Myanmar and Industry 4.0 are not often used in the same context. Myanmar has been rather known for its infrastructure gaps and one could argue the country is far away from a transition towards Industry 4.0. A recent survey conducted with small & medium sized manufacturing companies reveals that only 8% of survey respondents have heard of Industry 4.0. However, this whitepaper also shows a high openness across Myanmar companies to automate their business activities as a first step. Moreover, 84% of the surveyed companies indicate that the usage of data will become more important for their business in the next 5 years. Since Myanmar has hardly participated in the industrialization of the past decades, there is vast potential for the country to leapfrog older technologies and shift immediately towards an era of automation and Industry 4.0.

This whitepaper assesses how companies and the public sector could leverage this potential, highlights the advantages that Industry 4.0 could entail for Myanmar and explores the main barriers that would need to be overcome to foster Industry 4.0 technologies. It also shows that in a developing country such as Myanmar, the concept of Industry 4.0 needs to be defined more broadly and also include customer centered applications.

It also shows that in a developing country such as Myanmar, the concept of Industry 4.0 needs to be defined more broadly and also include customer centered applications.