{"id":15131,"date":"2017-11-29T06:09:42","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T06:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abdas.org\/?p=15131"},"modified":"2017-11-29T10:00:09","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T10:00:09","slug":"ethiopia-wagers-on-clothes-to-make-an-impact-in-industrial-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abdas.org\/2017\/11\/29\/ethiopia-wagers-on-clothes-to-make-an-impact-in-industrial-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia Wagers on Clothing Industry to Make an Impact in Industrial Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/abdas.org\/?attachment_id=15137\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15137\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/abdas.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/ethiopia_fashion_industry.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-15137\" \/><\/a>Checkered shirts for American chain Gap, Slate leggings for Swedish store H&amp;M, Twill shorts for Germany\u2019s Tchibo, They are among an extending list of clothes being stitched together for big brands in Ethiopia.<br \/>\nAs labor, raw material and tax cost rise in China &#8211; the world\u2019s dominant textiles producer &#8211; the Horn of Africa country is racing to offer cheaper alternatives, and go up against countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam that are established low-cost garment makers.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the clothing companies to source production in Ethiopia are testing the waters with small volumes. But the government is working very hard to attract their business with tax breaks, subsidies and cheap loans. This is part of a drive to turn into a manufacturing center.<br \/>\nThere has been progress; foreign investment in the textile industry has risen from 4.5 billion birrs ($166.5 million) in 2013\/14 to 36.8 billion in 2016\/17, according to the Ethiopian Investment Commission, a government agency.<br \/>\nArkebe Oqubay, a prime ministerial adviser directing the industrialization drive said \u201cThis is a huge success\u201d, during the inauguration of an industrial park in the northern Ethiopian town of Kombolcha earlier this year \u201cThe challenge now is to bring the world\u2019s biggest companies into the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some of the big brands have already arrived, most of them sourcing some production locally, like Gap and H&amp;M, but a few building factories themselves.<br \/>\nSome of those to set up factories this year are U.S. fashion giant PVH, whose brands include Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger; Dubai-based Velocity Apparels Companies, that supplies Levi\u2018s, Zara and Under Armour; and China\u2018s Jiangsu Sunshine Group, whose customers include Giorgio Armani and Hugo Boss.<br \/>\nFrench retailer Decathlon and over 150 companies from China and India will begin sourcing production from Ethiopia soon, said the investment commission.<br \/>\nHowever, while Ethiopia is moving faster than its continental rivals, there is a long road ahead in terms of Logistical, bureaucratic and cotton-quality problems.<\/p>\n<p>The gulf in textiles exports is huge; Ethiopia\u2019s totaled about $115 million in 2015, against Vietnam\u2019s $27 billion, Bangladesh\u2019s $28 billion and China\u2019s $273 billion, according to the World Bank\u2019s latest figures.<br \/>\nEthiopia\u2019s fledgling sector can ill afford the kind of working conditions scandals that have dogged the low-cost garment industry elsewhere, and officials said they were sending representatives to Asia to learn best practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Checkered shirts for American chain Gap, Slate leggings for Swedish store H&amp;M, Twill shorts for Germany\u2019s Tchibo, They are among an extending list of clothes being stitched together for big &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49502,"featured_media":15137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[159,471,171],"tags":[557,558,555,553,556,554],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdas.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdas.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdas.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdas.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdas.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abdas.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdas.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdas.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdas.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdas.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}