Understanding the importance and status as a job generator, President Thabo Mbeki has accorded the highest priority for growth of the clothing and textile sector.
Textile industry being labour intensive can become a major factor in providing thousands of new job.
An agreement in-principle on imports with China to strengthen the South African clothing and textile sector has been clinched by Mbeki's as mentioned in his State of the Nation Address.
Welcoming the President's commitment, the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU) observed that to achieve this purpose, there is a need to formulate proper policies for its planned expansion.
SACTWU's General Secretary Ebrahim Patel informed that they were in the process of working out a viable growth plan with the Department of Trade and Industry.
Chinese clothing import went up by 335 percent in US dollar terms between the years 2002 to 2004.
During the first ten months of 2005, the imports went up further by 800 million rand resulting into retrenchments of over 60,000 jobs, the trade union noted.
Imports from China account for about 50 percent of all local consumption, equating to more than 100,000 local jobs. SACTWU and Cosatu have been activley campaiging against high imports from that country.
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF)")
