Mozambican govt plans to boost textile & apparel sector

20 Sep '12

2 min read

Representatives of various Government institutions as well as textile and garment sector stakeholders in Mozambique are meeting in capital Maputo to discuss the problems faced by the industry and to frame appropriate policies to boost the country’s textile and clothing sector.

The meeting is aimed at identifying mechanisms that would ensure success of the textile and apparel sector in Mozambique.

It would also discuss the existing opportunities to boost textile and apparel trade in the domestic, regional, European as well as other world markets.

Currently, the Mozambican textile and clothing sector is passing through a resurgence phase after the industry witnessed a near total collapse in the 1990s.

At present, there are about 20 manufacturing units operating in Mozambican textile and apparel sector, but most of them operate at lower capacities and produce goods only when they get orders.

By the end of the 1980s, Mozambique had more than 75 textile and garment units. But during the 1990s, many of these closed down due to obsolete machinery and liberalization of the country’s economy, which brought in inflow of low priced goods from Asia and used clothing from Europe.

During the last few years, the Office for Accelerated Development Economic Areas has received six proposals for setting up textile and apparel factories in the country’s Special Economic Zones and Industrial Free Zones, which enjoy various tax incentives.

Mozambique is one of the countries listed under the US’ Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). But, Mozambican garment manufacturers have so far been unable to take full advantage of AGOA, and last year, the country had exported only US$ 183,000 worth of goods to the US.

Hence, there is lot of scope for the country to explore possibility of exporting wide range of textiles and apparels to the US market at zero-duty.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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