Reckless investors could be blamed for apparel factory closure

15 Jul '10

2 min read

Although, a leading industrialist mentioned last week, that Sri Lanka's garment segment can manage to survive without the GSP+ facility, he also warned that reckless investors can possibly take back their investments, leading to closure of factories.

There is lot of hype about losing out on the GSP+ facility. If factories shut down, then it is not owing to Sri Lanka losing its trade concessions to Europe, but it will be because of risky and reckless investors, who in the need of making short term profits, will no longer stick around, informed industry experts.

Further more, investment were made in the country's garment industry, during a time when there existed no trade concessions with Sri Lanka and the low-cost workforce was the only attraction.

GSP+ facility helped Sri Lankan apparel industry to survive and the nation's economies to recover, post the 2004 tsunami. Sri Lankan apparel industry owners are now carving their own niche market at the higher end and will also concentrate more on treating their workers well. Currently, China, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Vietnam are competing globally on low-cost workforce.

An industry expert informed that, since the nation's industry is around thirty years older than the countries mentioned above, apparel industry owners refuse to offer wages to their workers, which might be similar to the least developed nations.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India