Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence’s two apparel factories to resume production
The Morning: With the intervention of the Sri Lanka Board of Investment (BOI), Aitken Spence has joined forces to re-establish the recently closed two factories under Ace Apparels. For this, the company is investing more than $ 3.6 million in the first phase.
The signing of the relevant agreement was done by Sri Lanka Board of Investment (BOI) Chairman Dinesh Weerakkoddy, and Director Dr. Rohan Fernando, on behalf of Aitken Spence.
Lushan Perera, the company’s chief executive officer, says that this factory, which is operating under a new vision, will generate substantial new job opportunities, and it will expand further. He also said that steps have been taken to start the production process within two months.
Speaking further, Perera said that given the ongoing global economic crisis, his company’s hope is to focus on competitive products and find new markets, and for that, he will pay more attention to the markets of emerging Asian countries such as India, China, Indonesia, and Japan.
Priyanka Ranatunga, director of the Koggala Investment Processing Zone of Sri Lanka Board of Investments, said that at present, a workforce of about 11,000 in the Koggala region is responsible for earning foreign exchange, and with the opening of new factories, that number may increase to 13,500, and in addition, a large number of indirect jobs will also be created. He said that it is predicted that the existing shortfall in price orders will be restored by the end of the year and the necessary empowerment of the factories will be done accordingly.
Due to the closure of the said two factories, about 2500 people who were making a living lost their jobs due to this. The value of the machinery of these factories located in the Koggala Investment Processing Zone is hundreds of millions of US dollars.
OSL take:
The resumption of operations by two apparel factories owned by a Sri Lankan conglomerate is indicative of the overall expansion in Sri Lanka’s economic activities. The country’s economy has shown great resilience through the years to external and internal challenges and is once again on the recovery path after facing the impact of the global pandemic and the economic crisis that followed. Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning in the Indian Ocean and the many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed by the country have also helped Sri Lanka bounce back from last year’s economic crisis. A majority of the country’s private sector and banking sector recorded growth rates despite the many challenges. The manufacturing and exports businesses continued despite the challenges and is once again expanding operations as indicated in the above story on the resumption of operations of two apparel factories. Given the country’s economic resilience and the overall expansion in economic activities, foreign businesses/investors could explore the growing business/investment opportunities covering all key economic sectors in the country, especially in the export manufacturing sector. Foreign businesses could also look at forming partnerships or joint ventures with local businesses with the aim of expanding in the region using Sri Lanka as a base as well as the country’s trade ties with other countries in the region.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20230824/Z_7 |