Sri Lanka’s apparel sector targets exports worth $8 billion by 2025 from the $5.5 billion it earned in 2019 by raising investment in local supply chains, according to industry experts. Such investments will improve lead times and improve industry value addition, which is currently around 55 per cent, according to Hirdaramani Group director Aroon Hirdaramani.
Speaking at the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2021 organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), Hirdaramani said only around half of Sri Lankan garment exports qualified for the generalised scheme of preferences plus (GSP+) tax concessions due to the rules of origin criteria, which concerns whether the clothing is sufficiently originating from the country applying for concessions.
“The fastest growing segment is active and lounge apparel that requires a lot of materials that are traditionally manufactured in the far east, especially China and Taiwan. Because of that, the initiative by the government and our industry to encourage more investment in the local fabric supply chain is crucial to our strategy,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s apparel sector targets exports worth $8 billion by 2025 from the $5.5 billion it earned in 2019 by raising investment in local supply chains, according to industry experts. Such investments will improve lead times and improve industry value addition, which is currently around 55 per cent, according to Hirdaramani Group director Aroon Hirdaramani.
“There has been a proposal to set up a textile zone in Eravur, which will be an environment-friendly textile zone, with recycling of water and use of sustainable energy. We are working very hard to attract some key fabric players to invest in the zone and to also invest in other fabric mills,” he was quoted as saying by Sri Lankan media reports.
For Sri Lanka to gain a substantial market share as such, obtaining FDI inflows from leading raw materials players from different parts of the world will be pivotal, he said.
“There has to be consistency in policy and continued incentives given to these suppliers and many of us would like to partner them,” added Hirdaramani.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
