Due to the current situation in Myanmar, businesses are unable to operate independently, and thus the Action Collaboration Transformation (ACT) team that includes the world’s top leading brands such as H&M, Zara owners Inditex and Primark announced on December 15 that it would suspend operations in Myanmar.

ACT is a member of the International Federation of Trade Unions Industrial and the lack of independence operations under the dictatorship of the Industrial Workers' Federation of Myanmar (IWFM), a local partner organization, has led to the resignation of ACTs.

ACT is an organization that focuses on earning a living wage for workers. Some ACT members have suspended their operations in Myanmar because IWFM is responsible for ACT's role in the garment sector in Myanmar, but it is not being allowed to form important trade unions, Labor rights violations, and indirectly support the military dictator.

“Only a few ACT members have stopped operations in Myanmar, and there are still many non-member brands in Myanmar. They have not yet left for a reason that they are concerned about the workers will lose their jobs and there was also the violation of workers' rights and collusion with the military. Therefore, we will continue to request the remaining brands for resignation and if not, their violations will be exposed”, Ma Khine Zar Aung, chairwoman of the industrial Workers' Federation of Myanmar (IWFM), told Mizzima.

The loss of workers' job opportunities is not due to the continued demand for such jobs to resign. More than 300,000 workers were laid off after the coup. Nearly 400,000 have been fired illegally and no more workers were left, she added.

Myanmar has become a priority country of ACT since 2018 and In December 2021, some ACT members said they had made a difficult decision to suspend operations in Myanmar. According to their statement, the ACT will monitor their future engagement depending on the changing political situation in Myanmar.

In terms of foreign investment, more than 5,600 new companies were registered in Burma in the three months before the military coup and the six months since the coup,

there have been just over 2,400 new company registrations. Moreover, foreign investments such as KOI Bubble Tea Shop, Auntie Anne, Bridgestone, Metro, AEON, Woodside, Petronas, Kempinski Hotel, Adani Groups, Pandaw River Cruises have been shut down and Amata Corporation, Electricite de France, Sembcorp, Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotel, Toyota have also been suspended, according to the Institute for Strategy and Policy - Myanmar.