunities” for Vietnamese garment companies, business experts agreed earlier this month at an event jointly organised by EU business federation BusinessEurope, EuroCham [European Chamber of Commerce] Vietnam and the EU-Vietnam Business Network.…

A MAJOR international anti-counterfeiting action ‘Operation Renegade’ did not just seize more than 70,000 counterfeit auto spare parts, oil and air filters, grills, and fuel pumps, and nearly 600 cylinders of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants, it yielded valuable anti-smuggling and counterfeiting information.…

JAPAN’S paint and coatings sector is putting on a positive face and playing up overseas expansion efforts, as well as its traditional strength in innovation, but analysts are concerned about the longer-term outlook for domestic companies.

Sales of paint in Japan came to Japanese Yen JPY 675 billion (USD6.10 billion) in 2016, a marginal increase of around 1% on the previous year’s figure, according to the Japan Paint Manufacturers Association.…

CONFECTIONARY manufacturers in India are having to grapple with their products and ingredients attracting a wide range of tax rates under the country’s new goods and services tax (GST), which started to be levied from July 1.

India’s GST Council, a body representing the central and state governments, has been deciding which goods will be covered by the zero, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% tax rates allowed under India’s GST legislation. …