Bahrain's garment industry set for revamp

18 Jul '12

1 min read

Bahrain’s garment industry is all set for a change with up to 33 percent rise in salaries and improvement in working conditions.

According to a study undertaken by Bahrain’s Research and Studies Department, existing salaries of apparel workers in the kingdom are not satisfactory, and hence the industry is considering an upward revision.

The same study also revealed that the sector faces difficulties on export front, as it faces tough competition from large number of similar garment manufacturing factories operating across the GCC, India, Pakistan and Jordan.

To address this, the kingdom’s Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) intends to improve the working conditions to enhance the sector’s productivity, which would also boost the earnings of the workers employed in the sector, majority of whom are women.

There are also plans to increase the employability of the sector, which now has 3,067 foreigners and 658 locals working in it.

LMRA has also nodded to cut the rate of Bahrainisation, i.e. employing Bahrain citizens in private enterprises, from existing 20 percent to 15 percent.

LMRA expects the new steps to provide an enhanced competitive edge to Bahrain’s domestic apparel sector.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India