1. A sector’s training requirement is driven by who is at the top of the industry structure. See diagram in Figure 1 above for more info.
a. The requirement for safety and skill training in the Offshore Oil and Gas industry is determined by the needs of the international oil companies such as Chevron, Shell, Total, Eni and Woodside. The international oil companies most of which are listed – demand that their local JV partners and suppliers meet international standard in terms of safety and skill level.
b. Mining industry is controlled by Chinese conglomerates (e.g. the infamous & humongous XXXXX ) & Burmese mining companies (many controlled by Burmese tycoons on the US Sanction List who received their mining concession from the military). The operations are very opaque as they are probably not adhering to international environmental norms or if they are Chinese companies they are the subject of investigation by NGOs and environmentalist. There is not much emphasis on safety or skill training as workers’ salary are low and any accident that cause a loss of limb or death involve compensation of a few thousands US Dollars at most. The archaic 1923 Workmen’s Compensation Act makes employers liable to pay a maximum of K600,000 (approx. USD 600) to a worker who suffers an injury and K450,000 (approx. USD 450) to a worker’s dependents in the event of a fatality!
c. Building & Construction industry is controlled by Burmese developers as foreigners cannot own land. Many a time foreign investors are forced into JV with local Burmese land owners in a kind of marriage of commercial convenience – where the foreigners are looking for a quick profitable exit. Burmese construction companies who perform the actual construction work similarly do not placed much emphasis of safety and skill training as most construction workers are unskilled daily rated workers and any attempt to train the worker to make them more skilled and productive will raise their salary expectation and will cause them to job hop to an employer that will pay them a higher salary. On top of that as mentioned earlier it is not expensive to compensate for workplace injury or fatality.
