Apparels to reach US$ 4b this year

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

The country’s apparel industry is working towards sustaining the growth momentum and is confident that it will record 25 percent growth this year.

The industry focuses on existing markets while consolidating its trade relationships. The key element of the five year strategy was to reach an export turnover of US$ 5 billion by 2015. We are looking at reaching the US$ 4 billion mark by the end of 2011, Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters’ Association Chairman Rohan Abeyakoon told Daily News Business.

“This will indicate that we are well on track towards meeting this goal possibly ahead of plan even under extremely difficult market conditions around the world. This would clearly tell you that our industry is still the flagship revenue earner and premier employment generator in this country,” he said.

“We are still very relevant and potent. We are now a front runner in implementing green measures and together with our ethical manufacturing accolades we are well on our way to position ourselves as planned in those areas,” Abeyakoon said.

Penetration to new markets is also a key part of the strategy and we have identified Japan, Brazil, Russia as key markets for such penetration and work is underway to progress both in terms of market access and bilateral concessions. The hub concept which also is a key component of the five year strategy to leverage the strengths of the region is making steady progress and legislation and dry port locations have been identified and are being mooted as we speak towards reaching these goals,” he said.

Creating our own Brands for regional retailing is also progressing steadily with several in operation both locally and in India which has shown healthy progress thus far.

The immediate action required to grow the industry is for the Government to honour its commitment on the Export Development Reward Scheme.

Many companies have lost money during the global recession of 2009 which was further compounded by striving to comply with the strict Government criteria to qualify for the scheme and this has set back many companies from being able to latch onto the opportunities coming this way due to customers relocating sourcing from countries such as China for economic reasons.

“We need to drive to become the leader in environmental accountability and sustainable practices. Macro initiatives need to be taken by the Government to support the way forward in a reliable manner and we may even need to look towards regional labour migration if we need to support growth beyond the U$ 5 billion mark since this is a scarce commodity in Sri Lanka,” Abeyakoon said.