CPD RMG Study Stitching a better future for Bangladesh
Published in Journal du Cameroun on March 21, 2018
Ethiopia has earned $68.5 million in revenue from the export of textiles and garments over the last eight months of the current Ethiopian fiscal year, which began on July 8, 2017.
Ethiopia’s government sees the textile and clothing supply chain as one of the country’s key targets for growth, and aims to generating $30 billion from the export of garment and textile by the year 2025.
Revenue this time has seen a 23.1 percent increase compared to revenue earned in the same period last year, but is 50 percent below the target, Bantihun Gessesse, Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute communications affairs director, told APA in an interview on Wednesday.
According to Gessesse, $12.6 million of the revenue was secured by 58 local companies, whilst foreign-owned companies generated the balance.
Managerial and technical limitations, inadequate supply of inputs, failure to meet international criteria and shortage of skilled manpower were among the limitations attributable to unsatisfactory export performance in the sector, he added.
Ethiopia’s government wants to diversify exports from agricultural products to strategic sectors like textile and garment manufacturing, through opening more than ten industrial parks in different parts of the country.
Ethiopia’s long history in textiles began in 1939, when the first garment factory was established.
Based on Ethiopian country data, in the last five to six years, the textile and apparels industry have grown at an average of 51 percent, and more than 65 international textile investment projects have been licensed for foreign investors, during this period.
In 2016, Ethiopia was second in terms of attracting foreign direct investment in the textiles and garments industry, next to Vietnam.
Last year, the government inaugurated three textile and apparel industrial parks, as part of its efforts to become Africa’s manufacturing hub through attracting export-oriented foreign companies.
